The Polish Name Generator produces authentic Polish given names and gender-matched surnames for fiction, business, or real naming decisions. Type a name; it comes back sourced, not guessed. Unlike a plain first-name tool, it can pair a given name with a surname whose ending actually agrees with that name's gender.
Below are 55 attested names — checked against Behind the Name, Wiktionary, and Poland's own civil registry data — split into male given names, female given names, and surnames. A few "meanings" repeated on other naming sites don't hold up once you check the dictionary. More on that below the tables.
Polish Male Given Names
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bolesław | "Great" (bol-) + "glory" (sław); Bolesław I the Brave, first crowned King of Poland |
| Władysław | "Rule, power" + "glory"; borne by four Polish kings |
| Stanisław | "Stand" (stać) + "glory" (sława); patron saint Stanisław of Szczepanów |
| Mirosław | "Peace, world" (mir) + "glory" (sław) |
| Jarosław | "Fierce, vigorous" (jar) + "glory" (sław) |
| Kazimierz | "Destroy" (kazić) + "peace" (mir), per its dictionary root — often softened to "he who proclaims peace" |
| Zbigniew | "Dispel" (zbyć) + "anger" (gniew) — "dispeller of wrath" |
| Wojciech | "Warrior" (wój) + "comfort, solace" (těcha); Polish name of St. Adalbert |
| Mieszko | Likely an old diminutive of Mieczysław; Mieszko I, first Christian ruler of Poland |
| Jan | Polish form of John, "God is gracious" |
| Piotr | Polish form of Peter, "rock, stone" |
| Krzysztof | Polish form of Christopher, "bearing Christ" |
| Andrzej | Polish form of Andrew |
| Tadeusz | Polish form of Thaddeus |
| Aleksander | Polish form of Alexander, "defending men" |
| Jakub | Polish form of Jacob or James |
| Florian | From Latin Florianus; patron saint of Poland, invoked against fire |
| Antoni | Polish form of Anthony; second-most-registered boys' name, July–Dec 2025 |
| Nikodem | Polish form of Nicodemus, "victory of the people"; the most-registered boys' name, July–Dec 2025 |
Polish Female Given Names
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Wanda | Possibly "a Wend" (a Slavic people); legendary princess, daughter of Kraków's founder King Krak |
| Jadwiga | Polish form of Hedwig, "battle" + "strife"; 14th-century queen, later canonized |
| Dobrosława | "Good" (dobro) + "glory" (sław) |
| Bronisława | "Protect" (borniti) + "glory, fame" (slava) |
| Czesława | "Honour" + "glory" — feminine of Czesław |
| Bogumiła | "Favoured by God" — feminine of Bogumił |
| Zofia | Polish form of Sophia, "wisdom"; the most-registered girls' name, July–Dec 2025 |
| Katarzyna | Polish form of Katherine |
| Małgorzata | Polish form of Margaret, "pearl" |
| Agnieszka | Polish form of Agnes |
| Anna | Polish form of Hannah; venerated as the mother of the Virgin Mary |
| Ewa | Polish form of Eve |
| Elżbieta | Polish form of Elizabeth |
| Barbara | From Latin, "foreign, strange woman" |
| Halina | Polish form of Galina, from Greek galene, "calm" |
| Danuta | Polish form of the Lithuanian Danutė; root meaning debated |
| Grażyna | "Beautiful" in Lithuanian; coined by poet Adam Mickiewicz for his 1823 poem |
| Maja | Third-most-registered girls' name, July–Dec 2025 |
| Hanna | Polish form of Hannah; fifth-most-registered girls' name, July–Dec 2025 |
Polish Surnames
Most Polish surnames fall into three buckets: occupational, toponymic (named for a place), or descriptive. Kowalski points to a smith. Wiśniewski points to a village near cherry trees. Wilk just means wolf.
| Surname | Meaning / origin |
|---|---|
| Kowalski | "From the smith's hamlet" (kowal, "blacksmith" + -ski) |
| Nowak | "Newcomer" (nowy, "new" + -ak) |
| Wiśniewski | From places named for wiśnia, "cherry" |
| Wójcik | A diminutive of Wojciech, or from wójt, "village headman" |
| Kowalczyk | "Blacksmith's apprentice" (kowal + diminutive -czyk) |
| Kamiński | From Kamień, "stone," + -ski |
| Wilk | "Wolf" |
| Zając | "Hare" |
| Lewandowski | From the place name Lewandów + -ski |
| Dąbrowski | From Dąbrowa (a place name rooted in dąb, "oak") + -ski |
| Kozłowski | From kozioł, "goat" |
| Krawczyk | "Tailor's son" (krawiec, "tailor") |
| Mazur | "A person from Mazovia or Masuria" |
| Zieliński | From place names rooted in zieleń, "green" |
| Kaczmarek | From karczmarz, "innkeeper" |
| Jankowski | From place names based on Janek, a diminutive of Jan |
| Wojciechowski | From places named for Wojciech |
Only the adjectival endings inflect for gender — -ski/-ska, -cki/-cka, -dzki/-dzka. A woman named Kowalski is a paperwork error, not a style choice. Surnames like Nowak, Wilk, Zając, or Kaczmarek stay identical for men and women (Wikipedia: Polish name).
- Match the ending to gender: Adam Kowalski, Zofia Kowalska
- Keep the root fixed — only the adjectival suffix changes
- Expect -ski/-cki/-ecki for men, -ska/-cka/-ecka for women
- Give a woman the bare male form — "Zofia Kowalski" is wrong
- Assume every surname is gendered — Nowak and Wilk never change
- Drop diacritics on a document: Wiśniewski isn't Wisniewski
Where the Meanings Actually Come From
Kazimierz gets translated on plenty of baby-name blogs as "he who proclaims peace." It's a nicer story than the truth. The dictionary root is kazić, "to destroy," fused with mir, "peace" — closer to "the one who breaks the peace" than the one who announces it. Sonorous folk translations spread because they sound better on a nursery wall than the literal compound does.
Bolesław — "great glory," name of the first crowned King of Poland
That two-root pattern — a virtue or trait fused to sław ("glory") or mir ("peace") — built most of the oldest Polish names, from Bolesław down to Jarosław. It's not unique to Poland, either. Old Norse names compound the exact same way, just with different roots — see our Old Norse name generator if you want the Viking-era version of this logic.
Christianity reached Poland in 966, when Mieszko I accepted baptism from Rome (Britannica: Mieszko I). Saints' names arrived after that and never left. Some Polonized cleanly — Piotr, Jan. Others got rebuilt almost beyond recognition, like Jadwiga from the Germanic Hedwig.
How This Generator Splits Given Names From Surnames
Most people typing "polish name generator" want a first name, not a full identity. This tool's own system prompt reflects that. By default, at least three of every five names come back given-name-only; at most two arrive as a full name with a gender-matched surname. Choose "Full Name" under Name Format to flip that ratio.
The default lean — a first name for a character, form, or quick suggestion
- At least 3 of every 5 names by default
- No surname attached, gender still respected
- Fits a plain "give me a Polish name" search
A given name paired with a grammatically matched surname
- At most 2 of every 5 names by default
- Surname ending agrees with the given name's gender
- Select "Full Name" to get more of these
Poland doesn't use patronymics the way its eastern neighbor does. A fixed surname replaces a rotating father's-name suffix instead. Our Russian name generator covers that patronymic system if your project spans both traditions.
Common Questions
Does a Polish name generator give me a first name, a surname, or both?
Both are available, but the default output leans toward given names only — most searches for "Polish name generator" want a single first name, not a full identity. Switch the Name Format field to "Full Name" to get a given name paired with a surname whose -ski/-ska ending matches its gender.
I just want one simple Polish name — what should I pick?
Skip the compound Slavic names like Sławomir or Bronisława if pronunciation matters to you, and set Style to "Modern." Names like Jan, Anna, Maja, or Piotr carry the same authenticity with far fewer diacritics and consonant clusters to trip over.
Is this the same as a Polish name converter that translates my name?
No — this generates new Polish names rather than translating an existing one. That said, many Western names have a direct Polish equivalent: Peter becomes Piotr, Catherine becomes Katarzyna, John becomes Jan. If your name has a Polish form, picking the closest match from the tables above works better than a literal translation.
Why do men's and women's Polish surnames have different endings?
Because -ski, -cki, and -dzki surnames are grammatically adjectives in Polish, and Polish adjectives agree with gender. A father Kowalski has a daughter Kowalska — same root, feminine ending. Non-adjectival surnames like Nowak or Wilk skip this entirely and stay the same for everyone in the family.
Sources
- Behind the Name: Polish Names
- Wiktionary: Appendix — Polish Surnames
- Wikipedia: Polish Name
- Ministry of Digitization: Most Popular Names, H2 2025
Updated September 2026: rebuilt around 55 attested given names and surnames with verified etymologies, corrected the folk-etymology on Kazimierz, added a Sources section and government registry stats, and rewrote the FAQ from real search-query data.
