Adam
The Hebrew name behind it means simply "man, earth". Around 400,000 Polish men carry it, and it still sits near the top twenty, though fewer boys get it now than at its 2010s peak.
Adam Pronunciation
Adam is pronounced AH-dahm (/ˈadam/).
What Adam means
Where Adam comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Adam comes from Hebrew, where the word adam meant man, a human being. It stood right beside adamah, the word for earth or ground, so the name held soil in it from the beginning. Man and earth, never far apart.
The best known Adam is the one in the Book of Genesis, formed from the ground and given breath. That story pushed the name across Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition, and it reached Polish soil early, one of the oldest given names still in daily use here.
In Poland the name keeps its own date. Adam shares his imieniny with Ewa on 24 December, so on many a class register the name-day lands on Wigilia itself, the evening of the Christmas Eve supper. There is a feminine form too, Adamina, rare but real. The meaning underneath stays plain: man, and the earth he was named for.
When Adam celebrates name day
Adam appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 24 December.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Adam
1 in 53 men in Poland is named Adam. 401,378 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #20 among male names.
Adam's popularity over time
2,326 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #32 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade. Still the #20 name among living men, even as it slips to #32 among newborns.
Where parents choose Adam
Adam is most popular in Holy Cross, 30% above the national average (809 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+19%) and Masovian (+17%). It is least common in Lubusz and West Pomeranian, 25% and 18% below average respectively.
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Holy Cross
+30%1 in 69 babies
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Opole
+19%1 in 75 babies
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Masovian
+17%1 in 76 babies
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Lubusz
−25%1 in 118 babies
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West Pomeranian
−18%1 in 108 babies
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Pomeranian
−17%1 in 107 babies
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Holy Cross+30% 809 born1 in 69 babies+30%
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Opole+19% 618 born1 in 75 babies+19%
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Masovian+17% 4,657 born1 in 76 babies+17%
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Lesser Poland+16% 2,953 born1 in 77 babies+16%
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Łódź+7% 1,522 born1 in 83 babies+7%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−1% 1,219 born1 in 90 babies−1%
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Podlaskie−3% 721 born1 in 91 babies−3%
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Lublin−5% 1,095 born1 in 94 babies−5%
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Subcarpathian−6% 1,272 born1 in 95 babies−6%
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Greater Poland−6% 2,285 born1 in 94 babies−6%
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Silesian−9% 2,327 born1 in 98 babies−9%
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Lower Silesian−11% 1,570 born1 in 100 babies−11%
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Pomeranian−17% 1,377 born1 in 107 babies−17%
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Warmian-Masurian−17% 672 born1 in 107 babies−17%
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West Pomeranian−18% 782 born1 in 108 babies−18%
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Lubusz−25% 421 born1 in 118 babies−25%
Adam as a middle name
Adam is a first name for 401,378 men in Poland and a middle name for another 279,662, a 59/41 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 8th, between Krzysztof (330,379) and Tomasz (253,972).
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#6 Józef381,053
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#7 Krzysztof330,379
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#8 Adam279,662
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#9 Tomasz253,972
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#10 Marek248,808