Aleksej
Just over a hundred men in Poland carry it, so most people here have never met one. A variant of Aleksy, from the Greek for "defender".
Aleksej Pronunciation
Aleksej is pronounced ah-LEK-sey (/aˈlɛksɛj/).
What Aleksej means
Where Aleksej comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Aleksej comes from Greek. Its root is the verb "alexein," to ward off or defend, the same root that stands behind Aleksander. In Polish the sense is plain: obrońca, a defender, someone who keeps harm from another.
The form most Polish speakers know is Aleksy, the home-grown variant that settled into the calendar and the church. Saint Aleksy, the man of God who gave up his wealth and lived unknown under his father's stairs, gave the name a long life in Polish tradition. His story was told in one of the oldest surviving Polish poems, the fifteenth-century "Legenda o świętym Aleksym." Aleksej keeps the eastern spelling, closer to Russian Aleksej and Greek Alexios.
A defender does not always fight. The meaning points to protection more than attack.
On a class register today, Aleksej reads as slightly foreign, an eastern cousin of the familiar Aleksy. The defense in it is old. Greek soldiers asked their gods to "ward off" the enemy with this very verb, and the name carried that request forward. Whoever holds it holds the short, clear meaning: obrońca.
How many people are named Aleksej
1 in 209276 men in Poland is named Aleksej. 102 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3392 among male names.
Aleksej's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Aleksej as a middle name
Aleksej is a first name for 102 men in Poland and a middle name for another 3, a 97/3 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 5956th, between Aleksandru (3) and Alfa (3).
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#5954 Aleksandro3
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#5955 Aleksandru3
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#5956 Aleksej3
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#5957 Alfa3
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#5958 Alladyn3