Demyan
From a Slavic root meaning "to tame, subdue". It reaches Poland through Russian and Ukrainian use, and stays rare enough that most people here have never met one: only a recent trickle of boys carries it, all of them born this decade.
Demyan Pronunciation
Demyan is pronounced de-MIH-ahn (/dɛˈmɨan/).
What Demyan means
Where Demyan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Demyan is the East Slavic form of the name Latin speakers knew as Damian. Both trace back to a Greek verb, damazo, to tame or subdue. Polish catches the idea in two blunt nouns, poskromiciel and pogromca, a man who breaks in what resists him. That is its literal sense.
The name belonged to real people. Demyan Mnohohreshny governed Left-bank Ukraine as Hetman around 1669, then lost the office and was exiled to Siberia. Later a Soviet writer published under the pen name Demyan Bedny, and his propaganda verse filled the pages of Pravda in the 1920s. The Russian spelling is Демьян, the Ukrainian Дем'ян.
In a Polish class register the name reads as a visitor from the east. It sits beside the home-grown Damian, same origin, different road. The tamer, poskromiciel, is what the Greek verb meant first.
How many people are named Demyan
1 in 211348 men in Poland is named Demyan. 101 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3428 among male names.
Demyan's popularity over time
7 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #797 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2021.
Where parents choose Demyan
Demyan is most popular in Masovian, 253% above the national average (11 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+100%) and Greater Poland (+6%).
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Masovian
+253%1 in 32,206 babies
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Silesian
+100%1 in 56,896 babies
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Greater Poland
+6%1 in 107,622 babies
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Masovian+253% 11 born1 in 32,206 babies+253%
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Silesian+100% 4 born1 in 56,896 babies+100%
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Greater Poland+6% 2 born1 in 107,622 babies+6%
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Lesser Poland±0% 2 born1 in 113,458 babies±0%