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Erwin

From Germanic roots, it means "army friend". Fewer than 4,500 men in Poland carry it and it's slipping further out of use each year, so most people here will never meet one.

Erwin Pronunciation

Erwin is pronounced ER-veen (/ˈɛrvin/).

Related names
Erwina
Alive in 2025
4,374
Newborns 2025
10
National rank
#519
Also celebrates
19 January
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What Erwin means

Where Erwin comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Erwin grew out of Germanic roots, where an older word for army stood beside wini, meaning friend. Put together, they gave a name that Polish speakers render as przyjaciel wojowników, the friend of warriors. The English gloss, army friend, keeps the same two halves side by side.

The name traveled with German usage and settled comfortably in Poland's records. It carries a feminine variant, Erwina, for a daughter given the same root. One real bearer stands out: Erwin Schrödinger, the Austrian physicist whose cat became a byword for paradox.

Say it in a Polish class register and it reads short and firm. Two syllables, no fuss. The name sits among older Germanic imports that never fully left Poland. The meaning underneath, that old pairing of army and friend, has nothing soft about it. It names a person others would want beside them, przyjaciel wojowników.

When Erwin celebrates name day

Erwin appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 19 January.

Next name day
19 January
Tuesday in 2027
Next one in 86 days
Also celebrates

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 Erwin

1 in 4880 men in Poland is named Erwin. 4,374 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #519 among male names.

People with the name Erwin 2019 → 2025
4,374 −356 since 2019
2020 4,696 −34
2021 4,611 −85
2022 4,507 −104
2023 4,459 −48
2024 4,405 −54
2025 4,374 −31

Erwin's popularity over time

10 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #692 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #519 name among living men, even as it slips to #692 among newborns.

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10 newborns with the name Erwin in 2025
national rank #692 that year

Where parents choose Erwin

Erwin is most popular in Lubusz, 790% above the national average (9 boys born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+191%) and Masovian (+52%). It is least common in Greater Poland and Subcarpathian, 54% and 19% below average respectively.

Chosen most
  • Lubusz
    +790%
    1 in 5,517 babies
  • West Pomeranian
    +191%
    1 in 16,885 babies
  • Masovian
    +52%
    1 in 32,206 babies
Chosen least
  • Greater Poland
    −54%
    1 in 107,622 babies
  • Subcarpathian
    −19%
    1 in 60,283 babies
  • Silesian
    −14%
    1 in 56,896 babies

Erwin as a middle name

Erwin is a first name for 4,374 men in Poland and a middle name for another 1,769, a 71/29 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 184th, between Mieszko (1,782) and Iwo (1,769).

As a first name
4,374
As a middle name
1,769
first name 71% middle name 29%
Middle-name ranking men

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Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Varvara #520