Gopal
The name means "cow protector," carrying roots well outside Poland. Just 92 men here have it, so most Poles will never meet one.
Gopal Pronunciation
Gopal is pronounced GO-pahl (/ˈgɔpal/).
What Gopal means
Where Gopal comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gopal comes from Sanskrit. It joins go, meaning cow, with pala, meaning protector, and the two give the short meaning the name still carries: cow protector, or in Polish obrońca krów. The origin lies outside Europe. That places Gopal apart from the roots that fill most Polish name books.
In India the fuller form Gopala is an epithet of Krishna, the god who herded cattle as a boy before he did anything else. A child named Gopal answers to that pastoral picture, the keeper of the herd rather than the fighter. The cow in the name is not decoration. It is the thing being guarded.
On a Polish class register the name stands out among the Szymons and Jakubs, and a teacher reading it aloud meets a word built from two older ones. Anyone who asks what it means gets a plain answer. Gopal means cow protector, from go and pala.
How many people are named Gopal
1 in 232024 men in Poland is named Gopal. 92 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3637 among male names.
Gopal as a middle name
Gopal is a first name for 92 men in Poland and a middle name for another 20, an 82/18 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1986th, between Giovanny (20) and Halim (20).
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#1984 Flawian20
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#1985 Giovanny20
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#1986 Gopal20
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#1987 Halim20
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#1988 Harley20