Henryk
A Germanic name meaning "home ruler". After years spent near the margins it has climbed back into the country's top 100, and more boys were given it last year than in any year before.
Henryk Pronunciation
Henryk is pronounced KHEN-rihk (/ˈxɛnrɨk/).
What Henryk means
Where Henryk comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Henryk grew from Germanic roots, from Haimirich, joining "home" and "ruler." The short meaning stays close to that old sense: home ruler, władca domu in Polish. This was never about kingdoms first. The rule in question began at the threshold of a household.
Poland carried the name through its own line of dukes and kings named Henryk, and the diminutive Henio softened it for daily use. A boy on a class register signs Henryk, and his grandmother calls him Henio. The variant Henrik travels north and east. The feminine Henryka answers back across the divide. Henryk Sienkiewicz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905, made the name a fixture on Polish bookshelves.
Short and blunt. Henryk holds its ground. The meaning does not reach for grandeur, only for the smaller authority of a house and the people in it, władca domu.
How many people are named Henryk
1 in 137 men in Poland is named Henryk. 155,514 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #94 among male names.
Henryk's popularity over time
985 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #69 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where Henryk is most popular
Henryk is most popular in Masovian, 38% above the national average (1,345 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+26%) and Lesser Poland (+24%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 43% and 41% below average respectively.
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Masovian1,345 boys born+38%
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Pomeranian512 boys born+26%
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Lesser Poland774 boys born+24%
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Greater Poland700 boys born+18%
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Podlaskie173 boys born−5%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian276 boys born−9%
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Warmian-Masurian179 boys born−10%
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Lower Silesian376 boys born−13%
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Lubusz116 boys born−15%
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West Pomeranian191 boys born−18%
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Łódź272 boys born−22%
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Silesian488 boys born−22%
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Opole96 boys born−25%
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Lublin180 boys born−36%
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Subcarpathian197 boys born−41%
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Świętokrzyskie87 boys born−43%
Henryk as a middle name
Henryk is a first name for 155,514 men in Poland and a middle name for another 118,587, a 57/43 split — almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 28th, between Mateusz (121,294) and Maciej (109,293).
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26
123,670Ryszard
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27
121,294Mateusz
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28118,587Henryk
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29
109,293Maciej
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30
107,970Janusz
When Henryk celebrates name day
Henryk appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 19 January.