Hugo
A comeback name climbing back into wider use, though still rare enough that most Poles have never met one. Germanic at root, it carries the sense of "mind" or "spirit".
Hugo Pronunciation
Hugo is pronounced KHOO-go (/ˈxugɔ/).
What Hugo means
Where Hugo comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hugo comes from Germanic soil, from an old word for the mind and the spirit, the faculty that reasons and holds memory. The short meaning has never strayed far from that source. To bear this name is to be linked with thought itself.
Poland took the name in and kept it. Hugo Kołłątaj, a leading mind of the Polish Enlightenment and one of the framers of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, wore it well. A name grown from the word for mind suited a man who spent his life reforming how his country thought.
Victor Hugo carried it into literature. Two short syllables. In a school register today it sits among the Antonis and Franciszeks, plain and unforced. The meaning underneath stays the same as it was in the beginning: mind, spirit, the rozum a child grows into.
When Hugo celebrates name day
Hugo appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 9 April.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
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 Hugo
1 in 7888 men in Poland is named Hugo. 2,706 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #616 among male names.
Hugo's popularity over time
124 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #230 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where Hugo is most popular
Hugo is most popular in Lower Silesian, 62% above the national average (116 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+35%) and Masovian (+24%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 84% and 62% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian116 boys born+62%
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Greater Poland133 boys born+35%
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Masovian200 boys born+24%
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Pomeranian77 boys born+15%
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Lesser Poland117 boys born+13%
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West Pomeranian39 boys born+1%
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Lubusz22 boys born−3%
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Łódź56 boys born−3%
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Silesian99 boys born−5%
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Warmian-Masurian25 boys born−24%
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Subcarpathian39 boys born−29%
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Opole9 boys born−57%
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Podlaskie13 boys born−57%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian19 boys born−62%
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Lublin18 boys born−62%
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Świętokrzyskie4 boys born−84%
Hugo as a middle name
Hugo is a first name for 2,706 men in Poland and a middle name for another 753, a 78/22 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 264th, between Euzebiusz (753) and Jean (746).
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#262 Luis756
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#263 Euzebiusz753
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#264 Hugo753
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#265 Jean746
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#266 Anatol735