Kurt
A Germanic name meaning "bold counselor". In Poland it belongs to just over 600 men and no one else, and newborns given it are essentially unheard of, so most Poles have never met one.
Kurt Pronunciation
Kurt is pronounced KOORT (/kurt/).
What Kurt means
Where Kurt comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Kurt is a short form of Konrad, the German name assembled from the Old High German kuoni, meaning bold, and rad, meaning counsel. Read the two roots straight across and you get the short meaning still attached to Kurt today: bold counselor. What began as a clipped, familiar version of Konrad hardened over centuries into a given name that stands alone, with no diminutive or variant of its own to hide behind.
The name went out into the world on real shoulders. Kurt Gödel, born in 1906, changed what mathematicians could claim to prove. The American novelist Kurt Vonnegut carried the same German root across an ocean. The spelling barely moved.
Kurt is spare.
Because it descends from Konrad, it borrows Konrad's calendar. A boy named Kurt on a Polish class register can mark his imieniny on 26 November, one of the days set aside for Konrad, and slot in beside the Konrads and Kacpers without a fuss. The Germanic bones show plainly: kuoni and rad, bold and counsel, a bold counselor.
How many people are named Kurt
1 in 33883 men in Poland is named Kurt. 630 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1189 among male names.
Kurt's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Kurt as a middle name
Kurt is a first name for 630 men in Poland and a middle name for another 393, a 62/38 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 354th, between Markus (396) and Heinz (391).
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#352 Zbyszek399
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#353 Markus396
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#354 Kurt393
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#355 Heinz391
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#356 Alexandre389