Lech
A Slavic name meaning "leader" or "chief". Uncommon enough that meeting one sticks with you, though it's given a little more each year than it was a decade back.
Lech Pronunciation
Lech is pronounced LEKH (/lɛx/).
What Lech means
Where Lech comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Lech grew out of Slavic soil, and in Poland it has long been understood to mean leader or chief. Old chroniclers tied it to tribal names like the Lechici and the Lędzianie, the early groups from whom the word probably descends. The name sat close to a title for a whole people.
The oldest story that holds it is the legend of Lech, Czech and Rus, first written in the thirteenth-century Kronika wielkopolska. Lech saw a white eagle nesting against a red sky and settled there, calling the place Gniezno after the word for nest. From that eagle Poland took its emblem.
The name stretches into longer forms. Lechosław adds a second root, and its cross-gender pair Lechosława gives the name to daughters. Lech keeps two name-days, on 28 February and 12 August.
How many people are named Lech
1 in 956 men in Poland is named Lech. 22,317 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #261 among male names.
Lech's popularity over time
17 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #554 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2004. Still the #261 name among living men, even as it slips to #554 among newborns.
Where Lech is most popular
Lech is most popular in Pomeranian, 124% above the national average (9 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+86%) and Greater Poland (+70%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Lower Silesian, 68% and 30% below average respectively.
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Pomeranian9 boys born+124%
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Masovian18 boys born+86%
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Greater Poland10 boys born+70%
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Lubusz2 boys born+48%
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Łódź5 boys born+45%
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Silesian8 boys born+29%
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Lublin2 boys born−29%
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Lower Silesian3 boys born−30%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born−68%
Lech as a middle name
Lech is a first name for 22,317 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13,771, a 62/38 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 95th, between Edmund (14,569) and Oskar (13,343).
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93
15,663Norbert
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94
14,569Edmund
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9513,771Lech
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96
13,343Oskar
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97
13,321Lucjan
When Lech celebrates name day
Lech appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 12 August.