Damian
From the Greek for a tamer, one who subdues. Given only to boys, it still sits inside Poland's top 100, though far fewer parents reach for it now than a generation ago.
Damian Pronunciation
Damian is pronounced DAHM-yahn (/ˈdamjan/).
What Damian means
Where Damian comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Damian reaches back to the Greek name Damianos, formed from a verb meaning to tame. The short sense has held close to that root: tamer, poskromiciel, the one who brings a wild thing under the hand.
The best known bearer is Saint Damian, a physician who, with his twin brother Cosmas, treated the sick and refused any payment. People called the pair the silverless ones, and the Church later made them patrons of doctors and pharmacists. Both were beheaded under Diocletian, around the year 287. Polish calendars keep their day on the 26th of September, where Damian shares the page with Kosma. A boy named Damian in a school register sits among the Jakubs and Szymons without any trouble.
The name crosses over as well. Damiana turns the same root toward a girl, the tamer in a feminine key. Under both forms the Greek verb keeps its work: to tame.
When Damian celebrates name day
Damian appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 12 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 Damian
1 in 116 men in Poland is named Damian. 183,950 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #75 among male names.
Damian's popularity over time
229 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #169 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #75 name among living men, even as it slips to #169 among newborns.
Where Damian is most popular
Damian is most popular in Podlaskie, 90% above the national average (129 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+20%) and Lubusz (+13%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 41% and 26% below average respectively.
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Podlaskie129 boys born+90%
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Opole57 boys born+20%
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Lubusz58 boys born+13%
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West Pomeranian97 boys born+11%
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Lower Silesian176 boys born+8%
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Lesser Poland252 boys born+8%
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Pomeranian165 boys born+8%
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Lublin114 boys born+7%
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Warmian-Masurian78 boys born+5%
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Łódź131 boys born0%
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Silesian229 boys born−3%
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Masovian348 boys born−5%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian104 boys born−8%
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Greater Poland168 boys born−24%
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Subcarpathian92 boys born−26%
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Świętokrzyskie34 boys born−41%
Damian as a middle name
Damian is a first name for 183,950 men in Poland and a middle name for another 52,574, a 78/22 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 55th, between Leszek (52,728) and Czesław (50,993).
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#53 Patryk53,242
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#54 Leszek52,728
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#55 Damian52,574
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#56 Czesław50,993
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#57 Bogdan50,472