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Daniel

A Hebrew name meaning "god is my judge". It still sits inside Poland's top hundred for boys, and with around 171,000 men carrying it, you almost certainly know one.

Daniel Pronunciation

Daniel is pronounced DAH-nyel (/ˈdaɲɛl/).

Alive in 2025
171,090
Newborns 2025
554
National rank
#85
Next name day
10 October
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What Daniel means

Where Daniel comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

The name Daniel comes from the Hebrew Daniyyel, and it means "God is my judge." The judgment is not a threat here. It sets the person under a higher court than any human one, and that idea gave the name to the prophet of the Book of Daniel, the man kept overnight among lions.

Poland took the name early through the Church calendar. A boy named Daniel will find his imieniny more than once a year, and on a school register the name sits without needing translation. Its shape holds steady across borders.

The feminine forms come later. Daniela and Daniella turn the same Hebrew root toward a daughter, keeping the meaning and changing the ending. A family can carry both, a Daniel and a Daniela, under one roof.

What stays through all of this is the plain sense of the Hebrew: God is my judge.

When Daniel celebrates name day

Daniel appears 12 times in the Polish name day calendar, 5 of them as a main name, the first on 3 January.

Next name day
10 October
Saturday in 2026
Next one in 30 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

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 Daniel

1 in 125 men in Poland is named Daniel. 171,090 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #85 among male names.

People with the name Daniel 2019 → 2025
171,090 +5,678 since 2019
2020 165,929 +517
2021 166,474 +545
2022 167,341 +867
2023 169,169 +1,828
2024 170,109 +940
2025 171,090 +981

Daniel's popularity over time

554 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #102 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #85 name among living men, even as it slips to #102 among newborns.

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554 newborns with the name Daniel in 2025
national rank #102 that year

Where Daniel is most popular

Daniel is most popular in Opole, 47% above the national average (135 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+42%) and Lubusz (+25%). It is least common in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian, 36% and 32% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Daniel as a middle name

Daniel is a first name for 171,090 men in Poland and a middle name for another 62,511, a 73/27 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 45th, between Dawid (65,167) and Szymon (62,434).

As a first name
171,090
As a middle name
62,511
first name 73% middle name 27%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Karol #45