Henryk
A Germanic name meaning "home ruler". After years spent near the margins it has climbed back into the country's top 100, and more boys were given it last year than in any year before.
Henryk Pronunciation
Henryk is pronounced KHEN-rihk (/ˈxɛnrɨk/).
What Henryk means
Where Henryk comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Henryk grew from Germanic roots, from Haimirich, joining "home" and "ruler." The short meaning stays close to that old sense: home ruler, władca domu in Polish. This was never about kingdoms first. The rule in question began at the threshold of a household.
Poland carried the name through its own line of dukes and kings named Henryk, and the diminutive Henio softened it for daily use. A boy on a class register signs Henryk, and his grandmother calls him Henio. The variant Henrik travels north and east. The feminine Henryka answers back across the divide. Henryk Sienkiewicz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905, made the name a fixture on Polish bookshelves.
Short and blunt. Henryk holds its ground. The meaning does not reach for grandeur, only for the smaller authority of a house and the people in it, władca domu.
When Henryk celebrates name day
Henryk appears 10 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 19 January.
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.
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in 90 days23 JanuarySaturday in 2027
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in 94 days27 JanuaryWednesday in 2027
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in 117 days19 FebruaryFriday in 2027
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in 128 days2 MarchTuesday in 2027
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in 167 days10 AprilSaturday in 2027
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in 228 days10 JuneThursday in 2027
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in 261 days13 JulyTuesday in 2027
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in 262 days14 JulyWednesday in 2027
How many people are named Henryk
1 in 137 men in Poland is named Henryk. 155,514 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #94 among male names.
Henryk's popularity over time
985 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #69 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where parents choose Henryk
Henryk is most popular in Masovian, 38% above the national average (1,345 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+26%) and Lesser Poland (+24%). It is least common in Holy Cross and Subcarpathian, 43% and 41% below average respectively.
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Masovian
+38%1 in 263 babies
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Pomeranian
+26%1 in 288 babies
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Lesser Poland
+24%1 in 293 babies
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Holy Cross
−43%1 in 637 babies
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Subcarpathian
−41%1 in 612 babies
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Lublin
−36%1 in 570 babies
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Masovian+38% 1,345 born1 in 263 babies+38%
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Pomeranian+26% 512 born1 in 288 babies+26%
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Lesser Poland+24% 774 born1 in 293 babies+24%
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Greater Poland+18% 700 born1 in 307 babies+18%
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Podlaskie−5% 173 born1 in 380 babies−5%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−9% 276 born1 in 396 babies−9%
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Warmian-Masurian−10% 179 born1 in 401 babies−10%
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Lower Silesian−13% 376 born1 in 418 babies−13%
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Lubusz−15% 116 born1 in 428 babies−15%
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West Pomeranian−18% 191 born1 in 442 babies−18%
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Łódź−22% 272 born1 in 466 babies−22%
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Silesian−22% 488 born1 in 466 babies−22%
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Opole−25% 96 born1 in 480 babies−25%
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Lublin−36% 180 born1 in 570 babies−36%
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Subcarpathian−41% 197 born1 in 612 babies−41%
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Holy Cross−43% 87 born1 in 637 babies−43%
Henryk as a middle name
Henryk is a first name for 155,514 men in Poland and a middle name for another 118,587, a 57/43 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 28th, between Mateusz (121,294) and Maciej (109,293).
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#26 Ryszard123,670
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#27 Mateusz121,294
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#28 Henryk118,587
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#29 Maciej109,293
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#30 Janusz107,970