Klaus
A German name in Poland, from a Germanic root meaning "victory of the people". Around 800 men carry it and no boys have been given it in years, so most Poles have never met one.
Klaus Pronunciation
Klaus is pronounced KLAH-oos (/ˈklaus/).
What Klaus means
Where Klaus comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Klaus is the German short form of Nikolaus, worn down over centuries until only the tail of the name was left. The meaning came with it from the Greek behind Nikolaus: nikē, victory, and laos, the people, together read as victory of the people. Little of the fuller name survives in Klaus, yet that promise does.
The name spread widely in German-speaking lands. One documented bearer is Klaus Mann, the writer and son of Thomas Mann, whose 1936 novel Mephisto still circulates. The same root name gave the world another figure: Saint Nikolaus of Myra, whose Dutch form Sinterklaas passed into English as Santa Claus. Klaus and Claus stand close to that saint.
In a Polish class register Klaus reads as visibly German, a name from across the border. It is short. Poland celebrates its own form of the name on 6 December, the feast of Mikołaj, and Klaus belongs to that same line: victory of the people.
How many people are named Klaus
1 in 25412 men in Poland is named Klaus. 840 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1032 among male names.
Klaus as a middle name
Klaus is a first name for 840 men in Poland and a middle name for another 330, a 72/28 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 386th, between Jarema (330) and Stephen (328).
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#384 Bonawentura330
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#385 Jarema330
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#386 Klaus330
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#387 Stephen328
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#388 Noah327