Leszek
About 111,000 Polish men carry it, but young parents have mostly moved on: only 25 boys got it last year. A Slavic name at root, tied to the sense "cunning" or "sly".
Leszek Pronunciation
Leszek is pronounced LE-shek (/ˈlɛʂɛk/).
What Leszek means
Where Leszek comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Leszek grows from Slavic soil. The root behind it points to someone cunning and sly, and the short gloss that trails the name into modern dictionaries keeps that reading: chytry, przebiegły. Its variant Lech carries the same sense and doubles as the half-legendary founder-figure of the Poles.
Medieval Poland handed the name to its rulers. Leszek the White (Leszek Biały) governed as a Piast duke and died in 1227. Leszek the Black (Leszek Czarny) held Kraków in the 1280s. Behind them stand the legendary Leszeks of Wincenty Kadłubek's chronicle, princes said to win power by wit, one of them taking a chariot race by scattering iron spikes for his rivals. The variant leszko surfaces in those older records as well.
Open a Polish calendar and Leszek's imieniny falls on the third of June. A boy with the name meets it first in a class register, read out with the rest. What the old word meant stays plain: chytry, przebiegły, cunning and sly.
How many people are named Leszek
1 in 193 men in Poland is named Leszek. 110,626 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #121 among male names.
Leszek's popularity over time
25 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #475 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #121 name among living men, even as it slips to #475 among newborns.
Where Leszek is most popular
Leszek is most popular in Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 127% above the national average (28 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Łódź (+75%) and Greater Poland (+44%). It is least common in Lublin and Warmian-Masurian, 83% and 38% below average respectively.
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian28 boys born+127%
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Łódź25 boys born+75%
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Greater Poland35 boys born+44%
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Lubusz7 boys born+25%
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West Pomeranian11 boys born+15%
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Pomeranian19 boys born+14%
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Lower Silesian20 boys born+13%
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Masovian44 boys born+10%
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Silesian25 boys born−3%
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Lesser Poland23 boys born−10%
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Warmian-Masurian5 boys born−38%
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Lublin2 boys born−83%
Leszek as a middle name
Leszek is a first name for 110,626 men in Poland and a middle name for another 52,728, a 68/32 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 54th, between Patryk (53,242) and Damian (52,574).
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52
57,945Dominik
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53
53,242Patryk
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5452,728Leszek
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55
52,574Damian
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56
50,993Czesław
When Leszek celebrates name day
Leszek appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 3 June.