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Maciej

More than a quarter of a million Polish men carry it, yet fewer boys get it every year now. A Slavic form at root, it carries the old sense "gift of God".

Maciej Pronunciation

Maciej is pronounced MAH-chey (/ˈmat͡ɕɛj/).

Related names
Matthias Maciek
Alive in 2025
267,477
Newborns 2025
517
National rank
#40
Next name day
30 January
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What Maciej means

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

Maciej is the Polish form of Matthias, and it took its shape on Slavic ground. The meaning it holds, "gift of Yahweh," reaches back through Matthias to a Hebrew root. In Poland the name shed its foreign edges and became fully domestic, worn close and easy as Maciek in daily speech.

The calendar gives Maciej his day on the 24th of February, the feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle. An old weather proverb hangs on that date: "Na świętego Macieja pierwsza wiosny nadzieja," the first hope of spring. So the name sits at winter's edge.

Read down a school register and Maciej stands among the ordinary Polish names, formal on the official form at the urząd and softened to Maciek among friends. The meaning stays constant, "gift of Yahweh," even when few who use it stop to weigh it.

When Maciej celebrates name day

Maciej appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 30 January.

Next name day
30 January
Saturday in 2027
Next one in 142 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 Maciej

1 in 80 men in Poland is named Maciej. 267,477 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #40 among male names.

People with the name Maciej 2019 → 2025
267,477 +1,291 since 2019
2020 266,675 +489
2021 267,330 +655
2022 267,630 +300
2023 267,785 +155
2024 267,723 -62
2025 267,477 -246

Maciej's popularity over time

517 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #104 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #40 name among living men, even as it slips to #104 among newborns.

hover a bar to explore
517 newborns with the name Maciej in 2025
national rank #104 that year

Where Maciej is most popular

Maciej is most popular in Lublin, 34% above the national average (454 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Warmian-Masurian (+32%) and Opole (+19%). It is least common in Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 29% and 18% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Maciej as a middle name

Maciej is a first name for 267,477 men in Poland and a middle name for another 109,293, a 71/29 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 29th, between Henryk (118,587) and Janusz (107,970).

As a first name
267,477
As a middle name
109,293
first name 71% middle name 29%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

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

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