Semen
The Ukrainian form of Simon, from a Hebrew root meaning "God has heard". It stays rare in Poland and is fading further: most Poles have never met a Semen, and the few who carry it are all men.
Semen Pronunciation
Semen is pronounced SE-men (/ˈsɛmɛn/).
What Semen means
Where Semen comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Semen comes into Ukrainian from the Hebrew Shim'on, the name given in Genesis to one of Jacob's sons. Its meaning is plain: hearing, or God has heard. In the biblical story a mother chose it because she believed a prayer had been answered.
Ukrainians received the name through the Church, where the Greek Symeon kept it in steady use. One bearer was the old Symeon who took the infant Christ into his arms in the Temple. In the villages Semen settled into ordinary life, a name for farmers and Cossacks, turning up in folk songs and in eighteenth-century parish registers.
A Polish teacher reading a class register might pause at the spelling, since Semen looks foreign on a form at the urząd. Yet the root is the same one behind Szymon. Both go back to a Hebrew verb for listening.
Semen means God has heard.
How many people are named Semen
1 in 16716 men in Poland is named Semen. 1,279 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #857 among male names.
Semen's popularity over time
0 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Semen is most popular
Semen is most popular in West Pomeranian, 2460% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025).
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West Pomeranian2 boys born+2460%
Semen as a middle name
Semen is a first name for 1,279 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13, a 99/1 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2693rd, between Saúl (13) and Severyn (13).
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2691
13Sameera
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2692
13Saúl
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269313Semen
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2694
13Severyn
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2695
13Shekhar