Zbyszko
A Slavic name from the same root as Zbigniew, carrying the sense of dispelling anger. Barely 550 men in Poland use it, few enough that most people here have never met one.
Zbyszko Pronunciation
Zbyszko is pronounced ZBIHSH-ko (/ˈzbɨʂkɔ/).
What Zbyszko means
Where Zbyszko comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Zbyszko is a Slavic name, and it grows out of Zbigniew. Old Polish speakers assembled Zbigniew from two blunt pieces: zbyć, to get rid of, and gniew, anger. From that joining comes the sense the name still keeps in dictionaries, pozbyć się gniewu, to dispel anger.
Its most famous bearer never lived. Zbyszko z Bogdańca is the hot-headed young knight at the center of Henryk Sienkiewicz's Krzyżacy, published in 1900. Many Polish readers met the name in that novel before they ever met it on a neighbor. In daily use it softens into Zbyszek, or shortens further to Zbych.
A boy named Zbyszko today stands a little apart from the Zbigniew on the same class register, though the shorter form points straight back to the longer one. The pieces underneath have not moved: to dispel anger.
How many people are named Zbyszko
1 in 38601 men in Poland is named Zbyszko. 553 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1268 among male names.
Zbyszko's popularity over time
2 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1897 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024. Still the #1268 name among living men, even as it slips to #1897 among newborns.
Where Zbyszko is most popular
Zbyszko is most popular in Greater Poland, 904% above the national average (3 boys born 2019–2025).
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Greater Poland3 boys born+904%
Zbyszko as a middle name
Zbyszko is a first name for 553 men in Poland and a middle name for another 315, a 64/36 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 394th, between Joshua (315) and Gniewko (312).
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#392 Erik317
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#393 Joshua315
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#394 Zbyszko315
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#395 Gniewko312
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#396 Medard312