Marek
Around 373,000 Polish men carry it, but it barely reaches newborns now: just 157 boys got it last year. The name points back to Mars, the war god, and reads as "warlike".
Marek Pronunciation
Marek is pronounced MAH-rek (/ˈmarɛk/).
What Marek means
Where Marek comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Marek is the Slavic form of the Latin Marcus. Behind Marcus stands Mars, the Roman god of war, and from that god the name draws its oldest sense: belonging to Mars, warlike. Slavic speakers trimmed the Latin down to a short, blunt shape. Marek is what stayed.
The best known bearer is Saint Mark the Evangelist, Marek Ewangelista in Polish, whose gospel opens the New Testament and whose emblem is the winged lion. His feast falls on 25 April, and that date became the main Polish name day, the imieniny, for every Marek on a school class register.
The variant Markus keeps the root a little closer to the Latin. A boy called Marek holds a word that once pointed to a soldier's god, softened now to a plain and familiar first name. The old sense underneath has not moved: należący do Marsa, belonging to Mars.
How many people are named Marek
1 in 57 men in Poland is named Marek. 373,645 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #26 among male names.
Marek's popularity over time
157 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #210 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #26 name among living men, even as it slips to #210 among newborns.
Where Marek is most popular
Marek is most popular in Opole, 53% above the national average (50 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+25%) and Pomeranian (+23%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 44% and 39% below average respectively.
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Opole50 boys born+53%
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Silesian201 boys born+25%
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Pomeranian128 boys born+23%
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Lubusz39 boys born+11%
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West Pomeranian66 boys born+11%
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Lower Silesian118 boys born+6%
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Lesser Poland170 boys born+6%
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Masovian250 boys born0%
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Lublin69 boys born−5%
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Podlaskie44 boys born−5%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian70 boys born−9%
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Greater Poland133 boys born−13%
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Warmian-Masurian42 boys born−17%
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Łódź74 boys born−17%
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Subcarpathian52 boys born−39%
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Świętokrzyskie22 boys born−44%
Marek as a middle name
Marek is a first name for 373,645 men in Poland and a middle name for another 248,808, a 60/40 split — almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 10th, between Tomasz (253,972) and Michał (235,734).
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8
279,662Adam
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9
253,972Tomasz
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10248,808Marek
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11
235,734Michał
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12
196,547Jerzy
When Marek celebrates name day
Marek appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 25 April.