Maximilian
Latin for "greatest", now given only to boys. Fewer than 5,000 Polish men carry it, so meeting one stays memorable, though a small run of newborns each year keeps it going.
Maximilian Pronunciation
What Maximilian means
Where Maximilian comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Maximilian comes from the Latin Maximilianus, a Roman family name built on maximus, "greatest." The word makes a large promise. Roman parents who used it were reaching for the top of the scale, and the name kept that sense as it moved north into the German lands.
There it found its most famous bearer. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor around 1500, gave the name a court and a crown, and the German association has held ever since. Poland took the Latin root and spelled it its own way, as Maksymilian, with Maksym as a nearby variant and Maks as the short form a child answers to.
One Polish Maksymilian carried the meaning further than any emperor. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, the Franciscan friar canonized in 1982, gave his life for another prisoner at Auschwitz. On a school register the name still sits full and formal, Maksymilian, while friends outside call him Maks. The Polish gloss stays plain: największy, greatest.
How many people are named Maximilian
1 in 4585 men in Poland is named Maximilian. 4,656 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #503 among male names.
Maximilian's popularity over time
67 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #301 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where parents choose Maximilian
Maximilian is most popular in West Pomeranian, 72% above the national average (35 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+71%) and Lubusz (+50%). It is least common in Łódź and Lublin, 44% and 39% below average respectively.
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West Pomeranian
+72%1 in 2,412 babies
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Opole
+71%1 in 2,426 babies
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Lubusz
+50%1 in 2,759 babies
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Łódź
−44%1 in 7,454 babies
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Lublin
−39%1 in 6,845 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−19%1 in 5,128 babies
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West Pomeranian+72% 35 born1 in 2,412 babies+72%
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Opole+71% 19 born1 in 2,426 babies+71%
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Lubusz+50% 18 born1 in 2,759 babies+50%
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Pomeranian+27% 45 born1 in 3,274 babies+27%
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Lower Silesian+21% 46 born1 in 3,416 babies+21%
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Lesser Poland+13% 62 born1 in 3,660 babies+13%
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Silesian+2% 56 born1 in 4,064 babies+2%
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Greater Poland−4% 50 born1 in 4,305 babies−4%
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Subcarpathian−11% 26 born1 in 4,637 babies−11%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−13% 23 born1 in 4,756 babies−13%
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Masovian−17% 71 born1 in 4,990 babies−17%
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Podlaskie−18% 13 born1 in 5,060 babies−18%
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Holy Cross−18% 11 born1 in 5,039 babies−18%
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Warmian-Masurian−19% 14 born1 in 5,128 babies−19%
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Lublin−39% 15 born1 in 6,845 babies−39%
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Łódź−44% 17 born1 in 7,454 babies−44%
Maximilian as a middle name
Maximilian is a first name for 4,656 men in Poland and a middle name for another 895, an 84/16 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 238th, between Ali (902) and Benjamin (886).
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#236 Werner910
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#237 Ali902
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#238 Maximilian895
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#239 Benjamin886
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#240 Henry884