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Mikołaj

From Greek, the name carries the sense "victory of the people". It ranks just outside Poland's hundred most-given boys' names and stays common enough that you almost certainly know one, though it's given less often now than at its 2010s peak.

Mikołaj Pronunciation

Mikołaj is pronounced mee-KO-wahy (/miˈkɔwaj/).

Related names
Mikola
Alive in 2025
138,622
Newborns 2025
3,215
National rank
#101
Next name day
6 December
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What Mikołaj means

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

Mikołaj comes from the Greek Nikolaos, built from nikē, victory, and laos, the people. Read plainly, it means victory of the people. Saint Nicholas of Myra wore the Greek form first, and Polish reshaped it into Mikołaj.

Poland put the name to work early. Mikołaj Kopernik, the astronomer who moved the Earth from the center of things, signed his Latin books as Nicolaus but went by Mikołaj at home. Mikołaj Rej, writing in the sixteenth century, insisted that Poles had a tongue of their own worth using, and later readers called him a father of Polish literature.

The name keeps its own day. On the sixth of December children wait for Święty Mikołaj and the small gift left in a shoe. Open a school register in early December and you will likely find a Mikołaj marked present, sharing his imieniny with the saint. The Greek Nikolaos stands behind all of it, still meaning victory of the people.

When Mikołaj celebrates name day

Mikołaj appears 16 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 10 September.

Next name day
6 December
Sunday in 2026
Next one in 42 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 Mikołaj

1 in 154 men in Poland is named Mikołaj. 138,622 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #101 among male names.

People with the name Mikołaj 2019 → 2025
138,622 +24,700 since 2019
2020 117,017 +3,095
2021 122,173 +5,156
2022 127,033 +4,860
2023 131,330 +4,297
2024 135,118 +3,788
2025 138,622 +3,504

Mikołaj's popularity over time

3,215 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #15 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade.

hover a bar to explore
3,215 newborns with the name Mikołaj in 2025
national rank #15 that year

Where parents choose Mikołaj

Mikołaj is most popular in Lublin, 23% above the national average (1,851 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+9%) and Holy Cross (+7%). It is least common in Opole and Greater Poland, both 14% below average.

Chosen most
  • Lublin
    +23%
    1 in 55 babies
  • Kuyavian-Pomeranian
    +9%
    1 in 63 babies
  • Holy Cross
    +7%
    1 in 64 babies
Chosen least
  • Opole
    −14%
    1 in 79 babies
  • Greater Poland
    −14%
    1 in 79 babies
  • Pomeranian
    −10%
    1 in 75 babies

Mikołaj as a middle name

Mikołaj is a first name for 138,622 men in Poland and a middle name for another 60,849, a 69/31 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 49th, between Sławomir (60,990) and Jarosław (58,290).

As a first name
138,622
As a middle name
60,849
first name 69% middle name 31%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

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

Next in ranking → Franciszek #102