Nicodem

Nicodem descends from the Greek Nikodemos, built from nike, victory, and demos, the people. Read together, the parts give victory of the people, or zwycięzca dla ludu in Polish. Poland writes the name most often as Nikodem, and Nicodem sits alongside it as a variant.

The name reached Christian Europe through Nicodemus of the Gospel of John, a Pharisee who visited Jesus after dark and later helped prepare his body for burial. That figure fixed the name in the church calendar, which is how it travelled into Polish. A boy named Nikodem can pick a name day on 3 August or 15 September.

It is a common name now, not a rare one. The PESEL register counted more than 77,000 men called Nikodem in early 2026, placing it around 71st among male names. Open any Polish first-grade register and the odds of finding a Nikodem are good. The Greek roots stay legible under all of it: victory belonging to the people.