Nikifor
Fewer than thirty men in Poland carry it, so most Poles have never met one. Greek at root, the name reads as "bringer of victory".
Nikifor Pronunciation
Nikifor is pronounced nyee-KEE-for (/ɲiˈkifɔr/).
What Nikifor means
Where Nikifor comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nikifor traces back to the Greek Nikephoros, from nike, victory, and phoros, one who carries. The short meaning holds: bringer of victory, niosący zwycięstwo in Polish.
The name belonged to the Eastern Church before it belonged to any nursery. Saint Nikephoros, patriarch of Constantinople, gave it standing in the Orthodox and Greek Catholic calendars, and that is how it reached Lemko and Ruthenian families in the south of Poland.
Its most documented bearer painted. Nikifor Krynicki, born Epifaniusz Drowniak in Krynica around 1895, signed his naive watercolours with that single word. He was Lemko, largely self-taught, and now counts among Poland's best-known outsider artists. A film carried his name in 2004.
On a school register in Krynica, the name still reads as local. Nikifor keeps the Greek promise it started with: bringer of victory.
When Nikifor celebrates name day
Nikifor appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 9 February.
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 Nikifor
1 in 790600 men in Poland is named Nikifor. 27 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #8130 among male names.
Nikifor's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Nikifor as a middle name
Nikifor is a first name for 27 men in Poland and a middle name for another 20, a 57/43 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2007th, between Mạnh (20) and Nikolaj (20).
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#2005 Morris20
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#2006 Mạnh20
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#2007 Nikifor20
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#2008 Nikolaj20
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#2009 Nuri20