Putu
The name carries the sense of "grandchild", the firstborn one. In Poland it sits with fewer than 60 people, split almost evenly between women and men, so most Poles have never met one.
Putu Pronunciation
Putu is pronounced POO-too (/ˈputu/).
What Putu means
Where Putu comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Putu comes from Bali, where it names the firstborn child in a family. The short meaning sits right there in the grounding: grandchild, the firstborn. In Balinese custom the same word, linked to a root meaning grandchild, marks the first of four birth-order names that repeat down the sibling line. It works for a boy or a girl without changing shape.
The oddness is the point. A word for grandchild becomes the word for a first baby.
Balinese families use a small set of these birth names, and Putu opens the count. A firstborn keeps it for life, on a passport, on a class register in Denpasar. In Poland the name is rare, so a child called Putu in a Kraków school would likely be the only one when the teacher reads the list at the urząd or at roll call. The grounding lists no Polish name-day, no diminutive, no variant. Putu stands on its own, without a Polish twin.
So the story is plain. Putu means firstborn, told through an older word for grandchild, and it arrives in Poland as a single, uncommon four-letter name.
How many people are named Putu
1 in 646854 men in Poland is named Putu. 59 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4829 among male names.
Putu as a middle name
Putu is a first name for 59 men in Poland and a middle name for another 68, a 46/54 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 878th, between Fritz (68) and Ralf (68).
-
#876 Elliot68
-
#877 Fritz68
-
#878 Putu68
-
#879 Ralf68
-
#880 Slawomir68