Seweryn
From Latin for "stern" or "serious", a name that wears its severity plainly. Fewer than 14,000 Poles carry it and meeting one is memorable, though it still turns up on newborns often enough to stay in circulation.
Seweryn Pronunciation
Seweryn is pronounced se-VE-rihn (/sɛˈvɛrɨn/).
What Seweryn means
Where Seweryn comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Seweryn descends from the Latin Severus, an adjective that meant stern, severe, and serious. Roman families wore it as a cognomen, and it later marked emperors, among them Septimius Severus, who ruled from 193. The Polish gloss stays close to the root: surowy, poważny.
That severity softened as the name moved through the Church. Several early saints bore the Latin form, and Poland took Seweryn as a Christian given name with its own place in the name-day calendar. By the nineteenth century it belonged to writers too, including the Romantic poet Seweryn Goszczyński, whose verse sat far from anything austere.
The feminine form is Seweryna. Boys still receive it, though less often now. Read out at an imieniny toast, or written on a form at the urząd, Seweryn still points back to Severus. Its plain sense has not drifted: surowy, poważny.
When Seweryn celebrates name day
Seweryn appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, 5 of them as a main name, the first on 8 January.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
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 Seweryn
1 in 1538 men in Poland is named Seweryn. 13,881 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #317 among male names.
Seweryn's popularity over time
98 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #249 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Where parents choose Seweryn
Seweryn is most popular in Warmian-Masurian, 48% above the national average (43 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+28%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+26%). It is least common in Lubusz and Holy Cross, 25% and 24% below average respectively.
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Warmian-Masurian
+48%1 in 1,670 babies
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Silesian
+28%1 in 1,929 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
+26%1 in 1,953 babies
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Lubusz
−25%1 in 3,310 babies
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Holy Cross
−24%1 in 3,261 babies
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Masovian
−18%1 in 3,002 babies
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Warmian-Masurian+48% 43 born1 in 1,670 babies+48%
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Silesian+28% 118 born1 in 1,929 babies+28%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+26% 56 born1 in 1,953 babies+26%
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Subcarpathian+23% 60 born1 in 2,009 babies+23%
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West Pomeranian+20% 41 born1 in 2,059 babies+20%
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Pomeranian+12% 67 born1 in 2,199 babies+12%
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Łódź−1% 51 born1 in 2,485 babies−1%
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Greater Poland−6% 82 born1 in 2,625 babies−6%
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Lower Silesian−7% 59 born1 in 2,663 babies−7%
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Opole−14% 16 born1 in 2,881 babies−14%
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Lublin−16% 35 born1 in 2,934 babies−16%
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Podlaskie−17% 22 born1 in 2,990 babies−17%
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Masovian−18% 118 born1 in 3,002 babies−18%
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Lesser Poland−18% 75 born1 in 3,026 babies−18%
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Holy Cross−24% 17 born1 in 3,261 babies−24%
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Lubusz−25% 15 born1 in 3,310 babies−25%
Seweryn as a middle name
Seweryn is a first name for 13,881 men in Poland and a middle name for another 10,019, a 58/42 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 104th, between Bogumił (10,218) and Miłosz (9,867).
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#102 Igor10,687
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#103 Bogumił10,218
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#104 Seweryn10,019
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#105 Miłosz9,867
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#106 Walenty9,384