Andrzej
From the Greek for "manly". More than half a million Polish men carry it, one of the most familiar names in the country, but among newborns it's fading fast now.
Andrzej Pronunciation
Andrzej is pronounced AHND-zhey (/ˈandʐɛj/).
What Andrzej means
Where Andrzej comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Andrzej reaches back to the Greek Andreas, formed from andreios, meaning manly, and behind that sits andros, the word for man. So the short sense, mężny and odważny, brave, was there in the Greek from the start. This is one of the older names in Poland, carried by kings and by the apostle Andrew.
The name bends easily. Jędrek is the warm, everyday form a boy answers to in a school register, while Andrei is the variant that turns up across the eastern border. Same root, different mouths.
Every year the name gets its own night. Andrzejki, the eve of Saint Andrew on the twenty-ninth of November, is when Poles pour wax through a key and read the shadow on the wall to guess what the future holds. The custom is old and still kept. A boy named Andrzej shares his name-day with a fortune-telling ritual, which few names can claim.
The meaning holds: manly, mężny, odważny.
How many people are named Andrzej
1 in 41 men in Poland is named Andrzej. 523,382 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #9 among male names.
Andrzej's popularity over time
119 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #237 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #9 name among living men, even as it slips to #237 among newborns.
Where Andrzej is most popular
Andrzej is most popular in Lesser Poland, 48% above the national average (181 boys born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+40%) and Opole (+21%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Warmian-Masurian, 37% and 33% below average respectively.
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Lesser Poland181 boys born+48%
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West Pomeranian64 boys born+40%
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Opole30 boys born+21%
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Podlaskie43 boys born+21%
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Lower Silesian94 boys born+11%
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Masovian208 boys born+9%
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Pomeranian78 boys born−2%
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Greater Poland105 boys born−10%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian51 boys born−14%
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Lubusz23 boys born−14%
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Subcarpathian56 boys born−14%
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Silesian98 boys born−20%
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Łódź52 boys born−24%
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Lublin39 boys born−30%
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Warmian-Masurian26 boys born−33%
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Świętokrzyskie19 boys born−37%
Andrzej as a middle name
Andrzej is a first name for 523,382 men in Poland and a middle name for another 406,153, a 56/44 split — almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 4th, between Stanisław (447,673) and Paweł (399,071).
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2
603,686Piotr
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3
447,673Stanisław
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4406,153Andrzej
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5
399,071Paweł
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6
381,053Józef
When Andrzej celebrates name day
Andrzej appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 4 February.