Bartłomiej
From the Hebrew for "son of Talmai". Around 126,000 Polish men carry it, enough that you almost certainly know one, but it's given to fewer boys every year and slipping off the newborn lists.
Bartłomiej Pronunciation
Bartłomiej is pronounced bahrt-WOM-yey (/bartˈwɔmjɛj/).
What Bartłomiej means
Where Bartłomiej comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Bartłomiej reaches back to Hebrew, to Bar-Talmai, which means son of Talmai. Talmai itself points to the furrow a plough cuts, so the Polish gloss reads syn oracza, son of the ploughman. The apostle Bartholomew carried this name into the Christian calendar, and Polish speakers reshaped it to their own mouths.
From that long form come the everyday versions. Bartosz stands as a variant, a name in its own right on a school register. Bartek is the diminutive a teacher calls across the classroom.
His name-day falls on 24 August, the feast of Saint Bartholomew, an old marker in the Polish year. Farmers once read that day's weather for hints about the coming autumn. The origin is Hebrew. A boy named Bartłomiej meets his patron there, and he meets the older picture too, the ploughman turning earth behind the sense of son of Talmai.
How many people are named Bartłomiej
1 in 170 men in Poland is named Bartłomiej. 125,918 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #111 among male names.
Bartłomiej's popularity over time
348 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #139 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #111 name among living men, even as it slips to #139 among newborns.
Where Bartłomiej is most popular
Bartłomiej is most popular in Lesser Poland, 95% above the national average (939 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+71%) and Świętokrzyskie (+41%). It is least common in Greater Poland and Lubusz, 70% and 51% below average respectively.
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Lesser Poland939 boys born+95%
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Lublin372 boys born+71%
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Świętokrzyskie166 boys born+41%
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Subcarpathian357 boys born+39%
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Silesian636 boys born+32%
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Łódź289 boys born+7%
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Podlaskie127 boys born−9%
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Masovian661 boys born−12%
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Opole83 boys born−15%
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Lower Silesian239 boys born−28%
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Warmian-Masurian108 boys born−29%
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West Pomeranian107 boys born−40%
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Pomeranian185 boys born−41%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian128 boys born−45%
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Lubusz52 boys born−51%
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Greater Poland138 boys born−70%
Bartłomiej as a middle name
Bartłomiej is a first name for 125,918 men in Poland and a middle name for another 35,214, a 78/22 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 68th, between Eugeniusz (39,139) and Bogusław (34,860).
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66
39,185Arkadiusz
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67
39,139Eugeniusz
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6835,214Bartłomiej
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69
34,860Bogusław
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70
33,718Filip