Bohdan
After years of only a handful of boys given it annually, it has jumped into the tens since 2022: a clear comeback that lands it back among names you'd recognize. Built from the Slavic bog and dan, it carries a plain promise: given by god.
Bohdan Pronunciation
Bohdan is pronounced BOGH-dahn (/ˈbɔɣdan/).
What Bohdan means
Where Bohdan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Bohdan grows from two old Slavic roots, bog for god and dan for given. Put together they mean given by god. The same idea shaped the Greek Theodoros and the Latin Deodatus, so the name keeps company far beyond Slavic ground.
Ukrainian history handed the name its most famous bearer. Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Cossack uprising of 1648 and rose to hetman, and his name still marks streets and monuments across the country today. That one life tied Bohdan tightly to a Ukrainian sense of self.
The name bends easily. Bogdan is the spelling Polish registers often prefer, while bohdanna and bogdana turn it toward a daughter. Read a class register on the day of imieniny and a Bohdan may sit near a Bogdana, both of them named for the plain old promise of being given by god.
When Bohdan celebrates name day
Bohdan appears 7 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 31 August.
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 Bohdan
1 in 732 men in Poland is named Bohdan. 29,150 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #245 among male names.
Bohdan's popularity over time
84 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #269 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2009. Still the #245 name among living men, even as it slips to #269 among newborns.
Where parents choose Bohdan
Bohdan is most popular in Lower Silesian, 147% above the national average (42 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Łódź (+126%) and Lubusz (+49%). It is least common in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lublin, 83% and 82% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian
+147%1 in 3,741 babies
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Łódź
+126%1 in 4,088 babies
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Lubusz
+49%1 in 6,207 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
−83%1 in 54,690 babies
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Lublin
−82%1 in 51,338 babies
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Subcarpathian
−77%1 in 40,188 babies
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Lower Silesian+147% 42 born1 in 3,741 babies+147%
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Łódź+126% 31 born1 in 4,088 babies+126%
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Lubusz+49% 8 born1 in 6,207 babies+49%
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Masovian+41% 54 born1 in 6,560 babies+41%
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Greater Poland+37% 32 born1 in 6,726 babies+37%
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Pomeranian+7% 17 born1 in 8,666 babies+7%
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Silesian−11% 22 born1 in 10,345 babies−11%
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West Pomeranian−23% 7 born1 in 12,061 babies−23%
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Lesser Poland−51% 12 born1 in 18,910 babies−51%
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Podlaskie−72% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−72%
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Subcarpathian−77% 3 born1 in 40,188 babies−77%
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Lublin−82% 2 born1 in 51,338 babies−82%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−83% 2 born1 in 54,690 babies−83%
Bohdan as a middle name
Bohdan is a first name for 29,150 men in Poland and a middle name for another 2,028, a 93/7 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 176th, between Tymon (2,037) and Sergiusz (2,006).
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#174 Kuba2,071
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#175 Tymon2,037
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#176 Bohdan2,028
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#177 Sergiusz2,006
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#178 Olgierd2,000