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Bogdan

A Slavic name built on the idea of a gift "given by god". After years of decline it's climbing back, and with around 92,000 men already carrying it, the name still rings familiar.

Bogdan Pronunciation

Bogdan is pronounced BOG-dahn (/ˈbɔgdan/).

Related names
Bogdanna Bogdana
Alive in 2025
92,744
Newborns 2025
121
National rank
#128
Next name day
19 March
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What Bogdan means

Where Bogdan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Bogdan is built from two old Slavic roots, Bog for god and dan for given, so the whole name means "given by god." Polish keeps that sense plain in the phrase dar od Boga. When Slavic scribes met the Greek name Theodoros, they made Bogdan to say the same thing in their own words, and Latin reached the same meaning in Deodatus.

The name is old on Polish soil. Its earliest recorded form dates to 1136, which makes it one of the few native compound names to survive from pagan times.

A boy called Bogdan might also answer to the variant Bogda, while a girl in the family could be Bogusia, the softer diminutive. On a school register the teacher marks his imieniny for 6 lutego, the most popular of the many name days Bogdan holds. Whatever else shifts around it, the two roots keep their old sense: Bog and dan, god and given.

When Bogdan celebrates name day

Bogdan appears 7 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 19 March.

Next name day
19 March
Friday in 2027
Next one in 190 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

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 Bogdan

1 in 230 men in Poland is named Bogdan. 92,744 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #128 among male names.

People with the name Bogdan 2019 → 2025
92,744 -9,867 since 2019
2020 101,819 -792
2021 99,458 -2,361
2022 97,051 -2,407
2023 96,695 -356
2024 94,808 -1,887
2025 92,744 -2,064

Bogdan's popularity over time

121 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #234 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2013. Still the #128 name among living men, even as it slips to #234 among newborns.

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121 newborns with the name Bogdan in 2025
national rank #234 that year

Where Bogdan is most popular

Bogdan is most popular in Lubusz, 97% above the national average (31 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+75%) and Pomeranian (+50%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Podlaskie, 74% and 62% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Bogdan as a middle name

Bogdan is a first name for 92,744 men in Poland and a middle name for another 50,472, a 65/35 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 57th, between Czesław (50,993) and Zdzisław (50,403).

As a first name
92,744
As a middle name
50,472
first name 65% middle name 35%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Bogusław #4