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.
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 Bohdan is most popular
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 Silesian42 boys born+147%
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Łódź31 boys born+126%
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Lubusz8 boys born+49%
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Masovian54 boys born+41%
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Greater Poland32 boys born+37%
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Pomeranian17 boys born+7%
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Silesian22 boys born−11%
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West Pomeranian7 boys born−23%
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Lesser Poland12 boys born−51%
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Podlaskie2 boys born−72%
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Subcarpathian3 boys born−77%
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Lublin2 boys born−82%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian2 boys born−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
2,071Kuba
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175
2,037Tymon
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1762,028Bohdan
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177
2,006Sergiusz
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178
2,000Olgierd
When Bohdan celebrates name day
Bohdan appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 31 August.