Dylan
A Celtic name meaning "son of the sea". In Poland it stays rare, someone most people have never met, and it goes almost entirely to boys.
Dylan Pronunciation
Dylan is pronounced DIH-lahn (/ˈdɨlan/).
What Dylan means
Where Dylan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Dylan reaches back into Welsh, a Celtic name whose short meaning is given plainly as son of the sea. In the medieval tales of the Mabinogi, Dylan ail Don is a child who slips into the water the moment he is born and swims off like a fish. That sea child is where the meaning finds its documented anchor.
For most people today the name arrives through English rather than Welsh. The poet Dylan Thomas, born in Swansea in 1914, carried it through the twentieth century, and the young Robert Zimmerman later took the poet's first name to become Bob Dylan. The maritime sense stayed attached across all of it.
In a Polish class register now, Dylan sits among older, more familiar names, and it has no imieniny of its own here. It keeps no established diminutive. The meaning holds firm anyway: son of the sea.
How many people are named Dylan
1 in 29402 men in Poland is named Dylan. 735 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1091 among male names.
Dylan's popularity over time
10 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #687 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where Dylan is most popular
Dylan is most popular in West Pomeranian, 213% above the national average (6 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+142%) and Silesian (+133%). It is least common in Greater Poland and Masovian, 39% and 38% below average respectively.
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West Pomeranian6 boys born+213%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian6 boys born+142%
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Silesian12 boys born+133%
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Lower Silesian8 boys born+125%
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Subcarpathian4 boys born+46%
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Pomeranian3 boys born−10%
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Lublin2 boys born−14%
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Masovian5 boys born−38%
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Greater Poland3 boys born−39%
Dylan as a middle name
Dylan is a first name for 735 men in Poland and a middle name for another 124, an 86/14 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 626th, between Witosław (125) and Ivanov (124).
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#624 Ram125
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#625 Witosław125
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#626 Dylan124
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#627 Ivanov124
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#628 Francois123