Daniil
The Russian form of Daniel, from the Hebrew for "God is my judge." Around 8,400 Poles carry it, uncommon enough that meeting one tends to stick.
Daniil Pronunciation
Daniil is pronounced DAH-nyeel (/ˈdaɲil/).
What Daniil means
Where Daniil comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Daniil is the Russian form of Daniel, and the name goes back to the Hebrew Daniyyel. Its sense is plain. "God is my judge," or in Polish "bóg jest moim sędzią," the name states a whole belief: that a higher court weighs a life.
The form Daniil belongs to the Orthodox East. Daniil Aleksandrovich, prince of Moscow around the turn of the fourteenth century, founded the line that would rule Russia and was later canonized. Readers of a stranger cast may know Daniil Kharms, the absurdist writer of 1920s Leningrad, whose short prose still unsettles.
In Poland the spelling stays foreign, unaltered, without a Polish softening. A boy called Daniil on a school register sits near a Daniel and a Damian, close in sound and separate in root only to those who look. The Hebrew judge stands behind all three. And the meaning holds: bóg jest moim sędzią.
How many people are named Daniil
1 in 2538 men in Poland is named Daniil. 8,415 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #390 among male names.
Daniil's popularity over time
27 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #455 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2012. Still the #390 name among living men, even as it slips to #455 among newborns.
Where parents choose Daniil
Daniil is most popular in Lower Silesian, 114% above the national average (35 boys born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+93%) and Pomeranian (+83%). It is least common in Podlaskie and Lesser Poland, 56% and 32% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian
+114%1 in 4,490 babies
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West Pomeranian
+93%1 in 4,966 babies
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Pomeranian
+83%1 in 5,261 babies
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Podlaskie
−56%1 in 21,929 babies
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Lesser Poland
−32%1 in 14,182 babies
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Łódź
−24%1 in 12,672 babies
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Lower Silesian+114% 35 born1 in 4,490 babies+114%
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West Pomeranian+93% 17 born1 in 4,966 babies+93%
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Pomeranian+83% 28 born1 in 5,261 babies+83%
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Greater Poland+47% 33 born1 in 6,523 babies+47%
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Lubusz+35% 7 born1 in 7,094 babies+35%
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Silesian+14% 27 born1 in 8,429 babies+14%
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Masovian+8% 40 born1 in 8,857 babies+8%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−21% 9 born1 in 12,153 babies−21%
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Łódź−24% 10 born1 in 12,672 babies−24%
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Lesser Poland−32% 16 born1 in 14,182 babies−32%
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Podlaskie−56% 3 born1 in 21,929 babies−56%
Daniil as a middle name
Daniil is a first name for 8,415 men in Poland and a middle name for another 10, a 100/0 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 3077th, between Dang (10) and Danisz (10).
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#3075 Dajan10
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#3076 Dang10
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#3077 Daniil10
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#3078 Danisz10
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#3079 Dany10