Elmar
A Germanic name from two parts: *adal*, noble, and *mari*, famous. Fewer than 200 men in Poland carry it, and almost none are born now, so most Poles have never met one.
Elmar Pronunciation
Elmar is pronounced EL-mahr (/ˈɛlmar/).
What Elmar means
Where Elmar comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Elmar is a Germanic name, and its two halves still show. The first is adal, noble. The second is mari, famous. Read together they give the meaning kept here: noble and famous.
That second element, mari, turns up across the older German name-stock. It sits at the end of Waldemar and Dietmar too, always pointing at fame or renown. The English cognate Elmer comes from the same source, though it took a plainer road and lost the German feel.
Elmar stayed close to German. On a Polish class register it looks foreign in a useful way, easy to spot among the Kamils and Mareks. The name is short. It carries no diminutive of its own here, so a boy named Elmar is simply Elmar, on the form at the urząd and in the teacher's mouth at roll call.
The sense stays literal, with no story attached after the fact. Elmar means noble and famous, the two Germanic parts still doing their work.
How many people are named Elmar
1 in 117287 men in Poland is named Elmar. 182 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2358 among male names.
Elmar's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Elmar is most popular
Elmar is most popular in Masovian, 510% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025).
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Masovian2 boys born+510%
Elmar as a middle name
Elmar is a first name for 182 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13, a 93/7 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2614th, between Eko (13) and Erhan (13).
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#2612 Egbert13
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#2613 Eko13
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#2614 Elmar13
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#2615 Erhan13
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#2616 Eweryst13