Felicjan
After years when barely any boys were given it, Felicjan is climbing again, with more born last year than before. It comes from Latin for "happy, lucky", and stays a name most Poles have never actually met.
Felicjan Pronunciation
Felicjan is pronounced fe-LEETS-yahn (/fɛˈlit͡sjan/).
What Felicjan means
Where Felicjan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Felicjan comes from the Latin Felicianus, a name built on felix, the Roman word for happy and lucky. Fortune sat inside the name long before anyone in Poland spoke it.
When it reached Poland it traveled beside Feliks, and by the fifteenth century Polish speakers had coined their own calque, Szczęsny, which says the meaning outright: fortunate. The name also has a cross-gender partner, Felicja, so the same sense could go to a daughter or a son. Italian and Spanish kept a closer cousin, Feliciano.
Open a school register and a Felicjan lands early, sorted among the F names, likely shortened to Felek by lunchtime. His imieniny fall on 24 January, then again in June and October. The luck here is not decoration. It is the meaning itself, happy and lucky, kept plain.
When Felicjan celebrates name day
Felicjan appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 24 January.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
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 Felicjan
1 in 44013 men in Poland is named Felicjan. 485 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1333 among male names.
Felicjan's popularity over time
60 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #317 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2012.
Where Felicjan is most popular
Felicjan is most popular in Greater Poland, 91% above the national average (48 boys born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+52%) and Subcarpathian (+28%). It is least common in Warmian-Masurian and Lublin, 76% and 75% below average respectively.
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Greater Poland48 boys born+91%
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West Pomeranian15 boys born+52%
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Subcarpathian18 boys born+28%
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Lower Silesian23 boys born+26%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian15 boys born+18%
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Pomeranian20 boys born+16%
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Masovian42 boys born+2%
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Łódź14 boys born−5%
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Silesian24 boys born−10%
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Lubusz4 boys born−31%
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Lesser Poland15 boys born−43%
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Podlaskie4 boys born−48%
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Świętokrzyskie3 boys born−54%
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Opole2 boys born−63%
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Lublin3 boys born−75%
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Warmian-Masurian2 boys born−76%
Felicjan as a middle name
Felicjan is a first name for 485 men in Poland and a middle name for another 548, a 47/53 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 305th, between Gerhard (556) and Philip (546).
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#303 Jaromir563
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#304 Gerhard556
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#305 Felicjan548
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#306 Philip546
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#307 Kewin545