Grzegorz
Nearly 370,000 Polish men carry it, a name most people have met more than once, though it fades now: only 314 boys got it last year. From Greek, it means watchful, vigilant.
Grzegorz Pronunciation
Grzegorz is pronounced GZHE-gosh (/ˈgʐɛgɔʂ/).
What Grzegorz means
Where Grzegorz comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Grzegorz comes from the Greek Gregorios, built on the verb gregorein, to be watchful or vigilant. The old sense is plain: a person who keeps watch. That meaning traveled west with the early Church, settling into Latin as Gregorius and then into Polish as Grzegorz, with Gregor standing as its shorter variant.
Sixteen popes took the name, and one of them left a mark most of the world still reads by. Pope Gregory XIII, Grzegorz XIII in Polish, gave his name to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. So the watchman who measures time is folded into the name itself.
In a Polish szkoła the name shortens fast. On the class register it reads Grzegorz; by the second break it is Grzesiek or Grześ. The full form waits for the urząd and the imieniny.
Grześ is small and warm. Grzegorz keeps the older duty of the watchful one.
How many people are named Grzegorz
1 in 57 men in Poland is named Grzegorz. 372,329 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #27 among male names.
Grzegorz's popularity over time
314 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #144 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #27 name among living men, even as it slips to #144 among newborns.
Where Grzegorz is most popular
Grzegorz is most popular in Podlaskie, 50% above the national average (162 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+38%) and Pomeranian (+20%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Lublin, 36% and 23% below average respectively.
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Podlaskie162 boys born+50%
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Opole104 boys born+38%
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Pomeranian289 boys born+20%
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Warmian-Masurian138 boys born+17%
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West Pomeranian148 boys born+7%
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Masovian604 boys born+4%
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Silesian378 boys born+1%
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Lower Silesian258 boys born0%
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Greater Poland352 boys born0%
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Lesser Poland360 boys born−3%
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Lubusz74 boys born−9%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian161 boys born−10%
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Łódź186 boys born−11%
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Świętokrzyskie76 boys born−16%
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Lublin129 boys born−23%
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Subcarpathian126 boys born−36%
Grzegorz as a middle name
Grzegorz is a first name for 372,329 men in Poland and a middle name for another 196,022, a 66/34 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 13th, between Jerzy (196,547) and Marcin (190,107).
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11
235,734Michał
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12
196,547Jerzy
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13196,022Grzegorz
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14
190,107Marcin
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15
189,825Wojciech
When Grzegorz celebrates name day
Grzegorz appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 13 February.