Hieronim
From Greek, it carries the sense of a "sacred name". Only about 4,500 Polish men hold it, few enough that most people here have never met one, though it's given a little more often now than a decade ago.
Hieronim Pronunciation
Hieronim is pronounced khye-RO-nyeem (/xjɛˈrɔɲim/).
What Hieronim means
Where Hieronim comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hieronim comes from the Greek Hierṓnymos, built from hieros, sacred, and onoma, name. The meaning sits close to the surface. Put the two Greek pieces together and you get a sacred name, in Polish święte imię.
The best known bearer gave the name its long reach. Hieronim ze Strydonu, known in English as Saint Jerome, spent years translating scripture into Latin, and the version he produced, the Vulgate, became the standard Bible of the Western Church for more than a thousand years. A man whose life's work was words happened to carry a name that means one.
The name also branches into feminine forms, hieronima and the older heronima, both rare in Poland now. Every year on the thirtieth of September a Hieronim can point to his imieniny on the calendar, shared with the scholar-saint. Say the name at a school roll call and it stands out among the Kubas and Anteks, a little formal, clearly old. What it means has not moved in fifteen centuries: a sacred name.
When Hieronim celebrates name day
Hieronim appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 8 February.
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 Hieronim
1 in 4746 men in Poland is named Hieronim. 4,498 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #512 among male names.
Hieronim's popularity over time
21 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #500 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2011.
Where Hieronim is most popular
Hieronim is most popular in Lubusz, 132% above the national average (4 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+78%) and Masovian (+71%). It is least common in Silesian and Lublin, 75% and 44% below average respectively.
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Lubusz4 boys born+132%
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Lesser Poland14 boys born+78%
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Masovian21 boys born+71%
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Warmian-Masurian3 boys born+20%
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Greater Poland8 boys born+7%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian4 boys born+5%
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Subcarpathian4 boys born−4%
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Lower Silesian5 boys born−8%
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Łódź4 boys born−9%
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Podlaskie2 boys born−12%
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West Pomeranian2 boys born−32%
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Lublin2 boys born−44%
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Silesian2 boys born−75%
Hieronim as a middle name
Hieronim is a first name for 4,498 men in Poland and a middle name for another 3,760, a 54/46 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 138th, between Emanuel (3,783) and Rudolf (3,742).
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#136 Fryderyk3,791
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#137 Emanuel3,783
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#138 Hieronim3,760
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#139 Rudolf3,742
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#140 Gustaw3,718