Ilian
Most Poles have never met an Ilian: only about a hundred carry it, all of them men and boys. It is just starting to catch on, from a Hebrew name meaning "sun, bright".
Ilian Pronunciation
Ilian is pronounced EEL-yahn (/ˈiljan/).
What Ilian means
Where Ilian comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ilian reaches back to Hebrew, where the name is read as sun, bright. That reading points at light rather than at any one saint or king. A boy called Ilian carries a word for brightness before he can pronounce it.
On a Polish class register the name sits a little apart. It has no long queue of diminutives behind it, and no settled name-day printed in the calendar. The form stays whole, Ilian, without the softening a Polish ear expects from Julek or Antoś.
That plainness gives it room. The meaning, sun, does the work a nickname might do elsewhere. Brightness is not a decoration added later. Bright and sun sit inside the name straight from its Hebrew root.
How many people are named Ilian
1 in 205252 men in Poland is named Ilian. 104 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3348 among male names.
Ilian's popularity over time
8 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #770 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2014.
Where Ilian is most popular
Ilian is most popular in West Pomeranian, 412% above the national average (4 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+352%) and Pomeranian (+47%). It is least common in Masovian and Lesser Poland, 9% and 5% below average respectively.
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West Pomeranian4 boys born+412%
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Greater Poland9 boys born+352%
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Pomeranian2 boys born+47%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born−5%
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Masovian3 boys born−9%
Ilian as a middle name
Ilian is a first name for 104 men in Poland and a middle name for another 5, a 95/5 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 4772nd, between Ihab (5) and Ilyes (5).
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#4770 Igal5
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#4771 Ihab5
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#4772 Ilian5
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#4773 Ilyes5
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#4774 Imanol5