Ivaylo
A Slavic name meaning "wolf", carried by only about 65 men in Poland. Most Poles will never meet one, and no newborn has been given it in years.
Ivaylo Pronunciation
What Ivaylo means
Where Ivaylo comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ivaylo grew from Slavic ground, and the meaning that trails it is wolf. Behind the name sits a Bulgarian form, Vŭlo, pointing back to an old word for the animal. The wolf link is one scholars still argue over. Some read the spelling as a fifteenth-century misreading of that older Vŭlo.
One Ivaylo is fixed in the record. Ivaylo of Bulgaria herded swine, then led a peasant revolt and took the throne. He ruled as tsar from 1278 to 1279, beat back Byzantines and Mongols, and died around 1281. A herdsman named for a wolf, who ended up crowned.
In a Polish class register the name reads as a visitor. A teacher calls Ivaylo, and the boy answers. It keeps no name-day in the Polish calendar, so any imieniny it holds is borrowed from elsewhere. What stays fixed is the short meaning: wolf, in Polish wilk.
How many people are named Ivaylo
1 in 328403 men in Poland is named Ivaylo. 65 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4523 among male names.
Ivaylo as a middle name
Ivaylo is a first name for 65 men in Poland and a middle name for another 2, a 97/3 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 7946th, between Iurii (2) and Ivica (2).
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#7944 Iuri2
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#7945 Iurii2
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#7946 Ivaylo2
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#7947 Ivica2
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#7948 Izan2