Iacob
Fewer than 70 Polish men carry it, so meeting one would stick in your memory. It's a Latin-shaped form of Jacob, from the Hebrew for "holder of the heel".
Iacob Pronunciation
Iacob is pronounced YAH-tsop (/ˈjat͡sɔp/).
What Iacob means
Where Iacob comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Iacob is the Latin form of a Hebrew name, Ya'aqov. Its root is 'aqev, the heel. The account in Genesis has a child born gripping his twin brother's heel, and from that grip comes the sense the dictionaries keep: supplanter, holder of the heel. Polish states it plainly, ten, który trzyma za piętę.
To grab a heel was also to trip a rival and take his place. The name reads two ways at once, the literal heel and the one who overtakes.
The Vulgate spelled the patriarch Iacob, and that Latin Bible carried the form across Christian Europe. Scribes copied it. In Genesis, Jacob wrestles until dawn and leaves with a new name and a limp.
An official form at the urząd might set Iacob beside the Polish Jakub. The name stays near its root. It still means a heel.
How many people are named Iacob
1 in 313915 men in Poland is named Iacob. 68 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4394 among male names.
Iacob's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.