Janek
Barely 140 Poles hold Janek as their official name, and most were born within the last decade or so: meeting one is a real event. At root it's Hebrew, meaning "god is gracious".
Janek Pronunciation
Janek is pronounced YAH-nek (/ˈjanɛk/).
What Janek means
Where Janek comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Janek comes from Hebrew, from the name Yohanan, which meant "God is gracious." That meaning passed into Polish as Jan, and Janek is the everyday shape of it. Where Jan sounds formal on a document, Janek belongs to daily speech.
The name sits in a wide family. Jaś is the tender diminutive used for a small boy. Janina turns the name toward a girl. Janusz stands as a separate variant, and Ján is the form you meet in Slovak across the border. All of them trace to the same root and the same short meaning, bóg jest łaskawy.
Read a Polish school register and you will find a Janek in most classes. The name has stayed common for generations without wearing out. It is short. Easy to call across a yard.
Whatever else changes, the sense underneath holds: God is gracious, first in Hebrew Yohanan, then in Jan, and now in Janek.
How many people are named Janek
1 in 148237 men in Poland is named Janek. 144 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2716 among male names.
Janek's popularity over time
3 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1262 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Where Janek is most popular
Janek is most popular in Podlaskie, 447% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+358%) and Lesser Poland (+217%).
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Podlaskie2 boys born+447%
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Lower Silesian4 boys born+358%
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Lesser Poland4 boys born+217%
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Greater Poland2 boys born+67%
Janek as a middle name
Janek is a first name for 144 men in Poland and a middle name for another 31, an 82/18 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1509th, between Innocenty (31) and Jules (31).
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#1507 Henricus31
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#1508 Innocenty31
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#1509 Janek31
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#1510 Jules31
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#1511 Mendel31