Lucjan
A Latin name meaning "light", worn today by a shade over 14,000 Polish men and given only to boys. It's climbing back into use after quiet years, though meeting a Lucjan is still memorable.
Lucjan Pronunciation
Lucjan is pronounced LOOTS-yahn (/ˈlut͡sjan/).
What Lucjan means
Where Lucjan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Lucjan traces back to the Latin Lucianus, a Roman family name formed from Lucius. Behind all of them stands the noun lux, light, which is why the short meaning holds so plainly: światło. The origin is not a metaphor here. The word for light sits right there in the root.
Poland gave the name a memorable bearer in Lucjan Rydel, the poet and playwright whose 1900 wedding to a peasant bride became the subject of Wyspiański's drama Wesele. Through him the name reached readers who never met the man.
The feminine variant, Lucjanna, follows the same Latin thread. Picture a school register with a Lucjan called near the top of the L page. On the seventh of January, his imieniny, the name comes off the calendar and belongs to one person. What Lucjan keeps returning to is that first Latin root, lux: light, światło.
When Lucjan celebrates name day
Lucjan appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 7 January.
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 Lucjan
1 in 1468 men in Poland is named Lucjan. 14,546 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #310 among male names.
Lucjan's popularity over time
204 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #180 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where Lucjan is most popular
Lucjan is most popular in Pomeranian, 72% above the national average (159 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+54%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+45%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 54% and 52% below average respectively.
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Pomeranian159 boys born+72%
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Lubusz48 boys born+54%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian99 boys born+45%
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West Pomeranian76 boys born+44%
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Greater Poland182 boys born+35%
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Warmian-Masurian56 boys born+25%
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Lower Silesian102 boys born+4%
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Masovian230 boys born+4%
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Opole27 boys born−6%
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Łódź68 boys born−14%
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Podlaskie35 boys born−15%
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Silesian105 boys born−26%
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Lesser Poland81 boys born−43%
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Lublin33 boys born−49%
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Subcarpathian36 boys born−52%
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Świętokrzyskie16 boys born−54%
Lucjan as a middle name
Lucjan is a first name for 14,546 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13,321, a 52/48 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 97th, between Oskar (13,343) and Emil (12,312).
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#95 Lech13,771
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#96 Oskar13,343
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#97 Lucjan13,321
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#98 Emil12,312
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#99 Alojzy11,470