Mert
A Turkish name meaning "brave" or "manly", still uncommon enough in Poland that most people here have never met one. Fewer than 400 men and boys carry it, and the handful of newborns it once saw has thinned out.
Mert Pronunciation
Mert is pronounced MERT (/mɛrt/).
What Mert means
Where Mert comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Mert comes to Poland as a Turkish name, and in Turkish it means brave and manly. Its deeper root reaches into Persian, where the word mard names a man, and from that word Turkish drew the sense of someone honest and steadfast. So the meaning brave, manly sits close to the origin rather than being layered on afterward.
The name stays short and unbending. It has no diminutives and no variant spellings, which is unusual for a name a child carries for life. A boy called Mert is Mert on the class register and Mert at his imieniny.
In Turkey the word means more than courage alone. To call a man mert is to say he keeps his word. That reputation travels with the name. A Polish parent who picks it hands a boy a single firm syllable and a meaning that says brave.
How many people are named Mert
1 in 54178 men in Poland is named Mert. 394 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1497 among male names.
Mert's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Mert is most popular
Mert is most popular in Silesian, 470% above the national average (3 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+281%).
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Silesian3 boys born+470%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born+281%
Mert as a middle name
Mert is a first name for 394 men in Poland and a middle name for another 148, a 73/27 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 579th, between Faustyn (148) and Phillip (148).
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#577 Donald148
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#578 Faustyn148
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#579 Mert148
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#580 Phillip148
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#581 Mikolaj147