Skip to main content

Mieczysław

Around 72,000 Polish men carry it, yet barely two dozen boys got it last year: a name held mostly by older generations now. Slavic at root, put together from words for "sword" and "glory".

Mieczysław Pronunciation

Mieczysław is pronounced mye-CHIHS-wahf (/mjɛˈt͡ʂɨswaf/).

Alive in 2025
72,381
Newborns 2025
24
National rank
#149
Next name day
1 January
Go to page

What Mieczysław means

Where Mieczysław comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Mieczysław is a Slavic name built from two old roots. The second, sław, means glory or fame. The first is usually read as miecz, sword, which yields the short gloss "sword glory". Many scholars treat that sword sense as a later folk reading, since the name grew from the same early stock as Mieszko and older forms like Miecisław. The Polish sense that stuck is gentler: zdobywający sławę, one who wins renown.

In everyday speech the name softens. Friends call a Mieczysław "Mietek", and a school class register might carry that short form for years. The feminine Mieczysława gives a daughter the same two roots.

Poland has real bearers to point to. Mieczysław Fogg sang for decades and lived to nearly ninety. The name held. Behind the affectionate "Mietek" sits the older reading, sław for glory and miecz for sword.

When Mieczysław celebrates name day

Mieczysław appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 1 January.

Next name day
1 January
Friday in 2027
Next one in 68 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

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 Mieczysław

1 in 295 men in Poland is named Mieczysław. 72,381 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #149 among male names.

People with the name Mieczysław 2019 → 2025
72,381 −21,279 since 2019
2020 91,759 −1,901
2021 87,283 −4,476
2022 82,763 −4,520
2023 78,995 −3,768
2024 75,622 −3,373
2025 72,381 −3,241

Mieczysław's popularity over time

24 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #483 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2005. Still the #149 name among living men, even as it slips to #483 among newborns.

hover a bar to explore
24 newborns with the name Mieczysław in 2025
national rank #483 that year

Where parents choose Mieczysław

Mieczysław is most popular in Lower Silesian, 91% above the national average (22 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+53%) and Warmian-Masurian (+52%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Silesian, 77% and 70% below average respectively.

Chosen most
  • Lower Silesian
    +91%
    1 in 7,142 babies
  • Greater Poland
    +53%
    1 in 8,968 babies
  • Warmian-Masurian
    +52%
    1 in 8,974 babies
Chosen least
  • Subcarpathian
    −77%
    1 in 60,283 babies
  • Silesian
    −70%
    1 in 45,517 babies
  • Łódź
    −57%
    1 in 31,680 babies

Mieczysław as a middle name

Mieczysław is a first name for 72,381 men in Poland and a middle name for another 62,417, a 54/46 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 47th, between Szymon (62,434) and Sławomir (60,990).

As a first name
72,381
As a middle name
62,417
first name 54% middle name 46%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Miłosz #13