Mikolaj
From the Greek for "victory of the people", carried only by men. It stays rare: barely 300 Poles have it, and each year a handful of boys get it, so most people will never meet one.
Mikolaj Pronunciation
Mikolaj is pronounced mee-KO-lahy (/miˈkɔlaj/).
What Mikolaj means
Where Mikolaj comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Mikołaj reaches back to the Greek Nikolaos, a name assembled from nike, victory, and laos, the people. Those roots give the meaning that has stayed attached to it in Polish: victory of the people. The Greek origin is not decorative. It sits in the bones of every spelling the name has taken.
For centuries the name traveled with a saint. Nikolaos of Myra became Święty Mikołaj, and his feast on the sixth of December still fixes the imieniny that boys named Mikołaj celebrate. The best known Polish Mikołaj studied that same sky: Mikołaj Kopernik, born in Toruń in 1473, who argued that the earth moves around the sun.
Picture the name in a school register early in December, read out before a small celebration.
The long form softens easily. To a younger sibling a Mikołaj is Miki; to a friend, Kola, and four syllables shrink to two. On official forms at the urząd the full name returns. Victory of the people.
When Mikolaj celebrates name day
Mikolaj appears 16 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 10 September.
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.
-
in 145 days2 FebruaryTuesday in 2027
-
in 155 days12 FebruaryFriday in 2027
-
in 157 days14 FebruarySunday in 2027
-
in 159 days16 FebruaryTuesday in 2027
-
in 192 days21 MarchSunday in 2027
-
in 241 days9 MaySunday in 2027
-
in 251 days19 MayWednesday in 2027
-
in 265 days2 JuneWednesday in 2027
-
in 302 days9 JulyFriday in 2027
-
in 19 days29 SeptemberTuesday in 2026
-
in 33 days13 OctoberTuesday in 2026
-
in 64 days13 NovemberFriday in 2026
-
in 65 days14 NovemberSaturday in 2026
-
in 86 days5 DecemberSaturday in 2026
How many people are named Mikolaj
1 in 70683 men in Poland is named Mikolaj. 302 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1738 among male names.
Mikolaj's popularity over time
4 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1108 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2011.
Where Mikolaj is most popular
Mikolaj is most popular in Subcarpathian, 427% above the national average (5 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+395%) and Lesser Poland (+68%).
-
Subcarpathian5 boys born+427%
-
Lublin4 boys born+395%
-
Lesser Poland3 boys born+68%
-
Lower Silesian2 boys born+62%
-
Masovian3 boys born+8%
Mikolaj as a middle name
Mikolaj is a first name for 302 men in Poland and a middle name for another 147, a 67/33 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 581st, between Phillip (148) and Henrik (146).
-
#579 Mert148
-
#580 Phillip148
-
#581 Mikolaj147
-
#582 Henrik146
-
#583 Cezariusz145