Marko
Barely given for two decades, it jumped hard in the early 2020s: newborns roughly quadrupled and keep climbing, though it stays rare enough that most Poles have never met one. The name is Latin, tied to Mars, the god of war, so at its root it means warlike.
Marko Pronunciation
Marko is pronounced MAHR-ko (/ˈmarkɔ/).
What Marko means
Where Marko comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Marko traces back to the Latin Marcus, a name bound to Mars, the Roman god of war. The short meaning grows from that line: consecrated to Mars, or plainly warlike. In Polish the more familiar variant is Marek, and Marko stands close beside it, a shade shorter in the mouth.
Marcus was one of the oldest Roman praenomina, carried by the emperor Marcus Aurelius among many others. From that root the name moved across Europe and settled into Slavic speech, where Marko grew common in the south and stayed known in Poland. Its sense points back to Mars.
Read a Polish class register and Marko may sit a line or two from Marek, the two forms nodding across the page. The god of war lends the name its old charge, and the meaning holds: warlike, consecrated to Mars.
How many people are named Marko
1 in 8364 men in Poland is named Marko. 2,552 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #629 among male names.
Marko's popularity over time
57 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #335 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2008.
Where Marko is most popular
Marko is most popular in Opole, 105% above the national average (10 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+90%) and Masovian (+57%). It is least common in Lublin and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 82% and 48% below average respectively.
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Opole10 boys born+105%
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Lubusz10 boys born+90%
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Masovian59 boys born+57%
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Lower Silesian23 boys born+38%
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Lesser Poland28 boys born+16%
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Świętokrzyskie6 boys born+2%
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Pomeranian15 boys born−4%
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Silesian23 boys born−5%
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West Pomeranian8 boys born−11%
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Subcarpathian11 boys born−14%
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Greater Poland19 boys born−17%
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Łódź9 boys born−33%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian6 boys born−48%
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Lublin2 boys born−82%
Marko as a middle name
Marko is a first name for 2,552 men in Poland and a middle name for another 94, a 96/4 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 740th, between Laurent (94) and Meir (94).
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738
95Wenanty
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739
94Laurent
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74094Marko
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741
94Meir
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742
94Miroslaw