Modest
From the Latin Modestus, "moderate, restrained". Barely over 200 men in Poland carry it, so most people here have never met one, though a few boys still get it each year.
Modest Pronunciation
Modest is pronounced MO-dest (/ˈmɔdɛst/).
What Modest means
Where Modest comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Modest comes from the Latin modestus, meaning moderate or restrained. The same family holds modus, a measure or limit, and gives the English modest and moderation. To be named Modest is to carry a word about proportion.
The meaning is plain. Latin joined the sense of restraint to a person, and the name kept it. The Polish reading, skromny and umiarkowany, sits close to the Roman one, with little drift between them.
The best known bearer is Modest Mussorgsky, the Russian composer who wrote "Pictures at an Exhibition" and died in 1881. His first name traveled the same Latin road, though his music rarely held itself back.
On a Polish class register the name stands out now, rare among the Piotrs and Jakubs. A teacher reading it aloud at an imieniny might pause on the second syllable. The word underneath stays fixed: moderate, restrained.
When Modest celebrates name day
Modest appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 5 February.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
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in 148 days5 FebruaryFriday in 2027
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in 155 days12 FebruaryFriday in 2027
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in 157 days14 FebruarySunday in 2027
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in 167 days24 FebruaryWednesday in 2027
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in 168 days25 FebruaryThursday in 2027
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in 217 days15 AprilThursday in 2027
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in 313 days20 JulyTuesday in 2027
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in 98 days17 DecemberThursday in 2026
How many people are named Modest
1 in 98370 men in Poland is named Modest. 217 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2121 among male names.
Modest's popularity over time
2 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1736 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Modest as a middle name
Modest is a first name for 217 men in Poland and a middle name for another 265, a 45/55 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 436th, between Emre (267) and Dobrosław (260).
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#434 Scott268
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#435 Emre267
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#436 Modest265
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#437 Dobrosław260
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#438 Jürgen259