Roch
A Latin name meaning "rook" or "crow", the black birds. It stays rare in Poland: fewer than 1,400 men carry it, so most Poles have never met one, and the handful of newborns each year keeps shrinking.
Roch Pronunciation
Roch is pronounced ROKH (/rɔx/).
What Roch means
Where Roch comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Roch is a blunt little name with Latin roots. In Polish name books its short meaning lands on a bird, the rook, called kruk or wrona. The rook is a smart, black corvid that gathers in stubble fields after harvest, and that plain image is what the name hands you.
Roch keeps no softer forms. There is no diminutive to hide behind, no feminine twin, no variant to trade for on a bad day. A boy written down as Roch stays Roch on the class register and Roch on the form at the urząd, one syllable from start to finish.
The name has a fixed spot on the Polish calendar, since imieniny for Roch fall on 16 August. You hear it rarely now, more among grandfathers than in a preschool line. Still it holds that August date, and under it sits the same field bird: rook, crow, kruk.
When Roch celebrates name day
Roch appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 16 August.
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.
How many people are named Roch
1 in 15435 men in Poland is named Roch. 1,383 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #831 among male names.
Roch's popularity over time
23 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #490 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where Roch is most popular
Roch is most popular in Lower Silesian, 97% above the national average (31 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+64%) and Lesser Poland (+37%). It is least common in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and West Pomeranian, 54% and 53% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian31 boys born+97%
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Masovian58 boys born+64%
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Lesser Poland31 boys born+37%
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Łódź14 boys born+11%
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Silesian25 boys born+10%
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Opole5 boys born+9%
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Pomeranian15 boys born+2%
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Greater Poland22 boys born+2%
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Subcarpathian6 boys born−50%
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West Pomeranian4 boys born−53%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian5 boys born−54%
Roch as a middle name
Roch is a first name for 1,383 men in Poland and a middle name for another 3,178, a 30/70 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 149th, between Gracjan (3,179) and John (3,086).
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#147 Leopold3,219
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#148 Gracjan3,179
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#149 Roch3,178
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#150 John3,086
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#151 Marceli3,037