Świętopełk
Just two Polish men carry it, and no boy has been given it in any year since 2000. Slavic at root, it joins "holy" to "host": a sacred army.
Świętopełk Pronunciation
Świętopełk is pronounced shfyen-TO-pewk (/ɕfjɛ̃ˈtɔpɛwk/).
What Świętopełk means
Where Świętopełk comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Świętopełk comes from two old Slavic roots. The first, święty, meant strong or holy. The second, pełk, meant a host or a fighting band, the same word that became the modern Polish pułk, a regiment. Put together they give the sense of a holy host, a sacred army.
That second root travelled far. The Slavic *pъlkъ is a cousin of the English word folk and the German Volk, all going back to an old idea of a gathered people under arms. A boy called Świętopełk held a name built for a leader.
History handed the name to real rulers. Świętopełk the Great ruled Pomerania in the thirteenth century and governed Gdańsk until his death in 1266. Earlier, a Świętopełk reigned over Great Moravia. The variant Światopełk shows up in the records too, with the middle vowel shifted.
Today the name is rare. Look through a Polish school register and you will not find it often. When it does appear, it brings the old meaning along: święty pułk, the holy host.
How many people are named Świętopełk
1 in 10673094 men in Poland is named Świętopełk. 2 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #65883 among male names.
Świętopełk as a middle name
Świętopełk is a first name for 2 men in Poland and a middle name for another 11, a 15/85 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 3039th, between Árpád (11) and Aimé (10).
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#3037 Zeki11
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#3038 Árpád11
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#3039 Świętopełk11
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#3040 Aimé10
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#3041 Ajaykumar10