Świętosław
Only about 30 Polish men carry it, and no boy has been given it this century: most Poles will never meet one. The Slavic roots mean "holy glory."
Świętosław Pronunciation
Świętosław is pronounced shfyen-TOS-wahf (/ɕfjɛ̃ˈtɔswaf/).
What Świętosław means
Where Świętosław comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Świętosław is a Slavic compound name. It joins "święty" (holy) and "sława" (glory), which gives the short meaning holy glory. The first root carries an older sense too. In Proto-Slavic, svętъ meant strong or thriving, and the Christian reading of "holy" settled onto it only later.
The name has East Slavic kin. The Kyivan ruler Sviatoslav I, who died in 972, was built from the same two roots. In Poland the spelling stayed its own, though a variant, Światosław, softens the middle differently. The feminine form is Światosława.
On a school class register, Świętosław stands out among the Jakubs and Wojciechs. It reads old. The name-day custom still marks it, and the clerk at the urząd still writes it in full. The two roots keep their shape: święta sława, holy glory.
How many people are named Świętosław
1 in 711540 men in Poland is named Świętosław. 30 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #7592 among male names.
Świętosław as a middle name
Świętosław is a first name for 30 men in Poland and a middle name for another 40, a 43/57 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1263rd, between Uchenna (40) and Żelisław (40).
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#1261 Thor40
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#1262 Uchenna40
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#1263 Świętosław40
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#1264 Żelisław40
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#1265 Adriano39