Valerian
A Latin name meaning "strong, healthy". Only about 150 men in Poland carry it, so most people here have never met one.
Valerian Pronunciation
What Valerian means
Where Valerian comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Valerian grows from Latin. The root is the verb "valere," to be strong and to be in good health, the same root behind English "valid" and "valour." A Roman family carried the name Valerius, and from it came Valerianus. One bearer wore the purple: the emperor Valerian, who ruled Rome in the third century. The name reached the far edge of the ancient world with power attached to it.
In Polish it settled as Walerian, with the shorter Walery beside it. The feminine form is Waleria. All three keep the Latin promise of strength and health.
The meaning stays close to the origin here. "Silny, zdrowy," strong and healthy, is not a later gloss stitched on afterward. It is what "valere" said in the first place. A child named Walery on a class register carries a word about vigour, not about virtue or fashion.
Short and old. Walery, Walerian, Waleria: three doors into one Latin verb.
How many people are named Valerian
1 in 144231 men in Poland is named Valerian. 148 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2669 among male names.
Valerian as a middle name
Valerian is a first name for 148 men in Poland and a middle name for another 3, a 98/2 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 6970th, between Valentim (3) and Vance (3).
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#6968 Uzzal3
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#6969 Valentim3
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#6970 Valerian3
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#6971 Vance3
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#6972 Veit3