Yaacov
Just 36 men in Poland carry it, so most Poles will never meet one. It's a Hebrew form of Jacob, from a root meaning "holder of the heel".
Yaacov Pronunciation
What Yaacov means
Where Yaacov comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Yaacov is a transliteration of the Hebrew Ya'aqov, the name carried by the patriarch Jacob. In Genesis he is born gripping the heel of his twin Esau, and the name draws on the Hebrew word ekev, heel. The short meaning follows directly: supplanter, holder of the heel, in Polish trzymający za piętę.
The grip is only the start. Later in Genesis, Jacob takes his brother's birthright and blessing, and the sense of one who stands in another's place settles onto the name. "Supplanter" reads as biography before it reads as etymology.
Yaacov stays close to its Hebrew source. Its cultural association is firmly Jewish, and this spelling carries no Polish diminutive or cross-gender variant. A child entered as Yaacov in a school register shows that origin plainly.
The meaning stays literal. A heel held at birth.
How many people are named Yaacov
1 in 592950 men in Poland is named Yaacov. 36 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6664 among male names.
Yaacov as a middle name
Yaacov is a first name for 36 men in Poland and a middle name for another 21, a 63/37 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1956th, between Xuan (21) and Yang (21).
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#1954 Wenecjusz21
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#1955 Xuan21
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#1956 Yaacov21
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#1957 Yang21
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#1958 Çağri21