Zbyszek
The everyday short form of Zbigniew, built on a Slavic root that means "to dispel anger". Just over 700 men in Poland carry it and hardly a boy gets it now, so most Poles have never met one.
Zbyszek Pronunciation
Zbyszek is pronounced ZBIH-shek (/ˈzbɨʂɛk/).
What Zbyszek means
Where Zbyszek comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Zbyszek grows out of Zbigniew, an old Slavic name built from two pieces: zby, to dispel or get rid of, and gniew, anger. The meaning reads almost as an instruction, to dispel anger. Where the full form Zbigniew sounds formal, Zbyszek is the warm everyday version, and Zbych trims it shorter still.
Readers of Sienkiewicz know the variant Zbyszko. Zbyszko of Bogdaniec is the young knight at the centre of Krzyżacy, the 1900 novel about the wars against the Teutonic Order. Through him the form reached classrooms and reading lists across Poland.
A boy named Zbyszek will hear all of these across a lifetime. On a class register he is Zbigniew. To his friends he is Zbyszek, and at home maybe Zbych. The name promises to pozbyć się gniewu, to let anger go.
How many people are named Zbyszek
1 in 29484 men in Poland is named Zbyszek. 724 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1094 among male names.
Zbyszek's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Zbyszek as a middle name
Zbyszek is a first name for 724 men in Poland and a middle name for another 399, a 64/36 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 352nd, between Eric (400) and Markus (396).
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#350 Aaron404
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#351 Eric400
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#352 Zbyszek399
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#353 Markus396
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#354 Kurt393