Ziv
A Hebrew name meaning "radiance, brightness". Fewer than 150 people in Poland carry it, and it lands on boys and girls alike, so most Poles have never met one.
Ziv Pronunciation
What Ziv means
Where Ziv comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ziv comes from the Hebrew זִיו, which means radiance or brightness. The word appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name of a month. In 1 Kings 6:1, Ziv is the second month of the year, the month when Solomon began to build the Temple in Jerusalem. It falls in spring, when the light lengthens and the first blossom opens. The name reaches back to a calendar older than the one most Poles use today.
Ziv belongs to the Jewish naming tradition, and it stays close to its root. There are no diminutives, no softened forms. The name is short. In modern Hebrew it is given to boys and girls alike, and it still means what it always meant: brightness.
A Polish teacher reading a class register might pause at Ziv before the more familiar names. The spelling gives nothing away, and there is no name-day to mark it in the Polish calendar. What the name offers is its plain meaning, blask and jasność, the light of a spring month named in an ancient book.
How many people are named Ziv
1 in 182446 men in Poland is named Ziv. 145 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2707 among male names.
Ziv's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Ziv as a middle name
Ziv is a first name for 145 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13, a 92/8 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2720th, between Zalman (13) and Zvikomborero (13).