Sviatoslav
Near zero for most of two decades, it jumped in the early 2020s and keeps climbing, carried mostly by Ukrainian families in Poland. A Slavic name at root, from words for "holy glory", though it stays rare enough that most Poles have never met one.
Sviatoslav Pronunciation
What Sviatoslav means
Where Sviatoslav comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Sviatoslav grows from two old Slavic roots. Svet means holy or sacred, and slava means glory, so the name reads as "holy glory," or in Polish święta sława. Poland kept its own form, Świętosław, cut from the same cloth. The slava root turns up in other Slavic names too, in Mirosław and Stanisław.
The name belongs strongly to Ukraine. Sviatoslav I, prince of Kyiv, campaigned across the steppe and down to the Danube before he died around 972, and Ukrainian families still pass the name to their children. So the holy glory was never abstract. It sat on a warrior first.
Say it in a Polish class and the teacher finds Świętosław on the register instead. The meaning holds either way. Whether Sviatoslav or Świętosław, it still says święta sława, holy glory.
How many people are named Sviatoslav
1 in 4738 men in Poland is named Sviatoslav. 4,508 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #510 among male names.
Sviatoslav's popularity over time
40 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #392 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2012.
Where Sviatoslav is most popular
Sviatoslav is most popular in West Pomeranian, 74% above the national average (8 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+65%) and Lower Silesian (+63%). It is least common in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian, 67% and 25% below average respectively.
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West Pomeranian8 boys born+74%
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Masovian32 boys born+65%
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Lower Silesian14 boys born+63%
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Greater Poland17 boys born+45%
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Łódź10 boys born+45%
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Silesian18 boys born+45%
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Lesser Poland11 boys born−11%
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Pomeranian6 boys born−25%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian2 boys born−67%
Sviatoslav as a middle name
Sviatoslav is a first name for 4,508 men in Poland and a middle name for another 18, a 100/0 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2170th, between Sunday (18) and Tarsycjusz (18).
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#2168 Shyam18
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#2169 Sunday18
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#2170 Sviatoslav18
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#2171 Tarsycjusz18
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#2172 Teja18