Szymon
A Hebrew name meaning "god has heard". Still a top-50 boy's name and one most Poles will recognize, though it's given to fewer boys each year now, well down from its peak in the 2010s.
Szymon Pronunciation
Szymon is pronounced SHIH-mon (/ˈʂɨmɔn/).
What Szymon means
Where Szymon comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Szymon comes from the Hebrew Shim'on, a name built on the verb for hearing. The old sense it carried was "God has heard," in Polish bóg wysłuchał. A child called this was, in the grammar of the name, an answer to a prayer already spoken.
The name moved through Greek as Symeon before it settled into Polish as Szymon. Its feminine form is Simona. Poland has real bearers to point to: Szymon Szymonowic, the poet born in Lwów in 1558, wrote Latin verse admired across Renaissance Europe and Polish sielanki still read in schools today.
On the twenty-eighth of October the name has its imieniny, shared with the apostle Simon. A teacher reading the register finds a Szymon or two in most classes. The name stays common. What the boy carries, whether he thinks of it or not, is that first Hebrew claim: God has heard.
When Szymon celebrates name day
Szymon appears 13 times in the Polish name day calendar, 6 of them as a main name, the first on 5 January.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Szymon
1 in 88 men in Poland is named Szymon. 242,985 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #47 among male names.
Szymon's popularity over time
2,145 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #35 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Where parents choose Szymon
Szymon is most popular in Subcarpathian, 39% above the national average (2,356 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+30%) and Podlaskie (+18%). It is least common in Greater Poland and Pomeranian, 23% and 21% below average respectively.
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Subcarpathian
+39%1 in 51 babies
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Lublin
+30%1 in 55 babies
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Podlaskie
+18%1 in 60 babies
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Greater Poland
−23%1 in 93 babies
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Pomeranian
−21%1 in 90 babies
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West Pomeranian
−13%1 in 81 babies
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Subcarpathian+39% 2,356 born1 in 51 babies+39%
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Lublin+30% 1,880 born1 in 55 babies+30%
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Podlaskie+18% 1,095 born1 in 60 babies+18%
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Lesser Poland+11% 3,531 born1 in 64 babies+11%
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Holy Cross+6% 824 born1 in 67 babies+6%
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Opole+4% 675 born1 in 68 babies+4%
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Warmian-Masurian+4% 1,052 born1 in 68 babies+4%
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Łódź+3% 1,841 born1 in 69 babies+3%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+2% 1,568 born1 in 70 babies+2%
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Silesian±0% 3,195 born1 in 71 babies±0%
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Lubusz−3% 676 born1 in 73 babies−3%
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Masovian−6% 4,682 born1 in 76 babies−6%
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Lower Silesian−8% 2,035 born1 in 77 babies−8%
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West Pomeranian−13% 1,039 born1 in 81 babies−13%
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Pomeranian−21% 1,645 born1 in 90 babies−21%
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Greater Poland−23% 2,325 born1 in 93 babies−23%
Szymon as a middle name
Szymon is a first name for 242,985 men in Poland and a middle name for another 62,434, an 80/20 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 46th, between Daniel (62,511) and Mieczysław (62,417).
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#44 Dawid65,167
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#45 Daniel62,511
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#46 Szymon62,434
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#47 Mieczysław62,417
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#48 Sławomir60,990