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.
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 Szymon is most popular
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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Subcarpathian2,356 boys born+39%
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Lublin1,880 boys born+30%
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Podlaskie1,095 boys born+18%
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Lesser Poland3,531 boys born+11%
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Świętokrzyskie824 boys born+6%
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Opole675 boys born+4%
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Warmian-Masurian1,052 boys born+4%
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Łódź1,841 boys born+3%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian1,568 boys born+2%
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Silesian3,195 boys born0%
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Lubusz676 boys born−3%
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Masovian4,682 boys born−6%
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Lower Silesian2,035 boys born−8%
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West Pomeranian1,039 boys born−13%
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Pomeranian1,645 boys born−21%
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Greater Poland2,325 boys born−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
65,167Dawid
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45
62,511Daniel
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4662,434Szymon
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47
62,417Mieczysław
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48
60,990Sławomir
When Szymon celebrates name day
Szymon appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 5 January.