Tadeusz
A comeback name: barely given at the turn of the century, now handed to over a thousand boys a year and climbing back into the top 100. Its Slavic root points, uncertainly, to "courageous heart".
Tadeusz Pronunciation
Tadeusz is pronounced tah-DE-oosh (/taˈdɛuʂ/).
What Tadeusz means
Where Tadeusz comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Tadeusz comes from Slavic ground. The meaning Poles often give it, courageous heart, in Polish odważne serce, was fastened to the name later, and even that reading stays uncertain. Origin is one thing, and the story people tell over it is another.
Adam Mickiewicz put the name at the front of Polish literature in 1834, when he titled his great poem Pan Tadeusz. Since then it has kept a national ring for readers. In daily speech it softens to Tadek.
On 28 October the name has its imieniny, marked in Polish calendars beside the feast of Saint Jude Thaddeus. A boy called Tadeusz meets the fuller form Tadeusza when the grammar bends it, and Tadek almost everywhere else. The meaning stays mężny, brave.
When Tadeusz celebrates name day
Tadeusz appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 28 October.
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 Tadeusz
1 in 111 men in Poland is named Tadeusz. 192,239 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #69 among male names.
Tadeusz's popularity over time
1,050 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #67 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2003.
Where Tadeusz is most popular
Tadeusz is most popular in Masovian, 66% above the national average (1,756 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+18%) and Pomeranian (+9%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Świętokrzyskie, 45% and 44% below average respectively.
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Masovian1,756 boys born+66%
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Greater Poland758 boys born+18%
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Pomeranian476 boys born+9%
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Lower Silesian496 boys born+6%
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Lesser Poland696 boys born+3%
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Łódź382 boys born+1%
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West Pomeranian207 boys born−18%
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Opole108 boys born−21%
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Silesian527 boys born−22%
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Lubusz101 boys born−32%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian213 boys born−35%
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Warmian-Masurian135 boys born−37%
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Lublin176 boys born−42%
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Podlaskie114 boys born−42%
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Świętokrzyskie92 boys born−44%
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Subcarpathian197 boys born−45%
Tadeusz as a middle name
Tadeusz is a first name for 192,239 men in Poland and a middle name for another 165,202, a 54/46 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 18th, between Kazimierz (165,333) and Antoni (150,754).
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#16 Łukasz174,086
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#17 Kazimierz165,333
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#18 Tadeusz165,202
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#19 Antoni150,754
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#20 Franciszek145,791