Tarek
Hebrew at the root but settled into Arabic, where *tāriq* names the star that rises just before dawn: the morning star. In Poland it stays rare, carried by only a couple hundred men and given to almost no newborns now.
Tarek Pronunciation
Tarek is pronounced TAH-rek (/ˈtarɛk/).
What Tarek means
Where Tarek comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Tarek reaches Polish registers from far away. Its root is Hebrew, yet the name found its home in Arabic, where it settled and took on its character. The short meaning fixed to it is morning star, in Polish gwiazda poranna.
In Arabic the word tāriq names the star that rises just before dawn. The Quran opens its eighty-sixth sura with At-Tariq, rendered as the morning star or the one who comes by night. That single image, a light arriving before the sun, is what a Polish reader meets beside the meaning.
Tarek keeps its shape. It has no diminutive here, no softened Polish ending, no feminine twin. On a Kraków class register it stands among the Jakubs and Kacpers as itself, four letters and a hard middle.
The morning star is the last light to fade. Tarek holds that sense: gwiazda poranna.
How many people are named Tarek
1 in 103622 men in Poland is named Tarek. 206 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2191 among male names.
Tarek's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Tarek as a middle name
Tarek is a first name for 206 men in Poland and a middle name for another 42, an 83/17 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1225th, between Sébastien (42) and Theodorus (42).
-
#1223 Renard42
-
#1224 Sébastien42
-
#1225 Tarek42
-
#1226 Theodorus42
-
#1227 Łazarz42