Wieczysław
Barely 77 Polish men carry it, and no boy has been given it since 2000. A Slavic name meaning "eternal glory," now worn by a group most Poles will never meet.
Wieczysław Pronunciation
Wieczysław is pronounced vye-CHIHS-wahf (/vjɛˈt͡ʂɨswaf/).
What Wieczysław means
Where Wieczysław comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Wieczysław breaks into two Slavic pieces. The first comes from the old adjective for eternal or perpetual, the root behind Polish "wieczysty." The second is "-sław," the element for glory, shared with Wacław, Mirosław and Bronisław. Read together they give "eternal glory," in Polish "wiecznie sławny."
The name is rare. Its promise is large: a fame meant to hold across generations rather than flare once and go dark. The "-sław" names sit among the oldest layers of Slavic naming, and this one pushes the idea to its limit with "eternal."
There is a feminine counterpart, Wieczysława, built from the same two roots. On a class register the full form would run long, four syllables before the surname. A teacher reading the list aloud gives the whole word its due. The parts stay legible even now: wieczysty for what lasts, sław for glory, and the pair standing whole in Wieczysława.
How many people are named Wieczysław
1 in 277223 men in Poland is named Wieczysław. 77 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4082 among male names.
Wieczysław as a middle name
Wieczysław is a first name for 77 men in Poland and a middle name for another 18, an 81/19 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2180th, between Wei (18) and Willibald (18).
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#2178 Vu18
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#2179 Wei18
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#2180 Wieczysław18
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#2181 Willibald18
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#2182 Yanis18