Andrzej
Meaning
manly, brave (Polish form of Andrew). Its name day eve, Andrzejki on November 29, is Poland's night of wax-pouring fortune games, the clearest surviving case of the name-day calendar outranking the birthday; in the US he is usually Andrew on paper and Andrzej at the family table.
Name day: Polish imieniny honor Andrzej on November 30.
The story
Andrzej is Andrew in Polish, from the Greek andreios, manly and brave, the name of the apostle who was called first. Poland took the name and built a night around it: Andrzejki, the eve of Saint Andrew's Day, when Poles have for generations poured hot wax through the hole of a key into cold water and read the hardened shapes for fortunes, a divination game that survives at children's parties to this day. The saint's own date, November 30, still stands in Polish imieniny calendars. Polish culture keeps the name in lights, from the filmmaker Andrzej Wajda to a national president, and the diaspora carried it to America, where the spelling has stayed below the top 1000 in every decade, usually trading as Andrew by the second generation. The first apostle's name, a fortune-telling night, and a key: not bad for one Andrzej.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Andrzej has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
26 people · the #104,241 first name in Brazil · median age 62
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Andrzej
Most people given the name Andrzej in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Andrzej you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Andrzej deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Andrzej truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Andrzej fits with your family’s names and surname.
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