Kuba
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Meaning
form of Jakub (Jacob, traditionally 'holder of the heel'); one of Poland's most-heard everyday names, fully standalone
The story
Kuba is what Poland actually calls its Jakubs, and the paperwork has caught up with the habit. In the government's registry of names given to boys born in 2024, Jakub sits eighth with 3,938; fifty places down the same list stands Kuba itself, the registered first name of 494 boys. The diminutive walked into the office and signed its own forms. Polish football's beloved example is Jakub Błaszczykowski, who played with "Kuba" on his shirt until 2012, the formal name on the contract and the household one on his back. American records carry a small but real echo: 6 boys in the 1990s, 73 in the 2000s, 34 in the 2010s. Two syllables, ends in a vowel, no pronunciation briefing required at either grandmother's table. Poland runs on diminutives the way other countries run on coffee, and this one has been promoted to the front of the passport.
The formal names behind Kuba
Kuba is an established short form of this name.
Jakub · Polish origin · supplanter (Polish form of Jacob/James)
How popular is Kuba around the world?
In the United States, 6 babies were named Kuba between 2020 and 2025. In Poland, 385 boys named Kuba were born in 2025, the 65th most common name among boys that year.
Kuba is on the official records of the United States, Poland, England and Wales and Austria.
United States
1 in 3.6M
In the United States, 6 babies were named Kuba between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Kuba has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Poland
1 in 640
In Poland, 385 boys named Kuba were born in 2025, the 65th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First names given to children born in Poland by year of birth, 2000–2025, from the PESEL population register (Ministry of Digital Affairs); exact spellings count separately (Łukasz and Lukasz are different names), names given fewer than 5 times in a year were left off the list through 2012 and fewer than 2 times from 2013, and the register also counts children born abroad, so its yearly sums run above Poland’s live births. Shares divide by the register’s own published total for the year, never by births. Source: Ministry of Digital Affairs, PESEL register (dane.gov.pl)
England and Wales
1 in 42,000
In England and Wales, 14 boys named Kuba were born in 2025, ranked 1,798th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Austria
1 in 76,000
In Austria, 1 boy named Kuba was born in 2025, ranked 1,842nd among boys that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Ireland
last on record 2021
Kuba is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
share of that year’s name registrations
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Scotland
last on record 2022
Kuba is not on the 2024 record for Scotland, where spellings under 3 in total are suppressed at source.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Canada and New Zealand: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
The Kuba deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Kuba 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 Kuba fits with your family’s names and surname.
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