OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Polish Name Generator
Modern and Classic Polish Given Names and -ski or -ska Surnames
OneTask is free, with no sign-up, and built by one person.
If this tool saved you time, a coffee helps keep new ones coming.
How the Polish Name Generator works
This Polish name generator makes Polish names with the surnames in the right form for the bearer, Kowalski for a man and Kowalska for a woman, and the given names in Polish spelling, Zuzanna, Jakub, Katarzyna, Krzysztof. Modern gives the names of today's children; Classic gives the names of their parents and grandparents. Choose female, male or either and generate up to a hundred.
How the Polish name generator works
A Polish name is a given name and a surname, with no patronymic and usually no middle name, though the older generation often carried two given names at baptism. The rule that outsiders most often break is the gendered surname. Surnames ending in -ski, -cki and -dzki are adjectives and agree with the bearer: Kowalski's wife and daughter are Kowalska, Zieliński's are Zielińska, Dąbrowski's are Dąbrowska. About a third of Poles carry such a surname, and they were originally the names of the gentry, taken from the estate, Ostrowski of Ostrów, Sokołowski of Sokołów, before the peasantry adopted them in the nineteenth century. The other two-thirds are nouns and do not change: Nowak the newcomer, the commonest Polish surname; Wójcik the little headman; Kowalczyk and Kowal the smith; Mazur from Masovia; Krawczyk the tailor; and the animals, Zając the hare, Lis the fox, Wilk the wolf, Baran the ram. The generator keeps the two types in separate lists and inflects only the adjectival ones.
Given names divide sharply by generation. The classic stock, given from the 1940s to the 1980s, is Catholic and Slavic: Katarzyna, Agnieszka, Małgorzata, Krystyna, Elżbieta, Jadwiga, Bożena, Grażyna for women, Krzysztof, Andrzej, Zbigniew, Tadeusz, Kazimierz, Wiesław, Mieczysław, Władysław for men. Since 2000 Polish parents have turned to short names, many of them old and many international: Zuzanna, Zofia, Julia, Hanna, Maja, Lena, Pola, Jakub, Antoni, Jan, Aleksander, Franciszek, Szymon, Leon, along with a revival of the Old Polish Wojciech, Stanisław and Mikołaj. Polish law until recently required names from an approved list, so unusual names are rare.
Spelling is part of the name. Ł, ś, ń, ą, ę, ź and ż are letters in their own right, and Malgorzata, Kaminski or Wojcik without them are misspellings. Every name here is given with its diacritics. Diminutives are universal in speech, Kasia for Katarzyna, Gosia for Małgorzata, Kuba for Jakub, Krzysiek for Krzysztof, and belong in dialogue rather than in this list.
For the neighbours, the Czech page for the nearest system, with its -ová feminine endings, and the Ukrainian page for the shared eastern stock.
FAQ
Why does the surname end in -ska for women?
Because -ski surnames are adjectives and Polish adjectives agree in gender. Jan Kowalski's wife is Anna Kowalska, and their family together are the Kowalscy. Surnames that are nouns, Nowak, Wójcik, Zając, are the same for everyone.
Are the diacritics necessary?
Yes. Ł, ś, ń, ą, ę and ż are distinct letters and change pronunciation, and a Polish reader sees Kaminski or Malgorzata as foreign misspellings. Only drop them for a character who is a second-generation emigrant whose family has simplified the name.
What is the commonest Polish surname?
Nowak, followed by Kowalski, Wiśniewski, Wójcik, Kowalczyk, Kamiński, Lewandowski, Zieliński, Szymański and Woźniak. Nowak, meaning newcomer, is carried by about two hundred thousand people, and the top ten together cover around three per cent of Poland.
Which style suits a modern character?
Modern for anyone born after about 1995, Classic for their parents and grandparents. A Polish office in 2026 has both, so Any gives a realistic mix.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. They are combinations of ordinary names and cannot be owned. Nowak and Kowalski are carried by hundreds of thousands, so a common combination will coincide with real people; a name that will be attached to something public deserves a quick search.
See also: all Culture & Language tools, People, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Online & Social, Business & Brand, Places & Things.
Related tools
1920s Name Generator
Jazz Age names, from Chester Vanderbeck III to Millie Kowalski the flapper.
1940s Name Generator
Popular girls' and boys' names from the 1940s, US and UK.
1950s Name Generator
Post-war names from Linda Sue Patterson to Gary Kowalczyk and Brenda Whitfield.
1960s Name Generator
Popular girls' and boys' names from the Swinging Sixties.
1980s Name Generator
Eighties names from Jennifer Nicole Thompson to Jason Nguyen and Gemma Louise Hopkins.