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Most days in the Polish calendar celebrate 2–5 names; the most important one is listed first.
Imieniny on that date
Poles use the singular form: "Today is Maria's name day" — dziś są imieniny Marii.
Celebrating
7 October (Wednesday)
Wish: "Wszystkiego najlepszego, Marku! / Mario!" ("All the best, Marek / Maria!")
Most common on this date. Marek and Maria both dominate — same day in 2026.
Total names that day
3
How celebrated
SMS, phone call, Facebook post, small gift.
How to read the result
Polish imieniny work on a fixed Gregorian calendar (not lunar, not Orthodox). They were once tied to the Catholic Martyrologium Romanum and the Polish saints list. Today it's a hybrid of the saints calendar and folk tradition.
Multiple names per day
Most days have 2–5 names. The first one listed is usually the most popular (e.g. January 1 starts with Maria). The least-known names at the bottom of a day are usually older variants — Marek and Maria are common, Marcjanna rare. If your friend is "Marcjanna" you celebrate, but most people don't even know her name day exists.
Gender icons
Blue tag = masculine name (Mars icon). Pink = feminine (Venus). Some names (e.g. Maria, Kuba) are gendered nouns that look like one sex and mean another; we tag by lexical gender. When celebrating, use the right form of address: "Wszystkiego najlepszego, Marku!" — vocative masculine form.
The vocative case
Polish doesn't say "Mark" — it says "Marku" (vocative). Don't conjugate in your head from the nominative form; for female names: "Mario" (vocative of Maria), "Kasiu" (vocative of Kasia), "Anno" (vocative of Anna). The right vocative form signals Polish fluency more than anything else.
What's not celebrated
A name not on the Polish imieniny calendar doesn't get celebrated. Foreign names (Kevin, John, Brandon) have no assigned date. Foreigners with a Polish-ized name (e.g. "Arek" from Alex) sometimes use the Polish equivalent's day.
How Poles use it at the office
The morning round — someone brings doughnuts (pączki if there's a budget) and the team says "Sto lat!" (literally "hundred years", but a birthday-style song). It's ritual, not optional, in most Polish offices. Missing the date is a quiet social fail.
Cards and SMS
A typical imieniny SMS reads: "Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji imienin, Marku! Sto lat!" — "All the best on your name day, Marek! A hundred years!" Cards are rare, but Facebook posts are normal; Poles post name-day wishes on their friends' walls by date.
Limitations of this calculator
FAQ
What do I write in a name-day SMS?
"Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji imienin, [vocative name]! Sto lat!" is the standard. For close friends, "Najlepszego, [vocative], dużo zdrowia i szczęścia!" ("All the best, health and happiness!") is fine. Length doesn't matter — even a single "Sto lat, Mario!" with a flower emoji counts.
Is a gift expected?
For close family — yes, a small gift (a book, a bottle of wine, a candle, a card). For office colleagues — no, doughnuts and the song are enough. For an in-law you're visiting for the first time, bring a small token (see the Host Gift Etiquette tool). For a Facebook friend, a post is sufficient.
What if my name isn't in the calendar?
Foreign names (John, David, Maria's Polish equivalents) may not have an assigned date. Foreigners typically either: a) adopt the Polish equivalent's day ("John" → Jan on Jan 31), b) pick a phonetic match, or c) skip it entirely. There's no universal rule — Polish hosts usually choose for you.
Why is the calendar 3 years bigger than birthdays?
Poles celebrate name days more than birthdays partly because the calendar is fixed — no one forgets. Birthdays move, imieniny don't. Also the Catholic tradition treats every day as someone's day — celebrating "your" saint is a daily national ritual. Roughly 90% of Poles give name days priority over birthdays in adulthood.
Related tools
Sources
- Rada Języka Polskiego — Polish name-day calendar (imieniny) — rjp.pan.pl
- Calendar: kalendarzswiat.pl/imieniny