English translation

Hello, yesterday my friend from the United States sent me a roll on Instagram which talks about Polish female names. This video was quite 'viral’, it had a lot of comments, so maybe you have seen it too. I thought I’d spontaneously record this video to tell you a little about (how is it with) Polish names.

Don’t forget to turn on subtitles and download the extended, full transcript which can be found on the channel’s website: PolishWithRadek.com. You will also find there a free e-book on how to learn foreign languages ​​effectively. Now let’s take a closer look at Polish names.

This video (that video, not mine) discussed the fact that Polish female names almost always end with the letter A. This is the case ~99 percent of the time. While Polish male names almost never end with the letter A, but with some consonant. This is an interesting example. As Poles, we are so used to this, for us it is so obvious that we don’t even realize that it could be different, that it doesn’t work that way in other countries. So when my friend sent me this video, I thought: „Yeah, what’s so special about that?” But when I think of Spanish, English, Italian names, they are indeed not subject to this rule.

While thinking about this, I thought of (such) three (four) examples which can tell you something more about it. In Poland we often say that the exception proves the rule. This means that the existence of some exceptions does not indicate that a given rule „automatically” becomes incorrect. This is the case when it comes to (the) rule regarding Polish names. Let me introduce you to four (such) exceptions to (actually) show that in this case too, these exceptions prove the rule… which is that women’s (female) names in Polish end with the letter A.

My (first) name is Radosław, while my middle name is Maria, and this is the only female name that can be given to a man. This is partly related to Christian tradition. Mary was the mother of Jesus, and that’s why in Poland, in a country that has been Christian for over 1,000 years, this name comes across, similarly to Latin American countries or Spain/Portugal, where it also works like that. There you will find the name María. In Polish we say (it) without accent: „Maria”. So my two names are Radosław Maria.

The second example is an example from literature. One of the most popular novels in Poland is „In Desert and Wilderness”. It was written by a Polish Nobel Prize winner, Henryk Sienkiewicz. And it was, and still is, one of the main readings in primary school that children read. And there, in this book, in this novel, there are two main characters. One of them is Staś, a boy, and the second one is Nel, a girl. So Nel is also a good example here, because it is a female name which is suitable for girls that does not end with the letter A, just like ~99% of female names in Poland.

Third example: the name of a football player who plays for the Polish national team, Nicola Zalewski. Nicola Zalewski has Polish parents, but he was born in Italy. Therefore, in Italy it was possible to give (him) a name that ends with A, and it is a male name (and it is not Maria), i.e. Nicola (spelled with C). If Nicola Zalewski had been born in Poland, then he couldn’t have had that name, because Nikola spelled with K, is a female name in Poland. The male equivalent of the name Nikola is Mikołaj. Mikołaj is (actually) the Polish equivalent of the Latin word Nicolaus. Like Nicolaus Copernicus, for example, that’s Mikołaj Kopernik in Polish.

One more exception, the fourth, is the diminutive form of Kuba Błaszczykowski’s name, the (former) Borussia footballer. The full name is Jakub, (and it) ends with the consonant B. The diminutive form of this name is Kuba. Sometimes, when playing for Borussia, you could read „Kuba” on his shirt. Kuba is a diminutive of the full name, Jakub. So we have this A at the end, which is typical for female names, and in this case it is a diminutive of a male name.

You may wonder why this is so, why this rule is so strong. I have no idea myself, but I have a theory. There are no articles in the Polish language. Therefore, while in Spanish or Italian or German, we know whether a given thing is masculine, feminine, or neuter, because it has the article: el / la, il / la, or der / die / das, we don’t have this information in Polish. Therefore, this information is often present elsewhere, in this case in the form of an element, or a morpheme, that is added at the end of a word. And it’s usually the case that not only names, but also (regular) nouns end with the vowel A in Polish [if they are feminine], such as a friend, a teacher [masculine and feminine forms provided].

And that would be it for this video. An interesting rule regarding the Polish language. Also write in a comment: do you know any Poles? [m/ f], do their names actually fall under these rules, does this explanation convince you, or maybe you have another theory regarding why Polish female names end with the letter A. Thanks and see you in the next video.