11,883 people were registered with the surname KOWALEWSKI (male) in the PESEL register on 20 January 2026.
Surname KOWALEWSKI
People with the surname KOWALEWSKI in the PESEL register on 20 January 2026: 11,883 men and 101 women. Most registered in: MAZOWIECKIE.
6 verified statements
male
11,883people in the PESEL register · 20 January 2026
about 1 in 1,784
Most registered in: MAZOWIECKIE (17.8%, 20 January 2026)
female
101people in the PESEL register · 20 January 2026
about 1 in 213,468
Each 1-in-X is computed within its own dataset. The datasets are different sizes, so these two figures are not compared with each other.
01
How many people have this surname?
The PESEL register publishes two separate surname lists, male and female. We show each figure on its own and never add them up.
male
female
101 people were registered with the surname KOWALEWSKI (female) in the PESEL register on 20 January 2026.
The male and female datasets are separate and are never summed.
02
How rare is this surname?
“1 in X” means that roughly one in every X people on this list has this surname. The bigger X, the rarer the name. The rank counts from the most common surname on the list.
male
about 1 in 1,784
1001k10k100k1M10M
← more commonrarer →
#109 rank on the surname list
About 1 in 1,784 people counted in the PESEL register (male) bore the surname KOWALEWSKI on 20 January 2026.
KOWALEWSKI (male) ranked 109 among the surnames in this dataset.
- #107MUCHA11,945
- #108ANDRZEJEWSKI11,889
- #109KOWALEWSKI this surname11,883
- #110CZERWIŃSKI11,849
- #111WESOŁOWSKI11,773
female
about 1 in 213,468
1001k10k100k1M10M
← more commonrarer →
#29,627 rank on the surname list
About 1 in 213,468 people counted in the PESEL register (female) bore the surname KOWALEWSKI on 20 January 2026.
KOWALEWSKI (female) ranked 29,627 among the surnames in this dataset.
- #29,389ŻURYŃSKA102
- #29,389ŻYWANOWSKA102
- #29,627KOWALEWSKI this surname101
- #29,873JANG100
- #29,873PAWŁOWSKI100
Two places above and two below on the same list. Surnames with the same count share a place.
The other grammatical form
KOWALEWSKA (female): 12,103 people, rank 109 on the surname list on 20 January 2026.
The same surname in the other grammatical gender, on the other list. It says nothing about kinship.
03
Where is it most often registered?
The map and the list show the voivodeships where people with this surname have a registered permanent address. The brighter the colour and the longer the bar, the bigger the share.
male
Among the 10,508 people with the surname KOWALEWSKI (male) who had a registered voivodeship on 20 January 2026, 17.8% were registered in MAZOWIECKIE.
Hover over or tap a voivodeship to see its figures.
Share of people with a registered voivodeship, lowest first:
- 0%–4%
- 4%–8%
- 8%–12%
- 12%–16%
- 16%–20%
- not listed in the dataset — not zero
| Voivodeship | Share | Count |
|---|---|---|
| MAZOWIECKIE | 17.8% | 1,869 |
| POMORSKIE | 12.9% | 1,359 |
| PODLASKIE | 11.3% | 1,190 |
| WARMIŃSKO-MAZURSKIE | 10.7% | 1,122 |
| WIELKOPOLSKIE | 8.9% | 940 |
| KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE | 7.4% | 782 |
| ZACHODNIOPOMORSKIE | 6.1% | 640 |
| ŁÓDZKIE | 5.8% | 606 |
| DOLNOŚLĄSKIE | 5.5% | 575 |
| LUBUSKIE | 3.6% | 383 |
| ŚLĄSKIE | 3.6% | 374 |
| LUBELSKIE | 3.1% | 330 |
| MAŁOPOLSKIE | 1.2% | 125 |
| ŚWIĘTOKRZYSKIE | 0.9% | 94 |
| OPOLSKIE | 0.6% | 61 |
| PODKARPACKIE | 0.6% | 58 |
female
Only 41.6% of bearers had a registered voivodeship, so this is not the surname's distribution.
Among the 42 people with the surname KOWALEWSKI (female) who had a registered voivodeship on 20 January 2026, 14.3% were registered in WARMIŃSKO-MAZURSKIE.
Hover over or tap a voivodeship to see its figures.
Share of people with a registered voivodeship, lowest first:
- 0%–3%
- 3%–6%
- 6%–9%
- 9%–12%
- 12%–15%
- not listed in the dataset — not zero
| Voivodeship | Share | Count |
|---|---|---|
| WARMIŃSKO-MAZURSKIE | 14.3% | 6 |
| MAZOWIECKIE | 11.9% | 5 |
| ŚLĄSKIE | 11.9% | 5 |
| ZACHODNIOPOMORSKIE | 9.5% | 4 |
| MAŁOPOLSKIE | 7.1% | 3 |
| PODLASKIE | 7.1% | 3 |
| POMORSKIE | 7.1% | 3 |
| WIELKOPOLSKIE | 7.1% | 3 |
| KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE | 4.8% | 2 |
| ŁÓDZKIE | 4.8% | 2 |
| LUBUSKIE | 4.8% | 2 |
| PODKARPACKIE | 4.8% | 2 |
| ŚWIĘTOKRZYSKIE | 4.8% | 2 |
04
How did this count change between editions of the list?
The PESEL register publishes its lists every year. We show the number of people with this surname on each edition, beside how the whole list changed. We say what changed, not why.
male
The number of people with the surname KOWALEWSKI (male) in the PESEL register changed from 12,236 on 30 June 2019 to 11,883 on 20 January 2026: −2.9%. The whole list changed by +6.7% between those editions.
| As of | Share of the list | People |
|---|---|---|
| 30 June 2019* | 1 in 1,623 | 12,236 |
| 22 January 2020 | 1 in 1,628 | 12,208 |
| 1 February 2021 | 1 in 1,643 | 12,167 |
| 27 January 2022 | 1 in 1,669 | 12,108 |
| 30 January 2023 | 1 in 1,721 | 12,092 |
| 19 January 2024 | 1 in 1,745 | 12,021 |
| 22 January 2025 | 1 in 1,765 | 11,950 |
| 20 January 2026 | 1 in 1,784 | 11,883 |
* The 2019 files describe their contents in fewer words than the later ones. We read them as the same list: people with their current surname.
female
The number of people with the surname KOWALEWSKI (female) in the PESEL register changed from 73 on 30 June 2019 to 101 on 20 January 2026: +38.4%. The whole list changed by +6.5% between those editions.
| As of | Share of the list | People |
|---|---|---|
| 30 June 2019* | 1 in 277,388 | 73 |
| 22 January 2020 | 1 in 269,605 | 75 |
| 2 February 2021 | 1 in 250,163 | 81 |
| 27 January 2022 | The publisher's file dated 27 January 2022 repeats the data of the previous edition, so it is not shown as an edition of its own. | |
| 30 January 2023 | 1 in 248,482 | 86 |
| 19 January 2024 | 1 in 236,037 | 91 |
| 22 January 2025 | 1 in 239,284 | 90 |
| 20 January 2026 | 1 in 213,468 | 101 |
* The 2019 files describe their contents in fewer words than the later ones. We read them as the same list: people with their current surname.
05
What does this surname mean?
We give a meaning only when a scholarly work supports it. We don't guess.
We have no sourced meaning for this surname. We could not find it in any scholarly work we are able to cite here, and we do not guess at meanings.
06
Where does it appear in old print?
Polona, the National Library's digital library, searches its catalogue and the text of its scanned pages. We show how many results it returns for this word, and from which years.
The word KOWALEWSKI appears on 39,476 pages of works not under copyright and in 1,038 catalogue records in Polona (searched on 1 October 2026).
These are search results for the word in any inflected form. Some may be another meaning of the same spelling, and they are not a count of people or of mentions of anyone's family.
- before 180016
- 1800–18493,381
- 1850–18998,565
- 1900–19186,114
- 1919–193912,846
- 1940 on8,515
Catalogue records by kind
- Books171
- Periodicals77
- Articles24
- Ephemera20
- Photographs19
- E-books17
Most common places of publication
- Warszawa23,646
- Poznań2,805
- Kraków2,295
- Lwów1,796
- Wilno1,332
- Petersburg539
Example pages in the public domain
„Kowalewski — Kowalik 18231. Kowalewski Antoni*, szer. szp. epid. Warszawa. 18232.”
„429 6 Kowalewski Piotr 418 Kowalski Bolesław 242 Kowalski Mieczysław 383 302 Kowalewski”
„BJ 122155 KOWALEWSKI, Jerzy zob. Dołęga-Kowalewski, Jerzy”
07
Who well known has this surname?
Wikidata, the open knowledge base behind Wikipedia, lists people with this surname. Polish citizens come first, and among them those the most Wikipedia articles are written about.
Wikidata lists 48 people with the surname KOWALEWSKI who have a Wikipedia article (as of 4 October 2026).
Sharing a surname does not mean being related. Wikidata is edited by volunteers and can be wrong.
- Józef Kowalewski1800–1878Polish orientalist (1800–1878)WikipediaWikidata
- Wojciech Kowalewskib. 1977Polish footballerWikipediaWikidata
- Krzysztof Kowalewski1937–2021Polish actor (1937-2021)WikipediaWikidata
The other people (45) will be in the “Surname and family” report.
Sources on this page
- Official data Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji — Nazwiska występujące w rejestrze PESEL · 20 January 2026 · CC0 1.0 · Dane pochodzą z rejestru PESEL, Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji, dane.gov.pl (CC0 1.0) · dane.gov.pl
- Digital library Biblioteka Narodowa — Polona · Polona, Biblioteka Narodowa · polona.pl
- Source Wikidata · CC0 · wikidata.org
How to read these figures
- Wykaz nazwisk męskich osób żyjących (wg pola nazwisko aktualne) występujących w rejestrze PESEL, stan na 20.01.2026
- Surnames occurring once are not published; absence from the dataset is not zero.
- The publisher does not state whether the split is by a person's sex or by the grammatical gender of the surname form. The datasets are therefore neither summed nor compared numerically.
- The male and female datasets are separate and are never summed.
- Wykaz nazwisk żeńskich osób żyjących (wg pola nazwisko aktualne) występujących w rejestrze PESEL, stan na 20.01.2026
- Denominator: 21,197,537 people counted in the PESEL register — the sum of the published counts in this dataset, not Poland's population.
- The 1-in-X figure is rounded; the count of people is exact.
- Denominator: 21,560,302 people counted in the PESEL register — the sum of the published counts in this dataset, not Poland's population.
- A permanent registered residence is an address in the register — not an actual address, and not information about a family's roots.
- Shares are of the people with a registered voivodeship, not of every bearer of the surname.
- Only 41.6% of bearers had a registered voivodeship, so this is not the surname's distribution.
- The size of the list itself changes between editions, so beside the count we show the share of that edition's list (“1 in X”).
- Polona's figures are search results for the word in any inflected form, in the catalogue and in the text of pages of works not under copyright; not every result is the surname.
- The people from Wikidata share the surname; that does not mean they are related to each other or to anyone. No date of death in Wikidata does not mean a person is living.
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