A couple of questions relating to Polish names and terms

In the past, while randomly surfing on the web, I've tried to find some info about the phenomenon of 'Lech/Leg/Leh(?)', but I couldn't find a satisfactory amount of info.

-Since when do Poles call their country "Polska"?

-Has there ever been a time when it was called something like 'Lechia"?

-Has there ever been a period where the Polish language/dialect was called something based on this 'Lech-' stem?

-Since when do Poles and/or outsiders view Polish as a independent language instead of a dialect?

-Does the personal Lech name just mean "Pole" or does it have another meaning? What is the original, pre-national meaning of Lech, if it ever had such a meaning?

-Are Legia (as in Legia Warschau) and the personal name Lech related to each other?

Based on the answers, I will probably have some extra questions/remarks. By the way, Dutch and Turkish are my motherlanguages with English being a later acquired language.

Thanks in advance.

since 11th or 12th century most probably


it was never called Lechia since Lech was a legendary ancestor of Poles and not a name of any tribe that later came to live in Polska (after the Polans conquered their neighbours)


you just reminded me that there must have been a tribe of Lęch people who became known Ljach(y) in Ukrainian - but the tribal name expired as the Lęch (perhaps) Lędzianie) submitted to the Polan's state - the common language of Poland was never called Lechicki though


since quite early - there were serious differences among Slavic Languages as early as 9th century (the loss of nasal vowels in most Slavic languages and kept in the Lechitic family (Polish dialects, Pomeranian dialects, and some Polabian dialects) - serious differences between Czech and Polish existed as early as 10 th century (Czech h instead of former g and a couple of various other differences)


no Legia is unrelated to Lech - Legia is related to legion and is a Latin borrowing into Polish

Actually, I did found some info about my questions. Strangely, not at the 'Poland' entry on Wiki, but at the 'Polish' entry. Would still love to hear some answers.


Thank you for your reaction. I didn't know that its role was this small. I guess I was somewhat biased because until not very long ago Polish was referred to as "Lehçe" in Turkish and Lithuanians and Hungarians are still using Lengyelország and Lenkija for Poland.

Well that might be what Poland/Polish/Polska was referred to in those countries that you mentioned. It doesn't mean there is any resemblance to those name references in Polish.

For Example
English Polish Hungarian
Hungary=Węgry=Magyarorszag

po polsku = lengyelul

polak/polka = lengyel

Merged: Are all identical Polish surnames related?

are all polish people with the same last name related. for instance do all the nowaks or lewandowskis or wisniewskis descend from one line

No. For example, Nowak is a very very common name.