Hi all: This is my first post. Here is a list of 6 given names: 1)Władysław 2)Mieczysław 3)Mirosław 4)Borzysław 5)Jarosław 6)Stanislaw I wish to know what the English equivalent would be for each name please. Many thanks in advance.
There is no English translation for these names. They are ancient Slavic names which don't have an equivalent in English. You would have to look at the meaning of the names and then search for English names with the same meaning to get any kind of equivalent but of course they wouldn't sound remotely similar to the Polish ones. The only one there that has any kind of 'English' form is Stanisław which would be Stanislaus in its Latinized form.
There's no English-language translation (no translation in the "literal English" sense, at least), of Polish (fe)male given names suffixed "-sław(a)"...But few of those male given names are sometimes "Anglicized"...notably "Władysław" = "Walter", "Borzysław" = "Boris", "Jarosław" = "Gerald"/"Jerry" etc, and Stanisław" = "Stanley"
Names go in and out of fashion everywhere but with the coming of Christianity to Poland Catholics took the names of saints. The few ancient Slavic names that survived tended to be the names of Slavs who were also saints in the Catholic church. The names you mention may well experience a revival - who knows ? :)
@Mtremba There is no English-language equivalent of the (fe)male Polish given name "Wojciech(a)" (a.k.a. Polish diminutive male name forms "Wojtek", "Wojtuś", "Wojtas", "Wojcio", etc). Some German-language equivalents of the male Polish given name include "Woitke"/"Voitke", "Wogtke"/"Vogtke", "Woytke"/"Voytke", "Wotke"/"Wötke", etc.
The literal English-language translation of "Wojciech(a)" is Polish root word "Woj" meaning "Warrior" combined with obsolete (fe)male Polish given name "Ciechosław(a)" meaning "Ciech-" ("Goodness") + "-Sław(a)" ("Fame").
Nowadays the word "Woj" almost never used in standalone word form, and is more commonly used in prefix form "Woj-" onto words pertaining to the word "War(-rior)" (prefixed onto nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and verbs/infinitives).
I used to be told it was Albert, but wasn't sure, why.... according to wikipedia it was because a Czech saint who changed his name from Vojtech to Adalbert....
Poles learnt that Adalbert means Wojciech in early 1980s when Wojciech Jaruzelski was addressed as Adalbert Lezuraj in a classified ad. Funny story about the martial law.
