Arek
A Slavic origin name meaning "a bright, shining one".
Name Census estimates that about 366 living Americans carry the first name Arek. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arek today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arek births was 2003 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arek. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
366
~ 1 in 936,487 Americans
Peak year
2003
21 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,948
Tracked since 1971
Census
Arek in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 511 people with the first name Arek, which placed it at #20,272 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,272
National first-name rank
People counted
511
511 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arek
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arek is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.2%) and Black (9.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arek described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arek at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.4% · 380
- Hispanic or Latino10.2% · 52
- Black or African American9.6% · 49
- Two or more races3.7% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Arek: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arek from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 108 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Arek remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arek by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arek during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Areks live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arek
The given name Arek is a diminutive form of the Polish name Arkadiusz, which has its origins in the Greek name Arkadios. Arkadios is derived from the Greek word "Arkas," meaning a person from Arcadia, an ancient region in the central Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. The name Arek gained popularity in Poland and other Slavic countries in the 20th century.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Arkadios can be traced back to ancient Greek literature, where it was the name of a son of Zeus and Callisto in Greek mythology. Arkadios was also the name of several historical figures, including a 3rd-century BCE Greek philosopher from Arcadia.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Arek was Arek Wawrzynkiewicz, a Polish military officer who served during World War II. He was born in 1918 and died in 1944. Another notable Arek was Arek Kłusowski, a Polish footballer who played as a striker for various clubs in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s.
Arek Gołaś, born in 1964, is a Polish musician and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Dżem. Arek Jakubik, born in 1972, is a Polish actor who has appeared in numerous films and television series, including the award-winning movie "Mała Moskwa" (2008).
Arek Fedde, born in 1984, is a German-Polish DJ and record producer known for his electronic dance music. He has released several successful singles and remixes under various aliases, including "Metropolis" and "Broken Toyz."
Throughout its history, the name Arek has been predominantly used in Poland and other Slavic countries, although it has gained some popularity in other parts of the world due to immigration and cultural exchange.
People
Arek + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arek as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arek: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arek?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 366 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arek going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 936,487 US residents.
Is Arek a common name?
We classify Arek as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arek most popular?
The single biggest year for Arek was 2003, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arek is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arek in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 511 people with the name Arek, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,272 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arek in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arek?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arek leans strongly male. 471 people counted with this name were male (92.2%), compared with 40 female bearers (7.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arek?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arek is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.2%) and Black (9.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arek most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arek in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.4% (380 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arek in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arek a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arek in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Arek still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arek in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arek can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Arek?
Want to know how many people have the name Arek? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.