The Polans (Polish: Polanie) were allegedly one of the early medieval cultural and geographical groupings today referred to as the Polish tribes who inhabited the lakelands of Greater Poland and played an important role in the creation of the first Polish state during the reign of Mieszko I.

Modern historiography disputes the concept, as the term polanie is not well attested to the Early Middle Ages, and the oldest known mention dates to the reign of Bolesław I the Brave, found in the 10th century document Vita sancti Adalberti [de], which mentions "Bolizlav Polanorum duce".

The name of the modern-day nation of Poland derives from that of the Polans, who were the nation's central unifying force; the latter in turn likely derives from their primary aspect of their geography, economy, and community, the field. The members of a Polan opole sourced a majority of their income from and centred their society around the cultivated field. Aside from the first component of this name, Pol-, the component -anin is a Polish-language suffix designating a person's geographical, ethnic, or religious belonging. Zygmunt Gloger states the following regarding the etymology of the name of the Polans in his Geographic history of the ancient lands of Poland, published in 1903:

An increase in population among the Lechites who inhabited the lands around the Warta must have caused an early increase in the need for agriculture, i.e. the changing of forests into fields, hence the name Polans, or Polacy [the most common endonym for Poles]. This was described most accurately by Jan Długosz: "Lechites, especially those who sat on fields, were dubbed Polans by their compatriots who lived in the forests, and this name became so common among people that the old Lechite name disappeared into oblivion, and the nation and country began calling itself Polska". It is difficult to say exactly in which century this occurred. In any case, Marcin Kromer appears to be close to the truth, writing in the 16th century: "The name of the Poles only came into usage seven or eight hundred years ago." In our oldest sources, coming from the 10th century, the name of Poland is written in Latin: Polonia and Polenia, and Bruno of Querfurt, writing the biography of Saint Adalbert around 1000 A.D., calls the Poles: Polani, Poloni and Poloniani.

The name of the Polans first appears in a historical source at the end of the 9th century, in the first biography of Saint Adalbert [pl], dated to 998–999, which mentions Bolizlav Polanorum duce in the context of the year 995; it is commonly translated as "Bolesław, duke of the Polans" or "duke of Poland". It is afterwards next mentioned in the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, written from 1075 to 1080 by the chronicler Adam of Bremen. There, he mentions the Polans in a description of West Slavic tribal geography:

Along the shore of the river Oder, the Pomeranians firstly live, followed by the Polans, who border the Prussians and Czechs, as well as the Russes to the east.

Furthermore, the Polans are mentioned in passing with variable inflections elsewhere in the text, under names including Polonia and rege Polanorum Bolizlao. The next source for the early medieval Polans is the Chronica Slavorum, authored by Helmold:

The peoples occupying the shore of the Baltic Sea are plentiful in number. [...] Numerous peoples inhabit the lands around this sea: namely, the Danes and Swedes, who we call the Northmen, occupy the northern shore and all of the islands. The southern shore, meanwhile, is inhabited by Slavs; the first of them are the Russes; further are the Polans, who have the Prussians to their north, and the Czechs, as well as the Moravians, Carantanians, and Sorbs to their south.