The princely houses of Poland and Lithuania differed from other princely houses in Europe. Most importantly, Polish nobility (szlachta) could not be granted nobility titles by the Polish kings in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Therefore, the title of prince either dated to the times before the Union of Lublin, which created the Commonwealth in 1569, or was granted to some nobles by foreign kings. Due to the longstanding history of common statehood, some noble families often described as "Polish" actually originated in Grand Duchy of Lithuania and are of Lithuanian or Ruthenian descent. Some houses are more correctly described as being of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

A prince is a male ruler or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. Prince is also a title of nobility, often hereditary, in some European states. The female equivalent is a princess. The English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun prīnceps, from primus (first) and caput (head), meaning "the first, foremost, the chief, most distinguished, noble ruler, prince".