Polish girl names run from the blunt and pre-Christian (Dobrawa, Bogna, Nawoja) to the long, formal saints’ names that Poland made entirely its own (Elżbieta, Małgorzata, Katarzyna). What trips up most parents is that a single name usually lives in three shapes at once: the one on the birth certificate, the one her grandmother uses, and the one her friends shout across the playground.
All 105 names below are sorted out on those terms. Each entry gives the origin, the meaning, a plain phonetic pronunciation, notable bearers where they exist, and where the name actually stands in Poland now, using the country’s 2025 birth registrations rather than a decade-old snapshot.
Zofia topped that list with 4,415 girls. Whether you want a name from near the top of Poland’s current rankings or one nobody at your daughter’s school will have heard, it is somewhere in here.
105 Beautiful Polish Names for Girls
Every name below carries its origin, meaning, a plain phonetic pronunciation, notable bearers where they exist, and where it stands in Poland right now.
Ada
Ada started life as a short form of Germanic names built on adal, meaning noble, which is how it ends up related to Adelaide and Adeline. Polish families took it up early and never let it go, helped by two easy syllables that land the same way in Warsaw and in Wisconsin. A separate Hebrew line gives it a second sense, adornment, so the name arrives carrying two histories instead of one. Ada Sari, the opera singer who trained a generation of Polish vocalists, is the bearer most Poles picture first. It also works unchanged in English, which is more than most names on this list can offer.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic, Hebrew
- Meaning: Noble, happy
- Pronunciation: AH-dah
- Variations: Addie, Adel, Aida, Adiah, Adina
- Namesakes: Ada Sari, a Polish opera singer, actress, and educator. Ada Gabrielyan, an Armenian art teacher and painter.
- Popularity: Ada ranked #219 among US girls in 2025, easing back from #191 in 2024 and #179 in 2023.
Adelajda
Four syllables and an almost court-record formality are what the Polish spelling adds to Adelaide, which Adelaide itself has lost in English. Both names go back to the Old German Adalheidis, built from adal, noble, and heid, kind or sort. It peaked generations ago and has not come back, so it reads today as a deep-heritage choice rather than a current one.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Noble
- Pronunciation: ah-deh-LAI-dah
- Variations: Adelaide, Adelheid
- Popularity: Adelajda does not appear anywhere in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, so a child given it today would very likely be the only one in her school.
Agata
This is one of the few Polish names that needs no adjustment at all for an English-speaking family: the sound travels well, with no consonant cluster to explain at the school gate. Agata is the Polish form of Agatha, from the Greek agathos, meaning good, and Poland has used it steadily for centuries, so it has never needed a revival. Agata Buzek won a Polish Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2003 and keeps the name visible on screen. At home, though, almost every Agata answers to Agatka.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Being good
- Pronunciation: ah-GAH-tah
- Variations: Agatha, Agota, Agotha, Agate,
- Namesakes: Agata Bronisława Buzek, a Polish actress who won the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2003. Agata Pyzik, a Polish journalist and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The Wire and The Guardian.
- Popularity: Agata missed Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, so it now reads as a settled classic rather than a nursery favorite.
Agnieszka
Five syllables, a soft ni, and an sz that sounds like sh: the spelling is the obstacle for English speakers, and once heard it is hard to forget. Poland took Agnes and made it Agnieszka. The Greek hagnos behind it means chaste or pure, and it picked up an association with the Latin agnus, lamb, along the way. It is about as unmistakably Polish as a feminine name gets. Agnieszka Duczmal founded the Poznan Amadeus Orchestra and conducted it for decades, which gives the name a serious cultural anchor. Expect to spell it out on this side of the Atlantic, and expect Aga or Agnes when your daughter wants something shorter. Aga is what most Agnieszkas answer to by their teens. It is a name that rewards a family willing to defend it.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Latin
- Meaning: Chaste, sacred
- Pronunciation: ahg-NYESH-kah
- Variations: Agnieska, Agnes
- Namesakes: Agnieszka Duczmal, a Polish conductor and founder of the Poznań Amadeus Orchestra. Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza, a Polish volleyball player and bronze medalist of the European Championship in 2009.
- Popularity: Agnieszka is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, a long way from the era when it was one of the country’s default choices.
Albina
Croatian singer Albina Grcic carried this name to the Eurovision stage in 2021, which is roughly the level of fame it enjoys: known, but not everywhere. Albina is the feminine of the Roman family name Albinus, which grew out of the Latin albus, meaning white or bright. It arrived in Poland through the church calendar and stayed on the margins, never fashionable and never quite gone. The rhythm is gentle, ahl-BEE-nah, and set against a short Polish surname it sounds unhurried rather than heavy.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: White, bright
- Pronunciation: ahl-BEE-nah
- Variations: Albeana, Albeanah, Albeena, Albeina, Albiena, Albinah, Albyna
- Namesakes: Albina Grčić (known as Albina), a Croatian singer representing Croatia in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Albina Lucy Charlotte Osipowich, an American swimmer who won gold medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Albina did not make Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is now heard far more often in Russia and the Balkans than in Poland.
Aldona
Aldona’s origin is genuinely unresolved, and reference works record its meaning as unknown, which is unusual for a name this old. What is documented is the woman: Aldona of Lithuania, daughter of Grand Duke Gediminas, married Casimir the Great and was queen consort of Poland from 1333 to 1339. That marriage is why a Lithuanian name sits in a Polish list at all. It is a real piece of medieval history rather than an invented etymology, and it makes Aldona a strong pick for parents who would rather have a story than a tidy definition. Poland has never used it widely, so it stays a heritage choice rather than a fashionable one.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Unknown
- Pronunciation: ahl-DOH-nah
- Variations: Alda
- Namesakes: Aldona, Queen consort of Poland from 1333 to 1339 and Princess of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Aldona Zofia Wos, the Polish-American U.S. Ambassador to Estonia from 2004-2006,
- Popularity: Aldona is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls. Its stronghold has always been Lithuania rather than Poland.
Aleksandra
Ola for everyday use, Oleńka for affection, Aleksandra on the diploma: the ladder of short forms is what makes this one practical. The full name is the Polish spelling of Alexandra, from the Greek elements alexein, to defend, and aner, man. Poland kept it in heavy rotation through the whole postwar period and it is still inside the top 30, so it is familiar without being everywhere. The k in place of the x is the only thing an English speaker has to adjust to.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Defender or helper of mankind
- Pronunciation: ah-lek-SAHN-drah
- Variations: Alexandra, Alyxandra, Alessandra, Alexandria
- Namesakes: Aleksandra Kurzak, a Polish operatic soprano singer. Aleksandra Crapanzano, a screenwriter, food writer, and recipient of The M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing from The James Beard Foundation.
- Popularity: Aleksandra ranked #28 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,308 registrations (1).
Alfreda
Alfreda Markowska, a Polish Romani woman, pulled roughly fifty Jewish and Roma children out of ghettos and transports during the war and raised several of them herself, which is why this name carries real weight in Poland. It is the feminine of Alfred, from the Old English aelf, elf, and raed, counsel, so the literal reading is closer to elf-advised than to anything modern. It came into Polish use through the Germanic naming stock that moved east with the church. That history sits oddly with the magical name reading of the elf element, which is part of what makes Alfreda interesting.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic, English
- Meaning: Inspired advice, old peace
- Pronunciation: ahl-FREH-dah
- Variations: Alfredda, Alfreeda, Alfreida, Alfrida, Alfrieda
- Namesakes: Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, an American CIA officer who headed the Bin Laden Issue Station and the Global Jihad unit. Alfreda Noncia Markowska, a Polish-Romani woman who saved approximately fifty Jewish and Roma children during World War II.
- Popularity: Alfreda is nowhere in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, and it has been a rarity in the United States for decades.
Alicja
The cj in the middle is pronounced like ts-yah, which is the one thing to rehearse before the birth announcement goes out. Alicja is the Polish form of Alice, and both go back through Alicia and Adelheid to the same German roots meaning noble. It ranked #9 in Poland in 2025, so your daughter will meet other Alicjas without the name feeling worn out.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Noble-natured, noble person
- Pronunciation: ah-LEETS-yah
- Variations: Alicia, Alice, Ala, Alinka
- Namesakes: Alicja Rosolska, a Polish tennis player who ranked 636th in 2003. Alicja Trout, an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter best known for the synth-heavy band Lost Sounds.
- Popularity: Alicja ranked #9 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,788 registrations, making it one of the country’s steadiest top-10 names.
Amelia
Amelia is a variant of Amalia, from the Germanic element amal, meaning work or effort, and it is regularly confused with Emilia, which comes from a completely different Roman family name. Poland and the English-speaking world fell for it at almost the same moment, holding the #12 spot in Poland and the #4 spot in the United States in 2025. A daughter named Amelia will not have to spell it, translate it, or explain it in either country. The trade-off is company: she will share it with several classmates wherever she grows up. The nickname changes with the country: Amelka in Poland, Millie or Amy in English.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic, Latin
- Meaning: Work
- Pronunciation: ah-MEH-lyah
- Variations: Aemilia, Amalia, Amalie, Ameila, Amilia, Amylia
- Namesakes: Amelia Lily Oliver, an English singer and television personality. Amelia B. Coppuck Welby, an American 19th-century fugitive poet.
- Popularity: Amelia ranked #12 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 2,523 registrations, and #4 in the United States the same year (2). Few names sit that high in both countries at once.
Aneta
Aneta Kreglicka was crowned Miss World in 1989, and for a while every second baby girl in the country seemed to be named after her. That wave has passed, which is exactly why the name is available again. Aneta is the Polish, Czech, Bulgarian and Macedonian form of Annette, itself a French diminutive of Anna, from the Hebrew Hannah meaning grace or favor. Three syllables, no difficult sounds, and it works in English without adjustment.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic, Hebrew
- Meaning: Favored by God
- Pronunciation: ah-NEH-tah
- Variations: Anita, Annette
- Namesakes: Aneta Beata Kręglicka, a Polish dancer and beauty queen, crowned Miss World in 1989. Aneta Lemiesz, a Polish runner, specializing in the 400 and 800 meters.
- Popularity: Aneta is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having faded since its run in the 1970s and 1980s.
Aniela
Polish parents shelved Aniela for most of the twentieth century and have pulled it firmly back in the last few years, which is why it now sits in the top 40 rather than the archive. It is the Polish form of Angela, which comes through the Latin angelus from the Greek angelos, meaning messenger or angel. It shares a first syllable with the Hebrew Anne but not an origin. Aniela Zagórska translated nearly all of Joseph Conrad’s work into Polish, a nice piece of literary trivia to hand a child later on.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Hebrew
- Meaning: Angel
- Pronunciation: ah-NYEH-lah
- Variations: Annie, Anka
- Namesakes: Aniela Jaffé, a Swiss analyst and co-worker of Carl Jung. Aniela Zagórska, a Polish translator of almost all Joseph Conrad’s works.
- Popularity: Aniela ranked #32 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,187 registrations, and is one of the vintage revivals currently climbing.
Anna
Anna is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew Hannah, meaning grace, and it has been in continuous use in Poland for as long as records exist. It is the closest thing the country has to a default name, which cuts both ways: nobody will mispronounce it, and your daughter will not be the only one. Ania is the diminutive you will hear at home, and Anka among friends. If you want the sound without the frequency, Hanna and Anya sit nearby. Poland marks name days more seriously than birthdays, and Anna has one, like most traditional Polish names.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Hebrew
- Meaning: Grace
- Pronunciation: AHN-nah
- Variations: Ann, Anne, Ana, Anja, Anya
- Namesakes: Dame Anna Wintour, a British-American journalist, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast. Anna Pavlovna Pavlova, a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and early 20th-centuries.
- Popularity: Anna ranked #34 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 1,147 registrations, and #107 in the United States, down from #79 in 2023.
Antonina
Antonina is the feminine form of the Roman family name Antoninus, and the underlying Antonius has no reliable meaning despite the priceless gloss that circulates online. Polish parents rediscovered it about a decade ago and it has climbed into the top 15, riding the same wave that brought back Helena and Aniela. It is four syllables of pure old-world formality, which is precisely the appeal. Tosia is the standard diminutive, and it is so common that many Polish children barely know the long form is theirs until school starts. Antonina Krzyszton, awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, is a well-known modern bearer. If you want a unique name in the US that is thoroughly ordinary in Poland, this is it.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Uncertain, traditionally glossed as priceless
- Pronunciation: ahn-toh-NEE-nah
- Variations: Antonia, Antonine, Antionette
- Namesakes: Antonina Aleksandrovna Kymytval, a Chukchi poet and children’s writer. Antonina Krzysztoń, a Polish singer-songwriter awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
- Popularity: Antonina ranked #13 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,507 registrations, one of the strongest vintage revivals in the country.
Asia
Asia is the Polish diminutive of Joanna, and the pronunciation is the trap: it is AH-shah, nothing like the continent. That single fact makes it charming inside Poland and confusing everywhere else, since English speakers will read it as AY-zhuh on sight. Polish families use it constantly, but almost never on a birth certificate. If you love the sound, Joanna on the documents with Asia at home is how it is actually done. Anglicized spellings do not help either, since Ashia and Asza both cut the link back to Joanna.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: God is gracious (via Joanna)
- Pronunciation: AH-shah
- Variations: Aśka, Ahsia, Aisia, Asja, Asya, Asyah, Aysia, Aysiah, Ayzia, Azha, Azia
- Namesakes: Asia Argento (born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento), an Italian actress, filmmaker, and the daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento. Asia Kate Dillon, an American actor, best known for Orange Is the New Black and Billions.
- Popularity: Asia is a nickname rather than a registered given name in Poland, so it does not appear in the 2025 rankings at all.
Augustyna
The month of August and this name come from the same source, which gives it a natural fit for a late-summer baby. Augustyna is the Polish feminine of Augustus, from the Latin augustus, meaning venerable or consecrated, a title the Roman senate gave Octavian in 27 BC. It has never been common in Poland and still is not, so it stays firmly in the Latin name category rather than the fashionable one.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Venerated
- Pronunciation: ow-goo-STIH-nah
- Variations: Augusta, Augustina, Agostina, Augustine
- Popularity: Augustyna is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, and the shorter Augusta is heard more often abroad.
Basia
Pronounced BAH-shah, this one catches almost every English speaker on the first try. Basia is the Polish short form of Barbara, which comes from the Latin barbarus, meaning foreign or strange, originally a Greek label for anyone who did not speak Greek. Barbara Piasecka Johnson, the art collector and philanthropist, was known as Basia her whole life, which is a fair illustration of how Poles actually use the pair. As a legal first name it is genuinely unusual, even in Poland. It also carries an unexpected amount of warmth for a name whose root means foreigner.
- Origin: Polish, Latin, Hebrew
- Meaning: Foreigner
- Pronunciation: BAH-shah
- Variations: Basea, Bashya, Basiah, Basja, Basya, Bathia, Batia, Batya
- Namesakes: Basia Frydman, a Swedish actress at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. Barbara “Basia” Piasecka Johnson, a Polish humanitarian, philanthropist, art connoisseur, and collector.
- Popularity: Basia is a diminutive rather than a registered name, so it is Barbara, at #45 in Poland in 2025 with 735 registrations, that carries it.
Beata
Beata comes straight from the Latin beatus, meaning blessed, and it entered Polish through the church rather than through Beatrice, which took a different route from the same root. The three syllables, beh-AH-tah, sit easily in English. It was everywhere in Poland in the 1970s and is now almost entirely absent from the nursery, which puts it in that awkward middle distance where a name is too recent to feel vintage. Give it another decade and it will read as a powerful name ripe for revival. Its plainness is the point: there is nothing in it to explain, correct or apologize for.
- Origin: Polish, German, Latin
- Meaning: Blessed
- Pronunciation: beh-AH-tah
- Variations: Beate, Beatta, Beáta, Beeta, Beita, Beyta, Biata
- Namesakes: Beata Kaczmarska, a Polish racewalker who represented Poland at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Beata Poźniak, a Polish-American actress, film director, and award-winning Earphones narrator.
- Popularity: Beata is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls. It belongs to the generation of Polish women now in their forties and fifties.
Benedykta
The monastic end of the Polish name calendar is where Benedykta has always lived, and it has never been in general circulation. It comes from the Latin benedictus, meaning blessed or, read literally, well-spoken-of, and it is the Polish feminine of Benedict. Four syllables and a hard k make it a mouthful, though Benia and Dyta both soften it considerably. If you want the Benedictine association without the length, Benita is the usual compromise.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Blessed
- Pronunciation: beh-neh-DIK-tah
- Variations: Benedicta
- Namesakes: Benedykta Mackielo, a Lithuanian-Polish woman who claimed to be a supercentenarian who died at 113 years old.
- Popularity: Benedykta is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is genuinely rare even by the standards of old Polish names.
Bogna
Bogna began as a diminutive of Bogdana and of other names built on the Slavic element bog, meaning god, and it has stood on its own for centuries. Two blunt syllables, BOHG-nah, with none of the length that makes other Slavic names hard to export. It is one of the few genuinely pre-Christian Polish names still worn by living women rather than sitting in a dictionary. Bogna Bartosz, the mezzo-soprano, is the name’s best-known modern bearer. It is short enough to survive being shouted across a playground, which not every Slavic name is.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Divine, luck, fate, rich
- Pronunciation: BOHG-nah
- Variations: Bogdana
- Namesakes: Bogna Bartosz, a Polish classical mezzo-soprano and alto opera singer. Hanna Bogna Margońska, a Polish botanist, known for her work on orchids.
- Popularity: Bogna is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50, but it survives in steady low-level use in a way most Slavic revivals do not.
Bolesława
Bolesław was a name carried by medieval Polish rulers, which makes this dynastic rather than decorative. The feminine is built from the Old Slavic bole, meaning greater, and slava, glory. It has always been much rarer than the masculine and is now close to extinct in the nursery.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic, Latin
- Meaning: Great glory
- Pronunciation: boh-leh-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Boleslava
- Popularity: Bolesława does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is now vanishingly rare on birth certificates.
Bożena
Bożena is the Polish cognate of the Czech Božena, built from the Slavic bog, meaning god, with a sense closest to divine or god-given. The ż with a dot is pronounced like the s in measure, which is the one sound in it that English has but rarely spells. It was a standard choice in postwar Poland and has now emptied out of the nursery almost completely.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Divine
- Pronunciation: boh-ZHEH-nah
- Variations: Bozana, Bozidara
- Namesakes: Bożena Dykiel, a Polish theater and film actress known for The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober and The War of the Worlds: Next Century.
- Popularity: Bożena is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having peaked with the generation born in the middle of the last century.
Bronisława
Marie Curie’s sister is the bearer to know: Bronisława Dłuska was a physician and co-founder of the Warsaw radium institute that now carries the Curie name. The name itself is the feminine of Bronisław, from the Slavic borna, meaning protection or defense, and slava, glory. Two Polish women in one family reshaped modern medicine, and this is the one whose name almost nobody outside Poland knows.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Defend glory
- Pronunciation: broh-nee-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Branislava
- Namesakes: Bronisława Dłuska, a Polish physician and co-founder of Warsaw’s Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology. Bronisława Wajs, a Polish-Romani classic poet and singer.
- Popularity: Bronisława is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is now mainly a grandmother’s name.
Brygida
Brygida reached Poland through the Bridgettine order rather than through Irish migration, which is why it feels churchy there rather than Celtic. It is Poland’s version of Bridget, which goes back to the Irish Brighid, meaning exalted one, the name of both a Celtic goddess and Ireland’s second patron saint. The g is hard and the stress falls on the second syllable, bree-GHEE-dah.
- Origin: Polish, Celtic
- Meaning: Exalted
- Pronunciation: bree-GHEE-dah
- Variations: Brigita, Brigitta Brigida
- Namesakes: Brygida Kürbis, a Polish historian, medievalist, and source editor, focused on Polish history. Brygida Justyna Kuźniak, a Polish lawyer, politician, and the chairman of the Democratic Party in Poland from 2009-2012.
- Popularity: Brygida is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and has never been widespread there.
Danuta
Danuta is the Polish form of the Lithuanian Danute, and the popular gift from God reading comes from a folk association with Dana rather than from documented etymology. The most famous bearer is Danuta Walesa, who wrote a memoir about her life as Lech Walesa’s wife. Danuta Kobylinska-Walas was Poland’s first woman sea captain, which is a better story to hand a daughter.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Gift from God
- Pronunciation: dah-NOO-tah
- Variations: Dana, Donata
- Namesakes: Danuta Małgorzata Dmowska-Andrzejuk, a Polish fencer and 2005 World Épée Champion. Danuta Kobylińska-Walas, a Polish sailor and the first female sea captain.
- Popularity: Danuta is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls. Its high-water mark was the middle of the twentieth century.
Dobrawa
Dobrawa may come from an Old Slavic word for oak grove, or it may be a contracted form of Dobroslawa, built on dobro, meaning good. Either way it is about as foundational as a Polish name gets: Dobrawa of Bohemia married Mieszko I, and Poland’s official conversion to Christianity followed soon after. That makes her, in most Polish schoolbooks, the woman who started the country’s written history. The name almost disappeared for a thousand years and has been quietly picked back up by parents who want something pre-Latin and genuinely native. For a family that wants something Polish from before Poland was Christian, nothing goes deeper.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Good, oak grove
- Pronunciation: doh-BRAH-vah
- Variations: Dobrawka, Dubrawka, Doubravka
- Namesakes: Dobrawa of Bohemia, the tenth-century Bohemian princess who married Mieszko I and whose marriage led to Poland’s conversion to Christianity in 966.
- Popularity: Dobrawa is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50, though it is one of the historic Slavic names Polish parents have been reaching for again.
Dobromiła
Dobromiła is the Polish feminine form of Dobromił, assembled from the Slavic dobro, meaning good, and mil, meaning dear or gracious. It belongs to the family of two-part Slavic names that Polish parents built for centuries before saints’ names took over the calendar. Five syllables is a lot, but the short forms do the heavy lifting: Dobra, Mila, and Dobrosia are all in use. Mila in particular travels well, which makes the full name more practical abroad than it looks.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Good grace
- Pronunciation: doh-broh-MEE-wah
- Namesakes: Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, a Czech writer known for her bestselling cookbook: A Household Cookery Book.
- Popularity: Dobromiła does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and remains a specialist choice.
Dorota
Dorota Rabczewska, who performs as Doda, has been one of the country’s biggest pop acts for two decades and has kept this name from feeling dusty. The name is the Polish, Czech and Slovak form of Dorothea, from the Greek doron, gift, and theos, god, making it the exact mirror of Theodora. It has the plainness that comes from very long use: no one in Poland thinks twice about it.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Gift of God
- Pronunciation: doh-ROH-tah
- Variations: Dorothy, Dorothea
- Namesakes: Dorota Gruca, a Polish marathon runner and three-time champion in the 5,000-meter race. Dorota Rabczewska (known professionally as Doda), a Polish singer-songwriter, TV personality, and two-time MTV Europe Music Award winner.
- Popularity: Dorota is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though it stays firmly in the everyday Polish name stock.
Dosia
Dosia is a Polish diminutive of Teodozja or Dorota, both of which carry the Greek elements for gift and god. The pronunciation is DOH-shah, and the si spelling producing a sh sound is the single most useful thing to know about reading Polish names. It is short, warm and completely unfussy, which is exactly what a diminutive is for. Parents who want the Greek name on the certificate and something soft at home usually register Teodozja and use this. It also sidesteps the pronunciation trouble that Teodozja causes outside Poland.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Divine gift
- Pronunciation: DOH-shah
- Variations: Docia, Dosha
- Popularity: Dosia is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50, which is normal for a diminutive that only occasionally gets registered on its own.
Edyta
Edyta Gorniak represented Poland at Eurovision and finished as runner-up, which fixed this name to a very specific moment. It is the Polish spelling of Edith, from the Old English ead, meaning wealth or fortune, and gyth, war. Anglo-Saxon royalty used it heavily before the Norman conquest, and Poland picked it up much later through German contact. It has the same old-fashioned style name appeal that Edith now has in English, one generation behind. The y in the middle is the one letter English speakers reliably get wrong.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Rich one, wealthy gift, rich in war
- Pronunciation: eh-DIH-tah
- Variations: Editha, Edita
- Namesakes: Edyta Krzemień, a Polish actress and singer associated with the Roma Music Theater in Warsaw. Edyta Koryzna, a Polish basketball player who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Edyta is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having had its run in the 1970s and 1980s.
Eligia
Saint Eligius was the seventh-century goldsmith and bishop who became patron of metalworkers, and the name reached Poland through his cult and never spread far beyond it. Eligia is his feminine, from the Latin eligere, meaning to choose. Four syllables with a soft g, eh-LEE-gyah, and no obvious English equivalent to fall back on.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: The chosen one
- Pronunciation: eh-LEE-gyah
- Popularity: Eligia is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is rare enough that most Poles have never met one.
Elżbieta
Polish queens carried this one, among them Elżbieta Rakuszanka, mother of four Polish kings and remembered ever since as the mother of kings. Elżbieta is the Polish form of Elizabeth, from the Hebrew Elisheva, meaning my God is an oath or, more loosely, God is abundance. The zb cluster is the hurdle for English speakers, though the diminutives solve it instantly.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: God of plenty, my God is bountiful
- Pronunciation: elzh-BYEH-tah
- Variations: Elizabeth
- Namesakes: Elżbieta Jaworowicz, a Polish journalist known for the TV program Sprawa for a Reporter. Elżbieta Justyna Czyżewska, a Polish actress and winner of the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress in 1990.
- Popularity: Elżbieta is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though it remains one of the most recognizable names in the language.
Emilia
Emilia Plater raised a unit in the 1830 uprising, took the field as a captain, and ended up in a Mickiewicz poem every Polish schoolchild reads. That is a lot of backbone for a name that sounds this soft. It is the feminine of the Roman family name Aemilius, usually traced to the Latin aemulus, meaning rival or eager, and it is constantly confused with Amelia, which comes from a completely unrelated Germanic root. Poland uses both heavily at the same time. Emilka and Mila are the everyday forms. If the overlap with Amelia bothers you, know that Polish parents currently use both in roughly equal numbers. That is a reason to choose on sound rather than on rarity.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Rival, eager
- Pronunciation: eh-MEEL-yah
- Variations: Emilie, Emily, Emiliana, Milka
- Namesakes: Emilia Plater, the Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman who raised and led a unit in the November Uprising of 1830 and became a national symbol. Emilia Krakowska, the veteran Polish stage and film actress.
- Popularity: Emilia ranked #10 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,556 registrations, making it one of the country’s core top-ten choices.
Estera
Estera is the Polish spelling of Esther, a Hebrew name that is usually linked either to the Persian word for star or to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. It carries the biblical queen who talked a king out of a massacre, which is a rare thing for a name this gentle-sounding. In Poland it belongs to the country’s Jewish heritage in a way that is worth knowing before you choose it.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew, Persian
- Meaning: Star, myrtle leaf
- Pronunciation: es-TEH-rah
- Variations: Esther
- Namesakes: Estera Dobre, a Romanian wrestler who won four silver medals at the European Wrestling Championships between 2009 and 2012.
- Popularity: Estera does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and has always been used more in Romania and among Polish Jewish families.
Eunika
Parents drawn to Nika but wanting something fuller on the certificate tend to arrive here, since Nika works perfectly well as a stand-alone short form. Eunika is the Polish form of Eunice, from the Greek eu, good, and nike, victory. The biblical Eunice was Timothy’s mother, praised for the faith she passed down, which is how the name reached the Polish calendar at all. It has an unexpectedly modern sound for something this old.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Good victory, victory of goodness
- Pronunciation: ew-NEE-kah
- Variations: Eunice, Eunike
- Popularity: Eunika is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and stays a minority choice even among Polish biblical names.
Ewelina
The long, flowing shape Ewelina shares with Karolina and Marcelina is a very Polish preference. Poland took Evelina and made it Ewelina. The original came into English through the Norman Aveline and is a distant relative of Evelyn rather than a spelling of it. The Polish version keeps the w spelling and the v sound, eh-veh-LEE-nah.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Life
- Pronunciation: eh-veh-LEE-nah
- Variations: Evelina, Evelyn
- Namesakes: Ewelina Monika Lisowska, a Polish singer, songwriter, and vocal producer with two gold records. Ewelina Lukaszewska, a Polish film actress, known for Haunted Poland, Aleksandr’s Price, and Who’s There?
- Popularity: Ewelina is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls.
Felicyta
Felicitas was a Roman goddess before she was a martyr, and Felicyta is the Polish form of that name, from the Latin felicitas, meaning good fortune. It is the long, formal cousin of Felicity, and Poland also uses the shorter Felicja far more often. Four syllables with a hard c makes it a genuine mouthful, which is probably why it never caught on. Zyta, elsewhere on this list, is thought by some sources to be a short form of exactly this name.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Fortune, good luck
- Pronunciation: feh-lee-TSIH-tah
- Variations: Felicitas, Felicita, Felicia, Felicity
- Namesakes: St. Felicyta, a Carthaginian martyr during the Roman emperor Septimius Severus’ reign.
- Popularity: Felicyta is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50.
Filipina
The obvious complication in English is the collision with the demonym for someone from the Philippines, and that is worth thinking through before you commit. Filipina is the Polish feminine of Filip, from the Greek philos, friend, and hippos, horse, so the literal reading is lover of horses. Poland forms feminines from masculine names freely, which is how a name this elaborate exists at all. Filipa and Fila avoid the problem entirely while keeping the root.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Lover of horses, friend to horses
- Pronunciation: fee-lee-PEE-nah
- Variations: Filippina, Philippa, Filippa, Filipa, Phillipa, Philipa
- Popularity: Filipina is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50, and the shorter Filipa is the form more likely to be registered.
Fryderyka
In Poland the masculine Fryderyk is inseparable from Chopin, which gives the feminine a borrowed musical prestige it never earned on its own. Fryderyka is built from the Germanic fridu, meaning peace, and ric, ruler, the same pair behind Frederick. Four syllables and an initial fr cluster make it demanding, though Fryda and Ryka both trim it down. It is a strong pick for a family with a Frederick to honor who would rather not use Frederica.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Peaceful ruler
- Pronunciation: frih-deh-RIH-kah
- Variations: Frederika, Frederikke, Frederica, Frederique, Frederyca, Fredrica
- Namesakes: Fryderyka Elkana (born Fryderyka Judkowska), a Russian-born Polish jazz singer in Poland and France.
- Popularity: Fryderyka does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is far rarer than the masculine Fryderyk.
Gabriela
Reading instantly in English, Spanish and Italian makes Gabriela one of the safest choices here for a family that moves. It is the feminine of Gabriel, from the Hebrew gever, strong man, and el, God, giving the sense God is my strength. Poland has kept it in the top 30 without it ever tipping into overuse, which is a hard balance for a name to strike. Gabrysia is the Polish diminutive and sounds nothing like Gabby, which is either a feature or a warning depending on your taste.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: God is my strength
- Pronunciation: gah-bree-EH-lah
- Variations: Gabriella, Gabrielle, Gabrysia, Gaba
- Namesakes: Gabriela Zapolska, the Polish playwright and novelist whose satire The Morality of Mrs. Dulska is a fixture of the Polish stage.
- Popularity: Gabriela ranked #24 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,745 registrations.
Gaja
Gaja is either the Polish form of the Greek Gaia, the primordial earth goddess, or a feminine form of the Roman praenomen Gaius, and reference works allow both readings. It is pronounced GUY-ah, with the j doing the work an English y would. Two syllables, no clusters, and an earthy name feel that fits the current Polish taste for short names ending in a. If you like the Greek mythology angle, this is the least fussy way into it. It sits well in front of a long surname, which is why it is used as a first name more often than a middle one.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Latin
- Meaning: Earth, goddess of the earth, earth mother
- Pronunciation: GUY-ah
- Variations: Gaia
- Namesakes: Gaja Grzegorzewska, a Polish novelist and author of crime novels about a female private detective, Julia Dobrowolska.
- Popularity: Gaja is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50, though it is part of the short, vowel-heavy group of names Polish parents have been favoring lately.
Genowefa
In Poland this is now firmly a great-grandmother’s name, the kind that shows up on cemetery stones and in parish records. Genowefa is Poland’s version of Genevieve, whose origin is Gaulish rather than Latin and probably combines elements meaning tribe and woman. Saint Genevieve is the patron of Paris, and the name traveled east with her cult.
- Origin: Polish, Celtic, Latin
- Meaning: Wife
- Pronunciation: geh-noh-VEH-fah
- Variations: Genovefa
- Namesakes: Genowefa Wiśniowska, a Polish Vice Marshal of the Sejm assembly from 2005-2007. Genowefa Grabowska, a Polish Member of the European Parliament for the Silesian Voivodeship with the Social Democracy of Poland.
- Popularity: Genowefa is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and has effectively left the nursery altogether.
Gosia
Gosia is the standard Polish short form of Małgorzata, itself the Polish form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, meaning pearl. It is pronounced GOH-shah, and it is one of those nicknames that bears no visible resemblance to its source, which trips up every learner of Polish. Almost no Polish woman is registered as Gosia, and almost every Małgorzata is called it. Gosia Andrzejewicz has two gold records in Poland under exactly that name. It belongs on a name tag rather than a birth certificate, though, so register Małgorzata if you want it official.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Pearls
- Pronunciation: GOH-shah
- Variations: Gośka, Gosieńka, Gosiunia
- Namesakes: Małgorzata “Gosia” Andrzejewicz, a Polish singer with two gold records in Poland. Gosia Piotrowska, a Polish actress known for the film Spellbinder (1995).
- Popularity: Gosia is a diminutive rather than a registered given name, so the ranking that matters is Małgorzata’s, and that name is now outside Poland’s 2025 top 50.
Grażyna
Grażyna is one of the very few names with a documented inventor: Adam Mickiewicz coined it for a narrative poem, taking it from the Lithuanian grazi, meaning beautiful. It remains a genuinely Polish name with no equivalent anywhere, which is more than most names on this list can say. Be aware that in Polish internet slang the name has picked up a dismissive stereotype about middle-aged women, and that is worth knowing before you choose it. As a piece of literary history it stands on its own, but it is not the neutral Grace substitute it looks like.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: grah-ZHIH-nah
- Variations: Gracina, Gracinha, Gratiana, Grazina
- Namesakes: Grażyna Bacewicz, a Polish composer, violinist, and the 2nd Polish female composer to have achieved international recognition. Grażyna Witkowska, a Polish gymnast who competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Grażyna is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and now carries strong generational associations in Poland.
Halina
Halina Konopacka won the discus in Amsterdam in 1928, became Poland’s first Olympic champion of either sex, and went on to publish poetry. The name is the Polish and Belarusian form of Galina, from the Greek galene, meaning calm or stillness at sea, and it is often linked in Polish sources to Helen as well. It has an easy three-syllable shape that English speakers manage on the first attempt.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Sunray, calm
- Pronunciation: hah-LEE-nah
- Variations: Helina
- Namesakes: Halina Poświatowska, a lyrical Polish poet and significant figure in modern Polish literature. Halina Konopacka, a Polish athlete and the first Polish Olympic champion in the 1928 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Halina is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having peaked in the middle of the last century.
Hania
Hania is the Polish diminutive of Hanna, and the Hebrew root beneath both is channah, meaning grace or favor. It is pronounced HAH-nyah, with the ni running together the way it does in onion. Polish families use it constantly for small girls, and unlike Asia or Gosia it is short and phonetic enough to survive in English. Hania Rani, the pianist and composer, has taken the name onto international stages in the last few years, which is quietly changing how it reads.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Grace, favor
- Pronunciation: HAH-nyah
- Variations: Haniya, Hannah
- Namesakes: Hania Aamir, a Pakistani film and television actress, model, and singer. Hania Rani (born Hanna Raniszewska), a Polish pianist, composer, and singer who studied music at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.
- Popularity: Hania is a diminutive and does not chart on its own, but the name behind it, Hanna, ranked #5 in Poland in 2025 with 3,452 registrations.
Hanna
Hanna is the Polish spelling of Hannah, from the Hebrew channah, meaning grace, and it drops the h that English keeps at the end. It has held a top-five place in Poland in 2024 and 2025. The single n and single h make it look softer on paper than the English form, and it is read correctly by everyone in both countries.
- Origin: Polish, German, Arabic
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: HAHN-nah
- Variations: Hannah, Hana, Hanaa
- Namesakes: Hanna Rieber, a Romanian-born Israeli actress who was given the Fringe Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. Hanna Lilian Granfelt, a Finnish operatic soprano and leading singer of the early 20th-century.
- Popularity: Hanna ranked #5 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 3,452 registrations, and has been in the country’s top five for years.
Helena
Poland has revived Helena hard in the last decade, pushing it from a grandmother’s name into the top 15. That climb is mirrored in the United States, where it has gained nearly a hundred places since 2023, so the trend is not just Polish. The name is the Latinate form of the Greek Helene, usually connected to helene, meaning torch, and inseparable from the Helen whose face launched the Trojan war.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Torch, shining light
- Pronunciation: heh-LEH-nah
- Variations: Helene, Helina, Helen, Elena, Alena
- Namesakes: Helena Bonham Carter, an English actress who has a British Academy Film Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian author, and co-founder of the Theosophical Society.
- Popularity: Helena ranked #14 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 2,493 registrations, and #363 in the United States, climbing from #456 in 2023.
Iga
Iga Swiatek won the French Open in 2020 as an unseeded teenager, became world number one, and turned a quiet Polish nickname into a name Polish parents actually register. Very few names on any list can be traced to a single person that precisely. Iga shortens Jadwiga or Ignacja and is now used far more often than either parent name. Two letters of prefix and one hard g give it a short, three-letter shape, EE-gah, with nothing for an English speaker to get wrong.
- Origin: Polish, German
- Meaning: Battle fight
- Pronunciation: EE-gah
- Namesakes: Iga Natalia Świątek, a Polish tennis player and champion at the 2020 French Open, and the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title.
- Popularity: Iga ranked #21 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,872 registrations, and its rise tracks one tennis career almost exactly.
Ilona
Ilona is the old Hungarian form of Helen, most likely reaching Hungarian through a Slavic intermediary, and Poland borrowed it back across the Carpathians. In Hungarian folklore Tunder Ilona is the fairy queen, which is where the name’s slightly enchanted reputation comes from. It is pronounced ee-LOH-nah and needs no explanation in English. If you like Helena but want to skip the classical baggage, this is the same name with a different accent. It has an unhurried sound that carries a longer surname well.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: ee-LOH-nah
- Variations: Elonna, Ilana, Illona
- Namesakes: llona Feher, a Polish violinist, noted violin teacher, and one of the representatives of the Hungarian Violin School. Ilona Senderek-Wójcik, a Polish figure skater and the 2004 Polish national champion.
- Popularity: Ilona is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is more common in Hungary and Germany than in Poland.
Iwona
Polish theatre gave this one a strange second life: Gombrowicz’s play Iwona, Princess of Burgundia has been performed abroad, and its heroine barely speaks. Iwona is the Polish feminine of Yvon, and behind it sits the Germanic iv, meaning yew, the wood medieval bows were cut from. The w is pronounced as a v, so it sounds like ee-VOH-nah rather than anything resembling Iwona on the page. It is the same name as Yvonne, one border further east. Ivona and Ivonne are the spellings she will meet outside Poland.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Bow of yew
- Pronunciation: ee-VOH-nah
- Variations: Ivona, Ivana, Ivonne
- Namesakes: Iwona Daniluk, a Polish biathlete who competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Iwona Maria Blazwick, a British art critic, lecturer, and Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London since 2001.
- Popularity: Iwona is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having had a long run in the second half of the twentieth century.
Izolda
The most durable love story in medieval European literature comes attached to this one, retold by everyone from Gottfried von Strassburg to Wagner. Izolda is the Polish, Russian, Hungarian and Georgian form of Iseult, the Irish princess of the Tristan legend, and the original meaning is disputed even by the specialists. The Polish spelling is unusually clean for a name with such a tangled history. Iza is the short form, and it is shared with Izabela, so it will not mark her out.
- Origin: Polish, German
- Meaning: She who is gazed upon
- Pronunciation: ee-ZOL-dah
- Variations: Isolda, Isolde, Iseult, Izolde
- Namesakes: Izolda Barudžija, a Serbian singer and part of the student choir Branko Krsmanović in Belgrade. Izolda Vasilyevna Izvitskaya, a Soviet actress who has a popular cafe in Paris named after her.
- Popularity: Izolda does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is far more common in Georgia than in Poland.
Jadwiga
The bearer who matters is Jadwiga of Anjou, crowned in 1384 as king of Poland rather than queen, because the office had no feminine form. She founded what became the Jagiellonian University and was canonized in 1997. Poland took Hedwig and made it Jadwiga, built from the Germanic hadu and wig, two separate words that both mean battle, so the name is literally battle-battle. Between the etymology and the biography this name carries real historical weight, and it sits outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 while its short form Iga sits at #21. It still yields the gentle Iga and Jadzia at home.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: War battle
- Pronunciation: yahd-VEE-gah
- Variations: Jadviga, Jadvyga
- Namesakes: Jadwiga, a 13th-century Polish Duchess, and consort of Greater Poland.
- Popularity: Jadwiga is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though its short form Iga sits at #21 and is doing very well without it.
Jadzia
Jadzia is the affectionate Polish short form of Jadwiga, which carries the Germanic elements for battle twice over. It is pronounced YAH-jah, and the dzi cluster produces a sound English does not have a letter for. American readers may know it from Star Trek’s Jadzia Dax. As a name for a warrior princess it is a lot softer than its meaning suggests. It is also one of the few Polish diminutives an English speaker is likely to meet before the full name.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: War, warrior princess
- Pronunciation: YAH-jah
- Namesakes: Jadzia Perez, a Polish-American actor and director known for The Wishing Forest and Once Upon a Time in Deadwood.
- Popularity: Jadzia is a diminutive and does not chart independently in Poland’s 2025 rankings.
Jagienka
Every Polish schoolchild meets one: Jagienka Zychowna is the hunting, bear-fighting heroine of Sienkiewicz’s Knights of the Cross. The name is a diminutive of Jagna, which was itself a diminutive of Agnieszka, Agata or Jadwiga, so it sits two removes from its source. It has stayed alive in the culture without ever coming back into use. If you want its energy on a birth certificate, Jagna is the shorter and more usable form.
- Origin: Polish, German
- Meaning: Lamb of God, sacred, chaste
- Pronunciation: yah-GYEN-kah
- Variations: Jagna, Jaga, Jagoda
- Popularity: Jagienka is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is now more familiar from literature than from real life.
Jagusia
Jagusia is a diminutive of Jaga, which in turn shortens Agnieszka, Agata or Jadwiga, all of which reach back to Greek and Germanic roots meaning pure and battle. Poland stacks diminutives on top of diminutives more happily than English does, and this is a clear example. It carries a folk, countryside register, closer to a spiritual name in feel than an urban one. Jagoda, the Polish word for berry, is sometimes heard nearby as a nickname, though it is a separate name in its own right. On paper Jagusia is best treated as the pet form of Jadwiga rather than a name of its own.
- Origin: Polish, German
- Meaning: Sacred, chaste
- Pronunciation: yah-GOO-shah
- Variations: Jadzia, Jagna
- Popularity: Jagusia does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is used almost entirely as a term of endearment rather than a registered name.
Janina
Janina Bauman survived the Warsaw ghetto, escaped to England, and wrote one of the clearest first-person accounts of it in Winter in the Morning. The name is a Latinate form of Jeannine, which puts it in the enormous family descending from the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning God is gracious, alongside Jane, Joanna and Jan. It is the feminine partner to the Polish Jan, one of the most common male names in the country. Janka and Nina are the short forms, and Nina now outranks the full name by a wide margin.
- Origin: Polish, German, Hebrew
- Meaning: God is gracious
- Pronunciation: yah-NEE-nah
- Variations: Jania, Janiah, Janiya
- Namesakes: Janina Bauman, a Polish-Jewish journalist, and writer who escaped the Holocaust to Leeds, England. Janina Szymkowiak, a Polish Roman Catholic nun from the Daughters of the Sorrowful Mother of God.
- Popularity: Janina is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls.
Jarosława
Jarosława is the feminine form of Jarosław, assembled from the Slavic jaru, meaning fierce or energetic, and slava, glory. The spring association that often gets attached to it comes from the Polish word jar rather than the name’s actual root. Jarosława Mirowska worked inside the German administration in occupied Warsaw while passing intelligence to the Polish underground, which is about as much weight as a name can carry.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Fierce glory
- Pronunciation: yah-roh-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Jaroslava
- Namesakes: Jarosława Mirowska, a Polish spy for the Waffen-SS and a double agent for the Polish resistance in World War II. Jarosława Petrowa Dankowa, a Bulgarian-Dutch sculptor whose best-known sculpture is in The Hague.
- Popularity: Jarosława is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is much rarer than the masculine Jarosław.
Jolanta
Poland has a genuine medieval bearer in Jolanta of Poland, the thirteenth-century duchess who was later beatified. The name is the Polish form of Yolanda, which most likely reworks the Greek iole, violet, and anthos, flower. It has a firm, three-beat sound with none of the softness the flower meaning suggests.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Violet
- Pronunciation: yoh-LAHN-tah
- Variations: Jolanda, Jolantha, Iolanda, Yolonda
- Namesakes: Jolanta Bebel, a Polish fencer who competed at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics. Jolanta Dičkutė, a Lithuanian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Labor Party.
- Popularity: Jolanta is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, having crested with the generation born in the 1960s and 1970s.
Judyta
Judyta is Poland’s version of the Hebrew Yehudit, meaning woman of Judea, and the biblical Judith is the widow who walks into an enemy camp and comes out with a general’s head. There is a Polish one too: Judyta of Swabia married Władysław Herman and was mother to Bolesław the Wrymouth. Between the two, this traditional biblical name has more nerve than its gentle sound implies.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Woman from Judea
- Pronunciation: yoo-DIH-tah
- Variations: Judith, Judit
- Namesakes: Judith of Poland (Judyta Bolesławówna), a Hungarian member of the Polish House of Piast in the 12th-century. Judyta Grudzien, a Polish-American photographer whose work has been shown in the U.S. and internationally.
- Popularity: Judyta does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is an uncommon choice even among Polish biblical names.
Julia
Julia is the feminine of the Roman family name Julius, which the family itself traced to Iulus, son of Aeneas, though the ancient sources also link it to a word for downy. Poland and the United States both keep it in steady use, which makes it one of the easiest names here to carry across a border. It is spelled identically in both languages and only the stress moves.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Jupiter’s child, downy
- Pronunciation: YOOL-yah
- Variations: Iulia, Julija, Yulia, Yuliya
- Namesakes: Julia Ormond, an English film actress who won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for Temple Grandin. Julia Child, an American cooking teacher, author, and TV personality.
- Popularity: Julia ranked #6 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 3,207 registrations, and #131 in the United States.
Karolina
Karolina is the feminine form of Carolus, the Latin form of Charles, from the Germanic karl meaning free man. Poland took the elongated Latinate shape rather than the French Caroline, which is why it runs to four syllables. The k spelling is the giveaway that a Karolina is Polish rather than Italian or Spanish. Karolinka is the diminutive, and it is also the title of one of the best-known Silesian folk songs, so the name comes with a tune attached.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Free man
- Pronunciation: kah-roh-LEE-nah
- Variations: Caroline, Carolina, Karolinka, Karola
- Namesakes: Blessed Karolina Kózkówna, a Polish farm girl beatified by John Paul II. Karolina Bielawska, the Polish winner of the Miss World 2021 title, crowned in 2022.
- Popularity: Karolina is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though it was a standard choice for the generation now in their twenties and thirties.
Kasia
In Poland this one is so standard that many Katarzynas go decades without hearing their full name outside a doctor’s office. Kasia is the short form of Katarzyna, from the Greek Aikaterine, whose meaning is uncertain and only later attached to katharos, pure, by folk etymology. It is pronounced KAH-shah, another example of si producing a sh sound. Kasia Nosowska, frontwoman of the rock band Hey, has been recognizable by the nickname alone since the 1990s. If you love Katherine but want something warmer for daily use, this is the Polish answer. On a birth certificate it is unusual; in a Polish classroom it is everywhere.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Hebrew
- Meaning: Uncertain, traditionally glossed as pure
- Pronunciation: KAH-shah
- Variations: Kasa, Kacia
- Namesakes: Katarzyna (Kasia) Nosowska, a Polish musician and lead singer of the Polish rock band Hey. Katarzyna “Kasia” Madera, a British TV news presenter on BBC One, the BBC News Channel, and BBC World News.
- Popularity: Kasia is a diminutive and does not chart on its own in Poland’s 2025 rankings.
Katarzyna
Katarzyna is the Polish form of Katherine, and the underlying Greek Aikaterine has no agreed meaning, whatever the pure gloss suggests. Poland gives it five syllables and an rz that sounds like the s in pleasure, which makes it one of the harder names here for an English speaker. It is worth the effort, because it sounds nothing like Katherine and everything like itself. Kasia does all the daily work, so the full name is really the version for documents and for a mother who is annoyed.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Uncertain, traditionally glossed as pure
- Pronunciation: kah-tah-ZHIH-nah
- Variations: Katarzynka
- Namesakes: Katarzyna Mirosława Majchrzak-Waśniewska, a Polish high jumper who took part in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Katarzyna Pakosińska, a Polish actress, comedian, and former member of the cabaret group, Kabaret Moralnego Niepokoju.
- Popularity: Katarzyna is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though it was one of the country’s most-used names for most of the twentieth century.
Kinga
Saint Kinga was a Hungarian princess who married Bolesław the Chaste, and Polish legend credits her with the salt mine at Wieliczka, where the underground chapel is named for her. The name is the Polish and Hungarian diminutive of Kunigunde, from the Germanic kuni, clan, and gund, war. Two crisp syllables, KEEN-gah, make it one of the few short Polish names that needs no explanation abroad. It is a strong female name that manages not to sound heavy, which is a rare combination. It avoids the length problem that sinks most Polish revivals abroad.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: Brave
- Pronunciation: KEEN-gah
- Namesakes: Kinga Dunin, a Polish writer, feminist, and sociologist. Kinga Janurik, a Hungarian handball player for Ferencváros and the Hungarian national team.
- Popularity: Kinga is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls but has held steady low-level use for decades rather than fading.
Kunegunda
Kinga is the short form everyone knows, and Kunegunda is the full name behind it, so the pair is a good illustration of what Polish diminutives actually do to a word. The long version is the Polish spelling of the Germanic Kunigunde, built from kuni, meaning clan or family, and gund, war. Five syllables is beyond most modern parents, which is why the short form went one way and the long form stayed in the archive. Princess Kunegunda of Kynast Castle is the figure Silesian legend attaches to it.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic, Germanic
- Meaning: Family war
- Pronunciation: koo-neh-GOON-dah
- Variations: Kunigunde, Kundegunda, Kunigunda
- Namesakes: Princess Kunegunda is a Polish heroine of the legends from the Sudeten mountains who likely lived in Kynast Castle in Poland. Kunegunda Siwiec, a Polish lay nun, mystic, and Servant of God of the Catholic Church.
- Popularity: Kunegunda is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is now essentially a historical name.
Lada
Lada is recorded in Polish and other Slavic sources as a goddess of love, beauty and marriage, though modern scholars are divided over whether she was a genuine pre-Christian deity or an invention of later chroniclers. That uncertainty is worth knowing rather than glossing over. As a name it is short, open and easy in any language, LAH-dah, with no consonant clusters at all. The one practical snag is the Soviet-era car brand of the same name, which older readers will hear before they hear the goddess. As a middle name it carries the mythology without asking anyone to commit to it.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: LAH-dah
- Namesakes: Lada Adamic, an American network scientist researching information dynamics in networks. Lada Kaštelan, a Croatian screenwriter and dramaturge at the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb between 1987-2007.
- Popularity: Lada does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is rare across the Slavic world as a given name.
Lena
Lena works as a short form of Helena, Magdalena and Yelena all at once, which is why it turns up across half of Europe with no single origin. Poland has treated it as a full name for years rather than a nickname, and it ranked #22 in Poland in 2025. Two syllables, LEH-nah, and no letter that behaves unexpectedly in English. Its one weakness is that it is short enough to have no diminutive of its own, so what you register is what she gets. That simplicity also makes it easy to say and spell correctly on the first try, in either language.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Ray of light, dwelling/lodging
- Pronunciation: LEH-nah
- Variations: Lenna, Leena, Lina, Lenah, Linah, Lyna
- Namesakes: Lena Olin, a Swedish actress nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and an Emmy Award. Lena Alekseevna Hades, a Russian-Jewish artist, writer, and art theorist.
- Popularity: Lena ranked #22 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 1,845 registrations, and #279 in the United States.
Leokadia
Five syllables with the stress on the third give this one a rolling, almost sung quality. Leokadia is the Polish form of Leocadia, from the Greek leukos, meaning bright or white, and Saint Leocadia of Toledo carried it into the Spanish and then the Polish calendar. It sounds far grander than any of the women who commonly wore it in twentieth-century Poland, which is part of its charm.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Latin
- Meaning: Bright
- Pronunciation: leh-oh-KAH-dyah
- Variations: Leocadia
- Namesakes: Leokadia Rymkiewicz, a Polish film actress known for The Moment of Peace (1965).
- Popularity: Leokadia is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and has largely left the nursery.
Lidia
The biblical Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth and the first European convert named in Acts, which is how this name entered the Christian calendar. Lidia is the Polish spelling, and the source was originally not a personal name at all but a region of Asia Minor, so the literal reading is woman from Lydia. In Polish it is three syllables, LEE-dyah, with the i doing more work than English expects. It sits between the fashionable and the forgotten, which usually means it is due a turn. The one thing to expect is that English speakers will write Lydia unless told otherwise.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Beautiful, noble one
- Pronunciation: LEE-dyah
- Variations: Lydia
- Namesakes: Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich, an Italian-American celebrity chef, TV host, author, and restaurateur. Lidia Kopania-Przebindowska, a Polish musician and the frontwoman of the musical group Kind of Blue.
- Popularity: Lidia is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is now more common in Spain, Italy and Mexico than in Poland.
Łucja
Łucja is the Polish form of Lucia, from the Latin lux, meaning light, and it is the same name as Lucy one step further from the source. The barred ł is pronounced like an English w, so this is WOOTS-yah rather than anything a reader would guess. That single letter is the whole reason the name looks harder than it is. Polish parents have pushed it into the top 20, which makes it one of the clearest examples of the country’s current appetite for pre-war names.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Light
- Pronunciation: WOOTS-yah
- Variations: Lucia, Lucy, Lucyna, Lucylla
- Namesakes: Saint Lucia of Syracuse, the fourth-century martyr whose December feast is one of the oldest light festivals in the Christian calendar.
- Popularity: Łucja ranked #20 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,901 registrations, one of the sharpest vintage revivals in the country.
Ludmiła
Saint Ludmila of Bohemia was murdered for her Christian faith and is one of the first Slavic saints on record, which puts the name close to the beginning of written Central European history. Poland spells that very old Slavic compound Ludmiła, from lud, meaning people, and mil, meaning dear or gracious. The barred ł gives it a w sound in the middle, lood-MEE-wah, so the Polish version sounds softer than the Russian Lyudmila.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Dear to the people
- Pronunciation: lood-MEE-wah
- Variations: Ludmilla, Lyudmila, Ludka, Mila
- Namesakes: Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, the tenth-century duchess and grandmother of Saint Wenceslas, one of the earliest Slavic saints.
- Popularity: Ludmiła is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is considerably more common in Czechia and Russia.
Magdalena
Magdalena is the Latinate form of Magdalene, which is a place description rather than a name: a woman from Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. Poland has used it heavily enough that the biblical association has worn almost completely off, leaving a long, formal, four-syllable name. Magdalena Abakanowicz turned woven fiber into monumental sculpture and exhibited it around the world.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Of Magdala
- Pronunciation: mahg-dah-LEH-nah
- Variations: Magdalen, Magdalene, Magda, Madzia
- Namesakes: Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska, a Polish-Tartar sculptor and fiber artist known for using textiles as a sculptural medium. Magdalena Sadłecka, a Polish mountain biker who competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Magdalena is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, and it ranked #849 in the United States in 2025.
Maja
Maja is either a form of the Greek Maia, mother of Hermes and one of the Pleiades, or a diminutive of Maria, and Polish sources allow both. It is pronounced MY-ah, since the j does the work of an English y, and it is nothing like Maya on the page even though they sound the same. That mismatch is the one thing to think about if you are naming a child who will live in an English-speaking country. Inside Poland it has been at or near the top of the charts for years, so she will not be the only Maja in the room. If the spelling worries you, Maya on the certificate and Maja at home is a common compromise.
- Origin: Polish, Latin, Hebrew
- Meaning: Sea of bitterness, star of the sea
- Pronunciation: MY-ah
- Variations: Maya, Majah, Miah, Mya, Maija, Maiya, Myah, Maia
- Namesakes: Maja Keuc, a Slovenian singer in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. Maja Lidia Korwin-Kossakowska-Grzędowicz, a Polish fantasy writer, archeologist and journalist.
- Popularity: Maja ranked #3 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 3,873 registrations, after topping the list in 2024 with 4,640. It has no US ranking at all.
Małgorzata
Virtually every Małgorzata is Gosia or Małgosia in practice, and that is the point: four syllables, a barred ł, and an rz make the full name a genuine challenge outside Poland. It is the Polish form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, meaning pearl, and it is the longest and least guessable version of that name in any language. Małgorzata Gebel, who played Wiktoria Klonowska in Schindler’s List, is a well-known bearer. For an English-speaking family this is a name to love in principle and shorten in practice.
- Origin: Polish, Greek, Latin
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: mahw-goh-ZHAH-tah
- Variations: Margaret
- Namesakes: Małgorzata Gebel, a Polish film actress best known for Schindler’s List and the U.S. TV series ER.
- Popularity: Małgorzata does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though it was one of the most common Polish names of the twentieth century.
Marcelina
Currently one of the country’s strongest performers, Marcelina holds a top-20 place without the exposure that Zofia or Maja get. It is the Polish feminine of Marcellinus, a diminutive of Marcellus, which itself comes from Mars, the Roman god of war. Four generations of diminutive stacking in Latin, then adopted whole by Polish, produces a name that sounds delicate and means something martial.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Of Mars
- Pronunciation: mar-tseh-LEE-nah
- Variations: Marcellina, Marcella
- Namesakes: Marcelina Zawadzka, a Polish model, crowned Miss Polonia in 2011, representing Poland in Miss Universe in 2012. Marcelina Maria Stoszek, a Polish singer, songwriter, and composer nominated for a Fryderyk Award in 2012.
- Popularity: Marcelina ranked #18 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,257 registrations.
Maria
Maria is the Latin form of the Greek Maria, from the Hebrew Miryam, whose meaning has never been settled: bitter, beloved and drop of the sea have all been proposed and none is secure. In Catholic Poland it carries more weight than any other name, and it is also used as a middle name for boys in some Polish families, including Rainer Maria Rilke’s tradition further west. Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, which is the association most Poles reach for first.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Sea of bitterness, wished-for child
- Pronunciation: MAR-yah
- Variations: Máire, Maryja, Marija
- Namesakes: Maria Zandbang, a Polish equestrian who helped pioneer women’s participation in horse riding in Poland. Maria Jane Jewsbury, an English writer, poet, and reviewer known for her Phantasmagoria of poetry and prose.
- Popularity: Maria ranked #11 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 2,536 registrations, and #87 in the United States.
Maryla
Maryla is a Polish diminutive of Maria that has become a name in its own right, and behind it sits the Hebrew Miryam with all of its unresolved meanings. Maryla Rodowicz has been one of Poland’s biggest singers since the 1960s and is the reason most Poles recognize it instantly. Maryla Wolska wrote poetry in the Young Poland movement, which gives the name a second, quieter cultural anchor. Three syllables and a rolled r make it more Polish-sounding than the plain Maria it comes from.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Bitterness of the sea, beloved
- Pronunciation: mah-RIH-lah
- Variations: Marilah
- Namesakes: Maryla Jonas (born Maryla Jonasówna), a Polish classical pianist who escaped Nazism to settle in Brazil and the U.S. Maryla Wolska, a Polish poet of the Young Poland writing movement.
- Popularity: Maryla is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is registered as a formal first name only rarely.
Marzanna
On 21 March, Polish schoolchildren still carry a straw Marzanna to the nearest river and drown her to end the winter. The name is the Polish form of the Slavic Morana, and reference works also treat it as a possible variant of Marianna, so its origin is genuinely contested even though the ritual is not. That makes it one of the very few pagan names that survived into modern practice rather than into books. The rz is pronounced like the s in measure. It is a striking choice, though the association with winter and death is a real one to weigh rather than romanticize. Marzena, which looks almost identical on the page, has a completely different and far gentler origin.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Uncertain, linked to winter and rebirth
- Pronunciation: mah-ZHAN-nah
- Variations: Morana, Marzana, Marena
- Namesakes: Marzanna, the Slavic figure of winter whose straw effigy is still drowned or burned in Polish villages on the first day of spring.
- Popularity: Marzanna is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is rare as a given name, though the tradition behind it is known to every Polish child.
Melania
Two Roman saints named Melania, grandmother and granddaughter, carried this one into the church calendar in the fourth and fifth centuries. It is the Polish, Italian and Spanish form of Melanie, from the Greek melas, meaning dark or black. In Poland it reads as an unhurried, old-fashioned pretty name rather than a political one, though American parents will find that association harder to sidestep.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Black, dark
- Pronunciation: meh-LAH-nyah
- Variations: Melanie
- Namesakes: Melania Albea, a Swiss figure skater who competed internationally for Spain. Melania Ursu, a Romanian stage and film actress, awarded the Star of Romania, Knight class in 1969.
- Popularity: Melania is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, and it has not charted in the United States since 2017, when it ranked #932.
Michalina
Poland is one of the few countries that builds a full feminine from Michael rather than borrowing Michelle, and it has pushed the result into the top 20. Michalina goes back through that name to the Hebrew mi ka el, a rhetorical question meaning who is like God. The ch is a throaty sound closer to the Scottish loch than to anything in English.
- Origin: Polish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Who is like God
- Pronunciation: mee-hah-LEE-nah
- Variations: Michaelina, Michelina, Michalana, Michalena
- Namesakes: Michalina Malisz, a Polish Hurdy Gurdy player and member of the Swiss metal band, Eluveitie. Michalina Łabacz, a Polish actress who won the Best Debut Actor award at the 2017 Polish Film Festival.
- Popularity: Michalina ranked #16 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,380 registrations.
Milena
Milena Jesenska, the Czech journalist Kafka wrote his Letters to Milena to, died in Ravensbruck in 1944 and is the bearer with the longest reach. The name is the feminine of Milan, built on the Slavic mil, meaning dear or gracious, and it belongs to the whole of the Slavic world rather than to Poland alone. Three syllables, mee-LEH-nah, and it needs no adjustment in English. It is drifting downward in the United States while holding its place in Poland, which is an unusual split. It also reads naturally in Polish, Czech, Italian and Portuguese, which few Slavic names manage.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Gracious, pleasant, dear
- Pronunciation: mee-LEH-nah
- Variations: Mileena, Milene, Milenia, Milène
- Namesakes: Milena Dravić, a Yugoslav and Serbian film, television, and theater actress. Milena Petrović-Njegoš, the only Queen consort of Montenegro as the wife of Nicholas I.
- Popularity: Milena ranked #42 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 838 registrations, and #950 in the United States, down from #701 in 2023.
Mirosława
This one belongs to the two-part naming system Slavic families used long before the church calendar arrived, and it is among the last of that group still in living use. Mirosława is the feminine of Mirosław, from the Slavic miru, which carries both peace and world, and slava, glory. The barred ł turns the third syllable into a w sound, which is what makes the written form look harder than it is.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Peace and glory
- Pronunciation: mee-roh-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Miroslava, Mirka, Mira
- Namesakes: Mirosława Marcheluk, the Polish stage and television actress and long-serving member of the Warsaw Powszechny Theatre company.
- Popularity: Mirosława is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and now sits mainly with women born in the middle of the last century.
Mokosz
Mokosz is the Polish spelling of Mokosh, the only female deity named in the Kievan pantheon of 980, and she is associated with weaving, women’s work, water and fertility. Her name is usually connected to a Slavic root meaning wet, which fits a goddess of moisture and the earth. This is a genuine piece of pre-Christian Slavic naming heritage rather than a modern invention. It is also, honestly, more of a middle name than a first name: the sz ending gives it no natural diminutive, which is unusual for Polish.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Fertile Mother Earth, moist
- Pronunciation: MOH-kohsh
- Popularity: Mokosz is not a registered given name in Poland’s 2025 rankings and is best understood as a mythological name rather than a nursery one.
Natalia
Natalia is the Latinate form of Natalie, from the Latin natale domini, meaning birthday of the Lord, which makes it a Christmas name in the most literal sense. Poland has used it steadily since the 1980s and it has settled comfortably in the top 40 without ever spiking. It is spelled the same in Polish, Spanish, Italian and Russian, which keeps it recognizable across borders even as its US ranking slips, down to #144 in 2025 from #96 in 2023.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Christmas Day
- Pronunciation: nah-TAHL-yah
- Variations: Natalie, Natalya, Nataliya
- Namesakes: Natalia Igorevna Bessmertnova, a Soviet prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet. Natalia Danielle Dyer, an American actress, known for the Netflix science-fiction-horror series Stranger Things.
- Popularity: Natalia ranked #40 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 892 registrations, and #144 in the United States, down from #96 in 2023.
Nawoja
Nawoja is an old Polish feminine built from the element woj, meaning warrior, and it belongs to the same pre-Christian layer as Dobrawa and Bogna. Nawojka is the name attached to the legend of the first woman to study at the Krakow Academy, who supposedly enrolled in men’s clothing in the fifteenth century and was found out. Whether she existed is debated, but a Krakow street and a student hall are named for her. That is a lot of story for a name almost nobody uses. For parents who want something genuinely native and genuinely unusual, it is hard to beat.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Best warrior
- Pronunciation: nah-VOY-ah
- Variations: Nawojka
- Namesakes: Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk, a Polish writer and the first Polish female prose writer awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Popularity: Nawoja does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50.
Nina
Nina began as a short form of names ending in nina, from Antonina to Janina, and has been a full name in its own right for well over a century. It is one of the very few names that is spelled and pronounced identically in Polish, English, Italian, Russian and Spanish. That makes it about as low-friction as a short name can be. The trade-off is the same one Lena faces: there is nothing left to shorten.
- Origin: Polish, Italian, Hebrew
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: NEE-nah
- Variations: Neena, Neenah, Nena, Ninah
- Namesakes: Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia, the great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Nina Kolundžić, a Serbian handball player for HIB Handball Graz and the Serbian national team.
- Popularity: Nina ranked #43 among girls born in Poland in 2025 with 759 registrations, and #324 in the United States.
Ola
Ola is the Polish short form of Aleksandra, and the Greek root beneath it combines alexein, to defend, with aner, man. Two syllables, OH-lah, and no way to get it wrong in any language. In Poland it is used so universally that a woman can go years without hearing Aleksandra outside an office. Oleńka is the softer form used with small children, and it sounds nothing like the name it comes from.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Defender of mankind (via Aleksandra)
- Pronunciation: OH-lah
- Variations: Olah, Olla, Ollah
- Namesakes: Ola Al-Fares, a Jordanian lawyer, journalist, and television presenter at Al Jazeera. Aleksandra “Ola” Jordan, a British-Polish ballroom dancer who appeared on the British TV show Strictly Come Dancing.
- Popularity: Ola is a diminutive and does not chart on its own, but Aleksandra, the name behind it, ranked #28 in Poland in 2025 with 1,308 registrations.
Oliwia
A Polish Oliwia and an English Olivia sound identical while looking quite different, because the w is pronounced as a v. That is worth weighing if she will hold two passports, since the spelling will be corrected in one country and required in the other. The name is the Polish spelling of Olivia, which Shakespeare either coined or popularized in Twelfth Night, working from the Latin oliva, olive. Oliwka is the diminutive, and it is also the Polish word for a small olive.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Olive tree
- Pronunciation: oh-LEEV-yah
- Variations: Olivia, Oliwja
- Namesakes: Oliwia Dąbrowska, a Polish actress known for playing the “red coat girl” in Schindler’s List.
- Popularity: Oliwia ranked #7 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 3,067 registrations.
Pola
Pola Negri, born Apolonia Chalupiec in Lipno, became one of the biggest stars of the American silent era and is the reason this short form ever existed as a public name. Pola shortens Apolonia, which comes from Apollo, the Greek god of light and music, and Polish parents now register the short version far more often than the full one. It is also read as a link to the Polish word for a field or a poppy, though that connection is affectionate rather than etymological. Two open syllables and no difficult letters make it one of the easiest names here to carry abroad. It stands on its own now, which is unusual for something that began life as a shortening.
- Origin: Polish, Arabic, Greek
- Meaning: Poppy, strength
- Pronunciation: POH-lah
- Namesakes: Pola Negri (born Apolonia Chalupec), a Polish film actress popular during the silent film era. Pola Kinski (born Pola Nakszynski), a German actress and the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski.
- Popularity: Pola ranked #8 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 2,812 registrations.
Radosława
Radosława is the feminine form of Radosław, from the Slavic radu, meaning happy or willing, and slava, glory. It sits in the same family as Mirosława, Jarosława and Bogusława, all of which pair a mood with the same second element. Radomiła looks like a sister name but is a different compound, built from rado and mil, meaning dear, rather than slava. Four syllables and a barred ł make the written version look worse than it sounds.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Happy glory
- Pronunciation: rah-doh-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Radoslava, Radka
- Popularity: Radosława is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is much rarer than the masculine Radosław.
Renata
Renee is the same name in French dress. Renata keeps the full Latin shape, from renatus, meaning reborn, a form early Christians took to mark baptism rather than birth. Poland shares it with the Italian name stock and pronounces it almost identically, reh-NAH-tah.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Reborn, rebirth
- Pronunciation: reh-NAH-tah
- Variations: Renee, Ranita
- Namesakes: Renata Adler, an American author, journalist, and film critic for The New Yorker and The New York Times. Renata Jaworska, a Polish contemporary visual artist.
- Popularity: Renata is outside Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and is now more common in Brazil and Italy than in Poland.
Róża
Róża is simply the Polish word for rose, used as a name, which puts it in the same category as Jagoda for berry and Malina for raspberry. Both accented letters do real work: the ó with an acute sounds like oo, and the ż with a dot sounds like the s in measure, so the whole thing is ROO-zhah. It has climbed into the top 35 alongside Rozalia, and Polish parents currently seem to want exactly this kind of short, concrete, native word. Rózia is the diminutive. English speakers will read it as Roza, which is close enough that nothing important is lost. Rozalia, at #23 the same year, is the longer form for parents who want more to work with. Between them they show how far Polish naming has swung back toward plain native words.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Rose
- Pronunciation: ROO-zhah
- Variations: Rózia, Rosa
- Namesakes: Róża Luksemburg, the Polish-born economist and socialist theorist. Róża Thun, the Polish politician and long-serving member of the European Parliament.
- Popularity: Róża ranked #31 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,196 registrations, part of a broad revival of Polish flower and nature names.
Stanisława
Stanisława is the feminine form of Stanisław, from the Slavic stati, meaning to become or to stand, and slava, glory. Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, a martyred bishop, is one of Poland’s three patron saints, which is why the masculine has never gone out of use. The feminine carries its own weight through Stanisława Leszczyńska, the Auschwitz midwife who refused an order to kill newborns and continued delivering babies in the camp. Stasia and Stenia are the short forms. For a family looking at Polish boy names too, this is the sister to the country’s most Polish male name. It is a heavy name, and the women who carried it could take the weight.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Standing in glory
- Pronunciation: stah-nee-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Stanislava, Stasia, Stanka
- Namesakes: Stanisława Walasiewicz, a Polish Olympic sprinter. Stanisława Leszczyńska, the midwife who delivered babies in Auschwitz.
- Popularity: Stanisława is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls, though the masculine Stanisław is one of the country’s most historically loaded names.
Wanda
Wanda most likely comes from a Germanic word meaning a Wend, the term used for the Slavic people who lived in eastern Germany, so the name amounts to the Slavic woman. Polish legend gives it a much better story: Princess Wanda, daughter of Krakow’s founder, threw herself into the Vistula rather than marry a German prince, and a mound on the city’s edge is still called hers. In the twentieth century the name went to Wanda Rutkiewicz, a mountaineer who summited K2, and who later vanished during a Himalayan expedition. It is pronounced VAHN-dah in Polish and WAHN-dah in English, and it ranked #48 in Poland in 2025. It is also one of the very few names on this list with both a legend and a mountaineer attached.
- Origin: Polish, Germanic
- Meaning: A Wend, a Slav
- Pronunciation: VAHN-dah
- Variations: Vanda, Wandzia, Wandeczka
- Namesakes: Wanda Rutkiewicz, a Polish mountaineer who summited K2 and Everest. Princess Wanda, the legendary daughter of Krakus who, in Polish legend, drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
- Popularity: Wanda ranked #48 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 654 registrations.
Weronika
Kieslowski’s film The Double Life of Veronique gave the Polish spelling an international audience in 1991. Weronika is the Polish and Sorbian form of Veronica, usually explained as the Latin vera icon, meaning true image, though it may simply be a Latin reworking of the Greek Berenike. Saint Veronica is the woman who wiped Christ’s face on the road to Calvary, and the cloth is the image the name refers to.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: True image
- Pronunciation: veh-roh-NEE-kah
- Variations: Veronika, Veronica, Varonika
- Namesakes: Weronika Anna Rosati, a Polish actress known for the Polish soap opera M jak miłość. Weronika Kordowiecka, a Polish handball player who plays for the Polish national team.
- Popularity: Weronika ranked #44 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 741 registrations.
Wiktoria
Wiktoria ranked #19 in Poland in 2025, without the wave of fashion that lifted Zofia and Antonina. The k and the w make it look nothing like the English Victoria while sounding almost the same, veek-TOR-yah. Both come from the Latin victoria, meaning victory, and the Roman goddess who personified it.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Victory
- Pronunciation: veek-TOR-yah
- Variations: Victoria, Viktoria, Viktorija, Viktoriya, Victoire
- Namesakes: Wiktoria Julia Jadwiga Goryńska, a Polish graphic artist known for woodcutting. Wiktoria Śliwowska, a Polish historian and member of the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of History.
- Popularity: Wiktoria ranked #19 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 1,988 registrations.
Wioletta
Wioletta is the Polish form of Violet, from the Latin viola, the flower that grows across the Polish uplands in early spring. The doubled t and the initial w give it a distinctly Polish shape, and it is pronounced vyoh-LEH-tah. Wioletta Grzegorzewska was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for Swallowing Mercury, which is the highest literary reach the name has had.
- Origin: Polish, Latin
- Meaning: Violet
- Pronunciation: vyoh-LEH-tah
- Variations: Violetta, Violet, Violeta, Wioleta, Violette, Violete
- Namesakes: Czesława Gospodarek (known by Violetta Villas), a Polish cabaret star, singer, actress, composer, and songwriter. Wioletta Grzegorzewska, a Polish poet and writer, nominated for The Man Booker Prize.
- Popularity: Wioletta is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 for girls and belongs largely to women born in the 1970s and 1980s.
Władysława
Władysława is the feminine form of Władysław, built from the Slavic volod, meaning to rule, and slava, glory. Four Polish kings carried the masculine form, including Władysław Jagiełło, who won at Grunwald. The feminine has always been the quieter partner, though Władysława Habicht spent her life on suffrage and housing cooperatives in Kraków. Two barred ł sounds and five syllables make this a genuine mouthful, and Władzia is what everyone actually used.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Rules with glory
- Pronunciation: vwah-dih-SWAH-vah
- Variations: Vladislava, Vladyslava, Włodzisława
- Namesakes: Władysława Habicht, a Polish suffragette, social activist, and member of the housing cooperative movement. Władysława Majerczyk, a Polish cross-country skier who competed in the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics.
- Popularity: Władysława is absent from Poland’s 2025 top 50 and now appears mainly in the records of an older generation.
Żaklina
A modern import rather than an old Polish name, Żaklina was borrowed from French in the twentieth century and respelled to fit Polish sounds. It is the Polish form of Jacqueline, itself a feminine diminutive of Jacques, and behind that stands the Hebrew Yaakov, meaning supplanter or holder of the heel. The ż with a dot gives it the s of measure, so the whole name is zhah-KLEE-nah. Żaklinka and Żaka are the short forms, though the name is rare enough that most bearers simply use the full version. It reads as French inside Poland and as Polish everywhere else, which is an odd but not unpleasant place to sit.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic, Hebrew
- Meaning: One who supplants
- Pronunciation: zhah-KLEE-nah
- Variations: Żakelina
- Namesakes: Žaklina Šojić, a Serbian-Danish beauty pageant titleholder, crowned Miss Universe Denmark in 2007.
- Popularity: Żaklina does not appear in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and remains an unusual choice even in Poland.
Zofia
Zofia was the most-registered girls’ name in Poland in 2025, and the z at the front is the only real difference from Sofia, which is what makes it read as Polish on sight. It is the Polish spelling of Sophia, from the Greek sophia, meaning wisdom. Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska led the Polish-Mongolian expeditions into the Gobi in the 1960s and became the first woman on the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences. Zosia is the diminutive, and it is so common that many Polish Zofias use it exclusively until adulthood.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Wisdom
- Pronunciation: ZOH-fyah
- Variations: Sophia, Sofia, Sofiya, Sofija
- Namesakes: Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, the first Polish woman on the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences. Zofia Józefa Zdybicka, a Polish nun and philosopher specializing in ontology and the philosophy of religion.
- Popularity: Zofia was the #1 girls’ name registered in Poland in 2025, with 4,415 uses. It has no US ranking on record at all.
Zosia
Zosia is the standard Polish diminutive of Zofia, and the Greek sophia, meaning wisdom, sits behind both. It is pronounced ZOH-shah, with the si making the same sh sound it does in Kasia, Gosia and Basia. Mickiewicz gave the name its literary standing in Pan Tadeusz, where Zosia is the young woman the whole plot is arranged around. American readers may know it from Zosia Mamet, which is a rare case of a Polish diminutive crossing over intact. Zosienka is the next step down for a very small girl. It is short, phonetic and almost impossible to mangle, which is more than the full Zofia can promise abroad. Registering Zofia and using Zosia is what most Polish families actually do.
- Origin: Polish, Greek
- Meaning: Wisdom
- Pronunciation: ZOH-shah
- Variations: Zosienka, Zocha
- Namesakes: Zosia, the young heroine of Adam Mickiewicz’s national epic Pan Tadeusz. Zosia Mamet, the American actress and daughter of playwright David Mamet.
- Popularity: Zosia is a diminutive and is rarely registered on its own, but Zofia, the name it comes from, was Poland’s #1 girls’ name in 2025 with 4,415 uses.
Zula
Zula is a Polish diminutive of Zuzanna, and the Hebrew shoshannah behind it means lily or, in some readings, rose. Zula Pogorzelska was a cabaret star of interwar Warsaw and the first Polish performer to dance the Charleston on stage, which fixes the name firmly in the 1920s. Two syllables and a clean vowel ending make it easy anywhere. It is one of the few Polish diminutives that could pass as a full name abroad without anyone noticing. It has no obvious English cognate either, so nobody will assume it is short for something else.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Lily
- Pronunciation: ZOO-lah
- Variations: Zulah, Zulla, Zullah
- Namesakes: Zula Pogorzelska (born Zofia Pogorzelska), a Polish cabaret and film actress credited as the first Polish performer to dance the Charleston, at an interwar Warsaw cabaret in 1926.
- Popularity: Zula is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is used as a nickname far more often than as a registered name.
Zuzanna
Zuzanna has sat in Poland’s top three for years, so it is thoroughly mainstream and still reads as an elegant name. It is the Polish and Latvian form of Susanna, from the Hebrew shoshannah, meaning lily, and the biblical Susanna is the woman falsely accused by the elders and cleared by Daniel. The doubled n and the z give the Polish version a bounce the English Susanna lost long ago.
- Origin: Polish, Slavic
- Meaning: Lily
- Pronunciation: zoo-ZAHN-nah
- Variations: Zuzana, Susanna
- Namesakes: Zuzanna Szadkowski, a Polish-American actress known for the teen drama series Gossip Girl. Zuzanna Bijoch, a Polish fashion model who has been on models.com’s “Top 50” list since 2014.
- Popularity: Zuzanna ranked #2 among girls born in Poland in 2025, with 3,881 registrations, just behind Zofia.
Zyta
Zyta is either the Polish form of Zita or a short form of Felicyta, and reference works decline to choose between them. Saint Zita of Lucca was a thirteenth-century household servant and is the patron saint of domestic workers, which is an unusually ordinary origin for a saint’s name. Two syllables, ZIH-tah, with nothing in it to trip an English speaker. Zyta Gilowska served as Poland’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, which gives a very short name a surprising amount of gravity. It is also one of the shortest formal names in the Polish calendar.
- Origin: Polish, German, Greek
- Meaning: Harvester
- Pronunciation: ZIH-tah
- Variations: Zita
- Namesakes: Zyta Janina Gilowska, a Polish deputy prime minister and finance minister in the Law and Justice government under Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
- Popularity: Zyta is not in Poland’s 2025 top 50 and is rare enough to be genuinely distinctive in Poland itself.
