Bożena

Bożena grew from Slavic soil. The name traces back to the root boż-, from Bóg, meaning God, and it is likely a clipped form of longer compounds such as Bożydar or Bożebor, with the soft suffix -ena added on. So the sense reads as divine one, or blessed by God. In Polish, obdarzona przez boga.

A real Bożena stands early in the record. In the first half of the eleventh century a woman named Božena became the wife of Oldřich, Duke of Bohemia, and the mother of his heir. The name was already old then.

The forms stay close together. Bożenna doubles the n as a variant, while Bożenka is the diminutive a grandmother might use for a small girl. On a school class register a teacher will read Bożena aloud in March, near the thirteenth, when the name-day falls.

Say it and the God-root is still audible in boż-. That is the plain thing the name keeps: given by God.