Matilda
A Germanic name meaning "strength in battle". Most Poles have never met one, yet that's shifting: more girls got it last year than in the lean early years, and the last five show it climbing.
Matilda Pronunciation
Matilda is pronounced mah-TEEL-dah (/maˈtilda/).
What Matilda means
Where Matilda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Matilda comes from Germanic roots: "maht," meaning might or strength, joined to "hild," meaning battle. Put together they give the short meaning carried today, strength in battle, or in Polish siła w walce. The Normans brought the name to England, where Matilda of Flanders became queen beside William the Conqueror, and her granddaughter, the Empress Matilda, fought a long war for the English crown in the twelfth century.
In Scandinavia the name settled and stayed. It ranks among the popular girls' names in Sweden and Denmark today. Roald Dahl gave it to a small girl who reads her way out of a cruel household, and that Matilda now belongs to readers everywhere.
Polish keeps the variant Matylda, spelled with a y. On a class register in Poland it sits plainly among the other names. The name day falls on 14 March, for Saint Matilda of Ringelheim, a tenth-century German queen. The battle sense stays inside the old roots: maht and hild, strength and war.
How many people are named Matilda
1 in 40401 women in Poland is named Matilda. 558 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1263 among female names.
Matilda's popularity over time
13 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #641 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2004.
Where Matilda is most popular
Matilda is most popular in Pomeranian, 275% above the national average (12 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+99%) and Lower Silesian (+76%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Masovian, 24% and 9% below average respectively.
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Pomeranian12 girls born+275%
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Opole2 girls born+99%
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Lower Silesian6 girls born+76%
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Silesian8 girls born+62%
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Podlaskie2 girls born+40%
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Lesser Poland6 girls born+22%
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West Pomeranian2 girls born+9%
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Masovian7 girls born−9%
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Subcarpathian2 girls born−24%
Matilda as a middle name
Matilda is a first name for 558 women in Poland and a middle name for another 93, an 86/14 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 694th, between Kamilia (93) and Aria (92).
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#692 Stefanie94
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#693 Kamilia93
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#694 Matilda93
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#695 Aria92
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#696 Kasia92