Nadejda
A Slavic name meaning "hope," the same root that gives Russian its Nadezhda and the softer Nadia. In Poland it stays rare: only a few hundred women carry it, and no girls have been given it in years.
Nadejda Pronunciation
Nadejda is pronounced nah-DEY-dah (/naˈdɛjda/).
What Nadejda means
Where Nadejda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nadejda grows from the Slavic root for hope, the same sense a Pole hears in nadzieja. In Russian the name settled as Nadezhda, while the spelling Nadejda follows that sound into French and other Latin scripts. Hope is its plain meaning.
In Orthodox tradition Nadezhda is one of three martyred sisters, daughters of a woman named Sophia. The sisters' names mean Faith, Hope and Love, and the girls are commemorated together on a shared feast. So the name arrives already tied to a story about holding on.
The diminutive Nadia softens all of this and travels well across borders, from Warsaw as far as Paris. On a school register the longer Nadejda can sit in full while classmates simply call her Nadia. Behind both spellings waits the older word, nadzieja, hope.
How many people are named Nadejda
1 in 67903 women in Poland is named Nadejda. 332 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1663 among female names.