Franciszka
A name on the way back up: more newborn girls got it last year than in any year since 2000, though it stays uncommon enough that meeting one sticks with you. Latin at root, once read as "the free one" or "the Frenchwoman".
Franciszka Pronunciation
Franciszka is pronounced frahn-CHEESH-kah (/franˈt͡ɕiʂka/).
What Franciszka means
Where Franciszka comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Franciszka descends from the Latin Franciscus, a name that first meant "the Frenchman" or, in the feminine Francisca, "the Frenchwoman." The Latin drew on the Franks, the Germanic people whose own name came to stand for "free." So two senses live in the name at once: wolna and francuzka, free one and Frenchwoman.
In Polish homes the name softened into everyday shapes. Frania for a small girl, Franka among friends, while the masculine Franciszek walks beside it as brother and match. The Italian variant Francesca grew from the same root.
One well-known bearer was Saint Frances of Rome, a fifteenth-century widow who tended the sick and poor. Her feast falls on the ninth of March, which fixes Franciszka on the Polish name-day calendar. Read a class register in a Polish school and you may still find one Franciszka among the newer names. The sense of "free" was never a literal translation; it settled onto the Franks over centuries and stayed. What remains plain is the Latin Franciscus and its daughter forms, Francesca and Frania.
How many people are named Franciszka
1 in 2632 women in Poland is named Franciszka. 8,565 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #388 among female names.
Franciszka's popularity over time
129 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #227 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2007.
Where Franciszka is most popular
Franciszka is most popular in Greater Poland, 71% above the national average (126 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+46%) and Lublin (+11%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Podlaskie, 84% and 64% below average respectively.
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Greater Poland126 girls born+71%
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Masovian177 girls born+46%
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Lublin39 girls born+11%
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Łódź45 girls born+4%
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Pomeranian50 girls born−1%
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Warmian-Masurian23 girls born−6%
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Silesian71 girls born−9%
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West Pomeranian26 girls born−10%
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Lower Silesian48 girls born−11%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian30 girls born−20%
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Opole11 girls born−30%
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Lesser Poland53 girls born−32%
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Subcarpathian21 girls born−49%
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Lubusz7 girls born−59%
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Podlaskie8 girls born−64%
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Świętokrzyskie3 girls born−84%
Franciszka as a middle name
Franciszka is a first name for 8,565 women in Poland and a middle name for another 24,600, a 26/74 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 77th, between Henryka (24,728) and Bronisława (24,310).
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75
24,957Daria
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76
24,728Henryka
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7724,600Franciszka
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78
24,310Bronisława
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79
23,919Alina
When Franciszka celebrates name day
Franciszka appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 9 March.