Gloria
Fewer than 2,000 Polish women carry it, so meeting one is memorable, yet it's climbing back: more baby girls got it last year than in any year before. Latin at root, it means "glory".
Gloria Pronunciation
Gloria is pronounced GLOR-yah (/ˈglɔrja/).
What Gloria means
Where Gloria comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gloria comes straight from Latin, where gloria means glory. For centuries the word lived in church before it lived on people, sung in the Gloria in excelsis Deo at Mass. In Polish that same glory becomes chwała, the idea carried in a different mouth.
As a given name, Gloria is mostly a modern arrival. George Bernard Shaw put a Gloria at the center of his 1898 comedy You Never Can Tell, and the name climbed in English-speaking countries soon after. Italian and Spanish families took it up as well, helped along by a liturgy they already knew.
There is Gloria Swanson on the silent screen, Gloria Estefan on the radio. The sound travels easily across borders.
On a Polish class register the name reads as plainly foreign, three syllables that announce their meaning to anyone who knows the Latin. It says glory, and it has said little else.
How many people are named Gloria
1 in 13245 women in Poland is named Gloria. 1,702 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #753 among female names.
Gloria's popularity over time
144 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #218 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2003.
Where parents choose Gloria
Gloria is most popular in Opole, 78% above the national average (27 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+72%) and Subcarpathian (+41%). It is least common in Warmian-Masurian and Łódź, 58% and 45% below average respectively.
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Opole
+78%1 in 1,707 babies
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Silesian
+72%1 in 1,764 babies
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Subcarpathian
+41%1 in 2,153 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−58%1 in 7,179 babies
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Łódź
−45%1 in 5,509 babies
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Lower Silesian
−38%1 in 4,910 babies
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Opole+78% 27 born1 in 1,707 babies+78%
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Silesian+72% 129 born1 in 1,764 babies+72%
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Subcarpathian+41% 56 born1 in 2,153 babies+41%
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Lesser Poland+34% 100 born1 in 2,269 babies+34%
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Lubusz+10% 18 born1 in 2,759 babies+10%
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Masovian+3% 120 born1 in 2,952 babies+3%
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Holy Cross−1% 18 born1 in 3,080 babies−1%
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Lublin−2% 33 born1 in 3,111 babies−2%
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West Pomeranian−7% 26 born1 in 3,247 babies−7%
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Podlaskie−17% 18 born1 in 3,655 babies−17%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−31% 25 born1 in 4,375 babies−31%
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Pomeranian−32% 33 born1 in 4,464 babies−32%
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Lower Silesian−38% 32 born1 in 4,910 babies−38%
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Greater Poland−38% 44 born1 in 4,892 babies−38%
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Łódź−45% 23 born1 in 5,509 babies−45%
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Warmian-Masurian−58% 10 born1 in 7,179 babies−58%
Gloria as a middle name
Gloria is a first name for 1,702 women in Poland and a middle name for another 764, a 69/31 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 271st, between Dobrosława (764) and Augustyna (747).
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#269 Benedykta768
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#270 Dobrosława764
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#271 Gloria764
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#272 Augustyna747
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#273 Bernardyna744