Hayat
It carries the meaning "life", a name that travels through Arabic and Turkish from a Hebrew root. Most Poles have never met one: its first Polish newborns arrived only last year, all girls.
Hayat Pronunciation
Hayat is pronounced khah-IH-aht (/xaˈɨat/).
What Hayat means
Where Hayat comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hayat means life. The word travels through Arabic ḥayāt and Turkish, where it names the same thing: a life being lived. Its deeper root reaches back to Hebrew, to the family of words around chayyim, "life," the plural Hebrew uses when it speaks of living. Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic cousins, so the resemblance has roots.
For the families who use it, Hayat sits mostly in Arabic and Turkish naming, given to daughters. It stays close to its meaning. The Polish word for what it names is życie.
There are no diminutives here, no clipped pet form, no masculine twin. Hayat stands as one word. On an official form at the urząd it can look foreign to a clerk, then resolve into something simple once said. The name means life, and it does not pretend to mean anything else.
How many people are named Hayat
1 in 980167 women in Poland is named Hayat. 26 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #8291 among female names.
Hayat's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1591 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Hayat as a middle name
Hayat is a first name for 26 women in Poland and a middle name for another 10, a 72/28 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2405th, between Gul (10) and Hela (10).
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#2403 Gi̇zem10
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#2404 Gul10
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#2405 Hayat10
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#2406 Hela10
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#2407 Himanshu10