Imisława

imisława comes from the old Slavic stock of names built on -sław, the element that means glory or good name. That element runs through Stanisław, Mirosław, and Bronisław. The first part of imisława reaches back to the verb imać, to seize or grasp, and that gives the reading set down for it: one who seizes glory.

Its masculine counterpart is imisław.

The two forms travel as a pair, drawn from a single root. Both are rare in Poland now. A girl carrying it in a school register would sit among shorter names, Lena or Zofia, and the older compound would declare itself at once. The active sense, of taking hold rather than waiting, stayed fixed to the -sław names long after people stopped coining new ones. The two words that translate it stay literal: one who seizes glory.