Iolanta
Fewer than fifty women in Poland carry it, so most people here will never meet one. It comes from Greek and means "violet flower", and it stands as a rarer cousin of the common Jolanta.
Iolanta Pronunciation
Iolanta is pronounced yo-LAHN-tah (/jɔˈlanta/).
What Iolanta means
Where Iolanta comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Iolanta comes from Greek. Two elements sit inside it: `ion`, meaning violet, and `anthos`, meaning flower. Together they give the short meaning that Polish records as kwiat fiołka, a violet flower.
The name traveled east and settled into Russian and Ukrainian use. Its best documented bearer is the princess in Tchaikovsky's final opera, Iolanta, first staged in Saint Petersburg in 1892. The heroine is a blind daughter of a king who recovers her sight, and her story turns on light and love. Russian speakers know the name largely through her.
In Poland the form most people meet is Jolanta, with Jola and Jolka as everyday diminutives. A teacher reading a class register calls out Jola long before anyone prints Iolanta on an official form. The violet is a small flower. It grows low and early, and the name holds onto that plain image of kwiat fiołka.
How many people are named Iolanta
1 in 469663 women in Poland is named Iolanta. 48 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5482 among female names.
Iolanta as a middle name
Iolanta is a first name for 48 women in Poland and a middle name for another 2, a 96/4 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 6048th, between Inocentyna (2) and Iram (2).
-
#6046 Ingried2
-
#6047 Inocentyna2
-
#6048 Iolanta2
-
#6049 Iram2
-
#6050 Ireneusza2