Laura
From the Latin for "laurel". The name rings familiar across Poland: given steadily for years, though it has been easing off since a peak early this decade.
Laura Pronunciation
Laura is pronounced lah-OO-rah (/laˈura/).
What Laura means
Where Laura comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Laura grows from the Latin laurus, the laurel tree. In Poland the same root stands behind wawrzyn, the laurel wreath once set on the heads of victors and poets. So the name means, quite literally, laurel.
The word gathered its glory slowly. Romans crowned generals and champions with laurel branches, and the leaf became a sign of honor before it ever became a name. When Petrarch built his Canzoniere around a woman he called Laura, he leaned on that double sense, the woman and the laurel at once.
Polish keeps a few relatives close. Laurencja is the fuller variant, and the laurel root also feeds Wawrzyniec, the Polish form of Laurentius. Read a class register and a Laura will not surprise you.
The name stays short and plain. Two syllables and one old meaning: laurel, the wawrzyn of Polish.
When Laura celebrates name day
Laura appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 17 June.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Laura
1 in 288 women in Poland is named Laura. 78,223 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #144 among female names.
Laura's popularity over time
3,821 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #11 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2002.
Where parents choose Laura
Laura is given fairly evenly across Poland, with no strong regional preference. It leans slightly toward Podlaskie (15% above the national average) and is least common in Lower Silesian (17% below).
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Podlaskie
+15%1 in 59 babies
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Łódź
+11%1 in 61 babies
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Lublin
+9%1 in 62 babies
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Lower Silesian
−17%1 in 81 babies
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Opole
−6%1 in 72 babies
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Greater Poland
−6%1 in 72 babies
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Podlaskie+15% 1,122 born1 in 59 babies+15%
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Łódź+11% 2,078 born1 in 61 babies+11%
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Lublin+9% 1,650 born1 in 62 babies+9%
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Subcarpathian+9% 1,943 born1 in 62 babies+9%
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Holy Cross+9% 891 born1 in 62 babies+9%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+8% 1,748 born1 in 63 babies+8%
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Lesser Poland+1% 3,402 born1 in 67 babies+1%
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Masovian±0% 5,229 born1 in 68 babies±0%
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Pomeranian−1% 2,162 born1 in 68 babies−1%
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Warmian-Masurian−2% 1,038 born1 in 69 babies−2%
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Silesian−3% 3,279 born1 in 69 babies−3%
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Lubusz−5% 700 born1 in 71 babies−5%
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West Pomeranian−5% 1,189 born1 in 71 babies−5%
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Opole−6% 644 born1 in 72 babies−6%
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Greater Poland−6% 2,986 born1 in 72 babies−6%
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Lower Silesian−17% 1,937 born1 in 81 babies−17%
Laura as a middle name
Laura is a first name for 78,223 women in Poland and a middle name for another 18,174, an 81/19 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 90th, between Rozalia (19,234) and Amelia (17,755).
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#88 Martyna20,318
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#89 Rozalia19,234
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#90 Laura18,174
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#91 Amelia17,755
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#92 Bernadeta16,482