Marta
Nearly 290,000 Polish women carry it, a name everyone knows several of, yet it's fading fast: only 242 newborn girls last year. A Slavic name meaning "the lady", or mistress of a house.
Marta Pronunciation
Marta is pronounced MAHR-tah (/ˈmarta/).
What Marta means
Where Marta comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Marta comes down to us as a Slavic name, and its short meaning is plain: the lady, the mistress of a house. In Polish that reads pani, władczyni. The variant Martha travels the same road with an added h and turns up more often in English-speaking countries.
Poland gave the name a literary anchor in 1873, when Eliza Orzeszkowa published her novel Marta, a hard look at what a widow could and could not earn on her own. The book put the name into arguments among readers about women and work.
Every 29 July the calendar marks imieniny for Marta, the name-day tied to Saint Martha of Bethany. On that morning a Marta might hear her name read from an official form at the urząd, or find it on a card from a cousin. The meaning holds either way: pani, władczyni, the lady of the house.
When Marta celebrates name day
Marta appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 22 February.
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 Marta
1 in 78 women in Poland is named Marta. 289,475 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #36 among female names.
Marta's popularity over time
242 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #165 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #36 name among living women, even as it slips to #165 among newborns.
Where Marta is most popular
Marta is most popular in Opole, 145% above the national average (150 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+106%) and Pomeranian (+34%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Świętokrzyskie, 61% and 48% below average respectively.
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Opole150 girls born+145%
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Silesian624 girls born+106%
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Pomeranian262 girls born+34%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian175 girls born+20%
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Greater Poland302 girls born+6%
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Lower Silesian198 girls born−5%
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Lubusz52 girls born−21%
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Łódź133 girls born−21%
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Masovian369 girls born−22%
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Lesser Poland229 girls born−24%
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Warmian-Masurian70 girls born−27%
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West Pomeranian78 girls born−31%
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Lublin84 girls born−38%
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Podlaskie46 girls born−47%
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Świętokrzyskie38 girls born−48%
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Subcarpathian63 girls born−61%
Marta as a middle name
Marta is a first name for 289,475 women in Poland and a middle name for another 135,087, a 68/32 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 18th, between Helena (155,002) and Dorota (133,476).
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#16 Janina158,653
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#17 Helena155,002
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#18 Marta135,087
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#19 Dorota133,476
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#20 Danuta129,132