Milena
A Slavic name meaning "dear". Given to fewer girls each year now, well down from its peak in the 2010s, though it still rings familiar across Poland.
Milena Pronunciation
Milena is pronounced mee-LE-nah (/miˈlɛna/).
What Milena means
Where Milena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Milena grows from the Slavic root mil, the small syllable that means dear or beloved. You can hear it plainly in Mila, its short variant, and in Ludmiła, where a whole beloved people sits folded inside the name. Kamila and Emilia stand nearby, close in sound if not in root.
The name settled well among the South Slavs and moved on into Czech and Polish use. Milena Jesenská, the Czech journalist and translator who received Kafka's Letters to Milena, gave it a vivid, stubborn face in the twentieth century. She joined the resistance under Nazi occupation. She died in Ravensbrück in 1944. Her name outlived her.
In Poland the meaning stays close to the surface: miła, najmilsza, the dearest. Picture a teacher reading the class register, pausing a beat at Milena before moving on. On that register it stands without a gloss, Milena, from mil, meaning dear.
When Milena celebrates name day
Milena appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 22 July.
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 Milena
1 in 290 women in Poland is named Milena. 77,625 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #145 among female names.
Milena's popularity over time
838 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #78 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade.
Where parents choose Milena
Milena is most popular in Subcarpathian, 111% above the national average (1,175 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+96%) and Opole (+89%). It is least common in Masovian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 59% and 58% below average respectively.
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Subcarpathian
+111%1 in 103 babies
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Lesser Poland
+96%1 in 110 babies
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Opole
+89%1 in 114 babies
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Masovian
−59%1 in 532 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
−58%1 in 511 babies
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Greater Poland
−53%1 in 459 babies
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Subcarpathian+111% 1,175 born1 in 103 babies+111%
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Lesser Poland+96% 2,061 born1 in 110 babies+96%
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Opole+89% 403 born1 in 114 babies+89%
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Silesian+66% 1,744 born1 in 130 babies+66%
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Lower Silesian+14% 831 born1 in 189 babies+14%
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Pomeranian+4% 707 born1 in 208 babies+4%
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Podlaskie−5% 289 born1 in 228 babies−5%
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Lublin−11% 421 born1 in 244 babies−11%
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Lubusz−16% 192 born1 in 259 babies−16%
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Holy Cross−41% 152 born1 in 365 babies−41%
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Warmian-Masurian−44% 186 born1 in 386 babies−44%
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West Pomeranian−49% 201 born1 in 420 babies−49%
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Łódź−52% 282 born1 in 449 babies−52%
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Greater Poland−53% 469 born1 in 459 babies−53%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−58% 214 born1 in 511 babies−58%
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Masovian−59% 666 born1 in 532 babies−59%
Milena as a middle name
Milena is a first name for 77,625 women in Poland and a middle name for another 9,194, an 89/11 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 115th, between Brygida (9,311) and Faustyna (9,032).
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#113 Sara9,660
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#114 Brygida9,311
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#115 Milena9,194
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#116 Faustyna9,032
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#117 Celina8,843