Olha

Olha belongs to the Slavic name-stock, and Ukrainian speakers have kept it as their own. The meaning attached to it is plain: holy, blessed. On Polish forms it often turns up as Olga, the variant most people know, while Ola does the daily work as a diminutive.

One bearer makes that meaning concrete. Olha of Kyiv ruled Kyivan Rus in the tenth century and became the first among its rulers to accept baptism. Tradition places that baptism in Constantinople, where she took the Christian name Helena. Centuries after, the Church named her a saint, equal to the apostles. A name meaning blessed came to rest on a woman the Church itself called blessed.

The link is no accident of translation. Read a Ukrainian class register and Olha stands where a Polish one prints Olga. Same root, holy, one letter apart.