Rusalina
A Slavic name meaning "little water nymph," a diminutive of the rusałka, the water spirit of Slavic folklore. Only 72 women in Poland carry it, and no girl has been recorded getting it since 2000: most Poles will never meet one.
Rusalina Pronunciation
Rusalina is pronounced roo-sah-LEE-nah (/rusaˈlina/).
What Rusalina means
Where Rusalina comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Rusalina grows from Slavic soil. Behind it stands the rusałka, the water nymph of Slavic folklore who lived in rivers and lakes. The name means little water nymph, a small rusałka given human shape. In the old tales that figure was not always gentle, yet the name softens her into something a child can carry.
The rusałka reached wide audiences through Antonín Dvořák's opera Rusalka, first staged in Prague in 1901. Rusalina keeps that root and adds the ending -ina, which reads as a diminutive in Polish. So the meaning lands close to the surface: mała rusałka.
On a class register in a Polish school, Rusalina sits among names with longer histories. It carries no widely marked imieniny in the calendar. The origin stays plainly Slavic, and the meaning holds: little water nymph.
How many people are named Rusalina
1 in 313109 women in Poland is named Rusalina. 72 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4247 among female names.