Agnes
Most Poles have never met an Agnes: it ranks past 1,200 and goes almost entirely to girls. The name shares its Greek root with Agnieszka, from a word meaning chaste or pure.
Agnes Pronunciation
Agnes is pronounced AHG-nes (/ˈagnɛs/).
What Agnes means
Where Agnes comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Agnes came to Poland from the Greek word hagnē, meaning chaste or pure. It travelled well in Scandinavia and the German-speaking lands, where it settled early and stayed common. Polish speakers reshaped it into Agnieszka, and everyday speech shortened that further into Aga, Jaga, Jagna, and Jagienka.
A second story clings to the name. In Latin, agnus means lamb, and because the two words sound close, Saint Agnes of Rome was often pictured with a lamb beside her. That likeness came later. The Greek sense of purity is the older layer.
Read a class register in a Polish school and you may still find one Agnieszka answering to Jagna among friends. The forms shift with the room, but the root holds: hagnē, pure.
How many people are named Agnes
1 in 40329 women in Poland is named Agnes. 563 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1254 among female names.
Agnes's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1419 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024. Still the #1254 name among living women, even as it slips to #1419 among newborns.
Where Agnes is most popular
Agnes is most popular in Greater Poland, 904% above the national average (3 girls born 2019–2025).
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Greater Poland3 girls born+904%
Agnes as a middle name
Agnes is a first name for 563 women in Poland and a middle name for another 399, a 59/41 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 345th, between Caroline (401) and Veronika (394).
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#343 Natalie403
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#344 Caroline401
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#345 Agnes399
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#346 Veronika394
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#347 Erika386