Anna
More than a million Polish women carry it, yet it's handed down far less often than it once was. The root is Hebrew, where it means grace: a favor freely given.
Anna Pronunciation
Anna is pronounced AHN-nah (/ˈanna/).
What Anna means
Where Anna comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Anna comes from the Hebrew Hannah, from a root meaning grace, or favour. In the Hebrew Bible, Hannah is the mother of the prophet Samuel, and her song of thanks is one of the oldest passages in that book. The name passed through Greek and Latin into Anna, and reached Polish records by the medieval period.
In Poland it grew a family around it. Hanna and Hana stand as full variants, while Hania and Haneczka are the diminutives a child hears at home. Call the name across a school register and you might hear several answer at once.
The meaning is grace. In Polish that is łaska and wdzięk.
Name-day falls on 26 July, shared with Saint Anne, by tradition the mother of Mary. Grandmothers named Anna often keep that imieniny as a holiday of their own. On official forms the name reads Anna; at home it shortens to Hania.
How many people are named Anna
1 in 21 women in Poland is named Anna. 1,068,341 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1 among female names.
Anna's popularity over time
1,147 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #62 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #1 name among living women, even as it slips to #62 among newborns.
Where Anna is most popular
Anna is most popular in Lesser Poland, 25% above the national average (1,695 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Podlaskie (+10%) and Masovian (+6%). It is least common in Łódź and Świętokrzyskie, both 15% below average.
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Lesser Poland1,695 girls born+25%
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Podlaskie430 girls born+10%
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Masovian2,229 girls born+6%
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Opole291 girls born+6%
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Lower Silesian979 girls born+4%
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Silesian1,387 girls born+2%
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Pomeranian883 girls born+1%
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Subcarpathian700 girls born−3%
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Lubusz281 girls born−5%
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West Pomeranian468 girls born−7%
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Lublin565 girls born−8%
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Warmian-Masurian384 girls born−10%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian565 girls born−13%
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Greater Poland1,106 girls born−14%
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Łódź640 girls born−15%
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Świętokrzyskie282 girls born−15%
Anna as a middle name
Anna is a first name for 1,068,341 women in Poland and a middle name for another 896,998, a 54/46 split — almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2nd, between Maria (1,481,845) and Katarzyna (417,647).
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1
1,481,845Maria
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2896,998Anna
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3
417,647Katarzyna
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4
403,010Barbara
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5
372,483Ewa
When Anna celebrates name day
Anna appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 26 July.