Banu
A Turkish name meaning "lady". Barely present in Poland: fewer than thirty women carry it, and no girl has been recorded with it since 2000, so meeting one would stay with you.
Banu Pronunciation
Banu is pronounced BAH-noo (/ˈbanu/).
What Banu means
Where Banu comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Banu comes from Persian, where bānū meant lady or mistress of a house. Turkish speakers took the word up as a woman's given name, and that is where it belongs for most people who carry it now. In Polish the meaning splits into two words, pani and szlachcianka, a woman with standing and a woman of noble rank.
In older Persian usage the word attached itself to queens and highborn women, sometimes placed after a name as a title rather than standing as a name on its own. Turkish kept the sense of rank and made it a first name a girl could grow into. The meaning stays plain. Banu is lady.
Banu has no diminutive and no variant beside it. A Polish child given the name would meet the same short word at the urząd, and the form would record exactly what it says, pani.
How many people are named Banu
1 in 901753 women in Poland is named Banu. 25 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #8479 among female names.
Banu as a middle name
Banu is a first name for 25 women in Poland and a middle name for another 13, a 66/34 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2053rd, between Bahar (13) and Beda (13).
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#2051 Azra13
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#2052 Bahar13
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#2053 Banu13
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#2054 Beda13
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#2055 Begum13