Blanka
A Slavic name at root, from the same source as biały, white. It climbed hard through the 2010s and peaked early this decade, and while fewer girls get it each year now, it still rings familiar and lands close to Poland's top 250.
Blanka Pronunciation
Blanka is pronounced BLAHN-kah (/ˈblanka/).
What Blanka means
Where Blanka comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Blanka grows from a Slavic root, the same one behind the Polish word biały, white. The short meaning holds there. White, biała, a colour long before it was ever a girl.
The sense of clarity and light attached itself to the name over time, as it spread across Central Europe. That association came later and did not stand at the beginning. In Poland the name-day falls on 7 October and again on 1 December. One documented bearer is Blanka Vlašić, the Croatian high jumper, and a Polish singer took the name to Eurovision in 2023.
Picture a school register on the first day of term. The teacher reads down the list and reaches Blanka, and the name sits there beside the others, short and hard to misspell. The origin stays Slavic, the meaning stays white.
When Blanka celebrates name day
Blanka appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 1 December.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Blanka
1 in 828 women in Poland is named Blanka. 27,239 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #249 among female names.
Blanka's popularity over time
1,235 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #57 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where Blanka is most popular
Blanka is most popular in Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 40% above the national average (859 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Świętokrzyskie (+37%) and Łódź (+25%). It is least common in Lower Silesian and Silesian, 26% and 21% below average respectively.
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian859 girls born+40%
-
Świętokrzyskie428 girls born+37%
-
Łódź888 girls born+25%
-
Greater Poland1,463 girls born+21%
-
Warmian-Masurian482 girls born+20%
-
Subcarpathian752 girls born+11%
-
Lubusz308 girls born+10%
-
Pomeranian894 girls born+8%
-
West Pomeranian487 girls born+3%
-
Lublin548 girls born−5%
-
Masovian1,801 girls born−9%
-
Lesser Poland1,054 girls born−17%
-
Opole209 girls born−19%
-
Podlaskie294 girls born−20%
-
Silesian1,015 girls born−21%
-
Lower Silesian656 girls born−26%
Blanka as a middle name
Blanka is a first name for 27,239 women in Poland and a middle name for another 4,054, an 87/13 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 156th, between Andżelika (4,089) and Pola (4,009).
-
#154 Bożenna4,116
-
#155 Andżelika4,089
-
#156 Blanka4,054
-
#157 Pola4,009
-
#158 Judyta3,872