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Bożena

Nearly 197,000 Polish women carry it, yet it barely reaches newborns anymore. A Slavic name at root, meaning "divine one, blessed by god".

Bożena Pronunciation

Bożena is pronounced bo-ZHE-nah (/bɔˈʐɛna/).

Related names
Bazhena Bożenka
Alive in 2025
196,779
Newborns 2025
16
National rank
#66

What Bożena means

Where Bożena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Bożena grew from Slavic soil. The name traces back to the root boż-, from Bóg, meaning God, and it is likely a clipped form of longer compounds such as Bożydar or Bożebor, with the soft suffix -ena added on. So the sense reads as divine one, or blessed by God. In Polish, obdarzona przez boga.

A real Bożena stands early in the record. In the first half of the eleventh century a woman named Božena became the wife of Oldřich, Duke of Bohemia, and the mother of his heir. The name was already old then.

The forms stay close together. Bożenna doubles the n as a variant, while Bożenka is the diminutive a grandmother might use for a small girl. On a school class register a teacher will read Bożena aloud in March, near the thirteenth, when the name-day falls.

Say it and the God-root is still audible in boż-. That is the plain thing the name keeps: given by God.

How many people are named Bożena

1 in 115 women in Poland is named Bożena. 196,779 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #66 among female names.

People with the name Bożena 2019 → 2025
196,779 -10,347 since 2019
2020 206,390 -736
2021 204,476 -1,914
2022 202,404 -2,072
2023 200,589 -1,815
2024 198,786 -1,803
2025 196,779 -2,007

Bożena's popularity over time

16 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #571 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2006. Still the #66 name among living women, even as it slips to #571 among newborns.

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16 newborns with the name Bożena in 2025
national rank #571 that year

Where Bożena is most popular

Bożena is most popular in Warmian-Masurian, 261% above the national average (9 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+163%) and Podlaskie (+163%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Silesian, 75% and 49% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Bożena as a middle name

Bożena is a first name for 196,779 women in Poland and a middle name for another 80,221, a 71/29 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 36th, between Agata (81,382) and Izabela (79,799).

As a first name
196,779
As a middle name
80,221
first name 71% middle name 29%
Middle-name ranking women

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Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Bogumiła #4