Danuta
Around 290,000 Polish women carry it, but it's barely given now: just 46 newborn girls last year. Slavic at root, read as "god is my judge".
Danuta Pronunciation
Danuta is pronounced dah-NOO-tah (/daˈnuta/).
What Danuta means
Where Danuta comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Danuta grew from Slavic roots, one of a family of names built on the old element dan. Poles gave it familiar shapes early. Danka serves for every day, Danusia for a child or for someone loved.
Henryk Sienkiewicz put a Danusia at the centre of his 1900 novel Krzyżacy. Anna Danuta Jurandówna, daughter of Jurand of Spychów, is barely twelve when the story opens. That book carried the name into thousands of Polish homes, and much of its later popularity traces back to her.
You will also find Danuta glossed as "god is my judge", and in Polish as darowana przez boga. That reading came later, pulled toward the Hebrew Daniel rather than the Slavic root itself. The name keeps several days on the calendar. The busiest falls on 24 June.
When Danuta celebrates name day
Danuta appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 16 February.
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 Danuta
1 in 77 women in Poland is named Danuta. 291,388 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #35 among female names.
Danuta's popularity over time
46 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #365 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2006. Still the #35 name among living women, even as it slips to #365 among newborns.
Where parents choose Danuta
Danuta is most popular in Warmian-Masurian, 74% above the national average (22 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+39%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+30%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Opole, 76% and 51% below average respectively.
-
Warmian-Masurian
+74%1 in 3,263 babies
-
Pomeranian
+39%1 in 4,092 babies
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
+30%1 in 4,375 babies
-
Subcarpathian
−76%1 in 24,113 babies
-
Opole
−51%1 in 11,524 babies
-
Lublin
−39%1 in 9,334 babies
-
Warmian-Masurian+74% 22 born1 in 3,263 babies+74%
-
Pomeranian+39% 36 born1 in 4,092 babies+39%
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian+30% 25 born1 in 4,375 babies+30%
-
Masovian+30% 81 born1 in 4,374 babies+30%
-
Lesser Poland+12% 45 born1 in 5,043 babies+12%
-
Lower Silesian+1% 28 born1 in 5,612 babies+1%
-
Greater Poland±0% 38 born1 in 5,664 babies±0%
-
Silesian±0% 40 born1 in 5,690 babies±0%
-
Łódź−10% 20 born1 in 6,336 babies−10%
-
Podlaskie−22% 9 born1 in 7,310 babies−22%
-
West Pomeranian−26% 11 born1 in 7,675 babies−26%
-
Lubusz−31% 6 born1 in 8,276 babies−31%
-
Lublin−39% 11 born1 in 9,334 babies−39%
-
Opole−51% 4 born1 in 11,524 babies−51%
-
Subcarpathian−76% 5 born1 in 24,113 babies−76%
Danuta as a middle name
Danuta is a first name for 291,388 women in Poland and a middle name for another 129,132, a 69/31 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 20th, between Dorota (133,476) and Stanisława (120,903).
-
#18 Marta135,087
-
#19 Dorota133,476
-
#20 Danuta129,132
-
#21 Stanisława120,903
-
#22 Beata120,044