Darja
The name carries the sense of "possesses good, keeps it well". Fewer than a hundred women in Poland go by it, so most Poles have never met a Darja.
Darja Pronunciation
Darja is pronounced DAHR-yah (/ˈdarja/).
What Darja means
Where Darja comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Darja sits in the Persian branch of names, a feminine form standing beside Daria and the masculine Dariusz. Its root reaches back to Old Persian, to the royal name Dārayavahu, read as "holding firm the good." The meaning carried on the Polish forms today, "possesses good, maintains well," keeps that old sense within reach.
The diminutive is Darka. It is short and plain.
The Church remembers a Saint Daria, a martyr honored on 25 October, and Polish calendars mark that day as her imieniny. Read a class register and you may find one Darja among several boys named Dariusz, the same root split across two children. The spelling with j gives the name an eastern look, closer to Russian and Ukrainian forms than the more common Daria. What stays constant across all of them is the Old Persian sense: to possess good and to maintain it well.
How many people are named Darja
1 in 375731 women in Poland is named Darja. 60 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4748 among female names.
Darja's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Darja as a middle name
Darja is a first name for 60 women in Poland and a middle name for another 5, a 92/8 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 3560th, between Daphné (5) and Delicja (5).
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#3558 Danika5
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#3559 Daphné5
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#3560 Darja5
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#3561 Delicja5
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#3562 Delilah5