Defne
Greek at root, from the word for laurel, and carried in Turkish use. Barely present in Poland: fewer than fifty women hold it, so most Poles will never meet one, and the last few came in the 2020s.
Defne Pronunciation
Defne is pronounced DEF-ne (/ˈdɛfnɛ/).
What Defne means
Where Defne comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Defne comes from Greek. Behind it sits daphne, the laurel tree, which Turkish speakers reshaped into Defne. Bay laurel is an evergreen. Its leaves flavour a stew, and its branches once crowned the winners of Greek games.
The Greek word carries an old story. Daphne was a nymph who fled Apollo and was changed into a laurel to escape him. That is why the tree and the name share one root. The sense of "laurel", laur in Polish, stays literal here, with no later gloss laid over it.
In Turkey, Defne ranks among the familiar girls' names, plain and current. A Turkish child named Defne holds the word for the tree itself. On a Polish school register the name reads as foreign and clear at once. In Polish that is laur, laurel, and nothing more.
How many people are named Defne
1 in 512360 women in Poland is named Defne. 44 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5770 among female names.
Defne's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Defne as a middle name
Defne is a first name for 44 women in Poland and a middle name for another 19, a 70/30 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1661st, between Dee (19) and Dianne (19).
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#1659 Darina19
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#1660 Dee19
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#1661 Defne19
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#1662 Dianne19
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#1663 Doreen19