Eligia
A Latin name meaning "chosen one". Only about 143 women in Poland carry it and no girls have been given it lately, so meeting one would stay with you.
Eligia Pronunciation
Eligia is pronounced e-LEEG-yah (/ɛˈligja/).
What Eligia means
Where Eligia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Eligia comes from Latin. Behind it stands the verb eligere, to pick out, to choose, and the participle electus, chosen. The same root runs under the English words elect and election. The root eligere also gave Polish elekcja. The short meaning lands as chosen one.
The Latin name Eligius sits at the source. Saint Eligius, a goldsmith who became a bishop in seventh-century Gaul, is remembered on the first of December. He is the patron of goldsmiths and metalworkers. Eligia is that name in a feminine shape.
In a Polish class register, Eligia stands out as a rare entry.
The Polish gloss reaches past the Latin. There the name reads as wybranka boga, God's chosen woman. That religious sense was attached later. The Latin only says chosen.
When Eligia celebrates name day
Eligia appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 15 January.
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 Eligia
1 in 157649 women in Poland is named Eligia. 143 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2735 among female names.
Eligia as a middle name
Eligia is a first name for 143 women in Poland and a middle name for another 58, a 71/29 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 894th, between Dagmar (58) and Ingryda (58).
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#892 Celine58
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#893 Dagmar58
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#894 Eligia58
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#895 Ingryda58
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#896 Isabela58