Franciszka
A name on the way back up: more newborn girls got it last year than in any year since 2000, though it stays uncommon enough that meeting one sticks with you. Latin at root, once read as "the free one" or "the Frenchwoman".
Franciszka Pronunciation
Franciszka is pronounced frahn-CHEESH-kah (/franˈt͡ɕiʂka/).
What Franciszka means
Where Franciszka comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Franciszka descends from the Latin Franciscus, a name that first meant "the Frenchman" or, in the feminine Francisca, "the Frenchwoman." The Latin drew on the Franks, the Germanic people whose own name came to stand for "free." So two senses live in the name at once: wolna and francuzka, free one and Frenchwoman.
In Polish homes the name softened into everyday shapes. Frania for a small girl, Franka among friends, while the masculine Franciszek walks beside it as brother and match. The Italian variant Francesca grew from the same root.
One well-known bearer was Saint Frances of Rome, a fifteenth-century widow who tended the sick and poor. Her feast falls on the ninth of March, which fixes Franciszka on the Polish name-day calendar. Read a class register in a Polish school and you may still find one Franciszka among the newer names. The sense of "free" was never a literal translation; it settled onto the Franks over centuries and stayed. What remains plain is the Latin Franciscus and its daughter forms, Francesca and Frania.
When Franciszka celebrates name day
Franciszka appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 9 March.
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 Franciszka
1 in 2632 women in Poland is named Franciszka. 8,565 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #388 among female names.
Franciszka's popularity over time
129 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #227 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2007.
Where parents choose Franciszka
Franciszka is most popular in Greater Poland, 71% above the national average (126 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+46%) and Lublin (+11%). It is least common in Holy Cross and Podlaskie, 84% and 64% below average respectively.
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Greater Poland
+71%1 in 1,708 babies
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Masovian
+46%1 in 2,001 babies
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Lublin
+11%1 in 2,633 babies
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Holy Cross
−84%1 in 18,478 babies
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Podlaskie
−64%1 in 8,223 babies
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Lubusz
−59%1 in 7,094 babies
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Greater Poland+71% 126 born1 in 1,708 babies+71%
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Masovian+46% 177 born1 in 2,001 babies+46%
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Lublin+11% 39 born1 in 2,633 babies+11%
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Łódź+4% 45 born1 in 2,816 babies+4%
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Pomeranian−1% 50 born1 in 2,946 babies−1%
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Warmian-Masurian−6% 23 born1 in 3,121 babies−6%
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Silesian−9% 71 born1 in 3,205 babies−9%
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West Pomeranian−10% 26 born1 in 3,247 babies−10%
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Lower Silesian−11% 48 born1 in 3,274 babies−11%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−20% 30 born1 in 3,646 babies−20%
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Opole−30% 11 born1 in 4,190 babies−30%
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Lesser Poland−32% 53 born1 in 4,281 babies−32%
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Subcarpathian−49% 21 born1 in 5,741 babies−49%
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Lubusz−59% 7 born1 in 7,094 babies−59%
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Podlaskie−64% 8 born1 in 8,223 babies−64%
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Holy Cross−84% 3 born1 in 18,478 babies−84%
Franciszka as a middle name
Franciszka is a first name for 8,565 women in Poland and a middle name for another 24,600, a 26/74 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 77th, between Henryka (24,728) and Bronisława (24,310).
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#75 Daria24,957
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#76 Henryka24,728
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#77 Franciszka24,600
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#78 Bronisława24,310
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#79 Alina23,919