Gertruda
Almost 12,000 Polish women carry it, but you'd struggle to find a young one: newborns with the name have all but stopped, and meeting a Gertruda is memorable now. The name is Germanic, built from roots meaning "spear strength".
Gertruda Pronunciation
Gertruda is pronounced gert-ROO-dah (/gɛrtˈruda/).
What Gertruda means
Where Gertruda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gertruda is built from two old Germanic words: gēr, a spear, and þrūþ, strength. The same þrūþ turns up in Old Norse Þrúðr, a daughter of Thor. Together they give the sense the name still holds, spear strength, siła włóczni in Polish.
Two saints kept it in use. Gertruda of Nivelles, a seventh-century abbess in the Frankish lands, became a patron of travelers and, by later custom, a figure invoked against mice. Gertruda the Great, a thirteenth-century mystic and writer, lent the name a scholarly standing that lasted.
In Poland her name-day falls on 17 March. On a school class register the diminutive Gerda answers just as quickly. The name keeps shorter shapes as well: Gerda for every day, and Gertrud, the German variant, one step closer to that first spear.
When Gertruda celebrates name day
Gertruda appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 17 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 Gertruda
1 in 1894 women in Poland is named Gertruda. 11,904 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #342 among female names.
Gertruda's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Gertruda as a middle name
Gertruda is a first name for 11,904 women in Poland and a middle name for another 12,475, a 49/51 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 101st, between Sandra (12,516) and Anita (12,390).
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#99 Lena12,610
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#100 Sandra12,516
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#101 Gertruda12,475
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#102 Anita12,390
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#103 Mieczysława12,221