Ines

Ines reaches Polish through Latin, a trimmed cousin of Agnes. The older name grew from Greek hagnē, meaning pure or chaste. That sense of purity attached to Agnes early, and Ines inherited it when the shorter form broke off on its own. This is why the Polish gloss reads czysta, nieskalana.

The spelling wanders across borders. Spain and Portugal write Inés and Inês. The variant Inez travels easily in English and shows up on Polish documents too. Same name, lighter footprint.

On a class register you might find one Ines among the Agnieszkas, all tracing back to the same third-century Roman saint whose feast falls on 21 January. The girls can share the imieniny without sharing a single letter. What binds them instead is the meaning underneath: pure, from Agnes.