Iliana
From Greek, tied to hḗlios, the word for the sun, so it reads as sunlit or shining. Most Poles have never met one, though a small handful of girls get it each year now, a few more than a decade back.
Iliana Pronunciation
Iliana is pronounced eel-YAH-nah (/ilˈjana/).
What Iliana means
Where Iliana comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Iliana comes from Greek, and its root reaches toward the sun. Behind it stands hḗlios, the Greek word for the sun, the same source that lit up words like helium and heliotrope. That kinship gives Iliana its short meaning: shining, sunlit, świetlista in Polish. The name holds a plain image of light.
In Poland the name arrives without a fixed name-day of its own, so a girl called Iliana might borrow her imieniny from a nearby saint or simply mark her birthday. On a class register it sits among the Julias and Amelias, a little rarer, easy to say. Teachers read it once and remember it.
The Polish gloss słoneczna says it plainly. A sunny name. What began as a Greek word for the sun still reads as brightness, świetlista, whenever the name is written down.
How many people are named Iliana
1 in 92016 women in Poland is named Iliana. 245 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1971 among female names.
Iliana's popularity over time
6 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #859 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2011.
Where Iliana is most popular
Iliana is most popular in Warmian-Masurian, 330% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+187%) and Lower Silesian (+96%).
-
Warmian-Masurian2 girls born+330%
-
Greater Poland4 girls born+187%
-
Lower Silesian2 girls born+96%
-
Masovian4 girls born+74%
-
Silesian2 girls born+36%
Iliana as a middle name
Iliana is a first name for 245 women in Poland and a middle name for another 35, an 88/12 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1180th, between Huong (35) and Joana (35).
-
#1178 Heather35
-
#1179 Huong35
-
#1180 Iliana35
-
#1181 Joana35
-
#1182 Madeline35