Janka
Just 136 women and girls in Poland carry it, rare enough that most Poles have never met one. It's a feminine echo of Jan, from the Hebrew for "god is gracious".
Janka Pronunciation
Janka is pronounced YAHN-kah (/ˈjanka/).
What Janka means
Where Janka comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Janka comes from the Hebrew Yohanan, which means "God is gracious." The same root gave Polish its Jan, and Janka grew beside it as a woman's name. The meaning states something about grace. It settled on the name long before any child answered to it.
Janka keeps close relatives. Janina and Janine are its fuller variants. Jasia is the soft diminutive, used at home. Jan stands across from Janka, the masculine form drawn from the same Hebrew source.
Picture a school register in September. Janka sits a few lines above a Jan, with a Janina nearby. A teacher reads the names out and never guesses they share a root. That root still says what it said in Hebrew: God is gracious.
How many people are named Janka
1 in 165763 women in Poland is named Janka. 136 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2836 among female names.
Janka's popularity over time
4 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1063 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2012.
Where Janka is most popular
Janka is most popular in Masovian, 260% above the national average (13 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+233%). It is least common in Silesian and Lesser Poland, 14% and 13% below average respectively.
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Masovian13 girls born+260%
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Pomeranian5 girls born+233%
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Lesser Poland2 girls born−13%
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Silesian2 girls born−14%
Janka as a middle name
Janka is a first name for 136 women in Poland and a middle name for another 30, an 82/18 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1286th, between Brooke (30) and Li (30).
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#1284 Bronislawa30
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#1285 Brooke30
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#1286 Janka30
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#1287 Li30
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#1288 Margaretta30