Joanna
Around 400,000 Polish women carry it, a name nearly everyone knows, yet it keeps slipping among newborns, fewer each year. At root it means "god is gracious".
Joanna Pronunciation
Joanna is pronounced yo-AHN-nah (/jɔˈanna/).
What Joanna means
Where Joanna comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Joanna is the Polish feminine form of Jan, and it settled into Slavic soil long ago. The name holds a plain, old sense: god is gracious. Poland kept it close. Over generations it grew a family of softer forms, chief among them Asia, the diminutive a Joanna answers to among friends. Johanna is its near cousin, the same name wearing a different spelling.
In the calendar, Joanna shares her loudest imieniny with Zuzanna on 24 May. Picture a school register in early autumn, two girls down as Asia, each lifting her head when the teacher reads the full Joanna from the page.
The forms trade places over time. In some years the fuller Johanna turns up on an official form at the urząd; in others the birthday card simply reads Asia. What holds underneath is the short line the name has always answered to: god is gracious.
How many people are named Joanna
1 in 56 women in Poland is named Joanna. 402,967 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #19 among female names.
Joanna's popularity over time
286 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #152 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #19 name among living women, even as it slips to #152 among newborns.
Where Joanna is most popular
Joanna is most popular in Lesser Poland, 24% above the national average (466 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+23%) and Podlaskie (+20%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 39% and 28% below average respectively.
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Lesser Poland466 girls born+24%
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Masovian719 girls born+23%
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Podlaskie130 girls born+20%
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Łódź222 girls born+6%
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Lower Silesian273 girls born+5%
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Lublin178 girls born+5%
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Pomeranian255 girls born+5%
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Lubusz81 girls born−1%
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Opole73 girls born−4%
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Świętokrzyskie87 girls born−5%
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West Pomeranian127 girls born−9%
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Greater Poland299 girls born−16%
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Silesian314 girls born−17%
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Warmian-Masurian94 girls born−21%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian131 girls born−28%
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Subcarpathian122 girls born−39%
Joanna as a middle name
Joanna is a first name for 402,967 women in Poland and a middle name for another 199,782, a 67/33 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 13th, between Krystyna (219,755) and Jadwiga (193,823).
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11
265,565Zofia
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12
219,755Krystyna
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13199,782Joanna
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14
193,823Jadwiga
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15
163,923Monika
When Joanna celebrates name day
Joanna appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 24 May.