Karolina
Nearly 295,000 Polish women carry it, though it's handed out far less now than a generation ago. Germanic at root: the feminine of Karol, from a word for "free man".
Karolina Pronunciation
Karolina is pronounced kah-ro-LEE-nah (/karɔˈlina/).
What Karolina means
Where Karolina comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Karolina grows from a Germanic root, the same one behind Karol and the Latin Carolus. That root meant "free man", a plain word for a free-born member of a tribe. When the word crossed into a woman's name, the grammar turned it, and Polish readers came to hear Karolina as wolna kobieta, a free woman.
The name keeps close company. Karol is its cross-gender twin, and Karola stands next to it as a variant, one letter lighter.
Poland gave the name a face in Karolina Kózkówna, a village girl killed in 1914 and later beatified. Her imieniny falls on 18 November, so a Karolina in a school register might find her name day marked near the end of autumn. The root stays where it began. Free man in the old Germanic sense, wolna kobieta in Polish mouths.
When Karolina celebrates name day
Karolina appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 5 July.
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 Karolina
1 in 76 women in Poland is named Karolina. 294,757 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #34 among female names.
Karolina's popularity over time
472 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #113 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #34 name among living women, even as it slips to #113 among newborns.
Where Karolina is most popular
Karolina is most popular in Opole, 56% above the national average (207 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+40%) and Subcarpathian (+35%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Greater Poland, 43% and 39% below average respectively.
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Opole207 girls born+56%
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Silesian914 girls born+40%
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Subcarpathian467 girls born+35%
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Lesser Poland867 girls born+33%
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Lower Silesian517 girls born+15%
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Lublin330 girls born+12%
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Podlaskie202 girls born+7%
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Lubusz142 girls born0%
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West Pomeranian229 girls born−6%
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Masovian899 girls born−12%
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Pomeranian362 girls born−14%
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Łódź258 girls born−29%
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Warmian-Masurian142 girls born−31%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian199 girls born−37%
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Greater Poland378 girls born−39%
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Świętokrzyskie91 girls born−43%
Karolina as a middle name
Karolina is a first name for 294,757 women in Poland and a middle name for another 112,040, a 72/28 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 27th, between Aleksandra (116,155) and Urszula (101,121).
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#25 Jolanta117,441
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#26 Aleksandra116,155
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#27 Karolina112,040
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#28 Urszula101,121
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#29 Wiktoria98,949