Ludmiła
A Slavic name meaning "favour of the people". Meeting one is memorable now: fewer than 6,000 Polish women carry it, and it's given to fewer newborns each year than it used to be.
Ludmiła Pronunciation
Ludmiła is pronounced lood-MEE-wah (/ludˈmiwa/).
What Ludmiła means
Where Ludmiła comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ludmiła is built from two Slavic pieces. The first, lud, means "people." The second belongs to a family of words for favour and fondness. Put together, the name reads as "favour of the people," or in Polish, miła ludziom. The meaning sits close to the origin here, not stitched on centuries later.
The oldest well-known bearer is Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, born around 860. She helped raise her grandson, Duke Wenceslas, and after her death in 921 she was venerated as one of the earliest Slavic saints. From there the name moved across the Slavic lands and settled in Polish as Ludmiła.
It also shifts as it crosses borders. In Ukrainian it appears as Ludmyla, the same name under a slightly different spelling. The name is short and old. Read a Polish school register and Ludmiła may show up less often than it once did, yet it still carries its plain sense: someone dear to people.
How many people are named Ludmiła
1 in 3870 women in Poland is named Ludmiła. 5,825 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #460 among female names.
Ludmiła's popularity over time
4 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1095 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2008. Still the #460 name among living women, even as it slips to #1095 among newborns.
Where Ludmiła is most popular
Ludmiła is most popular in Łódź, 241% above the national average (7 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+151%) and West Pomeranian (+119%). It is least common in Masovian, 13% below average.
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Łódź7 girls born+241%
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Pomeranian6 girls born+151%
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West Pomeranian3 girls born+119%
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Lesser Poland6 girls born+63%
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Greater Poland4 girls born+15%
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Silesian4 girls born+9%
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Masovian5 girls born−13%
Ludmiła as a middle name
Ludmiła is a first name for 5,825 women in Poland and a middle name for another 2,526, a 70/30 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 179th, between Marika (2,543) and Elizabeth (2,460).
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#177 Olimpia2,548
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#178 Marika2,543
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#179 Ludmiła2,526
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#180 Elizabeth2,460
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#181 Melania2,429