Marzena
Around 130,000 Polish women carry it, but it's nearly gone from the maternity ward: only 11 newborn girls got it last year. A Slavic name at root, tied to marzenie, the word for a dream.
Marzena Pronunciation
Marzena is pronounced mah-ZHE-nah (/maˈʐɛna/).
What Marzena means
Where Marzena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Marzena grew from Slavic soil, and its older sister form, Marzanna, names the winter goddess whose straw effigy Poles drown in a river on the first day of spring. Polish schoolchildren still do it. For a long time the name sat close to that figure of cold and ending.
The link to marzenie, the Polish word for a dream, came later. It is a warmer reading, and it stuck. A girl called Marzena now hears "dream" in her own name, senne marzenie, the daydream more than the goddess. The diminutive Marzenka softens it another notch.
Say it once. Short and plain. On a class register between Marta and Monika, Marzena looks unremarkable, and the old winter meaning hides under the newer one. The name held two lives: the drowned goddess Marzanna and the ordinary noun for what we wish for. Its diminutive is Marzenka.
When Marzena celebrates name day
Marzena appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 26 April.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
How many people are named Marzena
1 in 175 women in Poland is named Marzena. 129,102 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #109 among female names.
Marzena's popularity over time
11 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #671 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #109 name among living women, even as it slips to #671 among newborns.
Where Marzena is most popular
Marzena is most popular in Silesian, 152% above the national average (13 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+78%) and Lower Silesian (+68%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Masovian, 27% and 13% below average respectively.
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Silesian13 girls born+152%
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Lubusz2 girls born+78%
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Lower Silesian6 girls born+68%
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Pomeranian5 girls born+50%
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Lesser Poland7 girls born+36%
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West Pomeranian2 girls born+4%
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Greater Poland5 girls born+2%
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Masovian7 girls born−13%
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Subcarpathian2 girls born−27%
Marzena as a middle name
Marzena is a first name for 129,102 women in Poland and a middle name for another 41,980, a 75/25 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 55th, between Stefania (42,168) and Antonina (41,518).
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#53 Gabriela43,767
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#54 Stefania42,168
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#55 Marzena41,980
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#56 Antonina41,518
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#57 Wiesława40,307