Marija
A variant of Maria, from the Hebrew for "bitter" or "of the sea". Only about 500 women in Poland carry it, and it's given to a handful of girls each year, so most Poles have never met one.
Marija Pronunciation
Marija is pronounced mah-REE-yah (/maˈrija/).
What Marija means
Where Marija comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Marija goes back to the Hebrew Miryam, the source of Maria and of a wide family of Polish names. What the Hebrew meant is old and contested. Readers have offered "bitter" and "of the sea," and no single gloss has closed the question.
Polish tradition kept the sound and added its own reading. Here the name is glossed as ukochana przez Boga, beloved by God, a sense laid over the Hebrew root well after the fact.
From the formal Maria grow the names a child actually answers to. Marysia belongs to the classroom register; Mania belongs at home. Marianna stands apart as an older variant, often read as Maria doubled with Anna.
In Poland the name comes with more feast days than almost any other. Most who carry it settle on the fifteenth of August, the Assumption, though the calendar offers dates in nearly every month. Call one girl by it in a school register and several heads may turn. The Hebrew came first, the sea and the bitterness were argued over later, and the Polish gloss of "beloved by God" arrived last of all.
How many people are named Marija
1 in 43521 women in Poland is named Marija. 518 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1294 among female names.
Marija's popularity over time
3 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1289 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2021.
Marija as a middle name
Marija is a first name for 518 women in Poland and a middle name for another 71, an 88/12 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 798th, between Frieda (71) and Roza (71).
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#796 Florencia71
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#797 Frieda71
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#798 Marija71
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#799 Roza71
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#800 Tatenda71