Nadezda
A Slavic name that carries the word for "hope", `nadzieja`. Only about 90 women in Poland have it, and no girl has been given it since at least 2000: most Poles will never meet one.
Nadezda Pronunciation
Nadezda is pronounced nah-DEZ-dah (/naˈdɛzda/).
What Nadezda means
Where Nadezda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nadezda comes from Slavic roots, and it means hope, in Polish nadzieja. The Old Church Slavonic form naděžda was built to translate the Greek word elpís. So the name began inside the language of the church, as a word for a virtue before it was ever a word for a girl.
In the old Christian calendar, Nadezhda stands beside her sisters Vera and Lyubov, Faith and Love, the three daughters of Sophia. That martyr tradition gave the name a saint to answer to. Its diminutive is Nadia, warmer and quicker on the tongue, and it crosses borders easily.
A Polish teacher reading a class register meets the full form first, then hears Nadia by the second week. Nadia has its own life now. Whatever else shifts around it, the meaning holds steady: hope, nadzieja.
How many people are named Nadezda
1 in 245042 women in Poland is named Nadezda. 92 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3641 among female names.