Nadezhda
A Slavic name meaning "hope"; Poles know it better in the home-grown form Nadzieja. The Russian spelling stays rare here, carried by only about 376 women and given to no newborns in recent years.
Nadezhda Pronunciation
Nadezhda is pronounced nah-DEZGH-dah (/naˈdɛzɣda/).
What Nadezhda means
Where Nadezhda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nadezhda comes straight from the Slavic word for hope. In Russian, надежда is that word, still in everyday use. As a given name it works as a calque of the Greek Elpis, taken up when Christian tradition reached Slavic lands. Elpis was an early martyr, and her name also means hope. A common noun became a name for daughters.
The diminutive Nadia trims it down. Short and easy across languages, it turns up well beyond Russia.
In Poland the same meaning surfaces as Nadzieja, the ordinary word you would use about the weather or an election. Picture a girl named Nadia in a school class register, sitting between two classmates; the teacher reading the list is also reading the word for hope. The Russian Nadezhda, the short Nadia, the Polish Nadzieja all lead back to one meaning: hope.
How many people are named Nadezhda
1 in 59957 women in Poland is named Nadezhda. 376 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1530 among female names.