Paraskoviya
Just 17 women in Poland carry it, so most people here have never met one. A Greek name at root, from the word for "preparation," the old name for Friday, and used among Ukrainian families.
Paraskoviya Pronunciation
What Paraskoviya means
Where Paraskoviya comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Paraskoviya begins in Greek, in the word paraskevḗ, which named the day of preparation before the Sabbath. To Greek speakers that day was simply Friday. In modern Greek, Friday is still Paraskevi. The name means preparation, and Friday stands behind it.
Ukrainian tradition took the name up through Saint Paraskeva, honored in the east as Paraskeva Piatnytsia, Paraskeva of Friday. Villages kept her as a guardian of women's work and the market day. Custom even forbade certain chores on Friday in her honor. Her feast falls in October.
A child called Paraskoviya on a Polish school register carries a Greek noun for preparation. Few classmates would guess Friday sits inside it. The short meaning holds: preparation, and the day it prepared for.
How many people are named Paraskoviya
1 in 1326108 women in Poland is named Paraskoviya. 17 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #11199 among female names.