Petronella
Fewer than twenty women in Poland carry it, and no girl has been given it in over two decades: most Poles will never meet one. From Latin, it means "rock, stone".
Petronella Pronunciation
Petronella is pronounced pet-ro-NEL-lah (/pɛtrɔˈnɛlla/).
What Petronella means
Where Petronella comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Petronella grows from Latin, out of the Roman family name Petronius. The family name came first. The meaning most people attach now, rock and stone, arrived by a later route, because Latin petra means rock and the sound of the name pulled the two together over time. The same petra sits behind Peter and Polish Piotr, though that pair reached the root through Greek.
The name has a saint. Petronilla was venerated in early Rome, and her feast falls on 31 May. Polish keeps her near through the variant Petronela, while the short form Nela does the daily work.
Open a school register in Poland and Nela sits there, easy to call across a classroom. The fuller Petronela waits on the imieniny card and on the official form at the urząd. Both go back to the same Latin ground: rock, stone.
How many people are named Petronella
1 in 1408990 women in Poland is named Petronella. 16 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #11686 among female names.
Petronella as a middle name
Petronella is a first name for 16 women in Poland and a middle name for another 25, a 39/61 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1431st, between Penelopa (25) and Pnina (25).
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#1429 Oluchi25
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#1430 Penelopa25
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#1431 Petronella25
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#1432 Pnina25
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#1433 Rosana25