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Petra

From Greek, and it means exactly what it looks like: "rock, stone". Only about 320 women in Poland carry it, so most people here will go a lifetime without meeting a Petra.

Petra Pronunciation

Petra is pronounced PET-rah (/ˈpɛtra/).

Alive in 2025
321
Newborns 2025
2
National rank
#1685

What Petra means

Where Petra comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Petra comes from the Greek word petra, meaning rock or stone. It is the feminine counterpart to Petros, the same root that gave Latin its Petrus and, further down, the boy's name Peter. Where those masculine forms scattered across Europe, Petra kept its plain sense: skała.

The name found its strongest home in German-speaking countries. In West Germany through the 1950s and 1960s, Petra ranked among the most popular names given to newborn girls. A whole generation of women grew up answering to a Greek word for stone.

There is an older Petra too. The ancient city in what is now Jordan took its name from the same root, its facades cut straight into rose-coloured rock. Anyone named Petra shares the word with that place.

Petra is short. It ends where it begins, on a hard consonant, and asks for no diminutive to soften it. The meaning stays near the surface: rock, stone, skała.

How many people are named Petra

1 in 70230 women in Poland is named Petra. 321 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1685 among female names.

People with the name Petra 2019 → 2025
321 +94 since 2019
2020 236 +9
2021 254 +18
2022 271 +17
2023 288 +17
2024 300 +12
2025 321 +21

Petra's popularity over time

2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1784 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2021. Still the #1685 name among living women, even as it slips to #1784 among newborns.

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2 newborns with the name Petra in 2025
national rank #1784 that year

Where parents choose Petra

Petra is most popular in Pomeranian, 389% above the national average (3 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+171%) and Lesser Poland (+112%).

Chosen most
  • Pomeranian
    +389%
    1 in 49,107 babies
  • Masovian
    +171%
    1 in 88,566 babies
  • Lesser Poland
    +112%
    1 in 113,458 babies

Petra as a middle name

Petra is a first name for 321 women in Poland and a middle name for another 118, a 73/27 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 606th, between Gabrielle (118) and Camille (117).

As a first name
321
As a middle name
118
first name 73% middle name 27%
Middle-name ranking women

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

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