Sawa
A Slavic name that traces back to a word for "old man" or "elder", now given almost only to girls. It stays rare: most Poles will go a lifetime without meeting one.
Sawa Pronunciation
Sawa is pronounced SAH-vah (/ˈsava/).
What Sawa means
Where Sawa comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Sawa grows from Slavic ground, and its meaning stays blunt. Old man, elder. Polish sets it down as starzec, dziadek. The name gives age a seat among the young, and it does not soften the fact.
A real Sawa stands behind the word. Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, a monk of the fifth and sixth centuries who founded a monastery in the Judean desert, is known to Slavs as Sawa. Orthodox and Catholic Slavs both kept the form, so it traveled far under one short shape. The river Sawa, called the Sava abroad, empties into the Danube and shares the name.
Poland keeps several name-days for Sawa, one of them on the eighteenth of February. Picture a school register at an imieniny, one Sawa among the Aleksandras and Wojciechs. The word behind it still reads elder.
How many people are named Sawa
1 in 208739 women in Poland is named Sawa. 117 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3132 among female names.
Sawa's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Where Sawa is most popular
Sawa is most popular in Masovian, 347% above the national average (11 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+96%) and Lesser Poland (+27%).
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Masovian11 girls born+347%
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Pomeranian2 girls born+96%
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Lesser Poland2 girls born+27%
Sawa as a middle name
Sawa is a first name for 117 women in Poland and a middle name for another 66, a 64/36 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 839th, between Noelia (66) and Andżela (65).
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#837 Kora66
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#838 Noelia66
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#839 Sawa66
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#840 Andżela65
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#841 Bernardetta65