Umay
Umay carries the name of a Turkic goddess of fertility, by way of Turkish. It's only now reaching Poland: the first girls arrived just last year, and most Poles have never met one.
Umay Pronunciation
Umay is pronounced oo-MAH-ih (/uˈmaɨ/).
What Umay means
Where Umay comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Umay reaches back to old Turkic belief. There Umay was a goddess of fertility and a guardian of mothers and infants. The origin is filed as "other," outside the Latin, Greek, and Slavic roots that fill most Polish name lists.
The eighth-century Orkhon inscriptions in Mongolia mention her by name. One line likens the ruler's mother to Umay, a goddess who watched over children. That makes the name one of the oldest still written down. The short meaning kept for it today, "goddess of fertility," in Polish bogini płodności, holds to that first role rather than drifting from it.
The name carries no diminutives and no variants in the records here. It stays as Umay. On a Polish class register it would stand apart from the Zuzannas and Julias, a single Turkic word for a Turkic goddess.
How many people are named Umay
1 in 2504870 women in Poland is named Umay. 9 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #18062 among female names.
Umay's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1859 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.