Vasylisa
From Greek, carrying the sense "queen". Brought by Ukrainian families, it's still rare enough that most Poles have never met one, but the newborns are trickling in: a couple of girls last year, all of them female.
Vasylisa Pronunciation
What Vasylisa means
Where Vasylisa comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Vasylisa begins in Greek. The root is basilissa, "queen," the feminine of basileus, "king." The word named real royalty in the Greek-speaking world before it settled into use as a given name. Carried into Ukrainian, it took the form Vasylisa and stayed close to that first sense of "queen."
In East Slavic folk tales the name belongs to clever, capable heroines who outlast danger by wit. Vasylisa the Wise solves what kings and tsars cannot. The royal meaning was already in the sound, and the stories gave it a temper: a queen who rules by cleverness rather than by birth.
Say it during a Polish class register and it stands apart. It reads as eastern and foreign, and it announces its meaning to anyone who knows the Greek word behind it.
The name has no common Polish diminutive to soften it. It arrives whole. What it offers a girl is direct: a Greek word for queen, kept in Ukrainian form.
How many people are named Vasylisa
1 in 147345 women in Poland is named Vasylisa. 153 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2629 among female names.
Vasylisa's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1868 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.