Wacława
Around 5,600 women in Poland carry it, and not one girl has been given it in years: everyone named Wacława is already grown. The feminine form of Wacław, a Slavic name meaning "greater glory".
Wacława Pronunciation
Wacława is pronounced vahts-WAH-vah (/vat͡sˈwava/).
What Wacława means
Where Wacława comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Wacława is the feminine form of an old Slavic name, Wacław, built from the Old Polish więce, meaning more, and sława, meaning glory. Put together, they promise greater glory. The masculine Wacław travels further west as the Czech Václav, the name of the tenth-century duke honored as Saint Wenceslas, whose feast falls on the twenty-eighth of September.
A Wacława shares that name-day. On her imieniny the calendar lists her beside her masculine counterpart, and the household diminutive shortens either one to Wacek.
The sense of grandeur in greater glory reads as medieval, from a time when a Slavic ruler wanted his line remembered. Later bearers carried it more plainly. Wacława became a name for grandmothers, for a woman signing a form at the urząd in careful cursive. It sounds settled now. What stays fixed is the meaning underneath: więcej sławy, greater glory.
How many people are named Wacława
1 in 3994 women in Poland is named Wacława. 5,644 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #467 among female names.
Wacława as a middle name
Wacława is a first name for 5,644 women in Poland and a middle name for another 5,683, a 50/50 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 139th, between Aurelia (5,694) and Julita (5,638).
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#137 Diana6,219
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#138 Aurelia5,694
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#139 Wacława5,683
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#140 Julita5,638
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#141 Paula5,627