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Wanda

An old Slavic name in the middle of a comeback: more girls got it last year than in any year since the 2000s, and it now sits inside Poland's top 150. The root points to the Wends, an early Slavic people.

Wanda Pronunciation

Wanda is pronounced VAHN-dah (/ˈvanda/).

Related names
Vanda
Alive in 2025
90,501
Newborns 2025
654
National rank
#131
Next name day
23 June
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What Wanda means

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

Wanda grows from Slavic ground. One old reading ties it to the Wends, the name that Germanic speakers used for the Slavic tribes along their eastern edge. Read that way, the short meaning points to a whole people rather than to a single virtue. The Polish gloss stays honest about its limits: węda, pochodzenie niejasne, origin unclear.

The name has a twin abroad. Vanda is the variant that crosses borders and turns up in registers well beyond Poland.

Then there is the legend. In the chronicle of Wincenty Kadłubek, written around 1200, Wanda is a princess of Kraków, daughter of King Krak. Rather than marry a German prince, she drowned herself in the Vistula. Kadłubek probably invented her and linked the name to the Vandals, whom medieval writers confused with the Wends. The patriotic reading of her death came much later.

Wanda keeps her name day on 23 June. On that same date in 1949, work began on Nowa Huta, where the ancient Kopiec Wandy still stands. A girl signing a form at the urząd on 23 June writes one first name: Wanda.

When Wanda celebrates name day

Wanda appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 23 June.

Next name day
23 June
Wednesday in 2027
Next one in 286 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

How many people are named Wanda

1 in 249 women in Poland is named Wanda. 90,501 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #131 among female names.

People with the name Wanda 2019 → 2025
90,501 -16,467 since 2019
2020 105,591 -1,377
2021 102,141 -3,450
2022 98,568 -3,573
2023 95,630 -2,938
2024 93,097 -2,533
2025 90,501 -2,596

Wanda's popularity over time

654 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #89 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.

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654 newborns with the name Wanda in 2025
national rank #89 that year

Where Wanda is most popular

Wanda is most popular in Masovian, 45% above the national average (837 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+37%) and Greater Poland (+23%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 66% and 52% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Wanda as a middle name

Wanda is a first name for 90,501 women in Poland and a middle name for another 56,675, a 61/39 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 48th, between Renata (58,366) and Łucja (53,469).

As a first name
90,501
As a middle name
56,675
first name 61% middle name 39%
Middle-name ranking women

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