Zhana
A Hebrew name meaning "god is gracious". In Poland it stays rare: around 110 women carry it, and recent years have brought no newborn girls at all.
Zhana Pronunciation
Zhana is pronounced SKHAH-nah (/ˈsxana/).
What Zhana means
Where Zhana comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Zhana reaches back to Hebrew, to Yochanan, meaning "God is gracious." It traveled a long road to Polish ears, passing through the Greek Ioannes and the French Jeanne before settling into its short Slavic shape. Bulgarian and Russian speakers carried Zhana for generations, always as a compact form of that older, longer name.
The meaning holds fast under every sound change. "God is gracious" is not a sentiment added later. It is the literal sense of the Hebrew root, a small statement of thanks built into the name.
Zhana is short. On a Polish class register it sits among longer entries, four letters against the Katarzynas and Magdalenas. That brevity does real work. The name hands over its meaning without ornament, the same claim about grace that Yochanan made long ago: God is gracious.
How many people are named Zhana
1 in 204944 women in Poland is named Zhana. 110 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3258 among female names.