Vanda
Fewer than 250 women in Poland carry this spelling: meeting a Vanda would stick with you. It's the rarer, v-spelled form of Wanda, from an old Slavic word for a Wend, one of the Slavic peoples west of the Oder.
Vanda Pronunciation
What Vanda means
Where Vanda comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Vanda is the rarer spelling of Wanda, a name grown from an old Slavic word for a Wend, one of the Slavic peoples settled between the Elbe and the Oder. The short meaning keeps that lineage plain: a Slavic woman, a daughter of the Wends. Poland kept the older form.
Long before any school register held a Vanda, the country already had its Wanda. In the thirteenth-century chronicle of Wincenty Kadłubek, Princess Wanda is the daughter of Krak, founder of Kraków, who chose to drown in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince named Rüdiger. That legend tied the name to a certain refusal, to a woman who would not be bargained away.
Her name day falls on 23 June, near the summer solstice, so a girl named Wanda or Vanda finds her imieniny close to Saint John's Night. Both spellings lead back to the same word, the Wend, the Slav.
How many people are named Vanda
1 in 92773 women in Poland is named Vanda. 243 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1990 among female names.
Vanda as a middle name
Vanda is a first name for 243 women in Poland and a middle name for another 15, a 94/6 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1946th, between Valencia (15) and Viviane (15).
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#1944 Ulrika15
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#1945 Valencia15
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#1946 Vanda15
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#1947 Viviane15
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#1948 Wesna15