Żaneta
Around 27,000 Polish women carry it, but it has nearly stopped being given: only a handful of newborn girls last year. The sense it inherited is "god is gracious", which ties it to the Joanna family.
Żaneta Pronunciation
Żaneta is pronounced zhah-NE-tah (/ʐaˈnɛta/).
What Żaneta means
Where Żaneta comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Żaneta reached Polish speakers and took a Slavic spelling. The ż at the front, the -eta ending, both sit easily for anyone who speaks the language. A fuller variant exists, Żanetta, the doubled t giving it more heft on the page.
The meaning handed down is "god is gracious," in Polish bóg jest łaskawy. That sense links Żaneta to the wider Joanna family, where the old promise of grace sits underneath. The name inherited the meaning without wearing it on the surface.
In Poland the name had its decade. Girls born in the 1970s and 1980s carried it in numbers, and by 2024 only two newborns were given it. Roughly twenty-seven thousand women in Poland answer to it now. Its name-day falls on 27 December.
So the record stays clear. A Slavic spelling, the variant Żanetta, and a meaning that reads bóg jest łaskawy, god is gracious.
How many people are named Żaneta
1 in 833 women in Poland is named Żaneta. 27,072 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #250 among female names.
Żaneta's popularity over time
6 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #904 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #250 name among living women, even as it slips to #904 among newborns.
Where Żaneta is most popular
Żaneta is most popular in Greater Poland, 187% above the national average (6 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Silesian (+171%) and West Pomeranian (+144%).
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Greater Poland6 girls born+187%
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Silesian6 girls born+171%
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West Pomeranian2 girls born+144%
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Lesser Poland3 girls born+36%
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Masovian4 girls born+16%
Żaneta as a middle name
Żaneta is a first name for 27,072 women in Poland and a middle name for another 6,576, an 80/20 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 129th, between Izabella (6,754) and Julianna (6,567).
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127
6,846Aldona
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128
6,754Izabella
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1296,576Żaneta
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130
6,567Julianna
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131
6,556Nadia