Żywilla
A Slavic name meaning "she who gives life," from the same root as the word for vital. Only nine women in Poland carry it, and none has been born this century: most Poles will never meet one.
Żywilla Pronunciation
Żywilla is pronounced zhih-VEEL-lah (/ʐɨˈvilla/).
What Żywilla means
Where Żywilla comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Żywilla grows from a Slavic root, the same root that gives the verb żyć, to live. Read straight, it means "she who gives life." The variant Żywila drops one letter and keeps the sense intact.
Adam Mickiewicz gave the name a documented home. In February 1819 the Tygodnik Wileński printed a short tale called Żywila, a story from Lithuanian history, published anonymously as an excerpt from old manuscripts. It was one of his first works. The heroine carries the name, and through her the meaning "life-giver" attached itself to a printed page rather than staying folk speech.
That literary link is the exception. Żywilla stayed rare.
A Polish teacher reading a class register today would likely pause at it, then say it as it looks. The name sits outside the calendar of saints, so it has no fixed imieniny. What it does have is a clear root and a plain gloss: dająca życie, the one who gives life, held in the older form Żywila and the doubled Żywilla.
Sources: [Wolne Lektury](https://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/mickiewicz-zywila/), [Project Gutenberg](https://gutenberg.org/files/28168/28168-h/28168-h.htm)
How many people are named Żywilla
1 in 2504870 women in Poland is named Żywilla. 9 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #18225 among female names.
Żywilla as a middle name
Żywilla is a first name for 9 women in Poland and a middle name for another 4, a 69/31 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 4522nd, between Ştefania (4) and Abdurahman (3).
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#4520 Şi̇mal4
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#4521 Ştefania4
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#4522 Żywilla4
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#4523 Abdurahman3
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#4524 Abike3