Polina is a Slavic form of Paulina or Apollinaria, often interpreted as small or linked to Apollo.
Polina is a Slavic and Greek feminine name, warm and melodic, that traces its lineage to Paulina — the Latin feminine of Paulus, meaning "small" or "humble." That Roman family name produced one of the most influential figures in Western history, the apostle Paul, whose letters shaped Christian theology for two millennia. Paulina traveled into the Slavic world and was distilled into the shorter, more musical Polina, which became a beloved given name across Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and the broader Slavic sphere.
In Russia and Ukraine, Polina has been carried by aristocrats, artists, and writers. It has the quality of a name that sounds equally at home in a 19th-century novel and in a contemporary city — associated in Russian literary culture with refinement and a certain quiet intelligence. The name appears across Tolstoy-era fiction as a mark of the educated, feeling class, and in more recent decades it has been borne by gymnasts, musicians, and cultural figures who have brought it to international attention.
Polina has grown in recognition in English-speaking countries as Eastern European names have entered broader circulation, valued for their distinctiveness and their easy pronunciation. It sits beautifully alongside names like Irina, Masha, and Anya — unmistakably Slavic in character but entirely accessible to an international ear. The name carries a certain elegance that feels both rooted and cosmopolitan, timeless without being antique.