Is Aleska a Polish baby name ?

I named my daughter (now age 15) Valeska. I am not Polish. I found the name in a "Baby Name" book and thought it was very pretty and uncommon enough that there wouldn't be several other girls in school with the same name. According to my book, it is of old slavic origin and means glorious ruler.

There is no such old slavic name like Valeska. Glorious ruler in Polish is Władysława (she), Władysław (he). In other slavic languages name would start with: vlad, volod, włod - ruler (never vale?) and end with slav, sław -glorious (never ska?). The meaning of every old slavic name can be easily recognised (you don't need to use dictionary to tell what name means). They derive from ordinary or adjective words. Moreover if Valeska was suppose to be old Polish name, then it should start with "W" not "V". As a Polish person with very good comand of Russian, Czech and Slovak language, I can tell with confidence that Valesca don't have any meaning in those languages. Valesca - glorious ruler, doesn't exist in those languages, it's definetly not of slavonic origin.

If your goal was to give your child an uncommon name you fully succeded. You probably wont find many people with that name not only in your counry, but also in every slavic one.

Well actually, there are many Valeska/Waleska names. It is a German name and it means strong, beautiful, powerful. Here is how:

Waleska (Walaska, Valeska, Valasek or Valiska) is the legendary founderess of the city of Kłodzko (Latin Glacium, Glacensis urbs, Glocium, German Glatz, Czech Kladsko), who reigned on Castle Hill in pagan times.

The oldest document mentioning Waleska dates from 1625 - the Kłodzko's chronicler Georgius Aelurius devoted an entire chapter to her in his work Glaciographia. Some legends say that she was the daughter of Krak and sister of Princess Wanda.

But all the legends agree that she was beautiful, statuesque and strong. She had a long, golden hair braided in pigtails, she excelled in hunting and she shoot with a bow and arrows. She could break a horseshoe with bare hands.

The linguists derive her name from "gold haired" - "zlatovláska" in Czech, later transformed to the German "Walaska" or "Waleska". During this transformation the "golden" part has been lost and the "haired" was left. In Polish that would be "włoska, włosiana".

Legends:
One story says that she drew her superhuman strength from her wonderful braid. Thanks to it she defeated the dragon hiding in a pit under a linden tree in Żelaźne, shooting him with arrows from a distance of several kilometers. The country, which she ruled, was famous for its wealth, and it was envied by the neighbours. Jealous Christian Czechs wanted to grab her land. They treacherously seized her and cut off her enchanted braid. She ended her life immured alive in a church which was called after that a pagan temple.

Another story says that there was a pagan virgin Waleska, which entered into collusion with the devil. Thanks to this she was cruel and evil, yet beautiful and brave. No knight could match her in battle. Her strength was enchanted in the beautiful, long hair. She was merciless to her subjects, and her dealings with the devil brought the misery to the countryside. The subjects revolted. One night, when Waleska was asleep, they cut off her hair. As a result, she has become vulnerable. She was imprisoned and then walled up in the wall of the castle. Her golden hair and the miraculous bow have been deposited in the temple on Castle Hill. It turned out that it was only she who could wield the bow. It was useless in the hands of others.

Her braid was reportedly stored, until the eighteenth century, in the so-called Green Room of the castle, as a talisman to protect Kłodzko city. It was taken away by Frederick the Great, who took Kłodzko and joined all the Kłodzko lands to Prussia. He also took away the legendary drum covered by the skin of Jan Žižka - the leader of the Hussites.

There is a stone bas-relief of a feminine bust on the wall surrounding the fortress of Kłodzko. Tradition assigns it to the image of Waleska. The face of the sculpture was destroyed after 1945 by Polish settlers from the east in the act of vandalic revenge. Her appearance is now known only from the pre-war photographs.

Translated from Polish Wikipedia: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waleska

See also:
610 Valeska (1906 VK) - a planetoid from the main belt of asteroids, orbiting the Sun within 5 years and 150 days at an average distance of 3.08 a.u. It was discovered on September 26, 1906 in Heidelberg by Max Wolf. The name comes from the Germanic name Valeska and was inspired by the letters VK in the initial marking of the asteroid: 1906 VK.

And there is of course Madam Walewska, as any kid in Poland knows it. :-)

and we were talking about slavic name Valesca- great ruler.
Madam Walewska name was Maria...
and Walewska was a surname, as any kid in Poland knows it.

As for me it seems to be a misspelled Ukrainian name Olesia (in it's hypocoristic form Oles'ka). Probably.

Then there is also a legitimate Slovenian name Aleška (freq: 34 in 2007), a feminine version of Aleš (freq: 10,740 in 2007). Derived from Aleks, Alekš, Alexsis, Alexsander.

The same name exists in Czechia and Slovakia. Recent frequency of Aleš in the former one - 31,151. Aleška - a feminine version of Aleš.

What brings us to conclusion that Valeska is misspelled, messed up name. Slavs don't need dictionaries, linguists to know what traditional slavic names derives from and what they mean. The very discusion that we are having now proves that there is something wrong with name Valeska.

Alligator...Just because the book I found the name in may have erroneously listed it as Slavic, does not automatically mean that it is a misspelled or messed up name. Also, I was not trying to chose a Slavic name. I looked for one that was unique and that my husband and I both liked. My daughter is happy with her name and that is all that matters to me.

The fact that the name may actually be German is a bonus as my grandparents were from Germany and Prussia. Thank you for that information Boletus!

Not a Polish name.

My name is Valeska and funny enough, when I tell people my name, some have spoken to me in Polish as they assumed I am Polish. I have only met 2 other Valeskas in my lifetime and I am 34 years old. And, I am from Guatemala. I was under the impression it was a variation from the Polish politician Lech Walesa.

WALEWSKI: this is a surname of toponymic origin originally identifying someone as an inhabitant of such villages as Walew and Walewice. Walewska is the feminine form used by women. Valeska is a foreign respelled version, since the letter "v" does not appear in inidgenous Polish names. It is not uncommon for the "w" in Polish surnames ending in -ewski and -owski to be dropped abroad to facilitate pronunciation.

Your surname has absolutely nothing in common with that of Poland's famous Solidarity leader, Lech Wałęsa. Like Spanish with its ñ, é, ó, á, ü, etc. Polish too uses diacritical marks, so Wałęsa is pronounced va-WEN-sa.

It comes from the verb wałęsać się meaning to roam, wander, be a drifter, etc
Espero que esto ayuda Usted.

I think that you can rule out Aleska as a Polish name. Even if you did find it in some obscure place, it is certainly not common here and it won't stand out as a typical Polish name. Even with Aleksandra, it is usually shortened to Ola. There are a number of diminutive forms of this but Aleska isn't one and Aleksa isn't common.