Xavianna

I came across this pretty name when I was looking at all of the X names that were given to girls in the U.S in 2013. Because - you know - that's the crazy type of thing I like to do when I have a little spare time. It may seem like a smoosh between classic favourites Xavier and Anna. Or maybe a creative way of "feminising" Xavier. But it's so attractive that I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more use or attention.

While names containing the magical letter X are hot right now, names that start with X - well......not so much. For example, for boys the trendy Jaxon ranks 37 places higher than the most popular X name, Xavier. Every year names starting with X are among the last popular. Nancy at Nancy's Baby Names has calculated that in 2013 X was the fourth least popular initial for girls and second least for boys, making it the third least popular overall. Among those, Xavier was the top ranked boys name at #83, and only 4 boys names made it into the top 1000. That figure seems small, yet towers over the girls. Only one girls name made it to the top 1000 in 2013 - Ximena, at position #162. So if it's a rare name you want, you almost automatically get that if you choose a name starting with X.

But back to Xavianna. She was ranked at #18,981 in 2013, given to just five girls. It feels like it might have a long history of use. With a pronunciation of ZAY-vee-ahn-ah (which I prefer) or maybe even EX-ay-vee-ahn-ah, to me it feels like it belongs alongside spunky, classical gems such as Cressida, Lavinia, Octavia and Zenobia. Yet she has only charted in four years, the first time being in 2000, and doesn't have quite the historical or literary pedigree that those names do.

Being such an underused name there is very little information to be found on the origin or meaning of Xavianna. If you think of it as a variation of Xavier it's meaning would then be 'bright'. If you think of it as a Xavier/Anna smoosh, you could say it means 'bright grace'. Or you could use a bit of poetic license and think it means 'gracefully bright' or 'brightly graceful'. All feel like they suit Xavianna well. It's a name that sounds delicate, but looks like it has substance and strength.

Nicknames could be Zay, Zaya, Vee, Ana or Zayvee if you like nickname options to fall back on. But with a name as unique and pretty as Xavianna, I'm not sure you'd need one. It definitely caught my attention and intrigues me, so I'm sure I can't be the only one.