Nona

Nona comes from Latin, where nonus meant ninth and its feminine form was nona. In Rome the name marked a place in the family: a ninth child, a ninth daughter, could simply be called Nona.

There was also a goddess. Nona was one of the Parcae, the Roman Fates, and women called on her in the ninth month of pregnancy, when the birth drew near. Roman families gave a child its name on the dies lustricus, the naming day, which fell on the ninth day after a boy was born and the eighth after a girl. The number nine sat close to the act of naming itself.

Read off a Polish class register today, Nona is short and plain, three letters a teacher can call without stumbling. The meaning has not shifted since Latin: ninth, dziewiąta.