Kasjana

Kasjana is the feminine of Kasjan, and both descend from the Latin Cassianus. That name was built from Cassius, borne by an old Roman house, the gens Cassia. To carry it was to be marked as one of that family.

Behind Cassius sits the adjective cassus, which meant hollow or empty. The sense of emptiness never really settled on the children who were called this. It stayed down in the etymology. What a Roman heard was the clan.

Kasjan ties the name to Saint Cassian of Imola, an early Christian martyr later honored as a patron of schoolteachers. That connection gives the name a footing in the calendar and the classroom alike. On a Polish class register today, a Kasjana would sit a line or two from the Kacpers. The root is old. The plain meaning underneath it all remains hollow, from cassus.