Melaniia

Melaniia comes from Greek, from melas, melaina, meaning black or dark. The form most Polish readers know is Melania, and Melaniia is the Ukrainian spelling that keeps the doubled vowel of the Cyrillic original.

The dark in the name is old and literal. Greek melas gave words for ink, for storm clouds, for the deep of night. Yet the association that traveled furthest was a person. Melania the Younger, a Roman heiress of the fifth century, gave away an enormous fortune and became a saint honored in both the Eastern and Western churches. Her name day falls on the last day of December.

In Ukraine the name settled comfortably, and Melaniia is read there without a second thought. On a Polish class register it stands slightly apart from Melania, a single letter marking a border. The meaning underneath stays fixed. Black, dark.