Xeniya
A genuinely rare spelling: only about 40 women in Poland carry it, and none were given it last year. From the Greek for "hospitality", it sits close to the more familiar Ksenia.
Xeniya Pronunciation
What Xeniya means
Where Xeniya comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Xeniya traces back to the Greek word xenia, meaning hospitality, the bond a host owed a guest. The same root gives xenos, the stranger who arrives and must be welcomed. So the name holds a small ethic inside it. Treat the newcomer well.
In Russian the name settled as Ksenia, and Xeniya is one spelling that crossed into wider use. The most documented bearer is Saint Xenia of Saint Petersburg, an 18th-century woman who gave away her house and lived as a wanderer. The Orthodox church keeps her feast on 6 February. Her story turned hospitality from a word into a habit.
The sense of welcome sits close to the surface. A child named Xeniya carries a Greek noun for an open door. On a Polish class register the name reads as foreign. And it is. Its meaning in Polish is gościnność.
How many people are named Xeniya
1 in 536758 women in Poland is named Xeniya. 42 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5980 among female names.