Zenobia
From Greek, read as "life of Zeus". About 5,000 women in Poland carry it, but almost no one gives it to a daughter now: meeting one would stick in your memory.
Zenobia Pronunciation
Zenobia is pronounced ze-NOB-yah (/zɛˈnɔbja/).
What Zenobia means
Where Zenobia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Zenobia begins in Greek, where the name of Zeus meets bios, the word for life. From that pairing comes the meaning that Polish keeps, życie od Zeusa, the life of Zeus.
The most famous bearer ruled far away. Zenobia was queen of Palmyra in the third century, and she pushed her desert kingdom into open revolt against Rome before the emperor Aurelian defeated her and took the city. Her name reached later readers through that record of a woman who governed a realm and then lost it.
Polish also keeps a masculine form, Zenobiusz, so the name can pass from a daughter to a son. Read a class register in a Polish school and Zenobia would sit apart from the Zuzannas and Zofias around it, a rarer entry with a Greek root and a plain gloss: życie od Zeusa, the life of Zeus.
When Zenobia celebrates name day
Zenobia appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 30 October.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Zenobia
1 in 4335 women in Poland is named Zenobia. 5,201 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #478 among female names.
Zenobia's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Zenobia as a middle name
Zenobia is a first name for 5,201 women in Poland and a middle name for another 2,065, a 72/28 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 190th, between Inga (2,111) and Amanda (2,036).
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#188 Natasza2,321
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#189 Inga2,111
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#190 Zenobia2,065
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#191 Amanda2,036
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#192 Olivia2,012