Zenobia

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Girl · Greek

Zenobia

Say it: zeh-NOH-bee-uh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Greek, 'life from Zeus' (Zēn 'Zeus' and bios 'life'); for the queen of Palmyra it was the Greek rendering of her Aramaic name Bat-Zabbai.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Remembered through the Palmyrene queen who defied Rome; occasionally used in the 19th century.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1900s

In the United States

05101518801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1909per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 4,434 babies given this name since 1881
  • At its height in 1909, about 1 in 9,900 girls
  • 45 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914

Used by

Ancient GreekAramaicEnglishAmerican

The family of the name

ItalianZenobia
SpanishZenobia

Famous bearers

  • Zenobia, queen of Palmyra

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.