[Tennis Fool]

Lol, is "Ksenia" the Russian name for "Madison" (recently the most popular US baby name).

Ksenia Pervak just won the AO juniors title.
Ksenia Kirillova was also in the draw.
Ksenia Lykina was a top 5 junior last year.

Anyone know anything about this name? Is "Ksenia" after someone important in Russian history? What is the US equivalent, if there is one?

 

[hellas719]

Not sure. It is used in Greece, but not that often. I know there's Ksenia Palkina of Krgystyan and Antonia-Xenia Tout of Romania:shrug:

 

[drake3781]

Xenia (also Xeniya, Ksenia, Kseniya, or Xena; derived from Greek ξενία [xenia] - "hospitality".[1]) is a female name used mainly in Russia[2] and Greece.

In Spain, although it started to become more popular name during the 90s, it appears mainly in Galician - Xenia ['ʃenja] and in Catalan - Xènia ['ʃεnia] where it is a traditional diminutive of Eugènia.

Related names include: Oksana (Оксана), (Ukraine); Ksenija (Slovenia, Croatia); Xénia (Hungary); Senja (Finland), and Ksenija (Ксенија) (Serbia, Montenegro and Republic of Macedonia).

 

[Tennis Fool]

Oh yes, I was thinking I'd left someone off the list, and it was Palkina (although she's not Russian). Thanks, Hellas.

Thanks, Drake for the eytmology. Wouldn't it be funny that the parents of all these kids named them after Xena, the Warrior Princess? :lol:

 

[eck]

I thought the most popular name in Russia would be Anastasia (and other spellings that will still sound the same)

 

[Tennis Fool]

I thought the most popular name in Russia would be Anastasia (and other spellings that will still sound the same)

Probably, but Ksenia just seemed unique and there is a bumper crop of juniors with that name.

 

[oleada]

I think it's a generational thing. A lot of the Russian juniors in figure skating also have the name Ksenia.

Ksenia Doronina
Ksenia Krasilnikova
Ksenia Ozerova
Ksenia Monko
etc...

Maybe it was a popular name 16-17 years ago or so?

 

[Svetlana.]

The name was popular in 90th, but it's not the most popular name in Russia. And I don't believe anyone important was named Ksenia in Russian history. As I can recall Oksana (a full version of the name) was very popular one time in Ukraine.

 

[drake3781]

The name was popular in 90th, but it's not the most popular name in Russia. And I don't believe anyone important was named Ksenia in Russian history. As I can recall Oksana (a full version of the name) was very popular one time in Ukraine.

I'm wondering if the name Evgeniya is also related to Ksenia. Its diminutive is "Zhenya"... is that not same as Xenia in Greek?

 

[new-york]

Xena;

yeeyeeyeeyeeyeeyeeyeeyeeyee. :armed:

:hearts:.​

 

[Andreas]

There is also Ksenia Milevskaya. She's from Belarus though.

 

[Aryman3]

Ksenia is also quite popul;ar name in Ukraina and Belarus. In Poland it's very rare now although till the beginning of 20th C.
the name was used in higher strata of society. In Middle Ages "Xenia" ment The Mother Superior of the cloister.
As regards Greek language there's another possible ethymology. "Xenos" means "foreign"

 

[Cp6uja]

If we looks at list of actual and former TOP100 players FROM RUSSIA or theirs big prospects we will notice how often is same names always repeat

Anastasia Myskina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia Pivovarova, Anastasia Rodionova
Anna Kournikova, Anna Chakvetadze, Anna Smashnova**, Anna Lapushchenkova
Elena Dementieva, Elena Bovina, Elena Likhovtseva, Elena Vesnina, Elena Makarova, Elena Kulikova
Evgenia Linetskaya, Evgenia Rodina, Evgenia Maniokova, Evgenia Kulikovskaya
Maria Sharapova, Maria Kirilenko, Maria Mokh
Olga Morozova, Olga Poutchkova
Svetlana Kuznetsova, Svetlana Cherneva
Tatiana Panova, Tatiana Golovin**
Vera Zvonareva, Vera Dushevina
Ksenia Pervak, Ksenia Lykina


Which is actually bizzare, especially if we notice that many of this names are not even TOP10 popular names in Russia or Moscow (more than 60% Rusian players are from Moscow area).
RUSSIA TOP10 MOST COMMON NAMES: Elena, Olga, Tatiana, Irina, Natalia, Anna, Svetlana, Maria, Marina, Ludmilla
MOSCOW TOP10 MOST COMMON NAMES: Anastasiya, Maria, Daria, Inna, Polina, Yekaterina, Ksenia, Viktoria, Yelizaveta, Sofia
(source: Wikipedia)


But Russia is not only country with strange distribution tennis talents by names.
Good example is Serbia where "Ana" is not TOP5 name by popularity, but 3 out of current 7 best ranked girls from Serbia has this name. Jelena is not even TOP10 name by popularity in Serbia or Belgrade, but 2 out of our 4 TOP5 WTA players (Jankovic and Dokic) has that name. Name Monica (Monika actually) is very rare in Serbia or Vojvodina region (with theirs Hungarian ethnic minority)... less than 0.01% (something like Dinara in Russia or Venus in USA), but that was name of our most famous tennis and sportswomen champion in history (Monica Seles).

 

[Just Do It]

It looks that is a new trend in Moscow

 

[frenchie]

I love russian names

 

[Nicolas]

I love russian names

Me too

 

[égalité]

I'm wondering if the name Evgeniya is also related to Ksenia. Its diminutive is "Zhenya"... is that not same as Xenia in Greek?

No, they're not related. The Greek name Xenia and the Russian name Ksenia are pronounced the same, more or less.

Although apparently Xenia is a diminutive of Eugenia (i.e. Evgeniya) in Catalan. :scratch:

 

[iamme]

well Mónika was a really popular name in hungary in the 70s so that's not that surprising

 

[Svetlana.]

I'm wondering if the name Evgeniya is also related to Ksenia. Its diminutive is "Zhenya"... is that not same as Xenia in Greek?

No they are two different names,

Oksana - Ksenia

Evgeniya - Zhenya

 

[Ksenia.]

Oh hi, I'm Ksenia as well.