Xavier - Origin and Meaning of the name

The boy name Xavier [ syll. xa-vier, xav-i-er ] is pronounced as ZEYVY-er ^KEY. Xavier is used predominantly in the English, French, and Spanish languages, and it is derived from Basque origins. Xavier's meaning is new house. Developed from the elements 'etche' meaning house ; 'berria' meaning new. The name is derived from Etcheberria, a Basque place name meaning 'new house', or else from an Arabic word of the meaning 'bright'. It was borne as a nickname by Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), who acquired it from his birthplace at Xavier in Navarre; he is considered by the Roman Catholic Church as one of its most prolific missionaries. The name is used mostly by Roman Catholics. The name Xavia (Spanish) is the female version of Xavier.

Javier (Portuguese and Spanish), Ksawery (Polish), Saverio (Italian), Xaver (German), and Zavier (Spanish) are variants of Xavier.

Xavier is a popular baby name for boys, and it is also considered trendy. The name's popularity has been growing since the 1940s; before that, it was of infrequent use only. Its usage peaked modestly in 2007 with 0.296% of baby boys being given the name Xavier. It ranked at #68 then. Among all boy names in its group, Xavier was the most popular in 2007. Xavier was thrice as popular as the next most popular name, Javier (Portuguese and Spanish), in that year.

Baby names that sound like Xavier include the name Xaver (German) and the name Zavier (Spanish).

^KEY: approx pronunciation for Xavier: Z as in "zee (Z.IY)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; V as in "vee (V.IY)" ; Y as in "yield (Y.IY.L.D)" ; ER as in "hurt (HH.ER.T)"

Popularity Trend
for Xavier
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Xavier
in 2007