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 [ 4 syll. ze-no-bia, zen-ob-ia ] The girl name Zenobia is pronounced ZahNOWBiyah KEY. Zenobia is of Old Greek origin. It is used mainly in Italian and Romanian. The meaning of Zenobia is 'life of Zeus'. Derived from the word bios which is of the meaning 'life'. An original form of the name is Zenobia (Old Greek). Zenobia (267-272) was a beautiful but ruthless Queen of Palmyra whose attacks on Roman interests in Asia Minor and Egypt led to her eventual defeat and capture by the emperor Aurelian. The name saw a revival in Cornwall and southwestern England during the 16th century, but the reasons were unclear. Among Americans, it was popularized as the name of a fictional feminist character of exotic origin in the Nathaniel Hawthore novel The Blithedale Romance (1852). Zenobia is the feminine version of the Italian Zenobio. Forms of Zenobia include the English, Greek, and Spanish Zenaida, the Polish Zenobja, the Greek and Romanian Zenovia, the Greek and Russian Zinovia, and the Russian Zinoviya. Other variants of the name include the English, Italian, and Romanian pet form Zena and the Czech, English, and Russian short form Zina. Zenobia is unusual as a baby girl name. Its usage peaked modestly in 1909 with 0.009% of baby girls being named Zenobia. It was #683 in rank then. The baby name has experienced a drop in popularity since then, and is currently used only on an infrequent scale. Among all girl names in its family, Zenobia was nevertheless the most commonly used in 2008. Baby names that sound like Zenobia include the Greek and Romanian Zenovia, the Greek and Russian Zinovia, the Russian Zinoviya, the Urdu Zainab, and the Arabic Zaynab. KEY: English pronunciation for Zenobia: Z as in "zee (Z.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; OW as in "oat (OW.T)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
