Zenobia

zen-OH-bee-ah
Greek
"force of Zeus"

Zenobia Origin and Meaning

The name Zenobia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "force of Zeus".

With historical roots as a beautiful and intelligent ancient queen and literary ties to Hawthorne and Edith Wharton novels, this rarity could appeal to adventurous parents seeking the romantically unusual. Tina Fey used it as her daughter Alice's middle name.

Zenobia was the intriguing third-century Queen of Palmyra who for a time ruled the eastern Roman Empire, Ethan Frome's wife Zeena was born Zenobia, and Zenobia Moodie was one of the most colorful characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance.

Zenobia reached a high of Number 683 in 1909 but had dropped back out of the Top 1000 by the mid-1920s.

# 970 in the US

Zenobia Rank in US Top 1000

# 1025 on Nameberry

Zenobia Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Zenobia Popularity

Famous People Named Zenobia

  • Zenobia (3rd century)
    queen of Palmyra
  • Zenobia al
    Asaad, daughter of late Syrian archaeologist Khaled al,Asaad, who was killed by ISIS
  • Zenobia Camprubi
    Spanish,American writer
  • Zenobia Powell Perry
    American composer
  • Alice Zenobia Richmond (b. 2005)
    daughter of actress/comedian Tina Fey
  • Zenobia Jeffries
    associate editor at YES! Magazine who covers racial justice

Zenobia in Pop Culture

  • Zenobia
    fictional city in Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities"
  • Zenobia Forster
    character in "The Blithedale Romance" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Zenobia "Zeena" Frome
    wife in "Ethan Frome"
  • Zenobia
    character in G. Bernard Shaw's play "Getting Married"
  • Queen Zenobia
    a ship the game "Resident Evil: Revelations"
  • Psyche Zenobia
    narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "A Predicament"
  • Zuri Zenobia Ross
    from the Disney Channel show "Jessie"
  • Zenobia
    character in the Conan the Barbarian series
  • "Zenobia
    " elephant in a 1939 comedy starring Oliver Hardy
  • Zenobia
    from "The Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice
  • The second element (
    bia) is identical to the name of a personification of Violence, Force; in Greek mythology Bia was the daughter of Pallas and Styx. Together with Hephaestus and her brother Cratos, she chained Prometheus to the rock.
  • Alternatively Zenobia may be a Greco
    Latin form of some Semitic name (e.g., perhaps one akin to the Arabic Zaynab)