Xena
Xena was given to 177 girls in 2025, #1,270 among girls’ names; 3,513 Americans have been recorded with it since 1992 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,480 Americans named Xena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Xena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Xena mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Xena is “a female given name from Ancient Greek of modern usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “hospitable” (ξενία) and “foreign, strange” (ξένος).
Possibly a variant of Xenia, from Latin Xenia, from Ancient Greek ξενία (xenía, “hospitable”), the assumed name of a fifth-century saint venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, from ξένος (xénos, “foreign, strange”).
/ˈziː.nə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Xena?
#1,270 among girls’ names, 2025
Xena rose from #2,078 in 2015 to #1,270 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.05 to 0.11 per 1,000.
279 babies in 1996, the peak
Xena peaked in 1996, when 279 girls were given it, #758 among girls’ names. The 177 births of 2025 are 63% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 177 | #1,270 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 180 | #1,291 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 235 | #1,063 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 251 | #1,025 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 191 | #1,235 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 214 | #1,129 | 0.13 |
| 2019 | 193 | #1,217 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 174 | #1,312 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 157 | #1,447 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 111 | #1,864 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 95 | #2,078 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 73 | #2,495 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 69 | #2,595 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 52 | #3,207 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 33 | #4,460 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 34 | #4,390 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 29 | #5,091 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 22 | #6,337 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,938 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 32 | #4,566 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,232 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,375 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 38 | #3,723 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 38 | #3,590 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 50 | #2,916 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 75 | #2,153 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 104 | #1,617 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 173 | #1,116 | 0.10 |
| 1997 | 275 | #766 | 0.16 |
| 1996 | 279 | #758 | 0.16 |
| 1995 | 73 | #1,914 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 10 | #8,780 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 5 | #15,734 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #15,552 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Xena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Xena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 34 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Xena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Xena, and how old are they?
3,480 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,513 Americans ever recorded as Xena. The median Xena alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 2,024 people named Xena (2,018 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,299 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 366 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,110 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Xena born?
The states with the most babies named Xena are California, Texas and Florida, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #1,024 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 18 | #1,403 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,237 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 11 | #869 | 0.7× |
| New York | 7 | #1,824 | 1.0× |
| Arizona | 7 | #902 | 1.1× |
| Missouri | 6 | #920 | 0.5× |
| Wisconsin | 6 | #788 | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,774 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 5 | #1,303 | 0.6× |
Where Xena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Xena is most over-represented in California: since 1992 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Xena with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 6,450 babies since 1880, Xena is the most given (54% of them). In 2025 it was given to 177 of their 235 babies (75%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Xena
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Xena and names like it
- Compare Xena and XeniaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sXena peaked in 1996.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Xena since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Xena: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Xena.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Xena alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with XMost given first.