Message: "wondering to know the significance of a name"

wondering to know the significance of a name

by Raúl (guest)

4/15/2015, 12:06 PM

I have a friend named Xiana, which is as far as I know a Galician name. I know the equivalent to other languages, such as Julia or Juliana in Spanish. I was wondering if anyone could give me the significance of the name and its history. Thank you all.

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- elbowin +2

4/15/2015, 11:45 PM

I doubt the stated relation between Xiana and Juliana. Where did the "L" of Juliana go? It is more probably related to Juana (feminine form of Juan). The change Spanish (Castillian) J (pronounced KH) to Galician X (pronounced SH) is a regular sound shift.

- m4yb3_daijirou +1

4/16/2015, 7:11 AM

Well, there is already a Galician form of Juana which is Xoana. I looked through the Galician Wikipedia on Xián and all the links to other language versions of Wikipedia point out to Julian. Also, the page points out that Xulián(a) can also be used as a "variant" of Xián/Xiana (don't know why they call Xulián a variant but I presume Xián is more often used in Galicia than Xulián).

- elbowin

4/16/2015, 9:26 AM

Wow, something learned.

- Sabertooth

4/15/2015, 7:59 PM

[XIANA] is claimed to be a form of JULIANA.

JULIANA < JUL- "Julius" + -IAN- "belonging to" + -A "female"

Strictly, "A woman committed* to Julius [historically, Caesar, but can be any Julius]"

*Can mean a slave, a devotee or a wife.

This message was edited 4/16/2015, 12:50 AM

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