Grand Duchess Ksenia and Grand Duke Alexander

[ZarevnaOlga]

Xenia with Mama and brother Misha

[Eddie_uk]

How is Xenias name pronounced?

Is it "Zeenia" of "Xeenia" if that makes sense!

[lori_c]

I was under the impression that the X was a Z sound.  But I don't speak Russian so I may be wrong.

[Sarushka]

I was under the impression that the X was a Z sound.  But I don't speak Russian so I may be wrong.

In the Cyrillic alphabet, Xenia is written "Kсения". The literal English equivalent for the first two letters is "Ks". Most English-speakers pronounce Xenia as "Zeenya", but I believe the correct Russian pronunciation is actually "Kseenya."

It seems to me that the grand duchess signed her name "Xenia" in the Latin alphabet (though I prefer to spell it "Ksenia" in English to reflect the Russian pronunciation). I will try to remember to check my collection at home for samples of her signature. I believe have both Latin and Cyrillic versions in my files.

[lori_c]

Thanks!  I have been pronouncing it Zeenia all this time.

Lori

[Eddie_uk]

Thank you I have been pronouncing it X--ennia!!

[Belochka]

I was under the impression that the X was a Z sound.  But I don't speak Russian so I may be wrong.

In the Cyrillic alphabet, Xenia is written "Kсения" ... but I believe the correct Russian pronunciation is actually "Kseenya."

Correct Sarushka. The "k" is not silent.

Margarita

[Sarushka]

Some even wrote it as Zenia 

Here is the correct pronunciation for Xenia according Answers.com:

zē'nē-ə or zēn'yə (So zee-nee-ah or zeen-yah).

I hope this helps.

That is correct in English, but as Belochka said (and I believe she's a native speaker) Russians do pronounce the "K" at the beginning. At any rate, when you say "Ks" quickly, it sounds very similar to "ex", so it's easy to understand the variation between the two languages.

[Svetabel]

Here are Ksenia-Xenia  and her Sandro in about 1889 at the right corner of the photo, of course they were not married then.

[Svetabel]

Xenia as a little girl

[Laura Mabee]

That's a beautiful picture Svetabel!
Thank you for sharing! Which publication did it come from?, I don't think it in print before. 

[RealAnastasia]

How beatiful little girl! She was adorable back then...I must confess that this photo was unknown to me...

RealAnastasia.

[Svetabel]

That's a beautiful picture Svetabel!
Thank you for sharing! Which publication did it come from?, I don't think it in print before. 

That came from a new book on Empress Maria Feodorovna, the picture itself is from the Russian State archives.

[Elizaveta]

A bit of curiosity here about Xenia's name. Is the name Xenia a pet form of Alexander? It's rather unique, considering that I couldn't think of any another Grand Duchess with that name. 

[LisaDavidson]

A bit of curiosity here about Xenia's name. Is the name Xenia a pet form of Alexander? It's rather unique, considering that I couldn't think of any another Grand Duchess with that name. 

Alexander's nickname was Sandro.

Xenia or Ksenia is a Russian name. At the time that the latter Romanovs were having children, traditional Russian names were very popular amongst the royal and aristocratic families. In the Romanov family, we suddenly saw names such as Olga, Tatiana, Xenia, and Anastasia for girls. For boys we saw Ioann, Vyacheslav, Igor,Dmitri, and Rostislav.