Eugenie

Eugenie is the English and German form of a name rooted in the ancient Greek eugenes, meaning well-born or noble, from eu (good) and genos (race, birth). The name gained wide recognition through Saint Eugenia, an early Christian martyr, and later through Empress Eugénie, the Spanish-born consort of Napoleon III of France, whose fashionable influence spread the name across nineteenth-century Europe. The French form Eugénie remains closely associated with that imperial era. Related forms include Eugenia, the Latinized version common across many European traditions, and the masculine Eugenius, anglicized as Eugene.