Xavier

Xavier derives from the Basque place name Etxeberria, meaning new house, from etxe (house) and berri (new), referring to the ancestral castle of Xavier in the Kingdom of Navarre. The name became widely used throughout the Christian world in honor of Saint Francis Xavier, the sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary who spread Catholicism across India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Its adoption as a given name is thus almost entirely attributable to devotion to this saint, making it one of the clearer examples of a surname-turned-forename with a single identifiable catalyst. Related forms include Javier in Spanish, Saverio in Italian, and the feminine variant Xaviera.