Xerxes

Xerxes is the Greek rendering of the Old Persian name Xšayārša, which breaks down into 'xšaya' (king or ruler) and 'arša' (heroic or manly), yielding the compound meaning 'ruler over heroes' or 'king among men'. The Persian language of the Achaemenid dynasty was an ancient Iranian tongue, and Xšayārša was a dynastic name of considerable prestige, used by at least two kings of Persia. The Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, writing about the Persian wars, transliterated the name as Xerxes, and it is through this Greek form that it entered the Latin scholarly tradition and eventually the European vernacular. The name was kept alive in Western culture primarily through classical education, appearing in Latin texts, historical chronicles, and later in English drama, including Handel's opera Serse, which is based on the life of Xerxes I. As a given name in modern English-speaking countries, Xerxes is exceptionally rare, chosen almost exclusively by parents with a strong interest in ancient history or a desire for a name that carries extraordinary historical weight.

Xerxes carries perhaps the heaviest historical freight of any name in this collection. Xerxes I of Persia, who reigned from 486 to 465 BC, is one of the most dramatically documented figures of the ancient world. His invasion of Greece in 480 BC, crossing the Hellespont with one of the largest armies ever assembled in antiquity, is the subject of Herodotus's Histories and inspired the famous last stand at Thermopylae. The story was retold in the 2006 film 300, in which Xerxes was depicted as a godlike antagonist, reintroducing the name to a new generation. One of antiquity's most memorable anecdotes concerns Xerxes I ordering the Hellespont strait to be whipped 300 times and having fetters thrown into it as punishment after a storm destroyed his bridge of boats, one of history's most dramatic displays of royal fury against nature. In popular culture, the name appeared in Schitt's Creek in deliberately comic contrast to more ordinary characters, reflecting its status as the most imposing name imaginable. George Frideric Handel's opera Serse (1738) has kept the name alive in classical music for nearly three centuries.