Athanasia

Athanasia is the feminine of Athanasios and means the same thing: immortality, the state of being untouched by death. The name preserves the memory of a ninth-century Byzantine saint, a widow who founded a monastery on Aegina and whose feast is still kept each August. In modern Greece it is commonly pared to Nasia or Sia for daily wear, but the full form rings with Byzantine ceremony. Four deliberate syllables, ah-thah-nah-SEE-ah, with the cadence of a name announced in a marble hall. It suits a girl with grave, watchful eyes and a quiet aptitude for persistence.