Christiano

Christian originated as a Baptismal name used by persons of the Christian religion. It is now a given name born by males, and by females as Christiana and other feminized variants. An historically commonly used abbreviation, used for example on English 17th century church monuments and pedigrees, is Xpian, using the Greek Chi Rho Christogram Χρ, short for Χριστός, Christ. The Greek form of the baptismal name is Χριστιανός, a Christian. The name denotes a follower of Christ, thus a Christian. It has been used as a given name since the Middle Ages, at first as a name for females, without any feminising word endings. Today the name is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Estonia. Today in Europe — though not the United States — it is almost exclusively used as a male name, but in the 17th and 18th centuries it was a popular female first name in Scotland. Female variants of the name include Christine, Christina, Christiane, Cristiane, Kristen, Kristin, and Kirsten. Holders of the name Christian may go by the nicknames or shortened forms Chris, Chrissy, "Crix", or Xian.