And maybe this is where Rob Tapert stepped in and said that an X name would sound better. So, Bekka is a cool-sounding warrior name with the right backstory, but requires some explaining for an American audience, whereas Xena would instinctively sound right. Though it might too folksy and girlish to an American audience (like "Buffy"?), pronouncing it the same way as the shortened version of "Rebecca", "BEK-uh", instead of the even Japanese pronunciation, "BEH-KAH", we should also consider that its choice may also be influenced by Euripides' play, The Bacchae-some popular versions use the original Greek title for the play, the one-worded "Bakkhai".
As Weisbrot tells us, Bekka was an alternate name for Xena's character when a series was being considered 04. Americans would encounter this word in the form of Bekka Schools, Japanese foreign studies programs designed to teach students (i.e., outsiders, strangers) about the language and culture of Japan. Since Xena, meaning "Stranger" in Greek was one, then we can assume a similar word in Japanese was also a candidate: "Bekka". The Japanese connection is inherit in her DNA, and it would be reasonable to assume that one of the alternate names for her that came up in the brainstorming sessions was Japanese. The original conception of Xena seems to be modeled on the samurai, and Weisbrot makes this connection as well in his book's description 03. We'll see references from this film from Xena's first episode all the way to the end. At the end of the film, she/he leaves the warrior path, breaking the sacred sword. In one film, The Three Swordsmen, she plays a male samurai, dubbed with a male voice-there's no acknowledgement of the actress's gender at all. The original conception of this character was based on Brigette Lin, and she often played sexually ambiguous characters. Since the root word for Xena in Greek means "guest", "foreigner" 01, and "stranger", and since the letter X symbolizes, among other things, crossed swords (an image we'll see in the series finale), "Xena" is an ideal name for a hero with all the themes and moral contradictions she will embody. This concept would be a perfect match for an anti-hero like Xena, especially since Dionysus represents female empowerment, and their lost history, as Xena does.
We've established that The Bacchae plays an influential role in the concept of both shows, and that the Dionysiac nature of The Stranger who comes to town is spliced up and used here and there as part of the general concept of the wandering hero, and ambitious villain. The Xena Quadrilogy, Part 2: By Any Other Name
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