The name was chosen by F. Bidschof, an assistant at the Vienna Observatory, at Charlois' request; Bidschof chose to name it after Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great, and at first used the spelling "Roxana".

[2][3][4] In 2008, a team identified Roxane as the closest known spectroscopic match for the Peña Blanca Spring meteorite that landed in a swimming pool in Texas in 1946.

There is a possibility, therefore, that 317 Roxane is from the same parent object as this meteorite.

[5] In 2009, a team using the Gemini North adaptive optics telescope discovered a moon orbiting Roxane.

The moon is named Olympias, after the mother of Alexander the Great who was the king of Macedonia and husband of Roxana.