Renée O'Connor was not in the opening credits for season 1. At Lucy Lawless' insistence, Renee was included in opening credits from season 2 onwards.
The majority of Gabrielle's stunts and fight scenes were performed by Renée O'Connor herself, including the backflip from The Abyss (2000) where Gabrielle kicks a cannibal in the face mid-flight, which was done without any wirework.
The planet Eris which was discovered in 2005, was nicknamed Xena, after the heroine of the TV series, by the team that found it. Though it wasn't given the name officially, its moon which was originally nicknamed Gabrielle was officially named Dysnomia, after the Greek deity, which bears a similarity to the surname of the actress that plays Xena, Lucy Lawless. The Greek meaning of Dysnomia is 'lawlessness,' thus, still a nod to Lucy Lawless and the character of Xena, by the discoverer of the planet, Dr. Michael E. Brown.
Before her own series, Xena made her debut in a three-episode arc of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). Vanessa Angel was the original choice to play her, but when the actress became too ill to fly to New Zealand to film, Lucy Lawless was cast instead.