I just came along this question as I tried something similar to @joshburkart. Using a string-enum instead, the code works in principle:

```python import enum

import numpy as np import pandas as pd import xarray as xr

class CoordId(str, enum.Enum): LAT = 'lat' LON = 'lon'

pd.DataFrame({CoordId.LAT: [1,2,3]}).to_csv()

Returns: ',CoordId.LAT\n0,1\n1,2\n2,3\n'

xr.DataArray( data=np.arange(3 * 2).reshape(3, 2), coords={CoordId.LAT: [1, 2, 3], CoordId.LON: [7, 8]}, dims=[CoordId.LAT, CoordId.LON], )

output

<xarray.DataArray (lat: 3, lon: 2)>

array([[0, 1],

[2, 3],

[4, 5]])

Coordinates:

* lat (CoordId.LAT) int64 1 2 3

* lon (CoordId.LON) int64 7 8

```

We however got somewhat ambivalent results, that the dimensions are still enum elements dims = (<CoordId.LAT: 'lat'>, <CoordId.LON: 'lon'>), but the coordinate names are the strings. After writing and reading the DataArray, everything is a plain string, we can still access the elements using the enum elements, as they are equal to the strings.