Danylo

Danylo begins in Hebrew, in the name Daniyyel, which means "God is my judge." It is the Ukrainian form of Daniel, and the two share a single root. The judge here weighs a life rather than presiding over any courtroom. That older sense sat close to prayer.

Ukraine gives the name its clearest bearer. Danylo of Halych, the thirteenth-century prince crowned King of Ruthenia, carried it through war and diplomacy and left it in the chronicles. His city of Lviv was named for his son, Lev.

In a Polish class register, Daniel appears more often than Danylo, though Ukrainian families have brought the second spelling into schools and onto forms at the urząd. Short and firm, the name still says what it said in Hebrew: God is my judge.