Lucia

The name Lucia grows from the Latin word lux, meaning light. Polish keeps that meaning plain: światło. The vowels fall open and Italian, and the name belongs above all to Italy, where Santa Lucia of Syracuse has been honored since the early centuries of the Church.

Lucia of Syracuse was a Sicilian martyr whose feast falls on the thirteenth of December, near the old winter solstice. In parts of Europe her day turned into a festival of candles, a bright mark in the darkest stretch of the year. The meaning of light and the timing of her feast fit together well.

In Poland the name usually arrives in its own dress, as Łucja. Read a December class register in a Polish school and you may find one, sitting near the top of the alphabet. The root has not moved in two thousand years: lux, światło, light.