Lorenzo

Lorenzo begins in Latin, in the name Laurentius, meaning a man from Laurentum. Laurentum was a town south of Rome, and ancient writers tied its name to the laurel, the laurus whose leaves crowned victors and poets. So the name came to mean laurel, wawrzyn in Polish, the wreath of one who has won.

Italy took the Latin form and softened it into Lorenzo. The best-known bearer, Lorenzo de' Medici, ruled Florence in the fifteenth century and paid for the work of Botticelli and the young Michelangelo; Florentines called him il Magnifico. Behind him stands an older figure, Saint Lawrence of Rome, the deacon martyred in 258, whose feast falls on 10 August.

In Poland that same saint is Wawrzyniec, and the meaning holds steady: uwieńczony laurem, crowned with laurel. Lorenzo keeps its Italian sound.

Picture the name read from a class register in September. It arrives with the vowels intact. A Polish child called Lorenzo carries a Roman word for the laurel wreath.