Korneliusz

Korneliusz comes from the Latin family name Cornelius, borne by one of Rome's great clans, the gens Cornelia. Roman writers linked it to cornu, the Latin word for horn, and that is the meaning Polish keeps today: róg. The English word horn grows from the same ancient root, which makes the two distant cousins across languages.

The name entered Christian tradition through Cornelius, the Roman centurion baptised in the Acts of the Apostles, and later through a third-century pope of the same name. His feast falls on 16 September, and that date still marks the imieniny of men called Korneliusz.

In Poland the fuller Korneliusz sits beside the shorter Kornel, a variant that can appear on its own in a school register. Its feminine counterpart is Kornelia. Behind all three forms stands cornu, the horn.