Rajmund

Rajmund comes from Germanic roots. The first part, ragin, meant counsel or advice; the second, mund, meant protection. Joined together they describe a wise protector, a guardian whose care is backed by sound judgment. That is the meaning the name still holds in Polish, mądra opieka, roztropny opiekun.

Poland gave the name saints to anchor it. Saint Rajmund of Peñafort led the Dominican order, and Saint Rajmund Nonnat belonged to the Mercedarians, so the calendar keeps several name-days in their honour, among them the seventh and the twenty-third of January. A boy called Rajmund can choose more than one imieniny.

There is a feminine form as well, Rajmunda, built from the same two Germanic parts. Open a class register in a Polish school and you meet the name rarely now, which gives it a certain heft when it does turn up. It is not a common choice. The old parts still say what they said in the old speech: advice and protection, a wise protector.