Amadeusz

Amadeusz comes from Latin, from the verb amare, to love, joined to Deus, God. Put together, the parts spell love of God, or in Polish kochający Boga. The meaning is direct.

Its most famous bearer never signed it that way at first. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptised with the Greek name Theophilus, which means God-loving, and Amadeus is only the Latin rendering of that same idea. He reached for the Latin form on and off through his life, so the composer and the meaning happen to say the same thing.

Travel south and the name softens into Amadeo, the Italian and Spanish variant that has belonged to painters and kings. In Poland the fuller Amadeusz keeps its long ending. You can imagine the September imieniny, a boy answering to the full name while a teacher works down the class register. The Latin bones hold underneath: love of God.