Barnaba

Barnaba came into Polish through Greek. In the Book of Acts a man named Joseph is given a second name by the apostles, and the Greek text explains it as son of encouragement. That reading has stayed fixed to the name for two thousand years.

The word looks outward, toward the person who needs steadying rather than the one giving it. To be named Barnaba is to answer to that idea of comfort.

In Poland the name keeps its day on 11 June, the feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle. A boy called Barnaba might hear it once a year, read down a school register with the rest of the class. No diminutive of it has settled into common use. What the name offers instead is plain: son of encouragement.