Christopher

Christopher comes from the Greek Christophoros, a compound of Christos and the verb pherein, to bear or carry. The short meaning is bearing Christ. Early Christians took it as a devotional name, and in Polish it settled into Krzysztof, with Krzysiek as the everyday diminutive.

A legend grew up around the third-century Saint Christopher, who was said to have carried a child across a river and felt the weight of the whole world, because he was carrying Christ. That story arrived after the name, not the other way round. Medieval travelers claimed him as their patron, which is why his image still rides behind so many windscreens. In Poland his feast falls on 25 July, and on that day cars line up outside churches to be blessed.

Poles meet the name early. It reaches them through Krzysztof Kolumb, their word for Christopher Columbus, and through the film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Open a school register in Kraków and a Krzysztof will usually be there. By the afternoon his classmates are calling him Krzysiek.