Klaudyna

Klaudyna comes from Latin. It is a feminine form of the Roman name Claudius, which grew from the adjective claudus. The short meaning handed down in Polish dictionaries is kulawa or chroma, that is, lame.

The Claudii were one of Rome's old patrician clans, and they wore that blunt word as a family name without flinching. Over centuries the literal sense faded, and the Roman pedigree stayed behind it. Polish took the name in as Klaudyna, a near sister to Klaudia and a counterpart to the masculine Klaudiusz.

One famous bearer, Klaudyna Potocka, nursed wounded insurgents during the November Uprising of 1830 and was later called the guardian angel of Polish emigrants. Open a class register in a Polish school today and you might find a single Klaudyna among the Klaudias, set apart by two extra letters. The limp is forgotten. What survives is the Latin root claudus and its old meaning, lame.