Kasper

The name Kasper reaches back to a Hebrew word for treasurer, the same sense kept in its Polish gloss, skarbnik. The root points to someone put in charge of the treasury, a keeper of what other people counted as valuable. He was no rich man himself, only the trusted official standing beside the strongbox.

In Poland the name belongs above all to one of the Three Kings, the magus who brings his gift to Bethlehem. On the sixth of January children still chalk K, M, B above the door. That K stands for Kacper, the spelling with a c that now dominates Polish records, while Kasper keeps the older look with its s.

Kacper and Kasper tell one story. Kaspian is a longer variant of the same name, and it turns up far less often. All of them lead back to that first idea of the treasurer, the one who guards the coins and keeps the count.

Open a class register and you may find two or three boys named Kacper in a single row. The name still means treasurer.