Longin

Longin comes into Polish from the Latin Longinus, a name resting on the adjective longus, meaning long, or in Polish długi. The old word for length sits inside the name, even where most bearers no longer see it.

Much of the name's later fame belongs to Saint Longin, the Roman centurion of Christian tradition who pierced the side of the crucified Christ with a spear. That lance became famous under his name, and the once nameless soldier was remembered as a convert and martyr. His feast, and so the Polish imieniny, falls on 15 March.

The feminine variant is Longina.

Longin is rare now. Read a school register on the first day of term and it stands out among the Kacpers and Szymons, an older form with a long root behind it. Whoever answers to it answers to a Latin word for long, długi, and to a spear that gave an anonymous man his name.