Lucas

Lucas comes from the Greek Loukas, which passed into Latin as Lucas. The oldest sense points to Lucania, a region of southern Italy, so the name once marked its bearer as a man from that place. Later readers linked it to the Latin lux, meaning light, and the reading of a light-bearer attached itself to the name.

The most famous early bearer is Luke the Evangelist, who wrote the third Gospel. In Poland the same root grew a different form. There it became Łukasz, the variant a teacher still reads aloud from the class register.

The spelling held firm in English, French, and Spanish alike. Lucas travels well. Its name-day falls on 18 October, the feast of Saint Luke.