Rahul

Rahul does not grow from Latin or Greek stock. Its origin sits outside the European family of names, in South Asia, and it reached Polish registers by way of the people who carry it. The meaning kept beside it here is short: moon.

That reading has an old thread behind it. In Hindu astronomy Rahu is the shadow point where eclipses happen, the place where the moon slips into darkness, and the name Rahula was tied to a child born under such a sky. The best documented bearer is Rahula, the son of Siddhartha Gautama, later a monk among the Buddha's first followers.

On a Polish class register today, Rahul might sit between Rafał and Remigiusz, with no name-day of its own and no Polish diminutive to soften it. It stays whole. Four letters, one meaning brought across a continent: moon.