Valentina

Valentina grows from the Latin valens, the present participle of valere, a verb that meant to be strong or in good health. So the short meaning, healthy and strong, sits right at the root rather than being fastened on later. It is the feminine of Valentinus, an old Roman family name.

Across Italy and Spain the name kept close to that Latin sound. Russian speakers made it their own too. The best documented bearer is Valentina Tereshkova, who in 1963 became the first woman to fly in space, a Russian pilot whose name spread far past her own country.

In Poland you meet it through Walentyna, its Polish variant, and behind both stands Walenty, the masculine form tied to Saint Valentine. Read a school class register on a grey February morning and a Walentyna may be sitting there, close to her own name-day. The meaning holds: silna, zdrowa, strong and healthy.