Tomas

The name Tomas begins in Hebrew, in a word that means twin. In Poland the fuller form is Tomasz, and Tomas sits beside it as a trimmer cousin, one letter lighter. The meaning has stayed close to the surface. Bliźniak, twin: someone born as one of a pair.

The best-known bearer is the apostle called Thomas, remembered for wanting to see and touch before he would believe. His doubt gave the language a phrase, the doubting Thomas, still used for anyone who asks for proof. That skeptic's streak has shadowed the name, though it never displaced the older sense. The twin came first.

A Tomas today might find his name-day in late December, when Tomasz appears on the Polish calendar, a few days before Christmas. Read out from a class register, the shorter form is quick and unfussy. And underneath it the plain meaning holds: twin, bliźniak, one child arriving next to another.