- Origin: Greek Ἀπολλινάρις
- Meaning: “of Apollo.”
- Gender: Masculine
The name is from the classical Greek, related to Apollo. It was borne by several early Christian saints. The most notable being St. Apollinaris of Ravenna, a Syrian Christian missionary to Ravenna who was martyred there and thereafter became the city’s patron saint.
The French form Apollinaire is linked to the Franco-Polish poet, Guillaume Apollinaire. He lived from 1880 to 1918. He was born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki.
Apolinary was common in Poland during the late 19th-century and early 20th-centuries, it is now obsolete. Diminutives include: Apolinek, Apollinek, Apolin, Apollin, Polin, Polinary, Polinarek, Polinaruś, Poli, and Polik.
In Italy, Apollinare was mainly used in the Romagna region due to it being the name of their patrion saint, but it has since fallen out of use.
Apollinaire sporadically appeared in the French Top 1000 between 1900 and 1926 and peaked at #403 in 1923. In 2024, 5 babies were given this name.
Neither its masculine form nor its feminine form had much usage in the English-speaking world. It was mostly used in families of Greek or Eastern European background during the late 19th-century.
Designated name-days include July 20th, July 23rd, and September 12th
Other forms include
- Abolinarius أبونيناريوس (Arab Christian)
- Apolighnar Ապողլինար (Armenian)
- Apolinar Ապոլինար (Armenian, Spanish)
- Apolinaris ܐܦܘܠܝܢܪܝܣ (Assyrian)
- Apoliñari (Basque)
- Apalinariy Апалінарый (Belarusian)
- Appolinariy Апполінарій (Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Rusyn, Russian)
- Apol·linar, Apol·linari (Catalan)
- Apollinaris Ⲁⲡⲟⲗⲗⲓⲛⲁⲣⲓⲥ (Coptic, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Scandinavian)
- Apollinari (Corsican, Sardinian)
- Apolinár (Czech, Slovak)
- Apollinaire (French)
- Apolinario (Galician, Spanish)
- Apo’linar აპოლინარ (Georgian)
- Apollinarios Ἀπολλινάριος (Greek)
- Apollinár (Hungarian)
- Apollinare (Italian)
- Apolenaris (Late Latin)
- Apolinārs (Latvian)
- Apolinaras (Lithuanian)
- Apollinarju (Maltese)
- Apolinary (Polish)
- Apolinário (Portuguese)
- Apolinàri (Provençal)
- Pulinéra (Romagnol)
- Apollinari (Romansh)
- Apolinariu (Romanian)
- Apolinarije (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian)
- Apołinare (Venetian)
Its feminine form is Apollinaria, which is also borne by an early Christian saint.
Other feminine forms include:
- Abolinarya أبوليناريا (Arab Christian)
- Apoghlinaria Ապողլինարիա (Armenian)
- Apolinaria Ապոլինարիա, აპოლინარია (Armenian, Galician, Georgian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish)
- Apolinaryja, Apolinariya,ܐܦܘܠܝܢܪܝܐ, Аполлинария (Assyrian, Bulgarian, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian)
- Apalinariya, Apalinaryja, Апалінарія (Belarusian)
- Apollinaria Ⲁⲡⲟⲗⲗⲓⲛⲁⲣⲓⲁ, Ἀπολλιναρία (Coptic, Corsican, German, Greek, Lithuanian, Romansh, Sardinian)
- Apolinária (Czech, Portuguese, Sardinian, Slovak)
- Apollinarie (French)
- Apollinária (Hungarian)
- Apolinārija (Latvian)
- Apollinarja (Maltese)
- Apolinària (Provençal)
- Apolinarija (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian)
A traditional feminine diminutive form in Russian is Polina. Polish diminutives include: Apollinka, Apollina, Apolinka, Apolla, Apola, Pola, Polka, Polcia, Polina, and Polinka. Modern Greek diminutives include: Nαρία (Naría), Πόλλα (Pólla), or Λίνα (Lina). Potential English short forms would include: Apple, Pollie, Polly, and Narey, or Narie.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollinaris_of_Ravenna
- https://www.behindthename.com/name/apollinaris
- https://www.parents.fr/prenoms/apollinaire-35494
- https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apolinary
- https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollinare_(nome)
- https://parenting.pl/apolinary
- https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Apollinaris
Origin: Aramaic
The name is derived from an Arabic honorific title حكيم that can have several different meanings. The name roughly translates as “sage” or “wise” but it can also mean “physician” or “philosopher” and is often used to denote a doctor, judge or someone highly educated in a particular scientific field in the Arabic world.
Gender: Feminine
Gender: Feminine
The name was also borne by a legendary Egyptian Christian saint who was believed to have originally been a prostitute. She was converted by St. Paphnutius who had disguised himself as a “customer.” Thaïs became a fervent Christian, abandoning her comfortable life as a high-end prostitute and spending three years in repentance eventually dying in peace as a hermit in the Egyptian desert. Her story is the inspiration behind the Anatole France novel Thaïs (1890) which was later adapted into an opera of the same name. Demetre Chiparus famous sculpture, Thaïs, was in turn inspired by the Opera.
Due to the cult of St. Thaïs of Egypt, the name remained in use throughout the former Byzantine Empire. She was used to a certain extent on the continent and in 18th-century England during the Romantic Period.