How popular is the baby name Hieronymus in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Hieronymus.

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Popularity of the baby name Hieronymus


Posts that mention the name Hieronymus

The last intellectual to Latinize his name?

German physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888)
Rudolf Clausius (born Rudolf Gottlieb)

German physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888) was one of the founders of the science of thermodynamics.

Another interesting thing about Rudolf Clausius? He was born Rudolf Gottlieb.

I couldn’t find a concrete explanation for the name change, but I did find this in a college physics book: “Born with the name Rudolf Gottlieb, he adopted the classical name of Clausius, which was a popular thing to do in his time.”

(Clausius is based on the Latin clausus, meaning “closed, shut off.” Some sources say Clausius is an alternate name for Janus, the ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings.)

Yes, many historical European scholars/artists did adopt Latinized names. Astronomer Tycho Brahe was born Tyge Ottesen Brahe. Artist Jheronimus (Hieronymus) Bosch was born Jeroen van Aken. Violin maker Antonius Stradivarius was born Antonio Stradivari. Map maker Gerardus Mercator was born Gerard de Cremer.

But these folks lived during the 1400s, 1500s and 1600s. It was trendy for Renaissance thinkers, who embraced Classical philosophies and attitudes, to Latinize their names. (Wikipedia has a long list of Latinized names coined during the Renaissance if you want more examples.)

Rudolf Clausius, on the other hand, lived during the 1800s. I can’t think of any other public figure who adopted a Latinized name as late as the mid-19th century.

Was Rudolf Clausius the last European intellectual to Latinize his name? Or do other outliers exist?

(At first I thought Carl Linnæus (1707-1778) might fit the bill, but his surname was the legitimate family name, coined by his father Nils before Carl was born. It’s based on the Småland dialect word “linn,” meaning “linden tree,” in reference to a stately linden tree on the family property.)

Sources:

Image: Rudolf Clausius

Names that mean “name”

Jheronimus signature

I love coming across personal names with definitions that refer to names. Some examples:

  • Behnam means “good name” in Persian.
  • Hieronymus, meaning “sacred name,” is based on the Greek words hieros, “sacred,” and onoma, “name.”
    • Jerome is the English form of Hieronymus.
      • Jerónimo is the Spanish form of Jerome.
    • Jheronimus was the form of Hieronymus used by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).
  • Kainoa, meaning “the namesake,” is based on the Hawaiian words ka, “the” (singular), and inoa, “name.”
    • Kainoakupuna means “the namesake of one’s ancestor.”
  • Nainoa, meaning “the namesakes,” is based on the Hawaiian words na, “the” (plural), and inoa, “name.”
  • Nergüi means “no name” in Mongolian.
  • Shem means “name” in Hebrew. (The eldest of Noah’s three sons was called Shem.)
    • Sem is a variant form of Shem. (It’s popular in The Netherlands right now.)

Do you know of any others?

Image: Adapted from Jheronimus Bosch 006 central panel 03 detail 01 (public domain)