Name
He was named Karl (Carolus) after his grandfather, Charles Martel. Later Old French historians dubbed him Charles le Magne (Charles the Great), becoming Charlemagne in English after the Norman conquest of England. The epithet Carolus Magnus was widely used, leading to numerous translations into many languages of Europe. He was known in German as Karl der Grosse; Dutch, Karel de Grote; Danish, Karl den Store; Italian, Carlo Magno; Serbo-Croat, Karlo Veliki; Spanish, Carlomagno; and various others.
Charles' achievements gave a new meaning to his name. In many European languages, the very word for "king" derives from his name; e.g., Polish: król, Ukrainian: король (korol'), Czech: král, Slovak: kráľ, Hungarian: király, Lithuanian: karalius, Latvian: karalis, Russian: король, Macedonian: крал, Bulgarian: крал, Serbian: краљ/kralj, Croatian: kralj, Turkish: kral. This development parallels that of the name of the Caesars in the original Roman Empire, which became Kaiser and Czar, among others.
Read more about this topic: Charlemagne
Famous quotes containing the word name:
“Name any name and then remember everybody you ever knew who bore than name. Are they all alike. I think so.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“What is it? a learned man
Could give it a clumsy name.
Let him name it who can,
The beauty would be the same.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)