The familiar root that has been so often encountered in valeo, wield, &c., in the sense of power, gives the prefix vlad to various favourite Slavonic names. The Russian Vladimir, being of the race of Rurik, is sometimes seized upon as Waldemar; and, in fact, there is little difference in the sense of the first syllable. He is a great national saint, since it was his marriage with the Greek Princess Anna that obtained for the Byzantine Church her mighty Muscovite daughter; and in honour of him, Vladimir has been perpetually used in Russia, shortened into Volodia, and expanded into Volodinka by way of endearment.
The national saint of Hungary was Vladislav, who was the restorer of the faith that had almost faded away after the death of the sainted King Stephen, and was chosen as leader of a crusade, which was prevented by his death in 1095. His name, and that of his many votaries, have sorely puzzled Latin and Teutonic tongues; when not content, like the French, to term him St. Lancelot, his countrymen call themselves after him Laszlo, or Laczko, the Illyrians Lako, the Letts Wendis; but chroniclers vary between Uladislaus and Ladislaus in Hungary and Poland; and when the Angevin connection brought down a king from Hungary to revenge the death of his brother upon Giovanni of Naples, the Italians called him Ladislao; and as Ladislas we recognize the last native Hungarian king, brother-in-law to Charles V. Vladislavka is a feminine, contracting into Valeska, which is still borne by Polish young ladies. Vladivoj is another of the same class, and sve, all, with the verb vladati, to rule, has formed Vsevolad and Svevlad, All ruler, and Vseslav, All fame.
Possibly there may be some connection here with the deity Volos, Weles, or Veless, invoked under these names by the Slaves, Bohemians, and Russians, as witness of their oaths, and likewise as guardian of flocks. Possibly the Roman Pales may be the same deity under another form; but the name of Volos is still applied to shepherds, and comes, no doubt, from the Slavonic vlas, or Russian volos, the same word as wool.
The word mir at the end of Vladimir is somewhat doubtful. It may mean peace, or it may mean the world; and in like manner the Slovak Miroslav stands in doubt between world-fame or peaceful-fame.
Purvan, Purvançe, is the Bulgarian first, whether used in the sense of chief or of first-born does not appear; but, at any rate, bearing a most eastern sound with it.
We are familiar with the Russian ukase, from ukasat, to show forth; and kaze in Polish has the same sense of command. Kazimir is thus Command of peace, a noble title for a prince, and essentially national in Poland, where it was endeared by the fame of three of the best of the earlier sovereigns. It has the feminine Kasimira, and is one of the very few Slavonic names used by Teutons. Intermarriages introduced it among the German princes; and Johann Kasimir, a son of the Pfalzgraf of the Rhine, was a noted commander in the war of the Revolt of the Netherlands, and received the Garter from Queen Elizabeth. He was commonly called Prince Kasimir, and his namesakes spread in Germany; and either for the sake of the sound, or Polish sympathies, Casimir was somewhat fashionable in France.
| French. | Polish. | Bohemian. | Lettish. |
| Casimir | Kazimir | Kazimir | Kasimirs |
| German. | Kazimierz | Kasche | |
| Kasimir | Kaschis | ||
| Kaschuk |
Kol, council, formed Koloman, somewhat noted in early Slavonic history.
Jar, pronounced as beginning with y, means strength or firmness. Jaromir, Firm peace, was prince of Bohemia in 999. Jaropolk, firm government, was the last heathen grand prince of Muscovy; and this name, with Jaroslav, is very frequent in the early annals of the House of Rurik.
From lid, the people, (our old friends hleute and λαος,) came Ljudomir and Ludmilla, who was the first Christian duchess in Bohemia, and was strangled by her heathen daughter-in-law, Dragotina, the mother of Boleslav and Venceslav, leaving a sainted name much used among all Slavonian women, and called at home Lida and Lidiska; in Russia, Ljudmila. Lidvina was likewise Bohemian, from Vina, an old goddess.