The French language generally has both varieties of contractions, perhaps according as it was influenced by the Provençal or the Frank pronunciation, and thus its Nicolas becomes Nicole or Colas, sometimes Colin. Thence it has been suggested that Colin Maillard, or blind-man’s-buff, may be Colin seeking Maillard, the diminutive of Marie, which would drolly correspond to the conjecture that the “N or M” of our catechism and marriage service, instead of being merely the consonants of nomen, stand for Nicholas and Mary as the most probable names. The French Colin is probably Nicolas, and is the parent of all the Arcadian Colins who piped to their shepherdesses either in the rural theatricals of the ancient regime, in Chelsea china, or in pastoral poetry. The Scottish Colin may, perhaps, have been slightly influenced by French taste, but he bears no relation to Nicolas, being, in fact, formed from the Irish missionary, Saint Columba. The true Scottish descendant of the patron of scholars is to be found in that quaint portrait, Baillie Nicol Jarvie. The h with which Nicolas is usually spelt in English was probably introduced in the seventeenth century, which seemed to think good spelling consisted in the insertion of superfluous letters.
Niel, a pure Keltic word, which was adopted by the Northmen, and became naturalized in Scandinavia and Normandy, has also been translated by Nicolas, but quite incorrectly. Nils is the only real Nicolaus except Klaus used in the North, though Niel, and even Nigel, are sometimes confounded with it. Denmark has had a King Klaus; otherwise this popular name has only been on the throne in the instance of that great Tzar whom we had respected till the last year of his life, when his aggression forced us into war.
| English. | Scotch. | French. | Danish. |
| Nicholas | Nicol | Nicolas | Nikolaus |
| Nick | Nicole | Niklaas | |
| Nicol | Colas | Colin | Klaus |
| Nils | |||
| Dutch. | German. | Bavarian. | |
| Niklaas | Nikolaus | Niklau | Swiss. |
| Klasse | Niklas | Nickel | Chlaus |
| Klaus | Likelas | ||
| Nikolaus | Klasl | ||
| Niklas | |||
| Klaus | |||
| Italian. | Portuguese. | Russian. | Slavonic. |
| Nicola | Nicolaio | Nikolaj | Nikola |
| Nicolo | Nikolascha | Miklaoz | |
| Cola | Kolinka | ||
| Kolja | |||
| Polish. | Lett. | Finland. | Ung. |
| Mikolej | Klavinsh | Laus | Mikos |
| Klassis | Nilo | Lapland. | |
| Niku | Nikka |
The German Sieg answers exactly to the Greek Nike.
With the a before it, which in Greek contradicts the ensuing word, like the Latin in, and Teutonic un, we have Ἀνίκητoς, Aniketos, Anicetus, unconquered, the name of a pope, a friend of St. Polycarp, and an opponent of heresy, whence he is a saint both of East and West, and is called Aniceto at Rome, Anicet in France, and Anikita in Russia.[[37]]
[37]. Liddell and Scott; Rollin; Jameson; Butler; Michaelis; Ellis, Domesday Book; Warton, English Poetry.
Section VII.—Polys.
Πoλύς (Polys), much, very, or many, was a frequent opening for Greek names. Polydoros (Πoλύδωρος), many-gifted, was the youngest and last survivor of the sons of Priam; and as mediæval Europe had a strong feeling for the fate of Troy, and the woes of ‘Polydore’ had an especial attraction for them, so Polidoro was revived in Italy, and has never quite died away.
His sister Polyxena, the feminine of very hospitable, had an equally piteous fate, being slain by the Greeks at the tomb of Achilles. According to the legends of the Eastern Church, a lady named Eusebia (gentle), who had been born at Rome, fled from an enforced marriage with a king, and took refuge, first at Alexandria, and then in the Isle of Cos, where she was called Xena, or the stranger. She founded a monastery at Mylassa in Caria, and there died in the 5th century. Kseenia, as she is called in Russia, has many namesakes, and probably was made ornamental by being lengthened into Poliksenja, which is likewise in use, with the contraction Polinka; and Polixene has also been used from an early period in Germany.