It has, however, been far less popular among those who own their sway than among the Eastern Christians who are free from it, and though we find it in Scandinavia, this is only as a modernization of the Norse Grjotgard, while the Macgregors of Scotland draw their descent not from Gregory, but from Grig or Gairig, a Keltic word meaning the fierce.[[44]]

English.French.Italian.Danish.
Gregory GregoireGregorioGregos
German. Gregus
Gregor Swedish.
Gregus Greis
Gregoire
Russian.Polish.Bohemian.Slavonic.
GrigorijGrzegorzRehorGregor
Grischa Grega
Gorej
Illyrian.Lett.Lithuanian.Hungarian.
GregorijeGriggGreszkusGergelj
Gerga GrygallisGero

[44]. Michaelis; Butler.

Section X.—Georgos.

The Maronite Christians have a tradition that Georgos was a Christian sentinel at Damascus, who connived at the escape of St. Paul, when he was let down in the basket, and was therefore put to death; but whether this be true or false, among what may be called the allegorical saints of the Greek Church, one of the most noted is our own patron Γῆ (Ge), earth, and ἔργω (ergo), anciently Γέργω (fergo), descended from the same source as our own verbs to work and to urge, formed Γεωργός (earthworker or husbandman). A Cappadocian saint and martyr, of whom nothing was known but that he had been a soldier and died in the last persecution, bore the name of Georgios, and was deeply reverenced in the East, where Constantine erected a church in his honour at Byzantium. As in the case of St. Christopher, and probably of St. Alexis, this honoured name became the nucleus of the allegory, of the warrior saint contending with the dragon, and delivering the oppressed Church, and of course the lovers of marvel turned the parable into substance. In 494, Pope Gelasius tried to separate the true Georgius from the legend, which he omitted from the offices of the Church, but popular fancy was too strong for the pope, and the story was carried on till the imaginations of the Crusaders before Jerusalem fixed upon St. George as the miraculous champion whom they beheld fighting in their cause, as Santiago had done for Galicia. Thereby Burgundy and Aquitaine adopted him as their patron saint; and the Burgundian Henry carried him to Portugal, and put that realm under his protection; as a hundred years later Richard I. did by England, making “St. George for merry England” the most renowned of battle-cries. From Burgundy he was taken by the Germans as a patron; and Venice, always connected with Greece, already glorified him as her patron, so that “In the name of St. George and St. Michael I dub thee knight,” was the formulary throughout half Europe, and no saint had so many chivalrous orders instituted in his honour.

Still the name was less early used in the West than might have been expected, perhaps from the difficulty of pronunciation. Georgios always prevailed in the East, and came to Scotland in the grand Hungarian importation, with the ancestor of the House of Drummond, who bear three wavy lines on their shield in memory of a great battle fought by the side of a river in Hungary, before the Atheling family were brought back to England, attended by this Hungarian noble. On the usurpation of Harold, he fled with them to Scotland, and there founded a family where the Eastern Christian name of George has always been an heir-loom. It was probably from the same Hungarian source that Germany first adopted Georg, or Jürgen, as it is differently spelt, and thence sent it to England with the House of Brunswick; for, in spite of George of Clarence, brother of Edward IV., and a few other exceptions, it had been an unusual name previously, and scarcely a single George appears in our parish registers before 1700, although afterwards it multiplied to such an extent as to make it doubtful whether George, John, or Charles be the most common designation of Englishmen.

The feminine is quite a modernism. The first English lady on record, so called, was a godchild of Anne of Denmark, who caused her to be christened Georgia Anna. The name had, however, previously existed on the Continent.

Venice took its Giorgio direct from Greece, but the name was not popular elsewhere in Italy; and at Cambrai, an isolated instance occurs in the year 1300, nor has it ever been common in France. The Welsh Urien (Uranius) descends from heaven to earth by considering George as his equivalent. The Irish translate the name into Keltic as Seoirgi.[[45]]

English.Scotch.French.Italian.
GeorgeGeorgeGeorgesGiorgio
GeorgyGeordieGeorget
Spanish.Portuguese.Wallachian.Provençal
JorgeJorgeGeorgieJortz
Jorgezinho
German.Frisian.Bavarian.Swiss.
GeorgJurgenGörgelJörg
JurgenJurnGergel
Swedish.Danish.Dutch.Russian.
GöranGeorgGeorgiusGayeirgee
JorgenJorisGeorgij
JurriaanJurgi
JurriaEgor
Egorka
Polish.Bohemian.Slavonic.Illyrian.
JerzyJiriJurgGiuraj
JurckGiuro
Giuko
Djuradj
Djurica
Juro
Jurica
Lusatian.Lett.Lithuanian.Esthonian.
JuroJorrgisJurgisJurn
JurkoJurruschJurguttis
FEMININE.
English.French.German.Portuguese.
GeorgianaGeorgineGeorgine Georgeta
GeorginaGeorgette Illyrian.
Gjurjija
Gjurgjinka