Richard Gaetano

(male) One of the most enduringly successful of the Old French personal names introduced into Britain by the Normans. It is of Germanic (Frankish) origin, derived from rīc ‘power’ + hard ‘strong, hardy’. It has enjoyed continuous popularity in England from the Conquest to the present day, influenced by the fact that it was borne by three kings of England, in particular Richard I (1157–99). He was king for only ten years (1189–99), most of which he spent in warfare abroad, taking part in the Third Crusade and costing the people of England considerable sums in taxes. Nevertheless, he achieved the status of a folk hero, and was never in England long enough to disappoint popular faith in his goodness and justice. He was also Duke of Aquitaine and Normandy and Count of Anjou, fiefs which he held at a time of maximum English expansion in France. His exploits as a leader of the Third Crusade earned him the nickname ‘Coeur de Lion’ or ‘Lionheart’ and a permanent place in popular imagination, in which he was even more firmly enshrined by Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1820).

Italian: from the personal name Gaietano, medieval Latin Caietanus, originally a Latin ethnic name denoting someone from Caieta in Latium. According to legend the place was named after the elderly nurse of Aeneas, who died there after fleeing with him from the ruins of Troy. The name persisted among early Christians and was popular in the Middle Ages. The religious reformer St. Gaetano (1480–1547) was born in Vicenza, a member of a Venetian noble family. He is not to be confused with his contemporary Cardinal Gaetano, an active opponent of Martin Luther.