(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).
Short forms: Rick, Dick, Rich.
Pet forms: Ricky, Rickie; Dicky, Dickie; Richie.
Cognates: Irish: Ristéard. Scottish Gaelic: Ruiseart. Welsh: Rhisiart. German: Richard. Dutch: Richard, Rikhart. Scandinavian: Rik(h)ard. French: Richard. Spanish, Portuguese: Ricardo. Italian: Riccardo. Polish: Ryszard. Czech: Richard. Slovenian: Rihard. Finnish: Rik(h)ard. Hungarian: Rikárd. Latvian: Rihards.
Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.
FOREBEARS One of the most famous bearers of this widespread northern English name was the Puritan preacher John Robinson (c.1575–1625) of Sturton, Nottinghamshire, England. In 1604 he was removed from his fellowship of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for his religious views. He was the leader of the group of English Puritans who fled to Leiden in the Netherlands in 1608–9, among whom were many of the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. His son Isaac came to Plymouth, MA, in 1631, and eventually settled in Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard, in about 1670.