Raymond

The forename Raymond is perhaps most commonly seen in anglophone circles in the abbreviated form Ray. It existed in England from 1066, where a Giraldus Reimundus is recorded as serving with the Conqueror. Raymond has been used as a surname as well as a first name ever since, though never in great numbers.

Etymological note: Raymond is derived from an Old French name, Raimund, of Germanic origin, from ragin ‘advice, decision’ + mund ‘protector’. This was adopted by the Normans and introduced by them to Britain. (Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, 2006). In other languages, and at other times,it has had many forms. Now, it is Raimundo in Italian, Ramón in Spanish, and occasionally Redmond in English. It has been spelled Raimund, Reimund, etc.

Users of AWE may come across some historical 'Raymond's:

• Several Counts of the County of Tripoli (1109-1189), their forebears as Counts of Toulouse and successors, Princes of Antioch-Tripoli, were named Raymond.
• Two saint Raymonds are still venerated:
  • St Raymond of Penyafort, or Sant Ramon de Penyafort, (c. 1175–1275), was a distinguished canon lawyer who formulated the Decretals of Gregory IX, published in 1234, the standard compendium of canon laws for 680 years.
  • Saint Raymond Nonnatus (1204–1240), so-called (nonnatus ~ 'not born') because he was delivered by caesarean section from his mother who had already died during the birth. He was a priest in the Mercedarian order, founded to ransom Christian captives from the Moors of North Africa, who appears to have been appointed as the order's official ransomer. He was successful in this and is said to have become Master of the Order. He is the patron saint of midwives and childbirth; Jennifer Worth used Nonnatus House as a pseudonym for the Anglican community of the Sisters of St John the Divine in Whitechapel, where she served as a midwife memorialized in her book Call the Midwife, later made into a serial (increasingly fictionalized) on BBC television.