Happy Ágnes Day!

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

I found this prompt kind of relevant, as today is my name day in Hungary. Yep, my real and full first name is Ágnes (and not Ágota, sorry!). I was named after my mother, at the insistence of my maternal grandparents, instead of the originally planned Katalin. It turned out perfect: while I don’t fit my name very well, I have the perfect nickname, and my sister was a stereotypical Kata. So it all worked out well.

My name is often, incorrectly interpreted to come for the Latin word for lamb, agnus. Agnus Dei means the Lamb of God, and it’s one of Christ’s many names in the scriptures. Ágnes, however, originates from the Greek word for clean, virginal, and it fits the (possibly fictional) St. Agnes, an early martyr venerated in the Roman Catholic Church.

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