Name of the Week

There's sweet Clare, vintage Clara, pretty Clarissa
and Clarimond, a gothicly romantic name of medieval legend.

Origin:

The medieval name Clarimond started life as Claremunda, an Old Germanic hybrid. The first element is the Latin clarus "clear, bright, shining," also found in other Old Germanic names such as Clarenbald/Clerebald and German words such as aufklärung "enlightenment," demonstrating the word's early adoption in Teutonic languages. The second element, -munda, is the feminine form of munt "protector, hand". The latter was used in Clarmunt, the masculine equivalent of Claremunda.  The Medieval French variant Esclarmonde has led many to assume it comes from the French éclair du monde "light of the world" though this seems unlikely given Esclarmont and Claremonde were sometimes interchanged*.

Usage:

The name has been used in Britain since the 13th century, with both Claramunda and Cleremunda recorded in Wiltshire in 1249. The end of that century saw the creation the derived surnames Clermond, Claremont and Clermont, which are still in use today.  The name was not especially common, and was actually more prevalent in Old French Charlemagne-cylce chansons de geste in the French forms Claremonde and Esclarmonde. Esclarmonde (sometimes Claremond) was notably used as the name of the heroine in the 13th-century French epic Huon of Bordeaux. The romance was so popular it led to several sequels, including one entitiled Chanson d'Esclarmonde. A bevy of other variants appeared in other epics, including Claremond, Claraminnda, Clarmondyne and Clarymounde*. As for real women, Esclarmonde was used by the House of Foix from the 13th century, and most likely used in the wider locality. Esclarmonde de Foix (d.1215), or Esclarmonde the Great, was abbess of the Perfectae house at Pamiers and a prominent figure in Catharism in France, establishing schools for girls and several hospitals in the region. Esclarmonde Durban, who was seemingly unjustly killed for heresy in Lodève in 1322, also points to the name's wider use in France.  A pocket of baptisms for the name Claramonde / Claremond survive from the late 16th century in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and there are a handful of other batisms from York, Devon, Lancashire and Sussex spanning into the early 17th century. It was revived briefly in the 19th century; perhaps it was inspired by Nicolas des Escuteaux's beautiful vampire Clarimonde, or simply because it fit nicely with the Victorian trend for all things medieval and gothic, as a fascinating, if sneering, snippet from Frances Lichten's Decorative Art of Victoria's Era (1950) demonstrates: In the 1840's, even fashion was touched by the Romantic idea, and women added to the crinoline what was then called a "Gothic" corsage...Sentimental novel-reading mothers [...] saddled helpless girl-babies with the names of their favorite heroines... Women who lived beyond the duration of this craze went to their graves labelled for all time with the evidences of this fashion. A quick glance at the marble, flower-wreathed stones in the early Victorian section of any old cemetery will disclose that women bearing such names as Arzelia, Ermina, Rejessa, Markina, Clarimond, and Diademia once lived and breathed. There were 7 women named Clarimond on both the 1871 and 1881 UK census, living in both England and Wales. In 1901, 9 women were listed with the name. A few males were also named Clarmont during this period.  Overall, eleven women were registered with the name in England and Wales between 1838 and 1900. The last Clarimond to be registered was in 1919, though there was one Claremond in 1955.

Famous Bearers:

History:  * Esclarmonde de Foix (d.1215), abbess of the Perfectae house at Pamiers. Legend and Literature: * In Huon of Bordeaux (13th century), Esclarmonde is the beautiful Sracen heroine, daughter of the emir of Babylon. * Cléomade et Claremonde (1480), medieval romance of the knight Cléomade and the beautiful lady "la belle" Claremonde. * Les chastes et heureuses amours de Clarimond et Antonide (1601), a novel by Nicolas des Escuteaux. * Clarimonde is the beautiful woman who is revealed to be a vampire in Théophile Gautier's novel Clarimonde: La Morte Amoureuse (1863).

Variants:

Claremunda (Germanic), Clarimonde (French), Claremonde, Esclarmonde (Medieval French literature)

Pronunciation:

KLA-rə-mənd (UK)  KLE-rə-mənd (US) [key]

Possible  diminutives:

Clare. Clara, Clarrie, Clio, Cammy, Cora, Cori, Kimmy, Milla, Millie, Minnie, Romy

Sibling Names:

Pearline     Melisande     Eglantine     Loveday     Antigone    Thomasina      Franco      Corentin      Oberon      Alonzo     Bertrand      Wolfram

Name Lists:

Gothic Victoriana

 

If you like Clarimond you may also like:   Marigold, Amphelise, Constanza, Marcelina, Aloisia, Clarinda, Damaris, Elissent, Clarion, Drusilla

 

Thanks to Lumi for requesting Clarimond.