A male name. Latin, a cognomen in the Julian gens, of which the most famous member was Caius Julius Caesar, after whom the name Caesar was borne as a title first by all Roman emperors, and later by the heirs apparent to the emperors. The German Kaiser and Russian Czar are both derived from it. Various etymologies have been suggested; Pliny derives the name ‘a caeso matris utero’, Julius Caesar having been delivered by the operation now known as Caesarian section, but this obviously is no explanation of a name which was already in use. Another early explanation was that it was from caesaries, a fleece or head of hair whilst a third derives it from caesius ‘bluish-grey. It is not improbable that the name is in fact not Roman but Etruscan in origin. Caesar has been used occasionally as a christian name since the revival of classical nomenclature at the Renaissance. Cesare was fairly common in Italy in the 15th C (e.g. Cesare Borgia), and César has been used fairly often in France. The earliest example noted in England is Cesare Adelmare (1558-­1636), a Venetian who became physician to Queen Elizabeth and later dropped his patronymic, adopted the christian name of Julius, and in due course became Sir Julius Caesar and founder of a long line of physicians; the family is still in being. A clergyman named Cesar Walpole died in 1613. C. W. Bardsley, Dictionary of English and WelshSurnames (pub. 1901) gives an example of a baby born in 1799, who was brought into the world by Caesarian section and bore, during his short life of 17 months, the names of Julius Caesar Thompson. It is probable that others who have borne the name received it for the same reason.

Properly CÆSAR. The name appeared first in the Julian gens, nearly 200 years before Julius Caesar. Perhaps from Latin cœderey to cut; perhaps from cœsius, blue-eyed (cf. Eric Bright-eyes); perhaps even from a Moorish word for ‘elephant’,—a member of the gens had slain one in Africa; but probably from the fact that the first Caesar had an abundance of hair (L. caesaries),—Julius Caesar, oddly enough, was known as the bald-headed adulterer (see Oman’s fascinating Seven Roman Statesmen). Caesar became a title and is the original of Kaiser and Czar. Not, in C20, much used in the British Empire as a baptismal name, it continues to be so used in America. (Julius Caesar is an extant traditional name; I first met with it, I remember, in the person of one of the worthy citizens of Gisborne, New Zealand.)

Meaning: severed.

A Latin name, meaning: Celebrated Roman general, statesman, orator, and writer, who refused the diadem but gave name to a dynasty of successive emperors at Rome, and to the actual titles of Kaiser and Czar in other European countries. Also his name has come to stand for imperial qualities.