Found as a baptismal name. A corre­spondent of N. Q. (3rd S. 541) says ‘Neptune is the crest, as well as the Christian name, in families bearing my name. At the baptism of an infant relative some years years ago in Dublin, exception was taken to this name by the clergyman, when asked to give it to the child, on the score of its Pagan savour. His scruples gave way, however, on being informed by an uncle of the babe (then present) that he was himself a ‘case in point in favour of the ceremony being proceeded with, as his baptismal name was Neptune.’ Another correspondent of the same journal (5th S. x. 376) speaks of a distinguished military officer whose second name was Neptune, from his having been born aboard a troop-ship or transport of that name. There are several suggestions as to the derivation of the classical name. derives Neptunus from nubo (to cover), quòd mare terras abnubat; Cicero thinks it was originally Nuptunus, from nuptus, marriage; Scaliger derives it from νιπτω, to wash; others from Japheth (יפח), signifying widely-extending, by dropping the י and prefixing נ; or from Naphtuhim, pr. n. of an Egyptian nation (Gen. x. 13; I. Ch. xi., which Bochart (Phaleg. iv. 29) compares with Greek Νέφθυς, the wife of Typhon, and, according to Plutarch (De Iside, p. 96, ed. Squire), the extreme limit of the earth washed by the sea, which opinion, says Tregelles, has been adopted by J. D. Michaelis, who understands this region to be situated to the east of Pelusium; but, as Tregelles adds, ‘all this is very uncertain.’