Gerard
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 Gerard facts

• Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together
• In this case, those constituents are gari > ger- (meaning 'spear') and -hard (meaning 'hard/strong/brave')
• Common forms of the name are Gerard (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Polish and Catalan); Gerrard (English, Scottish, Irish); Gerardo (Italian, Portuguese and Spanish); Gherardo (Italian); Gherardi (Northern Italian, now only a surname); Gérard (variant forms Girard and Guérard, now only surnames, French); Gearóid (Irish); Gerhardt and Gerhart/Gerhard/Gerhardus (Afrikaans, Dutch, and German); Gellért (Hungarian); Gerardas (Lithuanian) and Gerards/Ģirts (Latvian)
• A few abbreviated forms are Gerry and Jerry (English); Gerd (German) and Gert (Afrikaans and Dutch); Gerrit (Afrikaans and Dutch); Gertjie (Afrikaans); Geert (Dutch), Γεράρδης (Greece) and Жоро (Bulgarian)
• The introduction of the name 'Gerard' into the English language took place following the Norman conquest of England in 1066
• Its original forms in Old French were “Gerard, Gerart” [dʒeʁɑʁ] and “Girart”
• The surname Ge(e)rdes is a patronymic form, i
• e
• "the son of Ger(har)d", that originated in Frisia around 1800
• The name Gerald, while phonetically similar to Gerard, derives from a slightly different set of constituents: ger and wald (meaning 'rule/lead')