Killian

Killian is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine name Cillian from the Gaelic “cill” meaning “church, monastery” paired with the diminutive “an” and so means “little church” or “associated with the church”. Alternately, Cillian is sometimes considered a diminutive of the Irish-Gaelic “ceallach” meaning “conflict, strife, war” and would therefore be given the etymology “little war”. The name garnered Western European attention in the Middle Ages thanks to the 7th century Saint Cillian, an Irish missionary who travelled to Franconia (the modern-day region of Bavaria in Germany) converting many to Christianity, including the local Duke. While preaching the gospel to the Duke, Saint Kilian (as he’s known in Germany) informed the lord that his marriage to his brother’s widow went against scripture. When the wife of the Duke heard how the bishop spoke critically of her marriage, she had Saint Kilian and two of his fellow missionaries beheaded in the town square in Würzburg as they preached to the people. The relics of these three martyrs (i.e., their skulls) have been preserved to this day and are paraded through the streets on Kilian’s feast day (July 8). For some unknown reason, Saint Kilian is also the patron saint to rheumatism sufferers. The traditional Irish spelling of Cillian is still quite popular in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, but the Irish also use Killian with a “K”. Kilian with one “L” is used with some frequency in Austria and France today, but Killian with two “L”s is preferred among English speakers.