The verb _vinco_ (to conquer), the first syllable the same as our _win_,
formed the present participle _vincens_, whence the name Vincentius
(conquering), which was borne by two martyrs of the tenth persecution,
one at Zaragoza, the other at Agen; and later by one of the great
ecclesiastical authors at Lerius, in Provence. Thus Vincent, Vincente,
Vincenzio, were national in France, Spain, and Italy, before the more
modern saints, Vincente Ferrer, and Vincent de St. Paul, had enhanced
its honours.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Vincent │Vincent │Vincente │Vincenzio │Vincenz │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ Bavarian. │ Russian. │ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Hungarian. │
│Zenz │Vikentij │Vincentij │Vincenc │Vincze │
│Zenzel │ │ │ │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
Even the modern Greeks have it as Binkentios.
Conquest is a word found in all classes of names,—the Sieg of the
Teuton, the Nikos of the Greek.
The past participle is _victus_; whence the conqueror is Victor—a name
of triumph congenial to the spirit of early Christianity, and borne by
an early pope as well as by more than one martyr, from whom Vittore
descended as rather a favourite Italian name, though not much used
elsewhere till the French Revolution, when Victor came into fashion in
France. Tollo is the Roman contraction, as is Tolla of the feminine.
The original Victoria was a Roman virgin, martyred in the Decian
persecution; whence the Italian Vittoria, borne by the admirable
daughter of the Colonne, from whom France and Germany seem to have
learned it, since after her time Victoire and Victorine became very
common in France; and it was from Germany that we learnt the Victoria
that will, probably, sound hereafter like one of our most national
names.