Comments (Meaning / History Only)
My given first name is Napoléon & from thorough lifelong research I understand the name to be of Classical Greek origin, after the coastal town of Nafplion; its meaning = 'lion of the woods.' (For whatever it's worth, I studied linguistics & philology @ New York University, where my nickname was 'Nap Chomsky.') Thank you for this opportunity to comment ~ Best, Napoléon Nikolai Živković, Acting Paterson [New Jersey] Historian.
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I think that the etymology is not right. I always heard that the etymologies must be very similar and have an appropriate meaning. For me the most possible etymology of Napoleon, Napoleone in Italian derives from Apollone the Latin name of the god Apollo. Corsica had an old Greek colony. "Ne apollone" (Some Apollo) could derive in Napolleone.
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Women in the Bonaparte and Beauharnais familes were often given the feminine form of the name (Napoléone) among their baptismal names. Among them was Queen Josefina of Sweden (1807-1876), the consort of King Oscar I, who was born Princess Joséphine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais (of Leuchtenberg).
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I don't think the name has anything at all do do with the "Nibelungenlied" but most probably derives from an Italian or Byzantine saint as there is a Saint Napoleon. The Bonapartes were actually of Italian (Genoese) origin -the family had migrated to Corsica a few generations before.
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Napoleon means "from Naples, Italy." But we use the word Neapolitan instead.
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The name Napoleon comes from Greek, and means "Lion of the Desert" (Napoleo in Latin, Napoleone, in Italian).
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