Richard - rich and strong 

This name comes from the Old High German and is composed of the words for «rich, powerful» and «strong».

Many rulers in the Middle Ages bore it. Probably the most famous was Richard I, who reigned as King of England in the 12th century and went down in the history books as «Richard the Lionheart».

At present, Richard regularly makes it into the top 100 of the most popular boys' names.

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Well-known namesakes are: Richard Wagner, German composer and writer; Richard Strauss, German composer; Richard Burton, who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s not only for his films but also for his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor; Nobelist Richard R. Ernst, a Swiss chemist who is considered the father of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner; and U.S. actor Richard Gere.