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Archivesthe name Kant
Immanual Kant was German but the roots of the name Kant is in Sanskrit meaning beloved by the moon. My husband was from India and his middle name and the name of 9 know and documented generations of men all have the middle name of Kant. What os the connection between the Sanskrit and German KANT? Margaret
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Short words from different languages may have no etymological connections: this is quite common. Somewhere I heard Kant is a toponymic, from a word meaning edge or corner: this is unrelated to the Sanskrit name element Kant.
The Sanskrit word kAnta (where the last -a is silent in many, but not all, modern Indian languages) is from the incomplete root kam meaning to love or desire; and merely means beloved, not beloved by the moon. It is a very common second element of first names, with the first element usually providing the subject, who the bearer is loved by. Most Indians do not have true middle names. kam has Indoeuropean cognates (as in Latin comis, also in Gaelic and Armenian), but offhand I cannot recall any Germanic form.
The Sanskrit word kAnta (where the last -a is silent in many, but not all, modern Indian languages) is from the incomplete root kam meaning to love or desire; and merely means beloved, not beloved by the moon. It is a very common second element of first names, with the first element usually providing the subject, who the bearer is loved by. Most Indians do not have true middle names. kam has Indoeuropean cognates (as in Latin comis, also in Gaelic and Armenian), but offhand I cannot recall any Germanic form.
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I agree with the interpretation of KANT you are giving. The Philosopher Immanuel Kant always claimed to have Scottish ancestors, but his great-grandfather Richard Kant immigrated from the Baltic area, most likely from a place called Kantweinen near Prökuls. This again may contain the "kant" element (edge) you mention.
Source: Rosa und Volker Kohlheim: Familiennamen, Herkunft und Bedeutung, Duden-Verlag Mannheim 2000
Source: Rosa und Volker Kohlheim: Familiennamen, Herkunft und Bedeutung, Duden-Verlag Mannheim 2000
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