Sigismund
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Sigismund (variants: Sigmund, Siegmund) is a German proper name, meaning "protection through victory", from Old High German sigu "victory" + munt "hand, protection". Tacitus latinises it Segimundus. It looks like there is an older form of the High German word "Sieg" (victory): sigis, obviously Gothic and an inferred Germanic form, and there is a younger form: sigi, which is Old Saxon or Old High German sigu (both from about 9th century). A 5th century Prince of Burgundy was known both as Sigismund and Sigimund (see Ernst Förstemann, Altdeutsche Personennamen, 1906; Henning Kaufmann, Altdeutsche Personennamen, Ergänzungsband,1968).
Sigismund was also a Latinised substitution of Lithuanian name Žygimantas, meaning "wealth of (military) campaign", from Lithuanian žygis "campaign, march" + manta "goods, wealth" (such are the cases of Sigismund Kestutaitis, Sigismund Korybut, Sigismund I the Old, Sigismund II Augustus).
Sigismund was the name of several European nobles:
- Saint Sigismund of Burgundy (died 523), King of the Burgundians
- Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437), Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary
- Sigismund Kestutaitis (c.1350–1440), Grand Duke of Lithuania
- Sigismund Korybut (?-~1435), Lithuanian Duke, participated in Hussite Wars
- Sigismund, Archduke of Austria (1427–1496), ruler of Further Austria
- Archduke Sigismund Francis of Austria (1630-1665), ruler of Further Austria
- Sigismund of Bavaria (1439–1501), a Duke of Bavaria
- Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548), King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania
- Sigismund II Augustus (1520–1572), King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania
- Sigismund III Vasa (1566–1632), King of Sweden (as Sigismund I) and Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania
- Sigismund Báthory (1572–1613), Prince of Transylvania
- Prince Sigismund of Prussia (1864-1866), the fourth child of Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor and Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Sigismund/Siegmund may also refer to:
- Brother Sigismund of the Black Templars, founder of the Black Templars
- Sigismund (bell), a famous bell in the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, cast in 1520
- Siegmund, a focal character in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre