As someone who isn’t particularly religious, I was taken aback to discover that St. Peter’s actual name wasn’t Peter, but Simon Bar-Jona. Peter, a Greek translation of the Syriac word for “stone,” was a nickname bestowed upon Simon (also known as Simeon or Simon Peter) by Jesus, signifying that Simon would be the “rock” on which he would establish his Church. This connection to stone is evident in words like petroleum, petrify, saltpeter, and other stone-related terms. While the etymology beyond Greek remains a mystery, the popularity of naming children after apostles in Christian nations led to various versions of Peter in different languages such as Pedro, Pierre, Pierce, Pearson, and more.
