Hector (given name)

Hector
	Sculpture of Hektor being brought back to Troy, dating from c.180–200 CE.
Gender	Masculine
Language(s)	Greek
Origin
Meaning	"to have", "to hold", "to check", "restrain"
Region of origin	Greece, England, France, Scotland, Spain
Other names
Derived	Hektor
Related names	Eachann; Hector (surname), Heitor

Hector (/ˈhɛktər/) is an English, French, Scottish, and Spanish given name. The name is derived from the name of Hektor, a legendary Trojan champion who was killed by the Greek Achilles. The name Hektor is probably derived from the Greek ékhein, meaning "to have", "to hold", "to check", "restrain". In Scotland, the name Hector is sometimes an anglicised form of the Scottish Gaelic Eachann, and the pet form Heckie is sometimes used. The name of Sir Ector, the foster father of King Arthur, is also a variant of the same.^[2]

Etymology

In Greek, Héktōr is a derivative of the verb ἔχειν ékhein, archaic form *ἕχειν, hékhein ('to have' or 'to hold'), from Proto-Indo-European *seɡ́ʰ- ('to hold').^[3] Héktōr, or Éktōr as found in Aeolic poetry, is also an epithet of Zeus in his capacity as 'he who holds [everything together]'. Hector's name could thus be taken to mean 'holding fast'.^[4]

Cognates

Irish: Eachtar^[5]
Italian: Ettore^[2]
Portuguese: Heitor^[2]
Greek: Modern Greek: Έκτορας (Ectoras), Ancient Greek: Ἕκτωρ (Hector)

People with the name

Hector Gottfried Masius (1653–1709), German Lutheran theologian
Hector Abhayavardhana (1919–2012), Sri Lankan Sinhala Trotskyist politician
Hector Appuhamy, Member of the Sri Lanka Parliament for Puttalam District
Hector Arawwawala, Governor of North Western Province, Sri Lanka from July 1994–January 1995
Héctor Ávila, Dominican boxer
Héctor Ballesteros, Colombian weightlifter
Héctor Bellerín, Spanish football (soccer) player
Hector Boece, a Scottish philosopher and historian
Hector Berlioz, French composer
Hector (Toe) Blake, Canadian hall of fame hockey player and coach
Hector Luis Bustamante, Colombian actor
Héctor Carrasco, Dominican baseball player
Héctor Castaño, Colombian road cyclist
Hector Charlesworth, Canadian writer, editor and critic
Hector Crawford, Australian radio and television producer
Hector de Zayas, U.S. Marine Corps officer and Navy Cross recipient
Hector Deheragoda, Solicitor General of Sri Lanka from 1970-1972
Héctor del Curto, Argentine tango bandoneon player
Héctor Delgado, reggaeton artist
Héctor Elizondo, Puerto Rican-American actor
Héctor Ferri, Ecuadorian football (soccer) player
Hector Halsall, English rugby league footballer with Swinton RLFC in the 1920s
Hector A. Hanson, American farmer and politician
Hector Hetherington, Scottish philosopher
Héctor King, Mexican recording artist
Hector Kobbekaduwa, Sri Lankan Sinhala lawyer and politician
Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican salsa singer
Hector Lombard, Cuban-Australian mixed martial artist
Hector Munro Macdonald, Scottish mathematician
Hector Carsewell Macpherson, Scottish writer and journalist
Héctor Moreno (footballer), Mexican football (soccer) player
Hector Munro, 8th laird of Novar, a Scottish-born British soldier who became the ninth Commander-in-Chief, India
Hector Hugh Munro, British writer who used the pseudonym Saki
Héctor Noguera, Chilean television, film and theatre actor
Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics
Hector Ó hEochagáin, Irish radio and television presenter
Héctor Palacio, Colombian road racing cyclist
Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Canadian poet
Héctor Soto, Puerto Rican volleyball player
Héctor Thomas, Venezuelan decathlete
Héctor Timerman, Argentine foreign minister
Hector Tyndale, American military officer
Héctor Velásquez, Chilean boxer
Héctor Vilches, Uruguayan football (soccer) player

Arthurian legend

Fictional characters

Monomial characters

Hector, minor character in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events
Hector (Ambrosia Mascot), parrot, unofficial mascot of games company Ambrosia Software
Hector (Castlevania), from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Hector (Fire Emblem), from the Fire Emblem video game franchise
Hector (Marvel Comics), a Marvel Comics superhero
Hector: Fat Arse of the Law, in the adventure video game Hector: Badge of Carnage
Hector, a polite robot of the father and son android pair Hector and Vector in "Greetings from Earth" (1979), an episode of the Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
Hector, the evil robot in the film Saturn 3

Monomial with descriptor

Hector the Bulldog, in Looney Tunes cartoons
Hector the Cat, a mascot for the teaching of road safety to children in Australia
Hector the Dog, in the British children's television series Hector's House

Binomial characters

Hector Alembick, character from King Ottokar's Sceptre
Hector Barbossa, in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series
Hector Bowen, aka Prospero the Enchanter, from the novel The Night Circus
Hector Casagrande, a character from the American animated series The Casagrandes and The Loud House
Hector Doyle from the manga and anime series Baki
Hector Cruz, from the American animated television series Ozzy & Drix
Hector "Hec" Faulkner, a character from the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Hector Flanagan, a character from the American animated series Sanjay and Craig
Hector Garcia, a character from Zits
Hector Gonzales, in the film For Your Eyes Only
Hector Hall, a DC Comics character
Hector Hammond, a DC Comics supervillain.
Hector "High Five" Nieves, one of the two main characters in the animated web television series Glitch Techs.
Hector Ricardo, a minor character in the Lorien Legacies series
Hector Salamanca, a character in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
Héctor Rivera, a character in the film Coco
Hector Ruiz, from the American television series The Electric Company
Hector Williams, one of the main characters in the American television show The Unit
Hector "Zero" Zeroni, a character in the novel Holes and its film adaption

Polynomial characters

Hector Con Carne, the main character from the American animated series Evil Con Carne

References

^ "Hector: name meaning and origin". BabyCentre UK.
^ ^a ^b ^c A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. 1996. ISBN 0-19-280050-7.
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill Publishers. p. 399. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
^ This etymology is given under "Hector" in the Online Etymological Dictionary, which, if true, would make it an Indo-European name, of root *seĝh-. The Dardanians would not have been Greek, but the language of the city of Troy is still an open question.
^ Woulfe, Patrick; Slevin, Gerard (1974). Irish names for children (Revised ed.). Gill and Macmillan. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7171-0697-4.

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[1] "Hector: name meaning and origin". BabyCentre UK.

[lasttn-2] A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. 1996. ISBN 0-19-280050-7.

[3] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill Publishers. p. 399. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.

[4] This etymology is given under "Hector" in the Online Etymological Dictionary, which, if true, would make it an Indo-European name, of root *seĝh-. The Dardanians would not have been Greek, but the language of the city of Troy is still an open question.

[5] Woulfe, Patrick; Slevin, Gerard (1974). Irish names for children (Revised ed.). Gill and Macmillan. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7171-0697-4.

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