But it is in the names of immortal singers that we find the German element most conspicuously represented. Dante himself bears a name which, though not in itself German, may yet have been given to Italy by the Germans, while as to his second title, _Alighieri_, there seems hardly any doubt of its German origin.[52] Dante is a contraction of _Durante_, which seems to be derived most naturally from Latin _durans_, and it might seem something of a paradox to suppose a Latin race to be indebted to the Germans for a Latin name. And yet I think that there are some grounds for supposing it to be a name adopted by the early Frankish converts to Christianity, and by them transmitted to the Italians. For we find Durant, Durand, and Durann as not uncommon German names, apparently Frankish, in the eighth and the ninth centuries. And we find the word moreover made up into a German compound as Durandomar (_mar_, famous). The French have moreover at present, derived we may presume from their Frankish ancestors, another name, _Durandard_, similarly formed (_hard_, fortis). Now this is precisely the same principle as that on which the early Frankish converts, as we find from the _Pol. Irm._ and the _Pol. Rem._, used to form many of their names, taking a word of Christian import from the Latin or otherwise, and mixing it up with the Old German compounds to which they had been accustomed. Thus, for an example, we find that a woman called Electa, which we can hardly doubt means "elect," gives to her son the name of Electard, a similar compound to Durandard. There seems then, on the whole, a fair amount of probability for this suggestion, which would moreover sufficiently account for the manner in which the name is common to France, Italy, Germany, and England. The French have it as _Durand_, _Durant_, and _Durandeau_ (besides _Durandard_ already noted); the Italians as _Durante_, _Duranto_, and _Durandi_; the Germans as _Durand_ and _Dorand_; and we ourselves as _Durand_ and _Durant_. Our names came to us no doubt through the Normans,--there is a Durand in the _Roll of Battle Abbey_, and it is not till after this period that we find it as an English name.