Candide as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Candide

What is the meaning of the name Candide ?

The baby name Candide is a Male name , 2 syllables long and is pronounced French: /kɑ̃.did/ (kahn-DEED); English: /ˈkændɪd/ or /kænˈdiːd/ (CAN-did or can-DEED).

Candide is French in Origin.

Candide is the French given name from Latin Candidus, meaning “white, shining,” and by extension “sincere, guileless.” It derives from the verb candere, “to glow,” which also gives English candid. In French, the adjective candide evokes frankness and innocence, shades of meaning that color the name itself.

Borne in late antiquity by several Christian martyrs named Candidus (notably a soldier of the Theban Legion), the name endured through medieval Europe. In France it remains rare; its most famous bearer is the ingenuous hero of Voltaire’s 1759 satire Candide, a literary association that can suggest naïveté as well as purity. Use is chiefly masculine but occasionally unisex in modern French. International variants include Latin Candidus/Candida; Italian Candido/Candida; Spanish Cándido/Cándida; Portuguese Cândido/Cândida; Catalan Càndid/Càndida; German Kandid/Candidus; Polish Kandyd; and Romanian Candid. Related feminine forms include Candida.