Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund[1] and Raimund,[2] whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ (Raginmund) or ᚱᛖᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ (Reginmund).[1] Ragin (Gothic) and regin (Old German) meant “counsel”.[3] The Old High German mund originally meant “hand”,[4] but came to mean “protection”.[5] This etymology suggests that the name originated in the Early Middle Ages, possibly from Latin. Alternatively, the name can also be derived from Germanic Hraidmund, the first element being Hraid, possibly meaning “fame” (compare Hrod, found in names such as Robert, Rudolph, Roland and Roger) and mund meaning “protector”.

Despite the German and French origins of the English name, some of its early uses in English documents appear in Latinized form. As a surname, its first recorded appearance in Britain appeared in 1086, during the reign of William the Conqueror, in the Domesday Book, with a reference to Giraldus Reimundus.[6]