Clovis is the modern conventional French (and thence English) form of the Old Frankish name ᚺᛚᛟᛞᛟᚹᛁᚷ (in runic alphabet) or *"Hlōdowik" or "Hlōdowig" (in Latin alphabet), equivalent to the modern forms Louis (French), Lodewijk (Dutch), Lewis (English), and Ludwig (German).
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Etymology
Based on the attested forms, the Frankish name is generally reconstructed as *Hlodowig. The commonly accepted interpretation derives it from two Proto-Germanic elements,*hlūdaz ('loud, famous') and *wiganą ('to battle, to fight'), which underlies the traditional translation of Clovis's name as 'famous warrior' or 'renowned in battle'.
Linguist Reinder van der Meulen has questioned whether the traditional derivation from Proto-Germanic hlūd- ('famous') fully accounts for the vocalism found in the Merovingian forms. He notes that Gregory of Tours consistently writes Chlodo- with 'o', even though he uses 'u' elsewhere for names that etymologically contain u (e.g., Fredegundis, Guntchramnus, Arnulfus). On this basis, van der Meulen proposes that the first element might instead reflect a stem lod- ('to take booty, to plunder'), which would yield an interpretation of *Hlodowig as 'warrior for booty'. He further suggests that this interpretation would avoid the semantic redundancy that would occur in the name Chlodomer if both elements (traditionally analysed as hlūd- and -mērijaz, each meaning 'famous') were assumed to belong to the same semantic field.
Frankish royalty
Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler
Clovis II (637 – c. 658), king of Neustria and Burgundy
Clovis III (reigned 675–676), the king of Austrasia
Clovis IV (682–695), the sole king of the Franks from 691 until 695
Clovis (died 580), son of Chilperic I and Audovera, assassinated by his father and stepmother
Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, King of Aquitaine from 781 and sole ruler of the Franks 814–840, but counted as "Louis I of France" even though West Francia (the nucleus of the later kingdom of France) was formed only after his death.
Modern use
Because of the importance of Clovis I in the national historiography of France, the form Clovis has been occasionally revived beginning in the 19th century. Chlodwig is a variant of Clovis.
Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (1819–1901)
Clovis Hugues (1851–1907), French author
Chlodwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1876–1954)
Clovis Trouille (1889–1975), French painter
Clovis-Thomas Richard (1892–1976), Canadian politician
Clovis Renaison (1892–1989), French Senator
Clovis E. Byers (1899–1979), American general
Clovis Maksoud (1926–2016), American diplomat and journalist
Clovis Cornillac (born 1967), French actor
Clovis Kamdjo (born 1990), Cameroonian football player
Fictional characters
Clovis la Britannia, a character in the anime series Code Geass
Clovis, the main antagonist in the 1997 Blade Runner video game
Clovis Sangrail, a character in the short stories of Saki
Clovis Dardentor, the protagonist in the Jules Verne's novel of the same name
Clovis, a minor character in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series
Clovis, a major supporting character in Keith Knight's Woke series
Rush Clovis, supporting character in the Star Wars Universe who appears in Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Clovis Bray, a character appearing in the lore of the games Destiny and Destiny 2 and later revealed as a character in Destiny 2: Beyond Light