Portuguese and Spanish: from a medieval personal name (Latin Narcissus, from Greek Narkissos, the name of a flower). This name was borne, according to classical myth, by a vain youth who was so transfixed by his own beauty that he ignored the blandishments of the nymph Echo and stared at his own reflection in water until he faded away and turned into the pale but lovely flower that bears his name. It was also borne by several early Christian saints, in particular by a bishop who was said to have been put to death, together with his deacon Felix, in Catalonia adc. 307. The personal name owes its popularity to this saint rather than to the mythological youth.