How the Sun Got its Name
The sun has many names in many cultures, all of them presumably pre-historic in their origins. The ancient Greeks called it Helios and the ancient Romans called it Sol, both of which derive from the same Proto-Indo-European term. Latin Sol developed as sole in Italian, sol in Portuguese and Spanish, and with the addition of an originally diminutive suffix, as soleil in French. Modern English sun evolved from the same Proto-Germanic form that today is Sonne in German and zon in Dutch, variously attested as sonne and sunne in Old and Middle English, with similar forms found in other ancient Germanic languages such as Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old High German and Gothic.