Note 102 — Chapter IV

Buddha is not a proper name, but an official title. Just as we ought not to say Jesus Christ, but always Jesus the Christ, so we should say Siddârtha the Buddha, or Sakya-muni the Buddha, or Gautama the Buddha. The first of these names, Siddârtha (contracted from Sarvârtha-siddha) was the baptismal name given by his father, and means "The fulfilment of every wish." Sakya-muni means "The hermit of the race of Sakya,"—Sakya being the ancestral name of his father's race. The name Gautama is stated by Koeppen to be "der priesterliche Beiname des Geschlechts der Sakya,"—whatever that may mean.