Helmut

Its second part "Mut" is clearly German for "courage", "vigour", but about the origin of the first part there are different theories, relating it to historical languages' words for "bright", "hell", "helmet", and "sword". In another Indo-European language, Hindi, heemuth means courage, so it is possible the German Helmut and the Hindi heemuth, both meaning courage, have a common proto-Indo-European root.

People bearing the name include

• Helmut Ayarzagoitia, Mexican famous Chef de Cuisine and Pastry Chef
• Helmut Berger, Austrian actor
• Helmut Haller, German football player
• Helmut Hasse, German mathematician
• Helmut Jahn, German-American architect
• Helmut Kohl, former german chancellor
• Helmut Lachenmann, german composer
• Helmut Landsberg, seismologist
• Helmut Lang, fashion designer
• Helmut Lotti, Belgian singer and songwriter
• Helmut Marko, former Austrian racing driver
• Helmut Newton, photograph
• Helmut Rahn, german football player
• Helmut Schmidt, former german chancellor
• Helmut Sick, German-Brazilian ornithologist

The movie Night on Earth features an episode about a character named Helmut (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who is mocked about his name by an English speaker.