French form of Herman, from Germanic 'heri' (army) and 'man', meaning 'army man' or 'soldier'.
Armand is the French form of the Germanic name Arman or Herman, composed of the elements hari meaning 'army' and man meaning 'man' — so at its root, a warrior or man of the army. The name traveled from the Germanic tribes into the Frankish aristocracy and then into French courtly culture, where it acquired its distinctive elegant ending. By the medieval period it was established among French nobility, and it carried into the early modern era as a name associated with power and sophistication.
The most famous historical bearer is arguably Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (1585–1642), the formidable chief minister of Louis XIII, whose first name — though rarely used in his honorific title — belonged to a man who shaped the course of French and European history. Armand's romantic associations deepened considerably through Alexandre Dumas fils's 1852 novel La Dame aux Camélias, in which Armand Duval is the passionate young lover of the courtesan Marguerite Gautier. The story was adapted into Verdi's opera La Traviata the same year, and the tender, lovestruck Armand became an archetype of romantic devotion in European culture.
The name carried this association through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, lending it a quality both ardent and refined. In the English-speaking world Armand has always been a relatively rare import, giving it an air of continental distinction. It is common enough across French-speaking Canada, Belgium, and France to feel like a real name rather than an affectation, but uncommon enough in the United States and Britain to stand out. Contemporary parents drawn to French names with history — think Henri, Marcel, or Sébastien — often find Armand strikes the right balance between grandeur and wearability.