Richard, or Richardet, was one of the Quatre Filz d'Aymon, who, according to one version, was the person who gave the fatal blow with the chess-board, instead of Renaud.  He is not a very interesting personage, being rather the attendant knight than the prime hero, the rescued, not the rescuer... The third Norman duke bore the name, and transmitted it to two successors, whence we obtained as many as twenty Richards at the Conquest, and have used it as a favourite national name ever since  Two more saints bore it, the excellent bishop of Chichester, and a hermit, who was made bishop of Andria, in Apulia.  Three times has it been on the throne, though finally discarded by royalty after the enormities imputed to the last Plantagenet; and latterly it has lost a little of its popularity, though it has never been entirely disused. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)