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I forget who it was, maybe Alath, had mentioned their Catholic Confirmation name. For those who don't know when you are Confirmed at 18 you choose a patron saint and take their name as your confirmation name.
I chose St. Patrick (I'm of heavy Irish ancestry and my birthday is March 18th). So my name went from Karl Jason Wolf to Karl Jason Patrick Wolf.
I'm not Catholic anymore so I don't know if it still holds, but I am curious what some other confirmation names are out there. Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Interesting, I always wondered how confirmation names were conferred. That's nice that you get to choose your own.
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(I also felt a kinship with I, Claudius, although that's just the beginning of the explanation of my Hatrack name.)
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In Romania [and probably the other Eastern Orthodox traditions as well], almost all of the children's receive given names that come from the list of saints.
The downside of this practice is that there are a lot of girl names that are simply feminized forms of boy names. Thus Bogdan becomes Bodgdana. Some are okay -- some not so much. And there are a few that go the other way -- masculinized girls names. But not many. Oh, and it also means that there's a much smaller pool of names to choose from. So there's like 2 or 3 of almost every name in every classroom. It got confusing.
The upside of this practice is you get two birthdays [just like Queen Elizabeth and Paddington Bear!] -- you celebrate the day of your birth *and* your the day set aside for your name saint. Do Catholics do this too? I can't remember. But if they do, I don't think it's on the same scale as in Romania. You get presents and special desserts on *both* days.
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Some do. I don't know how widespread it is, but the Spanish still celebrate their Saint's name days. However, Latin Americans typically do not and they're also less likely to name their children Saint's names than the Spanish are.
[edit - sometimes it helps to put in all the necessary words]
I chose St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. That caused a certain amount of mockery as my classmates thought I had chosen FrancIs Xavier, the Jesuit. But I'd chosen a woman, nee Francesca Cabrini.
We don't celebrate my Confimation saint's feast day, but since we were little my parents always celebrated our feast days, which were generally taken from our middle names.
Alison Marie Francesca Purnell.
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That's cool EqL. How do you celebrate your saint's feast day?
I want to add that in Romania it's not just all about the person. While I'm pretty sure they do receive gifts on their name day, Romanians also give some sort of "pomana" on that day -- basically a gift to someone less fortunate or who is doing good. I once received a bag of sugar from someone I barely even knew. I tried to refuse it -- we could afford to buy sugar and had plenty for our needs -- but in the end took it so as not to appear ungrateful/ungracious. Then when I thought about it and got beyond the 'others need it more' prejudice, I realized that it was a very nice compliment. While the woman that gave it to me wasn't that interested in the LDS Church, she did see us as men of God and so thought we should receive her pomana on her saint's feast day.
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Greeks do name days, too. Leslie isn't a Greek name, so I never got to celebrate one. But, it's as celebrated as birthdays.
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I always liked her, even before I knew she was a saint.
My feast day is one of the many feasts of Mary. For whatever reason, they chose the one on Janurary 1st. It was always amusing, trying to find a place to eat out for lunch on New Year's Day. The day was almost like a birthday, but without the presents. We don't do it so much anymore, since it's gotten impractical as the family grew, but we still get to pick a nice meal to be made on our day.
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Hey, which is the saint who's conversion came when he pierced Jesus' side? I love that story, but I can never remember the name.
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Are you referring to Thomas who put his hands in Jesus side before he would believe it was really Him who had risen?
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in "The Passion of the Christ" he is named Cassius, but I'm not sure how that squares with tradition...
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Krystyna, after my grandmother, and St. Kristine of somewhere, since it had to be a saint's name.
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Yeah, I meant the guy with the spear. When I was in St. Peter's Basillica I heard that story as we were looking at the statue dedicated to him, but I can never remember his name.
I haven't seen the passion, but my students say he is mentioned. Gibson is Catholic, so maybe his name is Cassius. Anyone know for sure?
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Did it with my class in 8th grade. I chose St. Elizabeth Seton. She was the 1st American saint and started the Daughters of Charity. So I became Dawn Maria Elizabeth. After the service my class went out for pizza and some clown chuck a slice at me and ruined my dress. I felt very full of the Holy Spirit by that point I promise you! Posts: 601 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I chose James (the Greater), with one of the obvious reasons being I wanted to be a son of thunder like Jim-Me.
For some reason my parents never gave me a middle name, so it's just Christopher James. Of course, I never use it...so I'm just Chris.
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I went with something pretty traditional, so now I'm Maureen Janay Qualfredo della Gherardesca Meyer Fanta. Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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We were confirmed when we were in sixth grade. My confirmation name is Maria, so Anne Catherine Maria Ard.
We had to memorize long lists of definitions and so on for our confirmations. I still remember this one: "Confirmation is the sacrament in which the holy spirit comes to us in a special way and enables us to profess our faith as strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ."
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Hmm I was in 5th grade...maybe 6th when I was confirmed. I picked the name Elizabeth Ann (Seaton).
I'm somewhat appalled by the fact my confirmation was so early. I'm not sure that someone who isn't even 12 yet can really commit to a religion. I mean granted there is all that stuff about believeing like a child but I think a later confirmation date allows one to really understand what the Church teaches to a much greater extent.
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My confirmation occurred when I was in 8th grade. I chose St. Elizabeth Seton, as well. I think I chose her because, at the time, I was very religious. I liked her story and her name. I remember actually wanting to be a priest (not a nun) when I was a little girl and being very "put out" when I was told that wasn't possible. I sometimes joke that that was the reason I left the Catholic Church, but it isn't.
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My first name is Nathan. Also known in the Bible as Bartholomew (St. Bartholomew). Needless to say, I stuck to my first name.
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My full name is Maribeth Desaix Nicholas Wallace (to be Yu after college ). Correlle picked St. Michael the Archangel as her confirmation name.
I was in a bit of a spot about my name when I was picking one. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all had St. Elizabeth of Hungary (partly where the 'beth' in my name comes from--Mary Elizabeth was too long for Mom), so I wanted to keep the tradition...
Then I wanted St. Patrick, because of my Scotch-Irish heritage. Then I started helping Mom with her work.
Mom's a schoolteacher, so around Christmas she teaches 'Christmas around the world' lessons: One of which is St. Nicholas' Day in Holland. I just... really liked the stories (he seemed to me like a favorite uncle), so I picked him.
I don't think we know his name from original sources, although tradition has given him one. Kind of like the wise men.
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I chose Saint Germaine of Pibrac, France as my confirmation saint. I had always thought I'd choose St. Anne but, instead, I fell in love with Germaine's story.
...Which makes my name Morgan Christina Germaine Derby. Posts: 1548 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Albert, after St. Albert, patron saint of science.
My sister and her best friend wanted to use Crystal and Alexis but changed their minds when they were told they needed to use saints' names. Soon after, I found both names in a book of saints' names.
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It's late, I know, but I'd like to thank Telp for starting this thread. Through it (and thanks to a google search), an incredibly wonderful friend with whom I'd lost touch some six years ago found me, because he remembered my confirmation name.
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