Can we have the Pope on for a Baby Names webchat?

I am Catholic and both of my children were baptised in the church.

They have first names that are not common however they have middle names that are the names of family members who are important to us, these name also happen to be Saints names.

Mind you I doubt very much that my parish priest would turn anyone away who wanted their baby baptised in the church, unless they wanted to name the baby Satan or suchlike!

He took one look at the parents and did it with a smile. Nice old man.

He sounds as if he would fit right in on the MN Baby Names topic though.

Has the Pope considered that every name was 'new and exotic' once? Including saints' names? I mean, there could be a Saint Taneesha one day, or a Saint Chardonnay .....

Anyway, I wouldn't take much notice of what this Pope has to say about anything. Doesn't have the best track record, does he?

Is that different to the spanish list. when I was in spain I was told that my 'santo' was the 11 August! celebrated it a couple of times..... every 11 of august I think es mi santo hoy! quietly. to myself....

I wanted to call my son Isaac when I was pregnant. My dad was VERY baffled by that.
AND we actually have some Jewish blood on his side and he still couldn't get to grips with it.

math, DH's family are like that and (for example) there are about ten Eves etc etc.

I refused to be drawn into that and chose names purely because I liked them. Funnily enough, other family members are choosing different names now too.

A girl I went to school with in Ireland was baptised Bernadette when the priest refused to believe Natasha was a Christian name. As with Marjoriew (Marjorie being a version of Margaret) it's unfortunate that there are probably a lot of ignorant priests and registrars out there. I think most priests would be happy to see anyone turning up to baptise a baby these days and would go along with the choice of name and play nice. My old parish priest even swallowed hard and went ahead and baptised a little Calvin about fifteen years ago...

I have relatives in Argentina who had to go through the courts there to give their children vaguely Irish names to honour their heritage that were not on the official approved list - probably 25-30 years ago.

In my own Irish family, there was an unspoken rule that names had to be not only Catholic but 'family' names. One cousin chose names for his DD that hit neither button and my uncle objected, 'That's not a family name,' to which cousin replied, 'Well it is now...

Didn't know that the French had changed that. I thought it was a good idea! My friend'smum is a registrar and told me that they are not allowed to comment on either choice of name or spelling. The only time she has ever bent this rule was when the Ennis family wanted to call their son Peter. She asked if they had considered his future signature!

Funnily enough, our first name choice for DD wasn't a Saint's name or in the Bible (although it is an Irish derivative of a Saint's name), so, bearing in mind my mother's dire warnings of the priest not letting us have it unless there was a Saint/Biblical name in there too, we decided on Rebecca as a middle name.

At the meeting with the priest to discuss Baptism, the (deeply camp - think Graham Norton as Father Noel Furlong) Father didn't bat an eyelid at our Irish first name, but on hearing Rebecca squealed "ooh, that's very Jewish!"

Having attended Catholic school oop North with multitudes of Rebeccas, Rachels and Ruths, I was somewhat taken aback by his reaction!

I once heard of a registrar refusing to register a BJ. No other name, just BJ. The woman who wanted the name was a colleague and she refused to consider the blow job connotations.

I think actually in the UK registrars can veto names if they feel that they are inappropriate. But I think that this is only in extreme cases

I was at school with a family of 15 or 16 children. All boys with the exception of a girl. All the boys had names of popes, so there was Julian, John, Peter, Paul, Innocent, and a few others. The mum took great pride in calling her DD Joan. Allegedly the only female Pope.

DFIL had to take a book of Saints and a family bible when registering DSIL in France 20 years ago. Her name was allowed (there is a Saint) but it was so unusual that the registrar tried to veto it. Even when there was a list in France you could have a name that had previously been used in the family - hence the family bible.

The French have really run riot with names since they had a free choice - good on 'em :o

I go by my original name now. It was the only thing my parents ever game me as they left me to the mercy of the nuns, but I didn't know until I got married in 1975 and I needed to get my birth certificate from Ireland that Marjorie was my given name.

Happy Saint Igino!

(according to dp's saints calendar hanging on my wall)

Dd called unSaintly, unCatholic name, priest didn't bat an eyelid. T'was the Brown Envelope we pushed under the table.

marjorie, do you go by your original name now, or have you stuck with Margaret? As a mother of an unusually but traditionally named daughter, I had a lot of raised eyebrows. But it suits her perfectly. We gave her a very mainstream middle name in case she wanted to be known by something else, but I can't imagine at what point she would want to change her name even if she didn't like it IYSWIM.

What a load of tosh. Wonder how he feels about bible names that aren't catholic saints? probably not too keen but won't come right out and say it!

anyway my little gooseberry might well be the first saint Gooseberry. And my son might be the first Saint TVR

DrSeuss, it used to be the case but not anymore.

Does anyone know where I could find a list of names that are 'acceptable' by the Pope's standard from this Christian calendar? I am very interested to see which names cut the mustard!!

Wouldn't dream of it :)

Marjoriew can you reveal your 'inappropriate' name?

The state no longer restricts (as such) first names in France, explained in French here but the registrar can, if they think a name is too ridiculous, inform a judge who can change the child's name.

Oh wow, another good reason not to be Catholic