Who names churches?

[Westernish]

Just that really. Got to wondering earlier how a church gets its name and who decides upon it?

Depends which denomination I suppose...

I'd like to know how the church of England ones get assigned a Saint...

The older ones are named after a Saint, the younger ones, something trendy, usually based around new beginnings, harvest etc.

This is a question I've never thought of before. Parish Council?

Thanks for the replies. I've never thought about it before either! I thought maybe the bishop of the diocese or something chose the name, but I still wonder why go for St Marks for a particular church, for instance, rather than St John.

I too have wondered this. And some just get "All Saints".

Plus where we are, there are two named after each other within about a mile of each other. Technically different towns, but it all blends with suburban sprawl so people often get confused about which hall they need to go to. Why not just give them different names!?!

Ours was named after the historic industrial building we bought.

In the Catholic church, the bishop owns everything. I know that when our latest primary school (not UK) was named, the diocesan balance of male names vs female names was taken into account as well as options like Holy Trinity or Sacred Heart etc.

I would assume that a lot of C of E churches in the UK were named long before there was ever a C of E.

Older ones would originally have been Catholic, and I guess they were dedicated to different saints, but not sure how that got decided.

I used to attend a new church, formed in 1990s and moved into its own building a few years later. It was called by the name of the area.

In history, in the Cof E, if an aristocrat built the church beside his stately home, then the aristocrat chose, such as St George's Windsor.
If the church was built by a trade guild, then it would be the patron Saint of that trade guild.
If the church was built to honour a local Saint then that's quite simple to name, such as St David's Pembrokeshire.
If the church was built in the Victorian suburban building spree, then the parishioners that fundraised to build it would have had a say.

I believe some All Saints and Holy Trinity churches were previously St Mary's but were rededicated in the reformation when people got squeamish about the veneration of Mary.

roman Catholic churches and CoE is usually saints and id imagine the diocese has a say in naming them. our Church of Scotland churches in my village is named after local streets and the other n1 is named after the first minister to preach? there.

Whoever sets it up decides, I assume. So if I decided to go and set up a brand new church, I'd just pick a name.

If it's a denomination then there's probably a committee (official or unofficial) who are arranging it, and they'll decide. For a denomination like Baptist or Methodist it would probably just be "Townname Baptist", or if there's already a church of that name then maybe "Streetname Baptist". But if there's a specific connection to a saint then they might go with that.

Or, if they're moving into a building which was previously used as a church, they might retain part of the old name.

It's the same process as for things like primary schools, I guess - a lot of geographical names, with the odd "St Someone" thrown in.

There must of been a couple of bad tempered saints near me .
I live near two church's one called Saint Cross, the other Saint crosses . 😂
They often get mixed up !

There may be a connection to the saints' days on which they are finished or consecrated in some cases. In others (or crossing over this), an association with the character of the place they are built in - for example, St. Nicholas as an 'unofficial' mariner's saint, as a namesake in some coastal areas, often along with Mary, and chapels within churches dedicated to this. Sometimes a connection to Roman or Celtic or very early sects of Christianity that remain because of the land and the meaning of it to existing communities back in time.

For a real rabbit hole - a fascinating, but an unnerving one to say the least - looking up the Jenkin Chapel as described by the site 'The Mystic Masque'. It is a building where consecration was not done until a long time after its construction, and with attention to the saints days in question. Possible explanations are examined in an astonishing way by Alan Garner in one of his recent novels and a lecture.

oh CoS also has parish churches so will be called <place> parish church.

I have never thought about it I was brought Up Catholic most churches I can think of are Saint names
But i do know of a Guardian Angels , and Our lady of Lourdes Catholic churches

That's interesting I know of a Holy Trinity ,church and school ,they are old buildings though so I don't know if they were renamed Holy Trinity's

There’s only one church dedicated to the Holy Paraclete (Holy Spirit) in England, at Kirkhaugh, near Alston in Cumbria. I’m not sure if that’s the dedication from when it was rebuilt in the 1890s, as there was a church there for hundreds of years before.

They are ‘called after’ ‘ the Holy Cross’, that is , the cross on which Christ was crucified, the central tenet of the Christian faith.

Many of the major churches and chapels with this name housed a piece of the Cross ( yes, I am well aware that laid end to end they would bridge the Atlantic before the atheists pile in to mock).

In the early days of Christianity, an altar was supposed to house a holy relic, and the church would often be called after the Saint whose relic was present. In Cornwall and Wales, and in parts of the North East, many of the ( rather obscure) Saints of dedication were the local evangelists or early presbyters .
There are some extant letters between pontiffs and noble or regal patrons discussing the gift of relics for a church foundation.

It can be possible to date foundations by the dedication, many churches dedicated to St Martin, especially in the south and east of England are early foundations, due to the links between the Frankish Church and the Saxon royal houses during 6th century reestablishment of Christianity in England. St Martin was particularly associated with the Merovingian monarchy.

Post reformation, names are more bland, sometimes chosen with reference to a particular field of activity, but usually just more general.

Interesting thread. I've never thought about it before!

Thanks for all the information from those who have posted on this thread.

Though I'd be a bit concerned if a church was named after St Jude!!

Thank you very much for the further answers, and apologies for the delay in thanking!

There are some very knowledgeable folks around these parts it seems. I'll have a look at The Mystic Masque in the next couple of days.

Where I live (US) you can often tell which ethnic community lived in any given parish around the time the church was built by the name of the church. There are Polish, German, Italian, and Irish saints as well as Sacred Heart, Assumption, St. Peter, etc.

There have been several parish amalgamations in the last few years and parishioners have been allowed to vote for their preferred new names or to retain the old names (double barelled).

New names include more Hispanic, African, and other saints, as well as many dedicated to Mary in various ways. There's also a new St. John Henry Newman parish.

The below refers to RC churches/ diocese.