confirmation names

[alita7]

Sorry this isn't about baby names but still names so I thought I could post?

When I was 13 I was confirmed as my family is Catholic. I now class myself as an atheist/ agnostic but I was thinking, what's happened to my confirmation name? It was nice to choose a new name for myself but was there any legality to it or is it just there if you want it etc? I've not written it with my name since about a year after as the novelty wore off... but I was wondering if it technically exists or not?

I don't think there's any legality to confirmation names, they are just symbolic. I'm not Catholic but DH is & the DC were baptised in the Catholic faith although as older teenagers they have now lapsed totally. They were encouraged by their school to choose traditional saint's names. Happily, they all chose names that I like and that work well with the names we chose for them when they were born. They never use them in daily life.

Do they become their new second name or something?

no supposedly it's like an extra middle name but I haven't used mine for years.

Pretty sure they are not legal in any way, just choosing a saint whose life you admire to follow.

With Catholics, when you baptise children, you give them a saint name. That would be their middle name.
Myself i had a saint name as my first name, i was not given second.

No legality to it whatsoever. You are not supposed to use it like an extra middle name.

You choose a confirmation name based on some quality of the saint or prophet, etc., that you find admirable, or wish to emulate. For example, St Francis or St Elizabeth of Hungary were known for their generosity. You adopt the quality as much as you can. Not the actual name.

You can have any number of names, saints' names or otherwise, as a Catholic. Whether a baby is given one or six (or more) names is purely according to the taste of the parents and the culture of the family.

In Italy children are usually given a first name which would be a saint's name (middle names are uncommon although our DS has two). You effectively then have two birthdays, your actual birth date and your saint's name day, when you get presents and taken out for lunch. BIL/SIL chose a name that had no saint attached, so when she was baptised a middle, saint's name, was given so that she could have a saint's day. No legal bearing though. If it's not on the birth certificate or added via deed poll, it's not legal.

There's absolutely no legality to them at all. Nothing happens to them in the same way that nothing happens to a nickname/ pet name/ diminutive when you stop using it. I don't think I've uttered since my confirmation which was almost 30 years ago.

I chose Thomas - when the bishop anointed me he asked why I had chosen a boys name - I told him I doubted the whole resurrection thing.

Dog that's not right. My middle name is the middle name my parents chose, nothing to do with baptism.

My confirmation name is a saint's name and also the name of my sponsor. Never ever use it in any way.

Your 'legal' name is the one you go by. If you have included it on any identity or other official documents, then I'd say it counts and just dropping it might lead to confusion. If however you've used your birth certificate name, for such things, then you can stop using it if you wish and officialdom won't even notice.

Mine was Margaret. Hideous!

A girl in our class chose Madonna, that caused a kerfuffle.

My BIL chose Zebedee, just to force the bishop to say it out loud.

Same as me squoosh

They do that in France too, ie. buy people a present on their saint's name day. Or at least they did in the 80s when I went on a French exchange.

In Russia according to my Russian friends, the mother gets flowers and a nice time on a child's birthday and the child celebrates on the saint's day.

I chose Zita for my confirmation name purely because I thought the Z would be cool My big sister made up some headed paper for me with my new full name as a present, I thought it was fantastic!

I later discovered my father chose Saint Francis Xavier for exactly the same reason!

We're in Italy, dh and dd are Catholic. Dd was baptised here, with a middle name and a first name which are not saint's names.

She did her FHC last year and no saint name was bestowed on her either.

No - it's supposed to be the saint who looks after you your whole life but the name has no legal standing or validity in that way.

Mine is Felicity - I chose it because it means happiness.

No names are chosen for FHC, just confirmation.

Mine is Monica- patron saint of difficult marriages and disappointing children

These days churches are much more lenient about christening kids with unsaintly names, but not too long ago there needed to be a saint's name in the mix somewhere.

And yes, no names ever taken for First Holy Communions.