Adult baptismal name

[plainsongflower]

If baptized as an adult (and confirmed shortly thereafter) do you take a baptismal and a confirmation name? or just one? and what do you do with your name (confirmation or otherwise) once you have it? is it just a private thing or are there circumstances in which it is used? are there rules or traditions or ideas around using it?

Any information appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

It’s not necessary to take another name. If taking a confirmation name is done in your parish and is something you want to do, then you can. The only time the confirmation name is used is during the confirmation rite itself. Instead of saying “Plainsongflower, be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit,” the priest who baptized you would say “[Confirmation name], be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

 

[7_Sorrows]

You can choose more than one name. I chose 2.

 

[plainsongflower]

Yes, confirmation names are a done thing at my parish. I would ask all these questions of my priest but I won’t be able to speak with him until Tuesday most likely…

So a confirmation name is only used the once and you can take more than one saint as your confirmation name eg Mary Therese (although I’m guessing you wouldn’t want much more than two…). What about baptismal names? Is that a thing? (I am speaking of adult baptism of course.) Especially if the person being baptized doesn’t have a Christian name? And, that being the case, would their new Christian name then be used more than the once?

 

[pianistclare]

So a confirmation name is only used the once and you can take more than one saint as your confirmation name eg Mary Therese (although I’m guessing you wouldn’t want much more than two…). What about baptismal names? Is that a thing? (I am speaking of adult baptism of course.) Especially if the person being baptized doesn’t have a Christian name? And, that being the case, would their new Christian name then be used more than the once?

No Baptismal name except for your actual NAME, which people tend to pick a Saint name for their child at birth. These days, it’s not done so much, People like those trendy names. If your given name is Sally, then you are Baptized, “Sally”
I suppose you can have 2 Confirmation names, although in the 20 years I’ve been leading Confirmation, no child has ever done it, unless it was a part of the Saint’s name. Like Catherine of Alexandria, because it’s an identifier of which Catherine they chose.
The Confirmation Saint name thing is about being inspired by a particular Saint’s life, or their patronage of your career choice. Like Theresa of Calcutta for Missionaries, or Joseph of Cupertino for pilots.

 

[plainsongflower]

No Baptismal name except for your actual NAME, which people tend to pick a Saint name for their child at birth. These days, it’s not done so much, People like those trendy names. If your given name is Sally, then you are Baptized, “Sally”
I suppose you can have 2 Confirmation names, although in the 20 years I’ve been leading Confirmation, no child has ever done it, unless it was a part of the Saint’s name. Like Catherine of Alexandria, because it’s an identifier of which Catherine they chose.
The Confirmation Saint name thing is about being inspired by a particular Saint’s life, or their patronage of your career choice. Like Theresa of Calcutta for Missionaries, or Joseph of Cupertino for pilots.

Okay so usually a two-name deal would be something like “John Baptist”. Cool

Yeah, my first name isn’t a saint name and while my middle name could be (at a stretch…) I know my parents had no such intent. So I basically don’t have a Christian name even though my parents are Christians

So I’d be baptized “Sally”, for example, and I’d be confirmed something like either Mary or Mary Magdalene not Mary Anne? and the confirmation name would only be used in the confirmation rite.

What is the significance of taking the name if it is never used again? Why do we take a name, specifically, rather than just particularly honour the saint in some other way?

 

[pianistclare]

Okay so usually a two-name deal would be something like “John Baptist”. Cool

Yeah, my first name isn’t a saint name and while my middle name could be (at a stretch…) I know my parents had no such intent. So I basically don’t have a Christian name even though my parents are Christians

So I’d be baptized “Sally”, for example, and I’d be confirmed something like either Mary or Mary Magdalene not Mary Anne? and the confirmation name would only be used in the confirmation rite.

What is the significance of taking the name if it is never used again? Why do we take a name, specifically, rather than just particularly honour the saint in some other way?

I’m not saying you CAN’T choose 2 names, it just not common. People pick A Saint.
John the Baptist, sure.
Mary of Magdela, sure.
Your confirmation name is a spiritual addition. It has no legal bearing.
Congratulations, btw.

My Confirmation name was/is Veronica. I invoke her in prayers all the time, and named by youngest daughter Veronica. She has a great significance to me. Her name means “True Image”. Because when she wiped the face of Jesus at Calvary, she was blessed with the true image of His face imprinted on it. We don’t know her real name…she because known as the woman with the true image, hence, her name passed through the ages as “Veronica”.

 

[plainsongflower]

I’m not saying you CAN’T choose 2 names, it just not common. People pick A Saint.
John the Baptist, sure.
Mary of Magdela, sure.
Your confirmation name is a spiritual addition. It has no legal bearing.
Congratulations, btw.

My Confirmation name was/is Veronica. I invoke her in prayers all the time, and named by youngest daughter Veronica. She has a great significance to me. Her name means “True Image”. Because when she wiped the face of Jesus at Calvary, she was blessed with the true image of His face imprinted on it. We don’t know her real name…she because known as the woman with the true image, hence, her name passed through the ages as “Veronica”.

Wow. That is beautiful, what you said about Veronica

hehe I realise it has no legal bearing and I also realise I could choose 2. And I’m sure my priest would correct me if he felt like I was missing the point or something.

Thank you I’m so excited!!!

 

[pianistclare]

May you be greatly blessed.

Wow. That is beautiful, what you said about Veronica

hehe I realise it has no legal bearing and I also realise I could choose 2. And I’m sure my priest would correct me if he felt like I was missing the point or something.

Thank you I’m so excited!!!

 

[Usige]

Okay so usually a two-name deal would be something like “John Baptist”. Cool

While most people only chose one saint, there is no requirement to select a new name or only one. Heck, 37 years ago Pope John Paul I chose to use 2 names when he was elected, so it’s not like there is precedence. Most children in the US are also baptized with two names. All my kids were baptized “First-Name Middle-Name”. Their middle names are often a saint or a virtue (i.e. “Hope”).

When I was confirmed I choose Sts. Paul and Stephen as patron saints, yet I was confirmed using my given/baptismal name. Why? Since confirmation completes baptism, it did not make sense to me to “change” my name for the second half of a dual sacrament. In some cultures an additional name is added to the baptismal name. I can certainly understand choosing a new christian name at baptism, but it makes more sense theologically to use the same name for baptism and confirmation.

 

[plainsongflower]

While most people only chose one saint, there is no requirement to select a new name or only one. Heck, 37 years ago Pope John Paul I chose to use 2 names when he was elected, so it’s not like there is precedence. Most children in the US are also baptized with two names. All my kids were baptized “First-Name Middle-Name”. Their middle names are often a saint or a virtue (i.e. “Hope”).

When I was confirmed I choose Sts. Paul and Stephen as patron saints, yet I was confirmed using my given/baptismal name. Why? Since confirmation completes baptism, it did not make sense to me to “change” my name for the second half of a dual sacrament. In some cultures an additional name is added to the baptismal name. I can certainly understand choosing a new christian name at baptism, but it makes more sense theologically to use the same name for baptism and confirmation.

hehehe yup John Paul

What you said about keeping the same name across baptism and confirmation had occurred to me previously actually so I totally get what you’re saying.

 

[Ignatius]

If baptized as an adult (and confirmed shortly thereafter) do you take a baptismal and a confirmation name? or just one? and what do you do with your name (confirmation or otherwise) once you have it? is it just a private thing or are there circumstances in which it is used? are there rules or traditions or ideas around using it?

Any information appreciated! Thank you in advance!

You can choose both a baptismal name (which normally becomes your middle name) and a confirmation name. There is a place on most legal documents for your baptismal or middle name.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I was just looking at the RCIA text to see what it had to say about choosing names for baptism and/or confirmation.

The conference of bishops decides whether there will be a baptismal name. I don’t know what they do in Australia. In the US the bishops have decided that there is not to be a new name:

33.4. to decide that in the same rite candidates receive a new name where it is the practice of non-Christian religions to give a new name to initiates immediately (no, 73). [The National Conference of Catholic Bishops establishes as the norm in the dioceses of the United States that there is to be no giving of a new name. It also approves leaving to the discretion of the diocesan bishop the giving of a new name to persons from those cultures in which it is the practice of non-Christian religions to give a new name.]

We’ve never had the Elect choose a confirmation name and I had to think about that. Consider this from the RCIA:

1. In accord with the ancient practice followed in the Roman liturgy, adults are not to be baptized without receiving confirmation immediately afterward, unless some serious reason stands in the way. The conjunction of the two celebrations signifies the unity of the paschal mystery, the close link between the mission of the Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the connection between the two sacraments through which the Son and the Holy Spirit come with the Father to those who are baptized.

One commentary I read about this pointed out that for the Elect to choose a confirmation name destroys what the RCIA calls for: the connection between the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. So I guess we’ve been doing it correctly.

 

[nodito]

My first and middle name are both saints names, so I have always felt that those saints are my patron saints, and I invoke their prayers with some frequency. When I was confirmed, I chose the name “Lucy” because she was a virgin and martyr and also for a really shallow reason - she looked pretty on the saint cards we had in our 8th grade classroom. I wish I had spent more time reading about the saints and picking someone I could better relate to.

When I taught confirmation class, the DRE felt strongly that candidates ought to choose their baptismal name as their confirmation saint if they could. If they wanted to choose a different saint, they were supposed to write a report on why that saint was meaningful for them. Most of the 8th graders picked their own names.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I chose St. Teresa of Avila because I lived in Spain while in college and
I visited Avila and I wasn’t Catholic then, but being in Spain drew me to the Catholic church because of the beautiful churches and cathedrals and religious art in the museums. I chose St. Elizabeth because as a child I was paralyzed with guillain-barre at the age of 6 and the Catholic hospital I was in was named St. Elizabeth’s hospital. I should never have survived, but I know the nuns who ran the hospital prayed for me. I know there are 3 St. Elizabeths - 2 of whom are related (St. Elizabeth of Hungary was aunt to St. Elizabeth of Portugal.)
And St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was an episcopalian who was an episcopalian who converted to Catholicism. I also was an Episcopalian who converted to Catholicism. So my confirmation names are Teresa Elizabeth.