Confirmation name on certificate?

[creole54]

I recently received the sacrament of Confirmation after many months of instruction. I chose for a confirmation name a saint that I felt very drawn to, one that I could identify with.

Anyway, my confirmation certificate only has my legal name. It doesn’t include my confirmation name. I was just wondering if this was normal. Does anyone else’s certificate have their confirmation name on it?

 

[The_Professor]

Sometimes, parishes issues informal certificates upon Confirmation. These are not official records. I do not think the actual sacramental registry records your Confirmation name but only your legal name. I could be wrong.

 

[anp1215]

My dad’s listed his Confirmation name in place of his given middle name, e.g. James Bede Smith.

 

[Phemie]

While the confirmation register has a place for the confirmation name, I’ve never seen that name transferred to the baptismal record so it would not be included in subsequent baptismal certificates.

I have issued many a Certificate of Confirmation but I’ve never issued them with the confirmation name. Taking a confirmation name is not required and the tradition is unknown in some areas – I was in my mid 40s and had been confirmed, been a confirmation sponsor and had 3 kids confirmed before I even heard of the practice – so there is no special place for it on the certificate. I think the practice probably varies greatly from parish to parish.

 

[powerlinemom]

I was just confirmed at the Easter Vigil, and my confirmation certificate did not have my confirmation name on it.

My husband was born and raised Catholic in the UK, and we had to get his records sent over when we were going through the process of convalidating our marriage. They sent a certificate of baptism and a separate certificate of confirmation, and his did not list a confirmation name on it either.

 

[LemonAndLime]

My baptism and confirmation certificate were the same - a baptism certificate with a small note scrawled underneath saying “Also confirmed at the same time”. So obviously, my confirmation name was not included as the name on it was my legal name.

 

[puzzleannie]

There is room to list the Confirmation name in the sacramental register but I have never seen a pre-printed certificate that has room for a new name. It is most likely the person who typed the certificate was simply given a list of the given names of the candidates and not instructed to record confirmation names. Our candidates are given the option of choosing new patron saints and names, or studying their baptismal saint, but those who do choose seldom tell us that name, so it does not get recorded anywhere. It is like pulling teeth just to get them to give the sponsor’s name.

 

[Phemie]

There is room to list the Confirmation name in the sacramental register but I have never seen a pre-printed certificate that has room for a new name. It is most likely the person who typed the certificate was simply given a list of the given names of the candidates and not instructed to record confirmation names. Our candidates are given the option of choosing new patron saints and names, or studying their baptismal saint, but those who do choose seldom tell us that name, so it does not get recorded anywhere. It is like pulling teeth just to get them to give the sponsor’s name.

That has been my experience also. I’ve seen years when the same woman is listed for all the girls and the same man for all the boys. I don’t recall needing a sponsor when I was confirmed, so I suspect that that practice probably existed in my parish too.

 

[Chatter163]

My confirmation certificate has a line for, and lists, my confirmation name.

 

[puzzleannie]

That has been my experience also. I’ve seen years when the same woman is listed for all the girls and the same man for all the boys. I don’t recall needing a sponsor when I was confirmed, so I suspect that that practice probably existed in my parish too.

When it comes to confirmation night I am not going to tell a child he cannot be confirmed simply because his parents have not provided the name of the sponsor, nor given the assurance the sponsor meets the qualifications, so I will always have some children for whom the catechist is listed as sponsor, since we are standing up with them in any case. When they receive the certificate they complain, then we make the changes (before we have made the entries in the permanent record), but some are never corrected so the record stands with the name of the catechist-sponsor.

In the rare cases when a child choses a new confirmation saint name (and once when the pastor insisted because of a flagrantly pagan given name) we simply type the name on the same line, “Mary Ellen Therese of the Child Jesus Smith” or
Francis Albert Gregory Jones".

 

[Phemie]

When it comes to confirmation night I am not going to tell a child he cannot be confirmed simply because his parents have not provided the name of the sponsor, nor given the assurance the sponsor meets the qualifications, so I will always have some children for whom the catechist is listed as sponsor, since we are standing up with them in any case.

The sponsor is not compulsory (it says ‘insofar as possible’) and the parents, while they can’t be sponsors, can present their child for confirmation – at least that’s what my Confirmation Rite says.

 

[puzzleannie]

The sponsor is not compulsory (it says ‘insofar as possible’) and the parents, while they can’t be sponsors, can present their child for confirmation – at least that’s what my Confirmation Rite says.

and particular law in this diocese expects a sponsor
the fact remains that there will usually be some candidates confirmed without a sponsor at all and that as you note has no effect whatever on the validity of the sacrament. The choice of a confirmation name has no effect on the rite itself whatever. The bishop states the baptismal name only, even if the confirmation name is added to the child’s nametag.