Confirmation name RCIA

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Hello, everyone. I am in RCIA. We have been told to choose a Confirmation name. What was your experience in doing so? Thanks.
 
Hello, everyone. I am in RCIA. We have been told to choose a Confirmation name. What was your experience in doing so? Thanks.
I found it very interesting to seek out who my Patron Saint is, and to research her life. My Confirmation name is Teresa, after St. Teresa of Avila. I discovered that she was “following me around” throughout my whole RCIA journey - I was always running into quotes from her in my reading, and people kept giving me her books to read. 🙂
 
My confirmation name was St Sebastian the martyr. It is a fun thing to choose the name of a saint and it is great if it is saint who is close to you.
 
I chose St. Synnove. I wanted a more obscure Saint and what little we know about her life is very interesting.
 
Thank you for your replies. Our class is using Fr. Barron’s series Catholicisim. Today we had Communion of the Saints.
 
I was in third grade at confirmation, and asked about a patron saint for artists. My mother chose St. Cecilia for me, who is a patron for musicians, as close as she could find to artists.

Co-incidence or God-incidence? I am now a music minister in my parish! Thanks, St. Cecilia!
 
It appears that the Church in some countries do not have the person being Confirmed “pick” a “Confirmation name”! 🤷
 
It appears that the Church in some countries do not have the person being Confirmed “pick” a “Confirmation name”! 🤷
That true, but its also not a country by country thing either. When I was received through RCIA (in the US) not only were we not asked for a confirmation name, but encouraged to keep our baptismal name. We all choose patron saints, but did not us that saint’s name when we were confirmed. Last year I was a sponsor at a different parish in the same diocese and each person in RCIA was confirmed with the name of a patron saint. These two parishes are only 10-15 miles apart.
 
It appears that the Church in some countries do not have the person being Confirmed “pick” a “Confirmation name”! 🤷
This is correct. Even in the US, it depends on the parish and/or diocese whether the children are asked to pick Confirmation names. Where I grew up, in the Diocese of Saginaw, I was not asked to choose a Confirmation name. However, I did choose St. John Bosco several years later as my special patron.

There are several reasons why a diocese and/or parish may not require Confirmation names. First of all, children are already expected to have “Christian” names from their Baptisms. As such, choosing a Confirmation name is sometimes considered superfluous. Another reason why some dioceses don’t require Confirmation names is due to the ages required for Confirmation in certain dioceses. In most dioceses in the US, children are Confirmed as teenagers (though I’ve seen Confirmation done here as early as 2nd grade, alongside First Eucharist). In some countries, however, babies are Confirmed shortly after being Baptized (this, actually, was apparently even tradition here in the Southwest until around Vatican II). As such, choosing separate names for Confirmation for babies in this situation would be pointless.
 
In my RCIA last year we chose a St Name.
I chose Frances. We were told to consider whom we might want to emulate. What saint are we drawn to etc.
We had to write a paper on that saint.
It was very interesting and informative.
 
I chose a saint of the opposite sex, Saint Philip Neri, the patron saint of Joy, and a wonderful man he is too. There was no problem in my choosing a saint of the other gender, either. As my own middle name is ‘unisex’ Frances/Francis, I have two male names now. and one very girlie first name.
 
I was in third grade at confirmation, and asked about a patron saint for artists. My mother chose St. Cecilia for me, who is a patron for musicians, as close as she could find to artists.

Co-incidence or God-incidence? I am now a music minister in my parish! Thanks, St. Cecilia!
Against my mother’s wishes, at age 14, I chose St. Dymphna, the patron saint of mental illness, because I thought her name was pretty, no matter her ‘story’. She preferred Sts. Cecelia, Anne, Teresa (Avila or Liseaux) and a few others.

Fast forward: many years later, I began suffering from severe depression and found out that it runs in my birthfamily; my birthfather has fairly severe mental illness, and when I found him, displayed similar traits as to St. Dymphna’s father.

(I also had foot surgery on my broken foot a few years ago, which turned out to be St. Cecelia’s feast day…the priest said he’d pray for her to play me a ‘foot note’!!)

I started using the term God-incidence recently (never heard anyone else say it before!); all good things come from Him, even the small things!

God will lead you and guide you, even if you don’t think you are being led by Him. 🙂
 
This is correct. Even in the US, it depends on the parish and/or diocese whether the children are asked to pick Confirmation names. Where I grew up, in the Diocese of Saginaw, I was not asked to choose a Confirmation name. However, I did choose St. John Bosco several years later as my special patron.

There are several reasons why a diocese and/or parish may not require Confirmation names. First of all, children are already expected to have “Christian” names from their Baptisms. As such, choosing a Confirmation name is sometimes considered superfluous. Another reason why some dioceses don’t require Confirmation names is due to the ages required for Confirmation in certain dioceses. In most dioceses in the US, children are Confirmed as teenagers (though I’ve seen Confirmation done here as early as 2nd grade, alongside First Eucharist). In some countries, however, babies are Confirmed shortly after being Baptized (this, actually, was apparently even tradition here in the Southwest until around Vatican II). As such, choosing separate names for Confirmation for babies in this situation would be pointless.
In other words, the “confirmation name” is your Patron Saint. I see. Then, at the age of about seven, I had my Patron Saint – Little Flower (nothing to do with my Confirmation). I am named after one of the many names of Our Blessed Mother – although not well known in the U.S.A.

I can also see having a second chance at having a Christian name because the names given to babies at Baptism are many times made up. :confused:

Thanks! 👍
 
St. Teresa of Avila chose me long before I even thought of becoming Catholic. When we were in Spain we visited several cathedrals and I saw her for the first time. She drew me to herself in a painting and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Then I learned her story and that was all she wrote LOL.
 
I appreciate the thoughtful responses. I am leaning towards St Jude. I will meet my sponsor this Sunday and get his thoughts. Does anyone else’s RCIA use Fr. Robert Barron’s materials?
 
In other words, the “confirmation name” is your Patron Saint. I see. Then, at the age of about seven, I had my Patron Saint – Little Flower (nothing to do with my Confirmation). I am named after one of the many names of Our Blessed Mother – although not well known in the U.S.A.

I can also see having a second chance at having a Christian name because the names given to babies at Baptism are many times made up. :confused:

Thanks! 👍
A ‘patron saint’, in my understanding, is a saint that supports specific ‘causes’ or patronages. Your chosen Confirmation saint may or may not be a patron of a cause close to you. I didn’t choose Dymphna because of her patronage; I chose her despite it, not knowing that years later it would prove to be otherwise. It is true that many people do choose Confirmation Saints because of their patronage, but it isn’t required. While your Confirmation Saint may have a patronage, that doesn’t mean it has to be your patronage, although it often is.
 
I have seen it opined that, yes, we choose our confirmation patron name because we believe it meaningful to us, but we are also “chosen” for the name by God.

Of interest to me anyway is the fact that my father, I and my son all have the same given name and last name. Each chose a different confirmation name. Every one of them fits in ways that keep manifesting themselves.

One of my daughters was always fascinated by the name of a distant cousin; “Raphael”, so she chose it. Later on, she chose to enter the medical field. Interesting.
 
I hope my answers are permitted, that although I am not in RCIA, I am in Confirmation classes (as a form of “Sunday school”), and I have chosen my Confirmation name for my Confirmation early next year.

My Confirmation name is (rather, will be) Mary (although I am a boy, I chose Our Lady’s name in homage to her maternal prayers that I believe drew me into the Church), and I had decided upon my Confirmation name even prior to entering Confirmation classes as I had a great devotion to Our Lady (even before I had come to the faith, I felt a “closeness” toward Our Lady, and I recall praying the Memorare to her after I did something wrong, and realized it was wrong— of course, I didn’t know about “true” repentance then, but I eventually came to know the faith, thanks be to God). I feel as if my Confirmation name came to me naturally, and I will pray for you in your search of your Confirmation name.
 
Hello, everyone. I am in RCIA. We have been told to choose a Confirmation name. What was your experience in doing so? Thanks.
My Confirmation name way back when was my middle name, Matthew.
 
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