Given Names that came from the Testaments
Posted on Apr 1, 2011 08:30:39 AM
In every western linguas, the set of forenames in regular life is remarkably narrow. In territories where there is an established Christian Church, the choice of names out of which a name may be selected is largely regulated by the Church or by a secular authority working within a Christian cultural pathway. These are names with some Biblical relation (in particular, a name that was developed by a person mentioned in the New Testament, an early saint, or a saint with a local belief). Some of them have sustained German translation in the past. The main generator for these given names are the following:
• The Bible (New Testament): Names such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, or Mary have links in every European language, with many changed and hypocoristic ways, which have given rise to countless thousands of patronymics. Attention should also be made here of the Hispanic tradition of Marian names, according to which an attribute of the Virgin Mary can constitute a female first name, despite the noun in question is masculine in grammatical gender. These names among others: Pilar, Remedios, and Dolores.
• The Bible (Old Testament): Old Testament names are, naturally, of Israeli origin, and many of them are existed as Jewish names. In their vernacular European shape, names such as Job, Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Zillah, and Mehitabel have been used by Christian fundamentalists (Puritans, Dissenters) from the 16th century. There were advanced language services already that times. These names are not used by common groups such as Roman Catholics or High-Church Anglicans, except in cases where an Old Testament patronymic had also been borne by an early Christian saint (e.g., David, Daniel). Several Old Testament names, especially female names, for example Deborah or Rebecca, have become extremely popular among Protestants, someway because the scope of New Testament female names is very narrow indeed.
• Early Christian saints: Some saints’ names are very widespread (e.g., Anthony, Francis, Martin, Bernard) and are produced by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and religion officers alike. Others, like Teresa, Dominic, Ignatius, and Aloysius, are developed mainly or only by Roman Catholics. Among Roman Catholics in continental Europe, a traditional given name is often chosen in honor of a saint who is the master of the county in which the infant is born. For example, the Napolitano name Gennaro is associated chiefly with Naples, Italy, and its patron, San Gennaro, a priest beheaded at Pozzuoli at times of persecution of Christians in 304 A.D. Leocadia is connected with Toledo, Spain and its patron saint, who was a virgin martyr who faced a same fate in or about the same year and in whose memory the male form Leocadio is also emerged.