Forenames that arrive from the Bible
Posted on Apr 1, 2011 08:30:40 AM
In all western languages, the set of given names in everyday use is remarkably small. In states where there is an settled Biblical Church, the choice of names from which a name may be chosen is generally regulated by the Church or by a secular authority operating within a Christian cultural pathway. These are names with some Biblical association (i.e., a name that was borne by a person appeared in the New Testament, first saint, or a saint with a local cult). Some of them have undergone English to German translator in the past. The general sources for these given names are the following:
• The Bible (New Testament): Forenames such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and Mary have links in every European language, with many derivative and hypocoristic forms, that have given growth to countless thousands of patronymics. Attention must also be made here of the Hispanic habit of Marian names, according to which a relation of the Virgin Mary may produce a woman given name, even if the noun investigated is masculine in grammatical form. Such names include Pilar, Remedios, and Dolores.
• The Bible (Old Testament): Old Testament names are, of course, of Hebrew origin, and majority of them are used traditionally as Jewish names. In their vernacular European shape, names such as Job, Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Zillah, or Mehitabel have been used by Christian orthodox (Puritans, Dissenters) since the 16th century. There were developed language services even that times. These names are not used by common groups such as Roman Catholics or High-Church Anglicans, excluding cases where an Old Testament patronymic had also been borne by an early Bible saint (e.g., David, Daniel). Several Old Testament names, specifically female names, such as Deborah and Rebecca, have become very popular among Protestants, someway because the scope of New Testament female names is very narrow indeed.
• First Christian saints: Several saints’ names are very widespread (e.g., Anthony, Francis, Martin, Bernard) and are borne by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and religion officers alike. Differently, such as Teresa, Dominic, Ignatius, and Aloysius, are borne generally or only by Roman Catholics. Among Roman Catholics in mainland Europe, a habitual given name is regularly chosen in respect of a saint who is the master of the county in which the infant is born. For example, the Italian forename Gennaro is associated chiefly with Naples, Italy, and its patron, San Gennaro, a priest murdered 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 met a same fate in or about the same year and in whose honor the male form Leocadio is also used.