Christian Names

Adam the First-created is commemorated two Sundays before the Nativity of the Lord, along with all the other OT patriarchs and righteous mothers, including Sarah (wife of Abraham), Rachel, Leah, and many others.

How is it that a bishop got away with the name Lucifer--Bishop Lucifer? Yeah, yeah, I know the name means Light-bearer, or something to that effect, but still.

I just found this. Interesting. [url=I just found this. Interesting. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm]Lucifer[/url]

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm [url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm[/url]

:confused: You know, I\'m not a linguistic scholar, but I\'d say something is pretty whacked there. Tell you what, I\'ll pass this on to someone I know who should know this stuff like the back of his hand, but he\'s pretty busy. If/when I get an answer back about this I\'ll post it. But, in the mean time, I think this is just another reason to not take anything you read on the internet as necessarily accurate.

All right. That makes considerable sense. Consider the following, however. If you look at the names of the saints of newly converted Orthodox areas, or the names of converts to Orthodoxy in the early Church, you will notice, even amongst the saints, names of native origin rather than named after a former saint. Many of the Celtic saints, in particular, have names that previously were borne by the pagan gods. To my knowledge, neither St. Constantine nor St. Vladimir officially changed their names. To my knowledge, Blessed Augustine did not change his name either.

Neither did Sts Olga, Nina (Nino), most of the Georgian saints, and many of the Nordic and western European saints, nor most of the Apostles. Of the Aposatles, only Simon Kephas and Saul became known as Peter and Paul.

We often find saints commemorated as \\"St. so-and-so, in Baptism so-and-so.\\" This is true of St. Vladimir who is fully commemorated as \\"Equal of the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir, in Holy Baptism Basil, the Enlightener of the Russian Land.\\" His worldly name is sanctified with his glorification, paving the way for all of the Vladimirs we (or at least I) come into contact with every day. St. Olga was baptized as \\"Helen.\\" Having a patron saint is for our benefit. They unceasingly pray for us and we have their lives as an example to emulate the best we can. I do not believe that not legally changing one\'s name in any way cheapens one\'s baptism/chrismation. As a priest, I would not deter anyone from doing so, but I would also not insist upon it either. I have not legally changed my name and do not see a reason to as only a handful of people know me, let alone call me, anything other than Fr. Gregory. With regards to Peter, \\"Cephas\\" is the masculine version of \\"cepha\\" (kefa) the aramaic word translated in Greek as \\"petra\\" (masculine - \\"petros.\\" See Jn. 1:42), and Paul, or Pavlos, comes from the Latin \\"Paulus\\" meaning \\"small\\" and \\"humble.\\" One thing we in the modern world tend to forget is that names mean something. It is likely that Paul changed his name not just because he became a follower of Christ, but as a kind of penance for his persecution of the early Church and to reflect his status as \\"doulos Christou Iesou\\" - \\"a slave of Christ Jesus\\" (Rom. 1:1).

Hi My Christian name that I picked for my Chrismation was Joseph. It was a name that was pressed upon me as young child by parents when I was RC. So I chose to keep that Christian name for Holy Chrismation. So I joined the Orthodoxy on Jan 7, 2001.