Usually Catholics had to be given given Saints names--if parents wanted a more modern name then the second one had to be a saints & we had to prove there was a saint by that name---my parents called one daughter Rita but the priest argued that it wasn't a saints name & it had to be Margarita so she found a book on St.Rita----goes to show they didn't know everything----These days theyare not as strict. & will accept variations of names Brenda -----Original Message----- From: Caiside@aol.com <Caiside@aol.com> To: SHAMROCK-L@rootsweb.com <SHAMROCK-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, 13 March 2001 4:56 Subject: [SH] "catholic" names >In a message dated 3/5/01 9:03:00 AM, SHAMROCK-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > ><< I was once told that Catholic girls sometimes used there "Catholic names" >rather than their birth names. Could this be true when it came to >registering on documents or census reports? i.e. Could a Catherine be a >Mary, or other? > >Also, does anyone know of any "Irish" interpretations / variants of the name >Thomas? > >> > >Catholics were supposed to use a saints' name when baptising a child. >"Pagan" names were strongly discouraged. However, Catherine is also a >saint's name (in fact, there are several St. Catherines) . And names like >Siobhan (Joan) and Padrig (Patrick) are just the Gaelic equivalents. But >naming a child "Moonbeam" (for instance!) would probably have given the >priest a stroke. I think nowadays there is a lot more tendency to use older >Gaelic names. >Thomas is Tadhig (did I spell that right!!??) >Janet C-S > >______________________________