Unchristian names

Out of curiosity, I picked up some catholic leaflets in a church we visited today. I was hoping to come up with some great inter-denominational insight for this blog, but instead I came across a catholic baptismal rule I'd never heard before. Apparently a baby who is to be baptised a Catholic can't have a name which is 'unchristian'. Hmm. In the past, apparently, you had to have a saint's name (at least as a middle name), but now you're OK as long as the name is not 'foreign to Christian sentiment'. So what kind of name would that be?

I came across a website which gave the example 'Lucifer' as a name which is unchristian and which strongly suggests the child will not be brought up Catholic. Well that makes sense. It also suggested the names Hitler and Stalin as other 'unchristian' names. Interesting. While I would in no way want to defend either Hilter or Stalin, are these names 'unchristian'? There could be thousands of perfectly nice Mr Hitlers in the world!

Maybe thinking about those Victorian virtue names helps - you know, Charity, Constance, Patience etc. Maybe Uncharity is an unchristian name?...

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