Changing first name when becoming Catholic

[xpress4]

Hi all,

Some time ago someone told me about non-Catholic Irish who changed their first names when marrying a Catholic spouse...or something similar. I wanted to refer back to the post but was unable to locate it.

In my case, it would be a non-Catholic woman who married a Catholic man in the 1830's., and potentially changed her first name to Bridget. I'm looking for articles/more information regarding the topic. Is anyone familiar with this topic?

Appreciate it!
Brenda

[shanreagh]

Rather than changing a name at marriage it is part of being received into the church and she would have been given a baptismal/confirmatory name.  Some RC friends received a saints name at the time of their being confirmed/first mass in the church. One friend was given the name Patrick and it became one of his names from then on.

Your lady may have been given Bridget as her saints name and decide to keep it as the name she was called day to day. 


ETA With a marriage all of these actions, baptism, first mass /confirmation would all be squashed up time wise. 

[xpress4]

Thank you! So she would have had to do this prior to their marriage. Would there typically be any record of the adaptation of the new first name?

Also, in the 1830's, they would have been married in a COI church if they were mixed, is that right? Do you think it would have been in her home parish?

[Wexflyer]

Rather than changing a name at marriage it is part of being received into the church and she would have been given a baptismal/confirmatory name.  Some RC friends received a saints name at the time of their being confirmed/first mass in the church. One friend was given the name Patrick and it became one of his names from then on.

Your lady may have been given Bridget as her saints name and decide to keep it as the name she was called day to day. 


ETA With a marriage all of these actions, baptism, first mass /confirmation would all be squashed up time wise.

I agree.

Catholics should have, and in those days did have, Christian names.
It was also normal in those days (as I understand it) "for the avoidance of doubt" to baptize Protestant converts, so if she converted she would have received a baptismal Christian name.

However, there was nothing to stop her choosing the same name that she already had (assuming it was Christian), or conversely, choosing a new name. As an adult, the choice would have been hers.

If she converted and was baptized, she should appear in baptismal registers, as usual. The Protestant convert baptisms as I have seen seem to have kept their preexisting names.

[Wexflyer]

Thank you! So she would have had to do this prior to their marriage. Would there typically be any record of the adaptation of the new first name?

Also, in the 1830's, they would have been married in a COI church if they were mixed, is that right? Do you think it would have been in her home parish?

She didn't have to convert to marry a Catholic. What makes you think that?

Until sometime around the 1870s, the British legal position was that that a mixed marriage performed by a Catholic priest was invalid, and the ceremony illegal. But the Irish were not always known to follow British law....

[Wexflyer]

Hi all,

Some time ago someone told me about non-Catholic Irish who changed their first names when marrying a Catholic spouse...or something similar. I wanted to refer back to the post but was unable to locate it.

In my case, it would be a non-Catholic woman who married a Catholic man in the 1830's., and potentially changed her first name to Bridget. I'm looking for articles/more information regarding the topic. Is anyone familiar with this topic?

Appreciate it!
Brenda

Brenda,
- As Shanregh already stated, a name change would only arise in the context of conversion and baptism.
- But there was no requirement for a Protestant to convert to marry a Catholic.
- And if she did convert, she could keep the same name, unless she wanted to change it (assuming she had a Christian name)
- And finally, if she did convert, it wouldn't be a mixed marriage, would it?

[heywood]

Is this the thread you mean, Brenda?
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=858617.0

[Jomot]

I have something similar in my tree, although about 60 years later. 

A GG Aunt was born in Wales to a family with connections to the Baptist church.  After moving to England she married an Irishman in an RC church and began using the name Winifred, which was not part of her birth name. Sometimes she used it as her first name, and other times she used it as a middle name.

[shanreagh]

People often get confused as for adults marrying into the catholic church as a RC, the baptism and receiving into the church often happens very close to the wedding itself and people may think it is too with the wedding ceremony itself.

A friend has told me that she started the process when working with the priest with her husband, on the marriage sacraments while they were engaged and having the counselling (wrong word) to do with that.  A week before they married she was received into the church.

But as Wexflyer says you don't need to become a member of the church to be married to a Roman Catholic. 

For Jomot your GG Aunt was probably marking her attachment to Wales in the choice of her baptismal name.

St Winifred is a saint from Wales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Winifred