Heiligennamen in den Taufregistern der Polen, Deutschen, Niederländer und Flamen im20. Jahrhundert

Baptismal registers are a good source of information about name-giving among representatives ofone belief. One of the traditions of naming, continued since the Council of Trent, is giving the namesof Catholic saints as patrons. These names come from the Bible, mostly from the New Testament.Some of them are derived from Hebrew but many of them were used by the first Christians from theMediterranean countries. In this group we can find a number of Latin or Greek names too. The saintsfrom the Middle Ages have left us behind with a big treasure trove of names as well. There were a lotof Italians, Spaniards, or Frenchmen among them. The later ages have brought a large number of newsaints. Their names have been adopted not only by the Catholic population. The inventory of names canbe divided into many groups. The original names of the saints have been often changed or abbreviated.However, the metrics of both Catholics and Protestants still include biblical names and the names ofsaints. In this article we examine the presence of names of Catholic Saints in metrics in Catholic andProtestant churches in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Flanders in the 20th century consideringthe quantitative ratio and preferences of specific names of the saints in the mentioned countries.

568 s.