[Facts] Re: Irish Catholic/Irish Protestant
in reply to a message by Mel_13
Often, in my experience, yes. Religious people are more likely to go with Biblical names.
Replies
That would include both Catholic and Protestant Irish parents, so it isn't really helpful. More to the point: Catholic parents tend to favour saints' names, whereas Protestants mostly don't know if a post-Biblical saint went by a particular name or not. But, they might avoid them in order to avoid being identified with a group they don't belong to.(The name Christiana features on two branches of my family tree, but I'm not a Christian so I didn't consider using it.)Also, since Catholics take a new name at confirmation, they are more likely to have three given names than non-Catholics, although all my children have three.
Yes, but most Irish Catholics don't use their confirmation name - it's not seen as an official name. It's not put on forms, for example.