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Dear Manuel,

My father's name was Emmanuel, and so is my uncle's.

Anyway, giving a middle name is generally an American tradition, which is ofcourse, used by many Americans of Greek descent. One can give two names for baptism, and yes, I suppose that they would both be celebrated.I know that we celebrate my daughter's two baptismal names.

Perhaps naming children Jesus is a bit culturally odd for those of us who are not of Hispanic cultures, but then again, I have been informed on this board that Slavs do not name their daughters 'Maria', which for the southern Mediterranean people (Greeks, Italians, Spanish) is extremely common!

Alice

Alice, many Slavs us the name "Maria". My Rusyn baba was named Maria because she was born on feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos (Sept. 21th Julian calendar).

Ung-Certez

Sorry Ung-Certez,

That was told to me by no other than our beloved Dr. Alex Roman. Perhaps my memory does not serve me, and he was referring only to Ukrainians. Forgive the error!

With love in Christ,
Alice

My oldest son's middle name is Trinidad, "Trinity" in English. It was his great grandfather's name. Until he went to school we called him "Trini", but we figured that no one would be able to pronounce it in school and he would end up using his first name. In fact, all of my kids are named for saints, except for Trini and one other. His middle name is Salvador.

St. Theophan the Recluse. But your point is taken. The saint himself would have celebrated on Theophany.

As for celebrating with "middle names" If the child was so christened, then yes, he or she would have two feast days. For example, christened "Mary Katherine" she would celebrate both days. Only christened Mary, but legally named Mary Katherine, she would only celebrate feasts of the Mother of God.

My father was born in Warsaw, Poland. Though Poland is a predominantly Latin/Catholic country, in many of its customs it follows the Slavic practices of Orthodox countries.

Therefore, my father who was born on July 22nd was named Marion after St. Mary Magdelene whose feast is that date. However, in everyday usage, he had a nickname or popular name. I would write it out, but it contains letters that are not in the standard English alphabet . When he emigrated to America - since his name was deemed unpronounceable and unspellable by most people - he decided to use his baptismal name exclusively. He also passed it onto me - Marion is my middle name .

PAX

In my mom's family (last know address in the Spis region of Slovakia), Mary was more popular , but we do have a couple Maries. We also have Anna and Anne and Ann. I am actually an Anne-Marie. They wanted to get Mary and Anna in there, and my mom decided that she didn't like variations on Mary-Anne. But I'm half Irish and half Rusyn, and I have a name that sounds French. Ah, the New World. (giggle)

The conversation at my birth went something like: (Dad) "We should name her after my mother, Mary" (Mom) "Okay, then we'll choose my mother's name for her middle name, Agnes". They contemplated the name Mary Agnes while looking into my deep blue eyes and today I stand before you as

Barbara

I would agree with the earlier statement that outrageous names seem to be a product of an outrageous age - or something to that effect. But I have to tell you, the worst name I think I have heard is that of a girl who was named after her father. His name was Buford, and hers was - you may have guessed it - Bufordina! Now if we could just get rid of those cobbled together hyphenated last names. How would you like being an elementary school teacher and having to cope with class rolls?

Well, I am a letter carrier and thus get to see all sorts of names. The best was "Joe Cool", whose wife was named "Flo". I am not making this up. I also once saw the name of a Korean woman who was married to a man named "Cox". I can't tell you her name, as this is a family forum [those of you familiar with Korean culture can venture a guess].
Just the other day I saw a letter from a man named "Atom". And there is a boy on my route named "Tiler"...
There was a neighborhood kid when I lived in the Bronx named "Elvis Rodriguez".

Here you go all the way from Iceland
Poly Ester, believe it or not.
Stephanos I

My favorite of all time has to be Ima Hogg.

I know someone who went to school with a girl by the name of "Shithead" (shuh-THEED).

Logos Teen

That is too funny!

Flo is short for Florence or Florentia. She was a Spanish Nun and sister to St. Leander. There is a French martyr named Florence also.

Elvis is a form of Elviar. He was a French Hermit. I have a holy card of him!