Christian Christian Names: Baby Names inspired by the Bible and the Saints. Martin Manser
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accompany the eventual choice, the Greek monk Theodore, to England and once there accepted the post of abbot of the monastery school of St Peter and St Paul (later renamed St Augustine’s) in Canterbury. Over the following 40 years he went on to consolidate his reputation as a scholar and administrator and to bolster the standing of Canterbury as a centre of religious learning.
Variant: Hadrian.
Feminine forms: Adriana, Adrienne.
Adriana, Adrienne feminine forms of Adrian.
Agatha (f)
[A-guh-thuh] from Greek, meaning ‘good’.
Sicilian martyr (third century). Tradition has it that Agatha was of noble birth but as a young woman incurred the wrath of a consul called Quintian after she refused his advances, having dedicated her virginity to Christ. Charging her with being a Christian, Quintian handed her over to a brothel-keeper but, when she emerged uncorrupted, had her savagely tortured instead. During the torture, St Peter appeared in a vision to heal her wounds. Her death in prison as she was rolled over hot coals was preceded by an earthquake.
Agnes (f)
[AG-ness] from Greek, meaning ‘pure’.
Agnes, Roman martyr (died c.304). Despite her fame, little definite is known about the life of St Agnes beyond the fact that while still a child she died the death of a virgin martyr in Rome and was buried in the cemetery on the Via Nomentana, where a church dedicated to her memory was later erected. Various embellishments have been added to the bare facts of her life story suggesting the reasons for her arrest and execution. According to one of these she was a beautiful young girl of around 12 years old who offered her life voluntarily in exchange for those of other victims of persecution. Another suggests she was put to death as a Christian in revenge after refusing all suitors on the grounds that she had dedicated her virginity to Christ. She became a lasting symbol of chastity and innocence and is honoured today as the patron saint of betrothed couples, virgins and gardeners.
Also the name of the Italian nun, Agnes of Montepulciano (c.1268–1317). Born into a wealthy family in Tuscany, Agnes was brought up by the nuns of Montepulciano and in due course became bursar and superioress of a new convent at Proceno. Widely known both for her humble lifestyle (she slept on the ground with a rock for a pillow) and for her visions, she was persuaded back to Montepulciano and there established a new convent in a former brothel, subsequently attaching it to the Dominican order and being appointed prioress in 1306. She became well known for her prophecies and as a worker of miraculous cures.
Aidan (m)
[AY-duhn] from Irish Gaelic, meaning ‘small fire’.
Irish missionary (died 651). Aidan served as a monk in the monastery on Iona before being sent to Northumbria as a missionary around the year 635. Raised to the rank of bishop, he chose the island of Lindisfarne as his base and there founded a monastery that became in due course one of the most influential religious centres in Britain. From Lindisfarne he conducted numerous evangelising journeys through the mainland, establishing many churches and monasteries with the support of St Oswald, king of Northumbria, and his successor Oswin.
A gentle and discreet man, according to the Venerable Bede, Aidan won many converts through his generosity towards the needy and through his opposition to slavery.
Variant form: Aiden.
Alan (m)
[A-luhn] from a Celtic name meaning ‘harmony’.
Breton saint (‘Blessed Alan de la Roche’) who belonged to the Dominican order, and was well known for his accomplished sermons. His special task was to advance devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the practice of the rosary.
Variant forms: Allan, Allen.
Alban (m)
[ALL-buhn] ultimately from Latin albus, meaning ‘white’.
Third-century English martyr. Alban was a prominent citizen of the Roman city of Verulamium (modern St Albans) who was beheaded for his faith around the middle of the third century, during the reign of Diocletian.
According to the Venerable Bede, Alban converted to Christianity after offering shelter to a priest hiding from Roman soldiers, impressed by the man’s piety and devotion. When the soldiers eventually called at his house to arrest the priest, Alban donned the fugitive’s gown and was arrested in his stead, allowing the real priest to escape. When the imposture was discovered, the authorities insisted that Alban should make a sacrifice to the gods and, when he refused, sentenced him to be tortured and put to death. A substantial church (later abbey) was subsequently erected on the site where Alban died, thus becoming the first martyr of the British Isles. He is honoured as the patron saint of converts and victims of torture.
Albert (m)
[AL-buht] from the Old German name Adalbert, from athal ‘noble’ and berhta ‘bright’.
German theologian and bishop, Albert the Great (1206–80). Born into a wealthy family in Swabia, Germany, Albert the Great (or Albertus Magnus) began his career in the church at the age of 16, when he became a Dominican friar. He spent the next 20 years teaching in Paris and at various German Dominican universities, earning a wide reputation as a scholar, his pupils including St Thomas Aquinas.
Today he is recognised as a founder of medieval scholastic philosophy, although he also wrote on a variety of other subjects, including mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, mineralogy, chemistry, biology, botany, politics, economics and alchemy. His conclusions included the revolutionary notion that the world was spherical rather than flat. He held a number of ecclesiastical posts between 1254 and 1262, among them theologian to the pope and bishop of Regensburg, but felt he was not suited to administrative roles and eventually gave up his see. He passed his final years teaching in Cologne, although he also returned to Paris (1277) in order to conduct a defence of the work of his recently deceased student Thomas Aquinas. He is honoured as the patron saint of students of natural science.
Variants: Al, Bert, Bertie.
Feminine form: Alberta.
Alberta feminine form of Albert.
Aldo (m)
[AL-doh] from an Old German name, from ald, meaning ‘old’.
An eighth-century saint and native of Siena, Italy, who after her husband’s death gave away all her possessions and dedicated her life to helping the poor and sick. During her life, she saw ecstatic visions.
Variant: Aldous.
Alexander (m)
[a-LEX-ahn-duh] from Greek, meaning ‘defender of men’.
Bishop of Alexandria (died 326). As bishop of Alexandria from 312, Alexander faced opposition from Meletius of Lycopolis, who disagreed with his lenient attitude towards lapsed Catholics. Further problems arose through the activities of a priest named Kolluth who had assumed the power to ordain deacons and priests and, even more seriously, from another priest called Arius, whose ideas about Christ’s divinity and sinless nature diverged from those of the orthodox church and in due course evolved into full heretical form under the title Arianism.
Alexander’s initial approach to Arius was gentle persuasion, but when this did not work, he summoned a synod of Egyptian bishops to condemn and excommunicate him. Arius whipped up support throughout the East and it was not until 325, when Emperor Constantine sided with Alexander at the council of Nicea, that the Arian heresy was officially condemned. Alexander died soon afterwards, naming Athanasius as his successor.
Variants: Al, Alasdair, Alastair, Alec, Alex, Alexis,