Meaning of Christian name | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A first name formally given to a child at a Christian baptism.
2. Any forename.
   broadly
3. An English given name, particularly for ethnic Chinese who usually have a separate Chinese name.
   Singapore
4. A baptismal name or confirmation name used in religious contexts, but not part of the legal name.

Equivalents

Examples

“This was all overheard by Miss Dashwood; and in the whole of the sentence, in his manner of pronouncing it, and in his addressing her sister by her christian name alone, she instantly saw an intimacy so decided, a meaning so direct, as marked a perfect agreement between them.”

“On 8th November Anthony cabled them, ‘Your great-grandson Randal Lewis Casson arrived to-day. Both well,’ and we sent, ‘Congratulations on becoming great-grandparents.’ Anthony and Janneke had kept the proposed Christian names a complete secret, and we were all so touched that they had chosen two which belonged so much to the family.”

“At the convent he is known as "Andrew." This is Shin's baptismal name. Korean Catholics baptized as infants take on a Christian name which also acts as their confirmation name.”

“Many of these, however, thoughtfully join their given names with a hyphen, or even write them solid, so that Lee Soo Man may present himself as Soo-Man Lee or Sooman Lee. A Korean who is a Christian will additionally take a Christian name, and so our Mr Lee may present himself as Noah Lee.”

“An Chung-gun (baptized Thomas as his Christian name), Korean 'national hero,' who assassinated the Japanese Prime Minister and was a criminal from the Japanese point of view[…]”

“—Now you ſee, brother Toby, he would ſay, looking up, “that chriſtian names are not ſuch indifferent things;”—had Luther here been called by any other name but Martin, he would have been damned to all eternity—Not that I look upon Martin, he would add, as a good name—far from it—’tis ſomething better than a neutral, and but a little—yet little as it is, you ſee it was of ſome ſervice to him.”

“This was all overheard by Miss Dashwood; and in the whole of the sentence, in his manner of pronouncing it, and in his addressing her sister by her christian name alone, she instantly saw an intimacy so decided, a meaning so direct, as marked a perfect agreement between them.”

“Shirley Keeldar (she had no christian name but Shirley: her parents, who had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage, Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had been blessed)—[…]”

“My father’s family name being Philip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.”

CEFR level