Notburga, Zdislava, Othmar, Bystrík.
Theresa, Kateřina, Anton, Leopold.
All eight of these names, at one time or another, have been popular in the traditionally Catholic regions of central Europe, such as Bavaria, Slovakia and much of Austria. Admittedly, though, it is much more common these days to hear the latter four names used for children than the former four. So, as a lifelong name nerd who is a transplant from the United States to southern Germany, I wanted to delve a bit into the ebbs and flows of Catholic naming trends in this part of the world. I also hope that prospective parents reading along might get inspiration for naming their future children!
By looking at lists of historical figures, censuses, and other documentation, we can observe that in the regions with a majority Catholic population, the naming trends differed, at least to some degree, from regions that were majority Protestant. Predominantly Catholic areas were more likely to have names that were closely associated with saints, biblical figures, or religious orders. For instance, in the 1800s, common female names in the mostly Protestant northern Netherlands included Cornelia, Geertruida, Aaltje, and Adriana, none of which had a specifically religious or saintly association. In contrast, virtually all the top names in Catholic Bavaria during this period were related to saints or religious tradition, such as Ursula, Walburga, Apollonia and Magdalena.
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Baptismal names also played a role in Catholic naming traditions in central Europe. Within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Catholic members of the aristocracy often had many given names, generally incorporating both family and religious names. I’ll admit, these epic names are certainly one thing that drew me into this region’s traditions.
Two examples that can help illustrate this: the elegantly named Maria Anna Leopoldine Elisabeth Wilhelmine von Bayern, Queen of Saxony, and the truly exhaustively named Robert Karl Ludwig Maximilian Michael Maria Anton Franz Ferdinand Joseph Otto Hubert Georg Pius Johannes Marcus d’Aviano, one of the Archdukes of Austria-Este. Even now, Catholic descendants of some of the Habsburg and Bavarian nobility continue to follow this tradition — on a personal level, I have some friends who have too many first names to fit on their driver’s license!
Father Josef Rauffer, based in Lenggries, Germany, carries out more than 50 baptisms per year, giving him a unique insight into Catholic naming trends in his parish. He tells me, “It’s difficult to give an overall view on names as there’s quite a lot of diversity (even in Bavaria alone), both in terms of individual regions as well as between urban and rural areas…but nevertheless, it’s clear that there is a trend towards “classic” names, with some more particular exceptions.”
Father Rauffer continues, “Names that have a specific reference to a local patron saint are still very common in Bavaria. Examples include Korbinian [the diocese patron saint of Munich], Marinus [a former bishop and regional patron saint] in the area around Irschenburg, and Quirin [martyr and saint associated with the Tegernsee Abbey] in the Tegernsee region.” In other nearby regions such as Salzburg and Tirol in Austria, and Valais and Uri in Switzerland, similar traditions can be observed — such as the popularity of Koloman in Austria after Saint Koloman, or Lucius/Lucian in Switzerland after Saint Lucius of Chur.
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Since many of the region’s modern-day countries were part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, historically a predominantly Catholic population, there is also some linguistic overlap with names used in these countries. For example, many German or Austrian Catholics will use Nepomuk as a middle name for their sons, after one of the patron saints of the Czechs, and the same goes for Czechs, who commonly use the name Ida, after a Swiss saint, as a first name for girls.
These days, the names of babies baptized in this region follow the popular naming trends for the area. Many of these names are biblical in origin (Hanna, Noah, Adam, Jakob/Jakub), but there are also many common names that are not inherently religious, such as Laura, Rozalie, Oliver, and Levin. As the years go on, it will be fascinating to see if some Catholic names used in the past might make a comeback — perhaps, in the not so distant future, we’ll start seeing a resurgence of names like Othmar, Wisinto, Mechtildis and Liutberga!
