'Catholic' first names - are they good indicators of Catholic ancestors?

[jc26red]

My husband's family were an English family in Ireland, protestant going back so far to 1649 and the name Francis has been repeated down the generations.

[Andrew Tarr]

Hmm, is Francis a "Catholic name?"  Is there any such thing as a Catholic name? 

There certainly is in northern Ireland, where only two questions are needed to find out whether you are orange or green: what's your name, and which school did you go to.

My Ulster son-in-law caused some consternation when he informed his parents that he planned to marry a Bridget - they asked if her surname was O'Flaherty or something.  She wasn't Catholic, we just liked the name.

[aghadowey]

Francis isn't solely a 'Catholic' name in Northern Ireland (or anywhere else for that matter).

[Ruskie]

I think the further back you go the more likely you might get an indication of Catholicism from someone’s name, but I wouldn’t rely on it. These days anything goes.

My grandfather had the middle name Francis and his mother was brought up Irish Catholic. Her brother also had the middle name Francis.    Her parents were from Wexford. I have no information about earlier generations.

[Rena]

Hmm, is Francis a "Catholic name?"  Is there any such thing as a Catholic name? 

There certainly is in northern Ireland, where only two questions are needed to find out whether you are orange or green: what's your name, and which school did you go to.

My Ulster son-in-law caused some consternation when he informed his parents that he planned to marry a Bridget - they asked if her surname was O'Flaherty or something.  She wasn't Catholic, we just liked the name.

My OH's late CofE grandmother born in the 1890s was from Sunderland.  When OH informed her we had named our first born daughter "Bridget", she was horrified and burst out with the information that "Bridget is a servant's name".

[coombs]

My ancestor was a Francois, and was one of the last French Huguenots to come to England in 1752. I never thought of Francis (and variants) as a Catholic name. As stated in an earlier post, a saintly name.

[sharonmx5]

I would think the name Maria or Mary might be common among Catholics, eg. Mary, Queen of Scots.

 

Ooo, I've got loads of them. But, I just assumed most British Isles families would have, tbh - Catholic and non-Catholic?.

Lots of Marys and some Marias in my family and my husband's family and they were C of E or even dissenters.

[M_ONeill]

Having family in northern Ireland, I've grown up hearing the 'catholic name/protestant name' distinction - my dad will still respond to hearing a particular name or surname of someone in Ireland with the retort 'Oh that's a protestant name'.

But the thing I've found in researching my own family tree is that the distinction seems to get somewhat blurry the further I go back. My dad is very surprised at some of the names we have in our mostly catholic tree - but then I've also found evidence of a number of conversions which clearly complicates things. Sure, religion can be a fairly important factor in choosing names, but so can family tradition and naming children after relations. If you were living in mid-century northern Ireland as a catholic family, but one that had protestant ancestry only some two or three generations back, I guess it's entirely feasible you're still passing 'protestant' names down the family line.

My own personal theory, at least for Northern Ireland, is that the division between names became more stark at around the turn of the century and into the 1920s when relations between the two communities became particularly poisoned by violence and separation. I also think that people sometimes project that kind of thing back into the past - i.e. 'The way things are now are the way they've always been'.

[Liviani]

I have lots of male Franc(i/e)s in my tree on a couple of lines. These people were based in Banffshire, Scotland and Angus, Scotland. All of Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). I don't think there's a particular connection it being an only Catholic name. It might be a different story in different areas of the world, but I'm not sure if it's proof enough so to speak.