...confirmation names (help required)...

[sakazaki]

[FONT=Tahoma][COLOR=DarkSlateGray]My name is Theodora and I'm going to be confirmed this 25th October, but I do not have a confirmation name yet... Making things worse, I have to choose one by this Saturday (because my teacher said that I must pass up the form by this Sunday)...

...so then...any suggestions?[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]I'd suggest something a little more exotic than Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter, I think you see where this is going.

There's a fun list of saints you can find with a google search that should help narrow the field a bit, since my favorite thus far has to be St. Anselem.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Sara]

[font=trebuchet ms]I'm not familiar with the concept of a confirmation name. Does it have any significance beyond the ceremony?

For the record, my favorite female Biblical character is [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jael]Jael (click)[/url]. She killed an enemy captain with a tent peg and won a war. Pretty impressive woman.[/font]

[Vicky]

[SIZE=1]Thaddeus!

Theodora Thaddeus!

Thaddeus was my RE teacher's nickname for me, so I tend to favour that name the most and think you should totally go for that =).[/size]

[Mykul]

Not to sound rude or anything- because this is a serious question- but do you think you're [I]ready[/I]to be confirmed? I mean, you're talking about picking a name, and filling out forms, when really none of that should be a problem. Picking a confirmation name isn't like picking your x-men codename. In fact, I don't even like to think of this process as "picking a confirmation name" at all. You shouldn't be searching the internet for a name, you should be searching your heart and soul for the saint that you believe holds a special place in your life. Nobody but you can decide who that is. And once you have realized who this special saint is, you [I]then[/I]take on his or her name as a symbol of the closeness you feel with that saint.

Don't worry about how the name sounds. If you've spent your entire life praying to saint peter, and you feel that he has interceded to help you live a better life, then don't turn your back on him just because the name "peter" isn't cool and biblical. Hypothetical example.

Hope I helped a little.

[Raiha]

[quote name='Sara'][font=trebuchet ms]I'm not familiar with the concept of a confirmation name. Does it have any significance beyond the ceremony?

For the record, my favorite female Biblical character is [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jael]Jael (click)[/url]. She killed an enemy captain with a tent peg and won a war. Pretty impressive woman.[/font][/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]And this was after lulling him with a massive dinner and milk and honey. Deviousness I say!

Let's see, there's Rahab, but she's a prostitute. Although she IS an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Ruth, but she laid down at the feet of Boab to trick him into thinking he'd accidentally consummated the marriage she was trying to get into. And Esther, but she had sex with that naughty Xerxes. He was bad. At least if you believe 300.

I have a close female friend whose confirmation name is Celeste, and while it's out of date I recommend naming yourself after one of the sacred virtues. I.e. Grace, Charity, Love, Hope. Slightly cooler than the other ones.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]While looking at the background of the Saint who's name you're considering might help you choose, you could also look at the names of people around you that you look up to, or people who you were close to who aren't around any more for inspiration. I found that looking at it from that perspective made the decision easier, as you identify more with living people than saints you've only read about.[/SIZE]

[Sara]

[quote name='Mykul']You shouldn't be searching the internet for a name, you should be searching your heart and soul for the saint that you believe holds a special place in your life. Nobody but you can decide who that is. And once you have realized who this special saint is, you [I]then[/I]take on his or her name as a symbol of the closeness you feel with that saint.[/QUOTE][font=trebuchet ms]I do think that the [i]idea[/i] of having a personally meaningful name is a great one. I wish my church had operated that way.

My congregation churned out about twenty-five confirmands a year?it was a very regular and impersonal process. If you went to the school attached to the church (as most of us did), "Confirmation class" was a part of your required daily schedule, and you took it for a grade. In the spring, when Palm Sunday rolled around, you were required to show up to the second service, and you were shuffled through the ceremony one after another while everyone else in the congregation fanned themselves with the bulletins and wished they'd remembered that this was Confirmation Day, and that they should have gone to the shorter service earlier in the day.

You also got a Confirmation Verse, but you weren't allowed to choose one that was important to you. It was just a random assignment, luck of the draw from the pile of certificates that they ordered from the Confirmation Clearinghouse.

I'm not bitter.[/font]

[Roxie Faye]

[color=#9933ff]I can only speak as a Catholic, though I imagine the process is similar, if not identical, in other Christian denominations.

I agree that ("technically") the name you pick should have a special meaning to you - pick up a book of saints, or search online for an encyclopedia of saints (it exists). Find a saint with a quality you admire. Or start with a quality you admire and pick a saint.

Or you can do what I did (the non-religious version), and pick a name of someone/something you like, and then check to make sure they're a saint. ;) I picked Alice, as in Alice in Wonderland, which was vaguely related to Gothic Lolita, a fashion I'm interested in. My sister picked Alexandra, for the last Tsarina of Russia (Alexandra = English version of Alix, the Tsarina's real name).[/color]

[Sara]

[font=trebuchet ms]I have a related question that maybe someone can help me with: What's the inverse(?) of a patron saint?

If Catherine is my patron, what am I to her? Is there a term for it?[/font]