How do you choose a name day?

[mastichas09]

I am wondering how you guys all choose a name day to celebrate. For example, I have a friend named John, and there are multiple saints that have that name. He said he chose the saint that resonated the most with him. I have another friend, also named John, who celebrated a different one because that is the one that the parents had selected. How do you know what the right choice is?

 

[Athanasios Koukopoulos]

Well... it depends on the devotion that some people express to some Saints. Maybe some parents experience difficulties with having children, so they pray to a specific Saint and when a child is finally born, they give him his name.

 

[k_tsoukalas]

Well... it depends on the devotion that some people express to some Saints. Maybe some parents experience difficulties with having children, so they pray to a specific Saint and when a child is finally born, they give him his name.

This is a good insight! I've seen it happen, too, where the child was very sick when he or she was born, so parents chose a saint they prayed to in order to help the child recover. I ended up being named after the saint associated with one of my names - Kaliope - which was my maternal grandmother's name. My birth certificate is Katherine, though, so I actually celebrate both.

 

[mastichas09]

These are interesting perspectives! I guess it all depends on the situation...