Christian-name

present singular third person Christian-names · participle present Christian-naming · participle past Christian-named · past Christian-named

1. ditransitiveraretransitiveTo give (a first name) to (someone).

   So said our immortal [Horatio] Nelson also, after whom one of Admiral [George] Young’s grandsons has been Christian-named Horatio.

   1810 August, “Additions and Corrections in former Numbers”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume LXXX, London: […] J[ohn] Nichols and Son, […], page 188, column 2

   2 more examples

   Before the boys the Doctor invariably referred to her as “Miss Bunderby,” and on less formal occasions he addressed her as “my dear”; but the name that her godfathers and godmothers gave her at her baptism never to my knowledge transpired. Yet she was a charming creature, and I always feel good when I think of her. I have often wondered whether she had been Christian-named something flippant, like “Maudie” or “Flossie,” in an indiscreet moment, which her father in his riper experience was honestly striving to live down.

   1899 January 7, Arnold Golsworthy, “Bunderby’s Boys and I: A Narrative with Variations”, in Pearson’s Weekly, number 442, London: C[yril] Arthur Pearson Limited, chapter II, page 462, column 2

   Monsieur [Arsène] Wenger, the manager who might have been Christian-named after the club, has altered the Arsenal ethos completely.

   1998 May 4, Jeff Powell, “Telltale sign of a lean machine”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2024

2. raretransitiveTo address (someone) by first name.

   We were all boys and girls together, we Christian-named one another on sight, went in for face and stomach lifts, hormone grafts, kid slang, whoopee.

   1961 January 6, William Whitebait, “The Youth Racket”, in New Statesman, volume LXI, number 1556, London: The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co Ltd, page 27, column 1

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   Mrs. Haggistoun, Colonel Haggistoun’s widow, a relation of Lord Binkie, and always talking of him, struck the dear unsophisticated girls as rather haughty, and too much inclined to talk about her great relations: but Rhoda was everything they could wish—the frankest, kindest, most agreeable creature—wanting a little polish, but so good-natured. The girls Christian-named each other at once.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which Captain Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 176

   “[…] If Charley Snaith were my brother . . .” / “But he isn’t your brother.” / “No—I know. But suppose he were!” / “Well—what then?” / “He’d be in for Christian-naming all round.” / “I don’t see that. He would call your wife Sarah or Martha or Penthesilea—anything her name happened to be—and she would call him Charles. Because of consanguinity. But he wouldn’t call her sister anything but Miss Smith—or Jones or Montmorency—whichever it was.” Fred looked doubtful, and Mrs. Carteret continued. “Yes—I’m perfectly right. Mr. Snaith is not your brother, so Cintra is not going to be his sister. Of course he can Christian-name her by special arrangement. Only, he must call Nancy Miss Fraser, unless she consents to be ‘Nancied’ by him.”

   a. 1918, William De Morgan, chapter V, in The Old Madhouse, London: William Heinemann, published 1919, pages 52–53

   Synonyms: first-name