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Post by paulchen on Oct 18, 2013 11:56:15 GMT
Looking through things royal I was amazed to notice that HI&RH Princess Astrid of Belgium's three eldest children each have a given name of the opposite sex (according to a well-known online encyclopaedia...).
Amadeo has (amongst others) Paola, Marie Laura has Gerhard and Joachim has Isabelle. All after their godparents.
I know that many Catholic Royal men (and maybe non-royal men, too) carry the name Marie after the Virgin Mary, but I never realised that other names were used.
Is this peculiar to Princess Astrid's children? Is this a Belgian custom? Or is this just plain peculiar? (Or, is the online encyclopaedia wrong?)
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Post by observer on Oct 20, 2013 0:12:15 GMT
Looking through things royal I was amazed to notice that HI&RH Princess Astrid of Belgium's three eldest children each have a given name of the opposite sex (according to a well-known online encyclopaedia...). Amadeo has (amongst others) Paola, Marie Laura has Gerhard and Joachim has Isabelle. All after their godparents. I know that many Catholic Royal men (and maybe non-royal men, too) carry the name Marie after the Virgin Mary, but I never realised that other names were used. Is this peculiar to Princess Astrid's children? Is this a Belgian custom? Or is this just plain peculiar? (Or, is the online encyclopaedia wrong?) Named after their godparents, perhaps? |
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Post by paulchen on Oct 21, 2013 10:49:58 GMT
Hi Observer. I did mention that fact in my original post. My point is that, to me, it is unusual to give a child a name more usual for the opposite sex. I am aware, as I say, that many Catholic Royal men (and maybe non-royal men, too) carry the name Marie after the Virgin Mary. But I've never seen a boy called Paola or Isabelle, or a girl called Gerhard before.
Seeing as Princess Astrid's children are relatively high profile, is this a Belgian custom, a further Roman Catholic custom (being Anglican, I am not sure) or is it simply peculiar? Were Belgians surprised when they were given these names?
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Post by observer on Oct 21, 2013 12:30:16 GMT
Sorry, Paulchen, I meant I was agreeing with you about the children being named after their godparents, but phrased it badly.
I, too, would like to know the "why" of this odd sort of naming. I don't think Wikipedia is wrong as the same names are given on other websites.
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Post by Cinderella on Oct 21, 2013 21:42:58 GMT
Wikipedia's entry on French given names says: "Second or third given names, which usually are kept private, may also include names normally used by the opposite gender. For instance, in 2006, 81 Frenchmen have Brigitte among their given names, 97 Catherine, 133 Anne and 204 Julie.[2] In addition to the above-described custom of using Marie for males, this is due to the habit of traditional Catholic French families to give children the names of their godmother and godfather: if there is no counterpart of the opposite gender for the name of the godparent who is not of the same sex as the child, generally the name of the godparent will be left as such. For instance, a male child born to a traditional Catholic family choosing for him the name Nicolas and whose godparents are called Christian and Véronique could be called Nicolas Christian Marie Véronique." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_name#Given_namesSo I am guessing there is nothing unusual about this kind of naming from Princess Astrid's point of view. (I love Wikipedia; how did I ever live without it?) |
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Post by observer on Oct 22, 2013 8:18:29 GMT
Cinderella, thank you for finding the explanation. I had wondered if it was a practice Austria-Este in its origins, but this is so much simpler and more logical.
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Post by paulchen on Oct 22, 2013 11:10:46 GMT
I never knew that. Thanks for the information, Cinderella.
(And you are forgiven, Observer ;o) )
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