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When Jorge Mario Bergoglio deliver the goods the papal conclave ’s suffrage for raw Vicar of Christ today ( March 13 ) , he also announced his new name : Francis I , or Francesco I in Latin .
The name is a reference to Saint Francis of Assisi , a fear Catholic mendicant who experience in the 13th century . Saint Francis is patron saint of animal and the environment . He was acknowledge for his dedication to impoverishment and reform , which may ship a sign about the novel Bishop of Rome ’s concerns .
Pope Francesco (Francis I) greets a crowd at Saint Peter’s Cathedral on March 13 after being revealed as the new pope.
But popes did n’t always pick a papal moniker , also known as a regnal name . And today , they rarely get overly creative with the selection .
In other parole , while Americans are increasingly in search ofunique baby name , do n’t expect to see a Pope Jayden or Pope Phoenix anytime soon .
" In one sense , this is the most custom - bind of naming decisiveness , " wrote Laura Wattenberg , a baby - naming expert , on her blogBaby Name Wizard . " The name must be a deep and pure reflection ofCatholic historyand value . "
A history of papal names
The first pope to rename himself was Pope John II , who headed the Catholic Church from A.D. 533 to A.D. 535 .
John II was hold Mercurius , a name that honored the papistic god Mercury . The young pope feel that a name derived from Roman mythology was n’t appropriate for the head of Christianity , so he decree that he would henceforth be the appropriately Biblical John II . [ Papal Primer : story ’s 10 Most Intriguing Popes ]
Not every pope followed suit , but mostpopesbegan pick regnal name for themselves by the 10th C . Pope Marcellus II was an elision to the principle — elect in 1555 , he kept his parentage name , more or less . ( Marcellus II was bear Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi . ) No pope since has kept his parentage name .
Naming today ’s popes
Want to raise a Vicar of Christ ? While ababy namemay not do the trick , if you wanted to pose with pope - ly ways , you ’d be smart not to get creative with naming choices . fit in to Wattenberg , four public figure ( John , Benedict , Gregory and Clement ) have account for 55 of the 129 popes who have ruled since re - naming became the norm .
Nevertheless , names send impregnable signals , Wattenberg write . Cardinal Albino Luciani bring up himself John Paul I after the two popes before him , a selection widely seen as a assertion of continuity .
Sometimes popes aim for a moniker more humble than their birth name . Pope Sergius IV ( 1009 - 1012 ) was born Pietro , or Peter , a name that harkened back to the Church ’s first Pope , Saint Peter .
In other sheath , assignment pattern get a bit rummy . There has been a Martin I , Martin IV and a Martin V , but no Martin II or III . That ’s because two popes named Marinus were erroneously record as Martins by some source , desegregate up the numbering system of rules .
Popularity of pope name
Pope naming conventions do n’t track well with American designation trend , which skew toward progressively less popular ( yet still voguish sound ) names . In the 1880s , John was the No . 1 son ’s name in the United States . By 2011 , it had slid to No . 27 . Evenpopular baby namesno longer account for the same proportion of names as they used to ; about 40 percent of boys in the eighties bore one of the top 10 name calling . Today , fewer than 10 percent do , according to a 2010 study .
Gregory ranked as the 279th most - democratic boy ’s name in 2011 ; neither Clement nor Benedict made the top 1,000 .
The Modern pope ’s name , Francesco in Latin or Francis I , is a first for papal names . The name Francesco did not rank above 1,000 before 1960 or after 2000 for infant son born in the United States , but it did reach out the social rank of 863 in the 1980s . Francis top out in popularity in the United States in 1910 , when it ranked 31st for boys . As of 2011 , the name ranked No . 618 in epithet for baby boys .
