When Jorge Bergoglio confab the United States , his trip made headlines , just like the visits of Karol Wojtyla and Giovanni Montini . If you do n’t greet those names , there ’s a grounds : Bergoglio was well known as Pope Francis , Wojtyla changed his name to Pope John Paul II , and Montini became Pope Paul VI .
Why do Catholic cardinals modify their name when they are elect pope ? There ’s no rigid doctrine requiring it , and for centuries , men wear the top job in the Roman Catholic Church kept their nascence names .
The first person to sweep up a new moniker was Pope John II in 533 CE . ( Yes , there was a Pope John before him , but his given name was in reality John — or Ioannes in Latin ) . Pope John II , whose give way name was Mercurius , feel it unwise to have the name of a pagan god while serve as Vicar of Christ . Pope John III , give birth Catelinus , was the second Vicar of Christ to change his name in 561 .
His successors mostly work back to the former way of doing things until Pietro Canepanova was chosen as the Roman Catholic Pope in 983 . He did not want to habituate the name of St. Peter ( the first pope ) , and switched to John XIV . He was follow by Giovanni di Gallina Alba , who keep his birth name and became John XV . After his death in 956 , Pope start using an alias , known as a regnal name , on a even basis . The last Catholic Pope to use his literal name was Adrian VI in 1522 ( he was also the last non - Italian elected until 1978 ) .
The regnal name is frequently chosen with a purpose . Bergoglio selected Francis in laurels of St. Francis of Assisi , portend his commitment to the poor . Albino Luciani , following John XXIII and Paul VI , dubbed himself John Paul . Hediedafter a 33 - day reign . Wojtyla style himself John Paul II in his store .
The most popular name has been John , used by 21 Man , though the most late was John XXIII . There have been 16 Gregorys and 15 Benedicts . Francis was one of 44 popes to have a unique name .
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A interlingual rendition of this story was published in 2015 ; it has been update for 2025 .
