French Calendar Names

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Hi All,

From my marriage to a Frenchman, I learnt that they have a thing called French Calendar names. Every day of each month, they have name(s) attached to the days of the month. Please take a look at the link below:

https://www.behindthename.com/namedays/country/france

Having said that, not all French people follow this culture.

Some French people interpreted my Christian name based on their culture. I had to explain to them that I was not born in xyz month. It was not at all related to their culture that my Chistian name is such and such. In fact, I was already named by my parents before I started learning French.

I am wondering, do other European cultures or other cultures also name their children based on the dates in their calendar?

:)
 
Hi All,

From my marriage to a Frenchman, I learnt that they have a thing called French Calendar names. Every day of each month, they have name(s) attached to the days of the month. Please take a look at the link below:

https://www.behindthename.com/namedays/country/france

Having said that, not all French people follow this culture.

Some French people interpreted my Christian name based on their culture. I had to explain to them that I was not born in xyz month. It was not at all related to their culture that my Chistian name is such and such. In fact, I was already named by my parents before I started learning French.

I am wondering, do other European cultures or other cultures also name their children based on the dates in their calendar?

:)

I named my dog Venerdì because he was born on a Friday. (he’s in Dog Heaven now. “thinking”, maybe Hell. :) , he was kind of mean dog.)
 
Last edited:
I never heard of "calendar" names.

What I know is the case in Italy, France, and perhaps all Roman Catholic countries is that almost every day is the feast day of some saint. It used to be the case that if you were born on x date, you might be named after the saint's name whose feast that was.

I think that's what that site might be referring to. So, for example, Saint Blaise's feast day is February 3rd, and Blaise appears under February 3rd.

In Italy, if a boy was born on March 17th, which is St. Joseph's Day, his parents might name him Joseph. It wasn't obligatory, however, because another common naming custom was to name the boys after the paternal or maternal grandfather, and the girls after the paternal or maternal grandmother, dead or alive. This is different from the Jewish tradition, where you can't name someone after a living person in the family line.
 
My grandfather was born on March 21st, which is after St. Joseph's Day. However, his parents gave him the first name of Joseph.
 

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