Papal Name Statistics

I have been researching all aspects of papal names for the last 18 months.

I managed to find the meanings (and origins) of all of the birth (or prior) names, e.g., 'Anacletus' - blameless (in Greek), 'Lucius' - bringer of light (in Latin), 'John' - God is gracious (in Hebrew) etc.

There are 125 documented instances of popes assuming a new name upon being elected. I managed, though it was a struggle, to come up with rationales for all 125 of these name changes -- albeit with about 30% being logical, justifiable suppositions.

I also tried to determine whether there were undocumented name changes prior to that of John II in January 533. There appears to be a high probability that early Roman priests assumed Greek priestly names upon being ordained. So some of the names that we now think of as being birth names were probably priestly names.

One such priestly name was 'Xystus' -- which can denote 'tonsured,' a look supposedly popularized in Rome by St. Peter. This appears to have been the name of the 6th pope after St. Peter. But he was soon to be known as Sixtus -- which just happens to mean the 6th.

I documented everything that I learned during this 18 month papal name project -- which was essentially my latest hobby. I hope to be able to share this information with you in the coming months.

But to get us started, I, today, posted the core papal name statistics. Please click here to visit this "Papal Statistics" page on this BLOG/Web site.