Papal Statistics

PAPAL NAMES
by Anura Guruge

The 266 popes to date have used a total of 81 elemental names.
[I use elemental to denote that these are 'unqualified' names -- without an ordinal, e.g., 'Pius,' 'John,' 'John Paul,' 'Benedict' etc., as opposed to 'Pius V,' or 'John XXIII.' Please also note that if the three-term Pope Benedict IX is counted just once, then the 266 number drops to 264.]

The exact statistics as to the distribution and use of these 81 elemental names are as follows:

Number of popes with unique elemental names = 45.
[That means that there are 45 papal names that have only occurred once.]

Number of popes with shared elemental names = 221.

Number of elemental names used by the 221 popes with  shared names = 36.
6 of these were never assumed.
30 of these names were assumed by subsequent popes.
[In other words, all of the assumed papal names come from a pool of 30 elemental names.]

Number of popes known to have retained their prior name = 139.

Number of popes known to have assumed a new name on becoming pope = 125.
[That becomes 127 if Benedict IX's name change is counted three times.]

Number of known basic birth (or prior) names = 140.
[Not counting variants, e.g., 'John' and 'Giovanni.']

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