Given Names which emerged out of the Testaments
In every European languages, the set of names in regular use is surprisingly limited. In countries where there is an established Biblical Church, the choice of names from which a name may be chosen is generally regulated by the Church or by a religious powers working within a Christian cultural tradition. These are names with some Biblical relation (i.e., a name that was borne by a figure appeared in the New Testament, an early saint, or a saint with a regional belief). Many of them have experienced German translation in the past. The main generator for these given names are the following:
• The Bible (New Testament): Names such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and Mary have cognates in every western language, with various derivative and hypocoristic ways, that have given growth to countless thousands of surnames. Attention should also be made here of the Spanish tradition of Marian names, according to which a relation of the Virgin Mary may constitute a woman given name, despite the noun in question is masculine in grammar form. Such names among others: Pilar, Remedios, and Dolores.
• The Bible (Old Testament): Old Testament names are, naturally, of Hebrew etymology, and majority of them are used traditionally as Jewish forenames. In their vernacular western forms, names such as Job, Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Zillah, or Mehitabel have been used by Christian orthodox (Puritans, Dissenters) since the 16th century. There were developed language services already that times. Such names are not used by mainstream groups such as Roman Catholics or High-Church Anglicans, excluding cases where an Old Testament name had also been borne by an early Christian saint (e.g., David, Daniel). Some Old Testament names, especially female names, such as Deborah and Rebecca, have appeared very popular among Protestants, partly because the scope of New Testament female names is very limited indeed.
• Early Biblical saints: Some saints’ names are very widespread (e.g., Anthony, Francis, Martin, Bernard) and are borne by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and agnostics alike. Others, like Teresa, Dominic, Ignatius, and Aloysius, are developed mainly or only by Roman Catholics. After Roman Catholics in mainland Europe, a traditional given name is regularly chosen in respect of a saint who is the master of the county in which the infant is born. in other words, the Italian name Gennaro is associated chiefly with Naples, Italy, and its saint, San Gennaro, a bishop murdered at Pozzuoli at times of persecution of Christians in 304 A.D. Leocadia is associated with Toledo, Spain and its patron saint, who was a virgin martyr who met a same fate in or about the same year and in whose honor the male form Leocadio is also emerged.