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[Facts] Re: Irish Catholic/Irish Protestant
Often, in my experience, yes. Religious people are more likely to go with Biblical names.
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That would include both Catholic and Protestant Irish parents, so it isn't really helpful. More to the point: Catholic parents tend to favour saints' names, whereas Protestants mostly don't know if a post-Biblical saint went by a particular name or not. But, they might avoid them in order to avoid being identified with a group they don't belong to.(The name Christiana features on two branches of my family tree, but I'm not a Christian so I didn't consider using it.)Also, since Catholics take a new name at confirmation, they are more likely to have three given names than non-Catholics, although all my children have three.
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Yes, but most Irish Catholics don't use their confirmation name - it's not seen as an official name. It's not put on forms, for example.
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