Christian-name

Origin

Full definition of Christian-name

Verb

(rare, ditransitive or transitive with after) To give (a first name) to (someone).

1810, Additions and Corrections in former Numbers, So said our immortal w:Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
7 January 1899, d:Q64685711, Bunderby’s Boys and I: A Narrative with Variations, Before the boys the Doctor invariably referred to her as “Miss Bunderby,” and on less formal occasions he addressed her as “my dear”; but the name that her godfathers and godmothers gave her at her baptism never to my knowledge transpired. Yet she was a charming creature, and I always feel good when I think of her. I have often wondered whether she had been Christian-named something flippant, like “Maudie” or “Flossie,” in an indiscreet moment, which her father in his riper experience was honestly striving to live down.
Daily Mail|author=Jeff Powell|title=Telltale sign of a lean machine|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241204125640/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-231395/Telltale-sign-lean-machine.html|date=4 May 1998|passage=Monsieur Arsène Wenger, the manager who might have been Christian-named after the club, has altered the Arsenal ethos completely.

(rare, transitive) To address (someone) by first name.

Thackeray Vanity Fair|page=176|passage=Mrs. Haggistoun, Colonel Haggistoun’s widow, a relation of Lord Binkie, and always talking of him, struck the dear unsophisticated girls as rather haughty, and too much inclined to talk about her great relations: but Rhoda was everything they could wish—the frankest, kindest, most agreeable creature—wanting a little polish, but so good-natured. The girls Christian-named each other at once.
a. 1918, w:William De Morgan, The Old Madhouse Chapter V, “... If Charley Snaith were my brother . . .”
“But he isn’t your brother.”
“No—I know. But suppose he were!”
“Well—what then?”
“He’d be in for Christian-naming all round.”
“I don’t see that. He would call your wife Sarah or Martha or Penthesilea—anything her name happened to be—and she would call him Charles. Because of consanguinity. But he wouldn’t call her sister anything but Miss Smith—or Jones or Montmorency—whichever it was.” Fred looked doubtful, and Mrs. Carteret continued. “Yes—I’m perfectly right. Mr. Snaith is not your brother, so Cintra is not going to be his sister. Of course he can Christian-name her by special arrangement. Only, he must call Nancy Miss Fraser, unless she consents to be ‘Nancied’ by him.”
6 January 1961, William Whitebait, The Youth Racket, We were all boys and girls together, we Christian-named one another on sight, went in for face and stomach lifts, hormone grafts, kid slang, whoopee.