Regnal Name - Catholic Church

Catholic Church

Immediately after a new pope is elected, and accepts the election, he is asked by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, "By what name shall you be called?" The Pope-elect chooses the name by which he will be known from that point on. The senior Cardinal Deacon, or Cardinal Protodeacon, then appears on the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica to proclaim the new Pope, informing the world of the man elected Pope, and under which name he would be known during his reign.

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus Papam,
Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum ,
Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem ,
qui sibi nomen imposuit .

I announce to you a great joy:
We have a Pope,
The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord,
Lord ,
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church ,
who has conferred upon himself the name .

During the first centuries of the church, men elected bishop of Rome continued to use their baptismal names after their elections. The custom of choosing a new name began in AD 533 with the election of Mercurius. Mercurius had been named after the Roman god Mercury, and decided that it would not be appropriate for a pope to be named after a Roman god. Mercurius subsequently decreed that he would be known as John II. Since the end of the tenth century the pope has customarily chosen a new name for himself during his Pontificate; however, until the 16th century some men used their baptismal names.

The last pope to use his baptismal name was Pope Marcellus II in 1555, a choice that was even then quite exceptional. The names chosen by popes are not based on any system other than general honorifics. They have been based on immediate predecessors, mentors, political similarity, or even after family members—as was the case with Pope John XXIII. The practice of a man using his baptismal name as pope has not been ruled out and future popes could elect to continue using their baptismal names after being elected pope.

Often the man's choice of name upon being elected to the papacy is seen as a signal to the world of whom the new pope will emulate or what policies he will seek to enact. Such is the case with Benedict XVI who, in fact, explained the reasons for his choice of name during his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, on 27 April 2005. On that occasion, he said that he wanted to remember "Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war," and also "Saint Benedict of Nursia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe."

There has never been a Pope Peter II. Even though there is no specific prohibition against choosing the name Peter, men elected to the Papacy have refrained from doing so even if their own given name was Peter. This is because of a tradition that only Saint Peter should have that honor. In the 10th century John XIV used the regnal name John because his given name was Peter. While some antipopes did take the name Peter II, their claims are not recognized by the mainstream Roman Catholic Church, and each of these men only either has or had a minuscule following that recognized their claims.

Probably because of the controversial Antipope John XXIII, men avoided taking the regnal name John for over 600 years until the election of the other John XXIII. Immediately after John's election as Pope in 1958, there was some confusion as to whether he would be known as John XXIII or John XXIV, which he moved to immediately resolve by declaring that he would be known as John XXIII.

In 1978, Albino Luciani became the first pope to use two names for his regnal name when he took the name John Paul I, including the "I". He took the "John Paul" name to honor both John XXIII and Paul VI. With the unexpected death of John Paul I a little over a month later, Karol Wojtyła took the name John Paul II to honor his immediate predecessors.

Antipopes also have regnal names, and also use the ordinal to show their position in the line of previous pontiffs with their names. For example, David Bawden took the name Michael I when declared pope in 1990.