Christian

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Christian is a male first name and family name .

Origin and meaning

The name Christian comes from the ancient Greek Christianos 'follower of Christ'; this in turn is derived from ancient Greek Χριστός Christós , the translation for Hebrew moshiach' Messiah the Anointed' referring to Jesus Christ . As a general name for Christian he appears after the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 11,26  EU ) in Antioch and spreads there as a nickname.

The nickname is programmatic and expresses a "turn to Christianity ". Female variants are Christine , Christina , Christa and Christiane .

distribution

The name can be divided into three layers of increased frequency in German-speaking countries.

middle Ages

The name is one of the first foreign names to immigrate massively into the Germanic namesake. Between the 8th and 11th centuries it was by far the most common (examined, for example, foreign names in sources from Fulda) - as was Christina (Cologne, 12th century: sixth most common female name) - and soon became one of the most common names (e.g. : Brixen, 13th century: second most common male name). Later, however, its popularity declined significantly.

Early modern age

The name experienced a renaissance again after the Reformation , in that it was neutrally differentiated from the typically Catholic names of saints and the evangelical aspect of Protestantism , which was purely committed to following Christ , was emphasized . It achieved its greatest popularity in Pietism (for example in Schleswig-Holstein around 1760, supported by the Danish royal house of Oldenburg ). After that, however, the number of names fell again relatively quickly (for example Pomerania 1770–1840: from 18% to 3% of all boys).

20th century

The name experienced a new boom, but no longer explicitly religious, in the 1960s to 1980s, when it was the most popular boy name for many years (like Christina / Christiane with girls).

Position in the list of the most common boy names
Federal Republic / New Federal States 1977–1995
77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 5 6th 4th 4th 6th
Austria 1984-2008 (with% of newborns of the year)
84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 ... 2001 ... 2008
6th 6th 5 8th 9 11 12 16 35 44
4.5 4.1 4.1 3.8 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.6 1.0 0.6
Note: 1st place 1988, 90, 91, 93: Daniel ; 1992, 94, 95: Alexander

Source: Tables from the magazine Der Sprachdienst
(In Germany there are no official statistics on the frequency of first names)

Including phonetically identical names

Note: 1st place 1984, 85, 87–95: Michael ; 1986: Stefan , 1996–2008 Lukas
Source: Statistics Austria : Statistics of natural population movement

name day

Name days are the following:

variants

  • Carsten , Karsten , Kerstan, Kersten, Coerst (Low German)
  • Chrétien (French)
  • Chrigel, Hitsch, Chrigi, Chrigu (Switzerland)
  • Cristi, Cristian (Romanian)
  • Chris, Chrissi, Chrischan, Christel (southern German pet forms )
  • Cristian, Cristiano (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish)
  • Christianos (Greek), not to be confused with Christós (Jesus Christ) or Chrístos (from Latin Chrestus ).
  • Christer , Krister (Swedish)
  • Christiaan, Christijan (Dutch)
  • Christyan
  • Krischan (German)
  • Kristian (Bulgarian, Swedish, Faroese)
  • Kristián (Czech, Slovak)
  • Kristijonas (Lithuanian)
  • Kristjan (Polish, Slovenian, Faroese)
  • Kristján , Kristinn (Icelandic)
  • Krystian (Polish)
  • Kristijan (Croatian, Serbian)
  • Kristjano, Kristjan '(Esperanto)
  • Krisztián (Hungarian)
  • Krišjānis (Latvian)
  • Křesćan, Kito (Sorbian)

Double name formation:

Family name:

Name bearer (various variants)

For rulers, see the list of rulers named Christian .

Early forms, Germanized:

First name

family name

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G

H

  • Hans Christian (1929–2011), Austrian singer (baritone) and singing teacher

J

K

L.

M.

N

P

R.

S.

T

V

W.

stage name

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Konrad Kunze : dtv-Atlas onenology. First and last names in the German-speaking area (=  dtv-Atlas . Volume 2490 ). 1st edition. 1998, ISBN 3-423-03266-9 , Christian / Christina , p. 33 .
  2. ^ B. Gleitze: Contributions to the history of the cultural integration of Germany . In: Yearbook of the Albertus University of Königsberg / Pr. tape 13 , 1963, pp. 130–151 (Investigation of the closeness of a Pomeranian-East Prussian-Silesian cultural area 1750–1850 based on the frequency of first names, quoted from Kunze: dtv-Atlas onenology , p. 51).
  3. ^ Kunze: dtv-Atlas onomastics table p. 57
  4. ↑ A graphic from 1905–2005 see Popular-vornamen.de ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beliebte-vornamen.de
  5. ↑ Statistics Austria (ed.): First names of newborns with Austrian citizenship according to decreasing frequency since 1984 - Austria . ( statistik.at [PDF]). ;
    Most common first names for newborns with Austrian citizenship. (No longer available online.) In: statistik.at. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012 ; Retrieved April 24, 2010 .