# How quickly does the new Pope have to decide on a papal name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107 "2013-02-22T20:30:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/61 "2013-02-25T18:21:50Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > As an aside, his using “the first” as part of his name and then dying after a few weeks and being replaced by JP2 must be popular with conspiracy theorists. Oh, it very much is. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/62 "2013-02-25T19:07:52Z")
Chimera: > [@](#): > > “By what name shall you be called?” > “What?” > “Cardinals of the Church, I give you Pope What!” “Who?” “No, Who’s on First.” “I don’t know!” “Third base!!” ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/63 "2013-02-25T19:15:35Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > Pope John Paul I [officially used ‘the first’ in his regal name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_I#Election). Don’t know whether this was the actual reason, but one advantage in doing so was that it clarified that it was to count as a new name. It is not unknown for monarchs using two names to apply the regnal number only to the first of them. So the current King of Sweden is Carl XVI Gustaf. Explicitly using the name John Paul I ruled out the possibility that he was John XXIV Paul. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/64 "2013-02-25T20:32:08Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > And here’s another example, from the [Accession Proclamation of King James I](http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/brit-proclamations.htm#James1): but that was a bit of a special case – he had been King James VI of Scotland, and there were questions about his number: - would he be James VI of England & Scotland? - Would he be James VI in Scotland & James I in England? - or would he be James I in both? He chose the latter, and this proclamation makes that clear, saying “al the foresaid kingdoms”. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/65 "2013-02-25T21:13:50Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > This could be dangerous with a bunch of old men. > > “By what name shall you be called?” > “What?” > “Cardinals of the Church, I give you Pope What!” Sorta like [President Not Sure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy)? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/66 "2013-02-25T21:38:16Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > “Who?” > “No, Who’s on First.” > “I don’t know!” > “Third base!!” “Who?” “Cardinal Hu? He’s from Beijing.” “Who?” “Yes, Hu” “What?” “The Pope?” “Who is the Pope?” “No, Hu is the cardinal from Beijing” “I don’t know! I’m asking you!” “Patrick Yu, the Anglican Bishop of Toronto? What does he have to do with this?” ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/67 "2013-03-14T06:09:15Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > That’s old Code of Canon Law. [New code](http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P2V.HTM#7W) says: > \*Can. 855 Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given.\*Which is legalese for “anything you want except something scandalous.” Which means that the name of a saint is not only no longer required, it’s not even encouraged or recommended. So, yes, the Church baptizes Crystal and Jennifer and Shananalayla. I personally know two brothers called Hitler and Mussolini (parents were Lebanese Catholics), the priest refused to baptize them with those names (they are in their 60s), so they have Christian names and legal names. FTR, names like Stalin, Lenin are also common in Latin America with people whose parents are… er, not well-read. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/68 "2013-03-14T09:03:56Z")
As long as it wasn’t Pope Sicola. The Coca-Cola company would implode, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/69 "2013-03-16T06:14:29Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > Would there be a big scandal if the next pope decided to call himself Peter II? Does anyone in the higher ranks of the church take the Prophecy of the Popes seriously, or is it more of a thing for conspiracy theorists? > > Presumably most popes choose their names by the type of Papacy they want to run. Choosing Peter would at the very least send a very strange message to the world, so I very much doubt it would happen. From the [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Peter_II): > [@](#): > > Out of respect for the Apostle Saint Peter, the first Pope, no Pope has ever adopted the name Peter II. It is considered unlikely that any future pope would choose the name. Many popes have, however, had Peter (or a regional variant) as their baptismal name, most recently Pope Benedict XIII (Pietro Orsini). > > The likelihood of such a choice is further diminished by the final passage of the Prophecy of the Popes attributed to St. Malachy, a text which is well known in Catholic circles, though having no official standing. The Prophecy refers to a Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman) as the final Pope: he would “feed his sheep in many tribulations” and in the days of the “final persecution.” This text invests the name of Peter II with an apocalyptic connotation. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107/70 "2013-03-21T04:59:13Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > The Pope is already called familiarly, ‘Peter’ because he occupies the Chair (throne) of Peter. When Leo the Great sent the Eastern Bishops his great Tome, helping to smooth the Christological debates of the East, it was acclaimed “[Peter has spoken!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tome_of_Leo#The_Tome)” Yesterday, Francis, occupying the chair of Peter, responded to Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, who occupies the chair of Andrew, and said to him, “Thank you my Brother Andrew.” (Peter and Andrew in the Gospels are brothers.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-does-the-new-pope-have-to-decide-on-a-papal-name/651107.md?page=3)