# In your nation/culture, how taboo would it be to name your baby Jesus? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566 "2012-01-05T23:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/21 "2012-01-06T20:00:02Z")
Nonhispanics here in TN would freak out. Not okay at all. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/22 "2012-01-06T20:46:49Z")
I think this was a running joke on a short-lived 1970s sitcom. One of the main characters was a grumpy WASPy guy who was dismayed that his daughter had married a Hispanic guy and named his grandson “Jesus.” The compromise was that the kid would be nicknamed “Jesse.” Or maybe it was the son-in-law who was named “Jesus.” I can’t quite remember now. I thought the show might be _Hello, Larry_, or _The Ropers_, but I haven’t yet been able to confirm either one. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/23 "2012-01-06T22:47:21Z")
I was raised Jewish, and my partner was raised Muslim. It would make perfect sense to name our baby Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/46a35a/32.png) [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/24 "2012-01-06T23:14:18Z")
Based on how often my father used the name when Mom told him what I had done that day, I thought my name WAS Jesus Christ until I turned 10. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/25 "2012-01-07T21:07:10Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I was raised Jewish, and my partner was raised Muslim. It would make perfect sense to name our baby Jesus. [slight hijack]Wow! Another Jew/Muslim combo![/s.h.] I’m Anglo-Hispanic and grew up bi-cultural. For years, I have told Anglos and Hispanics that Anglos can’t understand why anyone would name a child “Jesus” and Hispanics can’t understand why anyone would name a child “Christian”. When Mexican singer Cristián Castro was married to Valeria Lieberman(sp?), rumors circulated that he was going to convert to Judaism. I heard someone ask, jokingly, if Castro converted, would he change his name to “Jewish Castro”? The comment was received with a pained and embarrassed silence, but given what I’d been saying for years (about the Jesus/Christian naming thing), I thought it was hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/26 "2012-01-07T22:07:07Z")
I live in California. I am of Scottish and Irish descent. If I named my child J-e-s-u-s. Everyone I know would think it very, very weird that I named my child a traditionally Hispanic name. No one would think I was naming him after the son of God. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/27 "2012-01-07T22:15:33Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I live in California. I am of Scottish and Irish descent. If I named my child J-e-s-u-s. Everyone I know would think it very, very weird that I named my child a traditionally Hispanic name. No one would think I was naming him after the son of God. Even if it was pronounced Geezus (as opposed to Heyzeus). ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/28 "2012-01-07T22:19:32Z")
I’m a white American Catholic of Polish descent. But my wife is a Catholic from Peru. So everyone would assume my wife named the kid. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/29 "2012-01-08T03:45:39Z")
From the UK, raised C of E, the first time I came across Jesus as a name for anyone other than the Biblical Jesus was in a biography of Che Guevara. I was twelve and it freaked me out. And there was more than one of them in Che’s life! I think ithat pronouned the anglophone way it would still seem like a very odd name for a new baby in Britain . However, fast forward to my twenties and I knew a punk guy who had renamed himself Jesus. Pretty soon it was just that guy’s name. Then he started going out with a lass called Mary. We’d forget what it sounded like and accidentally freak out people who didn’t know them by casually announcing that Jesus and Mary were expected down the pub. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/30 "2012-01-08T06:57:12Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Then there are all the Salvatori in Italy. Oh yes, Salva is also common in Spain, specially in Valencia. If you meet a Salva in Spain, you can bet cash he’ll be from Valencia. I later realized that we have lots of María Jesuses as well. And then there’s Leyre… most monasteries in Spain are presided by an image of Our Lady, as patron of the monastery: Montserrat or La Oliva, to name two. Every girl baptised after those monasteries is named after their patron saint - our Olives are not tiny green fruits, they’re Marías. During the 20th century, Leyre started being used as a girls’ name, but the patron of Leyre is Our Savior - no intermediaries. Leyres are not Marías, they’re Salvadoras, but it’s because the parents haven’t bothered find out what the name means or where it comes from, not because they actually intended to name their daughter Salva (which, despite the -a, is a boys’ name). ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/31 "2012-01-08T08:03:50Z")
Hay-soos would be okay if the kid had recent Mexican heritage. Jee-zus, though? I’ve never heard of or met anyone with that name. It would be very weird, and I’m not even religious. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/32 "2012-01-08T11:08:35Z")
Where I live is extremely varied in the types of people here and the names they give their kids, and my daughter’s had friends with all sorts of weird names that none of them have ever noticed as odd. But Jesus would stand out, big time. It’d not be so bad if the kid was Hispanic and the name was pronounced hay-zoos, but pronounced in the English way? Very odd. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/33 "2012-01-08T12:29:59Z")
> [@](#): > > For argument’s sake, imagine that you are both a) capable of having a child and b) willing to do so, and that a son is born to you. If you were to name him Jesus or the corresponding regional variant, how would people around you in your native culture react? it’s the best thing I could do for him. 'cos, you know, nobody fucks with the Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/34 "2012-01-08T14:13:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’m from Spain, so you already know. One of my classmates was called Jesús Cristo, the last on a long line of firstborn males called Jesús from a family called Cristo. > > Between Jesuses, Jesusmaris, Juanjesuses and Jesúsmigueles, you can’t open the local phone book without running into one. Oh, and of course you also get all those Manueles and Maneles; I’ve never met any Jesusas but I know several dozen Manuelas. Well, you’ve probably heard [Jesusita in Chihuahua](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd-9f3KP8Ss&feature=related)–even if you didn’t know the polka’s name. It’s been anglicized as the [Jesse Polka](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqNVTbPB-U)–or “Jessie Polka” as recorded by Cliff Bruner–his version isn’t available so let’s hear him & The Texas Wanderers perform [another old favorite](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5bnTlzT58). Texas is my nation & our culture is mixed. Anybody naming their kid “Jesus” might get a second glance if they didn’t look Mexican but it wouldn’t be a big thing… ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/35 "2012-01-08T20:58:41Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Hay-soos would be okay if the kid had recent Mexican heritage.{snip} Minor nitpick: it’s not just a Mexican thing, it’s a Hispanic thing. FWIW, many of the Hispanic men of my acquaintance in south-Central Texas named “Jesús” (hey SOOS) either go by the nickname “Chu” or “Chuy”, or they Anglicize the name to “Jesse”. Naming a child “Jesus” also occurs in Portugal and Brazil. (Although, note that Brazilians, while Latinos, are not Hispanics.) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/36 "2012-01-08T22:03:49Z")
It would be seen as pretty strange, but my culture is Jewish, so… ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/37 "2012-01-08T22:37:29Z")
I just thought you all should know, according to social security records: Popularity of the male name Messiah Year of birth Rank 2010 650 2009 664 2008 703 2007 720 2006 799 2005 904 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/38 "2012-01-09T05:30:39Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Well, you’ve probably heard [Jesusita in Chihuahua](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd-9f3KP8Ss&feature=related)–even if you didn’t know the polka’s name. Never had, and I have no idea why you think I would have. I certainly wouldn’t expect you (or someone from Mexico) to be familiar with _Es de hierro_ or _Quisiera ser la hiedra_… ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/39 "2012-01-09T11:25:58Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Come to Norway, where Thor is an extremely common name! > > Not Jesus, though. People would freak right the heck out if you named your kid Jesus. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually illegal. My mom’s side of the family are all in Iceland, and we have enough Thors in the family (and variations like Thorgeir, Thorstein, and Thorbjorn) that I never thought of it as an odd name. Jesus, on the other hand, would probably not go over well, as it doesn’t follow naming conventions which were actually part of the law until relatively recently: there was a list of names, and a name from that list had to be used as the child’s first or middle name to keep Icelandic naming culture from drifting away from traditional names. As an American, I’d find it odd to name one’s child Jesus unless they were from a culture that commonly did so; it’s just not a strong part of Anglophone culture to name one’s child Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566/40 "2012-01-09T12:06:54Z")
It would be so weird, I don’t have words to say how weird it would be. That applies both to my WASP culture of origin and my neopagan hippie culture of choice. I could totally get away with Thor. I know an Apollo. My friends’ kids include a Maia and a Ceridwen. I’ve hung out with innumerable Brigids and Rhiannons and Morgans and Branwens. But Jesus? Nuh-uh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-nation-culture-how-taboo-would-it-be-to-name-your-baby-jesus/608566.md?page=3)