# Pope Names... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 5, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651 "2015-10-05T22:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/1 "2015-10-05T22:41:21Z")
Call me silly, but I’d really LIKE to see a Pope George Ringo… -MMM- ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/2 "2015-10-05T23:09:14Z")
One I’ve wondered about: In some religious orders, it’s customary for an initiate to the order to take a new name upon joining. Has any Pope ever come from such an order? Did he choose yet a third name, or retain the name he chose when he joined his order? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/3 "2015-10-06T00:46:05Z")
> [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](#): > > Call me silly, but I’d really LIKE to see a Pope George Ringo… At least there’s a [Pope Hilarius.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Hilarius) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/4 "2015-10-06T01:51:01Z")
> [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](#): > > Call me silly, but I’d really LIKE to see a Pope George Ringo… > > -MMM- First time I saw this gag was in the National Lampoon, 1979, as a faux news blurb: “John Paul Elected Pope; George Ringo Miffed” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/5 "2015-10-06T03:00:02Z")
Don’t forget [Pope Lando](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Lando). ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/6 "2015-10-06T16:25:06Z")
> [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](#): > > Call me silly, but I’d really LIKE to see a Pope George Ringo… You’re silly. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/7 "2015-10-06T18:01:37Z")
Any choice has to sound well in Latin. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/8 "2015-10-06T18:22:32Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Any choice has to sound well in Latin. Seriously. Pope Georgius Ringus. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/9 "2015-10-06T20:15:09Z")
[Link to the staff report.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3251/how-does-a-new-pope-decide-what-name-to-take) In the report, SDStaff paperbackwriter wrote: > [@](#): > > However, he’s just Pope Francis, not Francis I; he’ll be given a regnal number by posterity if and when a subsequent pope decides to become Francis II. But I swear on the day Francis was announced, I remember hearing him called Pope Francis I. I seem to recall that it was reported that he took the name “Francis I.” Does anyone else remember this? ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/10 "2015-10-06T22:36:55Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > But I swear on the day Francis was announced, I remember hearing him called Pope Francis I. I seem to recall that it was reported that he took the name “Francis I.” > > Does anyone else remember this? Some media may have assumed the ‘I’, but I remember right from the start it was made quite clear that there was no ordinal. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/11 "2015-10-07T00:08:24Z")
> [@Powers](#): > > Some media may have assumed the ‘I’, but I remember right from the start it was made quite clear that there was no ordinal. > Powers &8^] 'Course not; he was a cardinal. ::ducks and runs:: ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/12 "2015-10-07T03:33:28Z")
English royal names also omit the “I” for first-and-only. But note that the tradition of the Holy Roman Empire was otherwise, which is why Emperor Franz Josef I gets his number, despite there having been no Franz Josef II (except in some operetta productions). ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/13 "2015-10-12T14:21:55Z")
Maybe my memory is faulty, but I’m quite certain that Pope John Paul I was called “the first” during his short papacy. I’m not sure why it would be different with Francis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/14 "2015-10-12T14:59:31Z")
That was mentioned in the Staff Report: > [@](#): > > Other than that self-imposed restriction, the new pope can choose whatever name he likes. Perhaps the best recent demonstration of this was in 1978, when Albino Cardinal Luciani became John Paul I, an innovative name in several respects. For starters, its bearer was the first pope to be known as “the first” during his lifetime; all other Pope Somethings the First were designated historically only after there was a Something the Second. It continues: > [@](#): > > He was also the first to choose a double name and to name himself after multiple immediate predecessors. which gives some insight as to his reasons: He wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t John XXIV or Paul VII, but a new Papal name honoring both of them. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/15 "2015-10-12T16:40:11Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > Maybe my memory is faulty, but I’m quite certain that Pope John Paul I was called “the first” during his short papacy. I’m not sure why it would be different with Francis. He was Pope for a little less than a month, and then we had John Paul II. I have a feeling that he was simply known as John Paul, but since his ascendancy and death were so close together, we simply think he was always John Paul I. It’d be interesting to see how the newspapers referred to him when he was alive. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/16 "2015-10-13T03:46:20Z")
The [Wiki page for John Paul I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_I) explicitly states that he was the first “First” to call himself the “First”: > [@](#): > > He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing “John Paul” in honour of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He explained that he was indebted to John XXIII for naming him a bishop and to Paul VI for creating him a cardinal. Furthermore, he was the first pope to add the regnal number “I”, designating himself “the First”. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-names/733651/17 "2015-10-13T14:52:08Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > First time I saw this gag was in the National Lampoon, 1979, as a faux news blurb: > “John Paul Elected Pope; George Ringo Miffed” NatLamp also mentioned Pope Merlin, elected during JFK’s 2nd term as president, in their “JFK assassination never happened” issue.