Christian-name

Verb

Christian-name (third-person singular simple present Christian-names, present participle Christian-naming, simple past and past participle Christian-named)

1. (ditransitive, rare, transitive) To give (a first name) to (someone).
   • So said our immortal [Horatio] Nelson also, after whom one of Admiral [George] Young’s grandsons has been Christian-named Horatio.1810 August, “Additions and Corrections in former Numbers”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume LXXX, London: […] J[ohn] Nichols and Son, […], page 188, column 2
   • Before the boys the Doctor invariably referred to her as “Miss Bunderby,” and on less formal occasions he addressed her as “my dear”; but the name that her godfathers and godmothers gave her at her baptism never to my knowledge transpired. Yet she was a charming creature, and I always feel good...1899 January 7, Arnold Golsworthy, “Bunderby’s Boys and I: A Narrative with Variations”, in Pearson’s Weekly, number 442, London: C[yril] Arthur Pearson Limited, chapter II, page 462, column 2
2. (rare, transitive) To address (someone) by first name.
   • Mrs. Haggistoun, Colonel Haggistoun’s widow, a relation of Lord Binkie, and always talking of him, struck the dear unsophisticated girls as rather haughty, and too much inclined to talk about her great relations: but Rhoda was everything they could wish—the frankest, kindest, most agreeable...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which Captain Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 176
   • “[…] If Charley Snaith were my brother . . .” / “But he isn’t your brother.” / “No—I know. But suppose he were!” / “Well—what then?” / “He’d be in for Christian-naming all round.” / “I don’t see that. He would call your wife Sarah or Martha or Penthesilea—anything her name happened to be—and she...a. 1918, William De Morgan, chapter V, in The Old Madhouse, London: William Heinemann, published 1919, pages 52–53

   Synonyms:

   first-name