What's the typical understanding of men choosing Marie/Maria/Mary in part of their confirmation name? Is it reserved to Religious only these days? I never really hear of anyone taking Mary or its variants in their name aside from Religious. Is this just a development of western culture? Do non-Religious men just shy away from broadcasting the name if it's part of their confirmation name?
What would one think of a male choosing Mary or its variants as part of their name if non-Religious?
I don't know, and I'd also be interested in knowing this. I also wonder why the male version, Mario, isn't used instead of the female.
My guess would be is that it's to retain homage to Our Lady lest the intent be confused, and "Patrick Maria the Mother of God Leo Smith" is just a dang mouthful. There is no Saint Mario on this list:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php?lst=M, so Mario couldn't really properly fall in line with tradition anyway. Marius would make more sense for a totally male equivalent.
I'm now tempted to find out who the first male Catholic saint was to have Maria, Mary, etc (i.e. the female version as a homage to Our Lady) as part of his name, as well as who had it as the first name.
I'm not interested in female Saints who had the name because there's no cultural oddity there. There is precedence though for female Religious having male names as part of their name as well. I'm assuming there are laity as well that do this?
For any name with an obvious direct opposite for the other gender, I would think that the correct equivalent for the gender of the person being or having been confirmed would equate to either a cultural barrier to inter-gender names as language is concerned, or it might be more of a hat-tip to the Saint without telling everyone you're a boy named Sue, or something such as that. Because if someone makes fun of your confirmation name and it's Maria or similar, and you're a guy, they're not making fun of you. They're making fun of your devotion to and love of the Queen of Heaven and Earth, The Mother of God and by default our Heavenly Mother who is of flesh like us. In other words, they're talking crap on your love for MOM.
Them's fightin' words automatically. Everyone worth their mitochondria does not take mom being talked about disrespectfully. She's mom to the eternal exponent.
So I don't see why this considered there should even be cultural aversion unless it's a true "this will totally and completely screw this kid/me for life" situation. And even then, what a greater show of love for Mary!
Or a total obstacle to evangelizing the Gospel, if intending to venture into cultures where a female name, even of dear old mom, would be the end of any chance at being accepted or listened to by society as anything but a joke. And in the West we tend to not have that issue in a true hardship form, but just ridicule. And even that is relatively new. At any rate, this country has lost its mothers to feminism, clergy to error, and fathers to lack of masculinity; our spirits have grown hard. Maybe it's time some men in the West start taking the name Maria again. We'll either change some minds or learn some true humility and meekness, unless the dude really just deserves that knock in the kisser.
