Traditionally, a
christian name or
baptismal name is a
personal name given on the occasion of Christian
baptism, with the ubiquity of
infant baptism in medieval
Christendom. In
Elizabethan England, as suggested by
Camden, the term
christian name was not necessarily related to baptism, used merely in the sense of "given name":
- "Christian names were imposed for the distinction of persons, surnames for the difference of families."