_Christian Names._--Can any of your correspondents inform me when it
became a common practice to have more than one Christian name? Lord Coke
says (_Co. Litt. 3 a_):
"And regularly it is requisite that the purchaser be named by the
name of baptism and his surname, and that special heed be taken to
the name of baptism; _for that a man cannot have two names of
baptism as he may have divers surnames._"
And further on he says:
"If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his
confirmation by the bishop, he is named John, he may purchase by
the name of his confirmation.... And this doth agree with our
ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names
at divers times, _but not divers Christian names_."
It appears, then, that during the first half of the seventeenth century
a man could not have two Christian names.
Also, at what period did the custom arise of using as Christian names
words which are properly surnames?