How do popes get their names

There's nothing about, say, dodging unpaid rent, either. There have been many popes who kept their birth name when they were elected to the papacy, though the last one was in — Marcellus II, according to Deacon Eric Stoltz, writing in Forbes.

The first one on record was in when a man named Mercurius — named after the god Mercury — decided and he has a point here that maybe the man heading the Christian Church shouldn't be toting a moniker referencing a pagan deity.

One time does not a habit make, nor even a tradition, though small children have been known to use the argument "But we've always done it that way" with a very loose working definition of "always. Sometimes a newly-elected pope will give some back story about why he's chosen the name he'll use, and sometimes they don't.

Usually if he's the first one to use a particular name, there won't be a numeral attached, as with the current pope, Francis.

The first to do so was Pope John II died This pontiff was a Roman by birth, who was named Mercurius after the Roman god Mercury. He took the Christian name John because he thought a pagan name would be a dishonor to the papal office. In the latter part of the tenth century, four more popes chose new names for themselves upon ascending the throne.

The custom was firmly established by the middle of the eleventh century. The choice of name belongs to the pope himself. Though there is no canon law requiring that someone take a different name upon becoming pope, the tradition now has the weight of centuries behind it. The first person to adopt a new moniker was Pope John II in Born Mercurio, he felt it unwise to have the name of a pagan god while serving as pontiff.

His successors went back to the old way of doing things until Pietro Canepanova was chosen pope in He did not want to use the name of St. Peter, the first pope, and so switched to John XIV. After his death in , popes began using an alias, known as a regnal name, on a regular basis.