A regnal name, or reign name, is a formal name used by some popes and monarchs during their reigns. Since medieval times, monarchs have frequently chosen to use a name different from their own personal name when they inherit a throne.
The new name (or sometimes the old one, confirmed) is followed by an
ordinal to give a unique name for the period when the monarch is on the throne. However, in the case of a personal union, the same ruler may carry different ordinals in each state, as they are each assigned chronologically; but some may have more precursors of the same
Christian name (usually from a different dynasty).
In parts of Asia, monarchs take era names. Even where that is not the case, individual rulers (often long-lived ones) — instead of a whole dynasty, as is the case with Georgian, referring to several Georges of the Hanoverian dynasty — may become eponymous of their age or the zeitgeist of an epoch. Examples include (from the United Kingdom) Victorian (even applied to the rest of the world) or Edwardian.
Ancient rulers
Ancient rulers in many parts of the world took regnal names or throne names which were different from their personal name. This is known to be true, for instance, of several kings of
Assyria, and appears to be the case for several Kings of
Judah. In
Ancient Egypt, Pharaohs took a number of names - the
praenomen, was the most commonly used, on occasion in conjunction with their personal name.
East Asia
see also Chinese era names and Rama (Kings of Thailand)
In parts of Asia, it is more a rule than an exception that monarchs take additional names when ascending, and quite often discard the name they were known by as princes. Often the assumed name is different from his childhood name, and a new temple name could be assumed. A posthumous name is sometimes accorded to a deceased monarch. Rebel leaders may also take regnal names. The regnal names of some monarchs were long, for example Lý Thái Tổ, Lý Thái Tông, Jiajing Emperor and Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire. While many rulers of East Asia (including in China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan) took regnal names based on Chinese characters, some monarchs of Xu (state), Xiongnu, Tuyuhun Kingdom, Rouran Khaganate, Göktürks, Uyghur Khaganate and Mongol took Chinese transliterated non-Chinese regnal names. For details on the multiple names assumed by individual East Asian monarchs, see:
List of Chinese monarchs
List of Emperors of Japan
List of Vietnamese monarchs
List of Monarchs of Korea
List of Mongolian monarchs
Some
royal family members may receive honorary names such as
Huihao and
Miyagou.
Roman Catholic Church
Immediately after a new pope is elected, and accepts the election, he is asked by the
Dean of the College of Cardinals, "By what name shall you be called?" The Pope-elect chooses the name by which he will be known from that point on. The senior Cardinal Deacon, or
Cardinal Protodeacon, then appears on the balcony of
Saint Peter's Basilica to proclaim the new Pope, informing the world of the man elected Pope, and under which name he would be known during his reign.
Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus Papam!
Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum [forename],
Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem [surname],
qui sibi nomen imposuit [papal name].
I announce to you a great joy:
We have a Pope!
The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord,
Lord [forename],
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church [surname],
who has conferred [lit. "placed"] upon himself the name [papal name].
During the first centuries of the church, men elected bishop of Rome continued to use their baptismal names after their elections. The custom of choosing a new name began in AD 533 with the election of Mercurius. Mercurius had been named after the Roman god Mercury, and decided that it would not be appropriate for a pope to be named after a Roman god. Mercurius subsequently decreed that he would be known as John II. Since the end of the tenth century the pope has customarily chosen a new name for himself during his Pontificate; however, until the 16th century some men used their baptismal names.
The last pope to use his baptismal name was Pope Marcellus II in 1555, a choice that was even then quite exceptional. The names chosen by popes are not based on any system other than general honorifics. They have been based on immediate predecessors, mentors, political similarity, or even after family members—as was the case with Pope John XXIII. The practice of a man using his baptismal name as pope has not been ruled out and future popes could elect to continue using their baptismal names after being elected pope.
Often the man's choice of name upon being elected to the papacy is seen as a signal to the world of whom the new pope will emulate or what policies he will seek to enact. Such is the case with Benedict XVI who, in fact, explained the reasons for his choice of name during his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, on 27 April 2005. On that occasion, he said that he wanted to remember "Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war," and also "Saint Benedict of Nursia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe."
There has never been a Pope Peter II. Even though there is no specific prohibition against choosing the name Peter, men elected to the Papacy have refrained from doing so even if their own given name was Peter. This is because of a tradition that only Saint Peter should have that honor. In the 10th century John XIV used the regnal name John because his given name was Peter. While some antipopes did take the name Peter II, their claims are not recognized by the mainstream Roman Catholic Church, and each of these men only either has or had a minuscule following that recognized their claims.
Probably because of the controversial Antipope John XXIII, men avoided taking the regnal name John for over 600 years until the election of the other John XXIII. Immediately after John's election as Pope in 1958, there was some confusion as to whether he would be known as John XXIII or John XXIV, which he moved to immediately resolve by declaring that he would be known as John XXIII.
In 1978, Albino Luciani became the first pope to use two names for his regnal name when he took the name John Paul I, including the "I". He took the "John Paul" name to honor both John XXIII and Paul VI. With the unexpected death of John Paul I a little over a month later, Karol Wojtyła took the name John Paul II to honor his immediate predecessors.
Antipopes also have regnal names, and also use the ordinal to show their position in the line of previous pontiffs with their names. For example, David Bawden took the name Michael I when declared pope in 1990.
United Kingdom
Though most
monarchs of the United Kingdom have used their first baptismal name as their regnal name, on three occasions monarchs have varied from this trend; in the first of these, Queen
Victoria had been christened Alexandrina Victoria, but was titled
Princess Victoria from birth and took the throne under that name.
When Victoria's son, Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, became king in 1901, he took the regnal name Edward VII, in defiance of the wish of his late mother that her descendants would rule as double-barreled Albert-[Name]s indefinitely. The new king declared that he chose the name Edward alone as an honoured name borne by six of his predecessors, and that he did not wish to diminish the status of his father, with whom alone among royalty the name Albert should be associated.
In 1936, after the abdication crisis, Prince Albert, Duke of York, assumed the throne as King George VI in order to continue Edward VII's tradition of not using the title King Albert. George's title applied in all of the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, as, at that time, the legislation laying out the monarch's title predated the 1931 Statute of Westminster and still applied in the Dominions unchanged.
Scotland
When
John, Earl of Carrick ascended the Scottish throne in 1390, it was deemed imprudent for him to take the regnal name of "John II", as recent kings named John had turned out badly
in England as well as
in Scotland. Furthermore, royal propaganda of the time held that John Balliol had not been a legitimate king of Scotland, making the new king's
regnal number also a tricky issue. To avoid these problems, John took the regnal name of
Robert III, honoring
his father and
great-grandfather.
Commonwealth realms
Upon the accession, in 1952, of Princess Elizabeth (who was baptized
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary), Duchess of Edinburgh, to the thrones of each of the
Commonwealth realms, she was asked by
Martin Charteris, then her Assistant Private Secretary, what she intended to be called as monarch, she replied: "Oh, my own name; what else?" This dispelled speculation that she would leave the name Elizabeth as the unique possession of the earlier monarch, who, as a consequence of the contemporary Elizabeth's choice, was thereafter known as
Elizabeth I. However, though the situation was the same in every one of the Queen's realms beyond England (save perhaps for
Canada, which in 1949 had incorporated
Newfoundland, settled in 1583), only in
Scotland did the title
Elizabeth II cause controversy as there had never been an
Elizabeth I in Scotland. In a rare act of sabotage, new
Royal Mail post boxes in Scotland, bearing the
cypher EIIR, were vandalised, after which, to avoid further problems, post boxes and Royal Mail vehicles in Scotland bore only the
Crown of Scotland. A legal case,
MacCormick v. Lord Advocate (1953 SC 396), was taken to contest the right of the Queen to title herself
Elizabeth II within Scotland, arguing that to do so would be a breach of the
Act of Union. The case, however, was lost on the grounds that the pursuers had not title to sue the Crown, and also that the numbering of monarchs was part of the
Royal Prerogative, and thus not governed by the Act of Union.
Ethiopia
In the
Ethiopian Empire, especially during the
Solomonic dynasty, many
Emperors would take a throne name, though this was not a general practice; a great number of rulers would remain known during their reign by their birth names.
Yekuno Amlak, the founder of the Solomonic dynasty, took his father's name, Tasfa Iyasus, as his throne name.
Yagbe'u Seyon, his son and heir, took the throne name
Salomon after the biblical figure.
Amda Seyon took the throne name Gebre Mesqel, "slave of the
cross";
Tewodros I was Walda Ambasa, "son of the lion";
Sarwe Iyasus was Mehreka Nañ "distributor of your [the
Lord's] mercy"; etc. Tafari Makonnen, the last sovereign Emperor of Ethiopia, took as his throne name
Haile Selassie, meaning "Power of the
Trinity".
See also
Chinese era name
Posthumous name
Rama (Kings of Thailand)
Religious name
References
External links
Regnal Chronologies
Category:Monarchy
Category:Human names
