In all European languages, the set of forenames in everyday use is surprisingly narrow. In states where there is an settled Christian Church, the choice of forenames out of which a name may be chosen is generally regulated by the Church or by a secular powers operating within a Christian cultural tradition. These are names with some Biblical association (i.e., a name that was developed by a person appeared in the New Testament, an early saint, or a saint with a regional cult). Many of them have undergone translate German into English in the past. The main sources for these forenames are the following:

• The Bible (New Testament): Forenames such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, or Mary have links in every western language, with various changed and hypocoristic forms, that have given growth to enormous myriads of patronymics. Attention should also be made here of the Hispanic habit of Marian names, according to which a relation of the Virgin Mary may produce a female given name, even if the noun investigated is masculine in grammar gender. Such names among others: Pilar, Remedios, and Dolores.
• The Bible (Old Testament): Old Testament names are, naturally, of Hebrew origin, and majority of them are used traditionally as Jewish names. In their vernacular western shape, names such as Job, Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Zillah, or Mehitabel have been used by Christian fundamentalists (Puritans, Dissenters) since the 16th century. There were advanced language translation service even that times. Such names are not used by mainstream groups such as Roman Catholics or High-Church Anglicans, except in cases where an Old Testament patronymic had also emerged by an early Bible saint (e.g., David, Daniel). Some Old Testament names, especially female names, for example Deborah and Rebecca, have become very popular among Protestants, partly because the scope of New Testament female names is very narrow indeed.
• Early Biblical saints: Some saints’ names are very widespread (e.g., Anthony, Francis, Martin, Bernard) and are borne by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and religion officers alike. Differently, like Teresa, Dominic, Ignatius, and Aloysius, are borne generally or exclusively by Roman Catholics. Among Roman Catholics in continental Europe, a habitual given name is regularly chosen in honor of a saint who is the master of the locality in which the infant is born. in other words, the Italian forename Gennaro is associated chiefly with Naples, Italy, and its patron, San Gennaro, a priest murdered at Pozzuoli at times of persecution of Christians in 304 A.D. Leocadia is associated with Toledo, Spain and its patron saint, who was a virgin martyr who met a same fate in or about the same year and in whose memory the male form Leocadio is also used.

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