A reader writes:
My girlfriend is teaching the Confirmation class at her parish this year, and the confirmandi just picked their saint names. One of them chose the name Moses. I know the greats of the Old Testament are generally considered saints in their own right (or at least, that’s my understanding), but can an Old Testament name be used for Confirmation?
Confirmandi? Wasn’t that an old Jack Kirby comic published by DC? The Last Boy In The Church or something?
(Sorry. Just kidding.)
The answer is that there isn’t a rule here. Canon law does not presently make any provision regarding confirmation names.
As a result, one is free to take a name or not take a name, and there are no canonical restrictions on what such names might be.
That’s not to say that there are no moral limitations on what one could choose. If an uppity young ‘un wanted to take "Hitler" as a confirmation name then the others involved would be quite entitled to say "Nix on that."
A good rule of thumb to follow, though it doesn’t have canonical force when it comes to confirmation, would be what the Code of Canon Law says about baptismal names:
Can. 855
Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to
take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given.
"Moses" is not a name that is foreign to Christian sensibility. It may be a name that has Jewish resonances, but it’s part of the Judeo-Christian patrimony, and so it would not be a problem for a confirmand to take this name.

