> In New Zealand, and perhaps other British-English speaking countries, we say "Christian name" for a person's personal name and "surname" for their family name. These days "first name" is more often used than "Christian name", for reasons of religious and cultural diversity.
>
> What I can't figure out is why the first name was *ever* described as the Christian name. What does religion have to do with it?

Originally, this was the name given to the child at baptism. The child already had a familial name.

Over time, I suppose that the terms for "given" names and "Christian" names meshed.

> Brunnen-"going nuts trying to work out the reason for something I didn't even care about before I suddenly thought of it"G

-Faux "has a given first name, a given middle name, a confirmation name, and a last name." Pas