John Paul

Even as a Protestant, I think this is a very fine Christian name, and there is no reason it has to be associated with Catholicism. John was the Apostle whom Jesus loved and Paul was, in my opinion, the greatest Christian who ever walked the earth.

A very Catholic name.

My brother's name is John Paul. People think "Paul" is his last name, so they probably think he's awkward or pretentious or something when he introduces himself. Also, for some reason some people say, "Ah. John Paul. French!"

---

People call him John, or they call him Jonathan, which is our dad's name. They also are endlessly confused by "Jonathan," so I think people just don't pay enough attention to get it no matter what you name your kid.

---

I think my brother wishes our parents had chosen a different name. But that's his personality. Somehow the most unashamedly quirky of us three siblings ended up named "Daniel," and the only one who cares about fitting in is John Paul. Goes to show you just never know, I guess.

Double-names like this, especially without a hyphen, confuse me as an Anglophone, since I don't think they flow well in English. Saying both names all the time, even if both are short, means using many stressed syllables all the time, and it feels awkward. In this case, "John Paul" is like throwing two punches with the single-syllable names.

---

I also remember watching "The Bourne Identity" and one of Bourne's false identities was a man named John Michael Kane, and people kept saying "John Michael" (making it a double first name, instead of first and middle). In French, "Jean-Michel" flows well with their patterns of speech; but "John Michael" said together, all the time, sounded both harsh and pretentious to my ears. I feel the same way about John Paul.

This is my brother’s name (no hyphen whatsoever).
There is so much confusion when he introduces himself to new people lol, they think he’s just John -.-