Talk:Christopher (given name)

Greek
About the origin of the name Christopher: it is actually true that the two components in ancient Greek are "Χριστός" and the verb "φέρω", but the vocal of that verb changes when it is used as an agent (here: "bringer"). The name Χριστοφόρος ("Christophoros"), attested from the middle ages up to now in Greece, never occured (or occurs) with an E. Compare the article Saint Christopher. And yes, in English the O changed back to E. --Blancefloer 16:31, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

List
Why not make a list of those famous people named Christopher? Such as Christopher Columbus or Christopher Reeve. Though they didn't "bear" the Christ, they still fulfilled the great achievements for all human race.
 * Done... although I can imagine this growing long enough to justify it's own wikilist at some point. 72.131.44.247 03:43, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Foreign equivalents
Since Wikipedia is not a dictionary, I'm moving the list of foreign equivalents to Christopher instead. Angr 23:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Origin
I just dumped a bunch of information into the opening paragraph on the origin of the name Christopher. Some of it is taken directly from the Wiki page on Christ. Other parts are pieced together. I'm still early in my Greek studies, so if someone out there has a more solid grounding, I'm sure it could be cleaned up some.

Also, although the form Christophoros (with in O - equivalent to χριστοφόρος) is apparently common in Greece today, I don't believe that's the original form of the name. Since φερω (fero) is the proper ancient form of the verb, I find it highly unlikely that it would change to an O, be adopted into other languages, and then rever to an E. Of course, crazier things have happened.

If anybody knows the actual history of the name (not from baby name books), I'd love to see more additions made to this page. ~Chris

Greek spelling
I put the greek spelling of Christopher in my sig on a forum I'm a member, a greek friend said: By the way, Q, I noticed your sig has got the greek equivalent of Christopher linking your livejournal. It's not precicely correct though...is it spelled like that for a purpose? If not I thought I should point out the spelling is supposed to be "Χριστόφορος". My source is "a greek guy".

Founder of mobadoo.com
I have removed Chris Christopher (founder of mobadoo.com) from this list because:
 * While mobadoo might achieve notability, it does not appear to have reached that status yet;
 * Neither Chris Christopher nor mobadoo currently has their own Wikipedia page; and
 * Even if mobadoo.com becomes sufficiently widespread to achieve notability, it is not automatic that Chris Christopher is also notable..

If you think this should be re-added, please discuss here. Euryalus 11:26, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Unsourced statement
I have removed the following statement from the article: This was fact-tagged in May 2007 but has not been sourced in that time. I cannot find any references for it and given the association with Christ I imagine that if such a thing were true it would surely be referenced somewhere.
 * In the Roman times people named Christoph or Christophoros were said to have the ability to see the future in their dreams.

Feel free to re-add this if a reliable source can be found. Euryalus 03:54, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Every notable person with the given name Christopher?
No offence intended, but isn't this a rather pointless exercise? Is the John article going list every notable person named John, all, oh, 10 or 20 thousand of them?

I imagine that the point of compiling lists like this is to provide users an alternative way of referencing real, useful articles on notable people. Since people don't normally look people up by their given names, particular common names like Christopher, there seems little point for such a list in this article. An exception, of course, are the St Christophers, King Christophers, Prince Christophers etc., and perhaps people like Christo, although I can't imagine anyone looking him up under Christopher (it is an interesting piece of trivia though).

My view, obviously, is that, with these exceptions, the whole list should be cut. But maybe there's a counterargument.66.183.165.57 (talk) 18:48, 18 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually, the John page offers a perfect model for handling this kind of article. If no objections are forthcoming, I'll refactor this page in a day or so.66.183.165.57 (talk) 18:52, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I totally agree, this disambig page would be more helpful if it just listed things that are normally referred to as just "Christopher" (the only ones I can find right now are the king, the saint and the town). Pax:Vobiscum (talk) 22:17, 23 December 2008 (UTC)