Saints’ Names in American Lutheran Church Dedications

PARISH CHURCHES in North America have various kinds of names. 1 Some of them are geographical, identifying the location of the church by the name of the town or section of town or street (e.g., Northgate Church), while others may indicate national origins or language (e.g., First English Church). Most of them, however, follow the tradition which uses a distinctively Christian appellation: a name of the Godhead, a Christian virtue or doctrine, a season or feast of the church year, or a Biblical place name (e.g., Holy Comforter, Faith, Advent, Gethsemane). Several thousand Lutheran churches in the United States and Canada are named for individuals, generally with the prefix "Saint" although sometimes without it, and it is of some interest to analyze these names as a measure of the relative popularity among Lutheran congregations of the Christian men and women in whose honor the churches are dedicated.