literal theonymy

English

Noun

literal theonymy (uncountable)

1. The naming of a person with a divine name, such as the use of Jesus as a given name in Mexico and Central America.
   • 2000, Elaine Matthews, Simon Hornblower, Peter Marshall Fraser, Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, →ISBN, page 57:

     When H. Meyersahm, in a dissertation of 1891, studied literal theonymy, the giving to humans of unadjusted divine names, he felt able to declare that the practice first emerged in the first century AD .

   • 2006, Joan Booth, Robert Maltby, What's in a Name?: The Significance of Proper Names in Classical Latin Literature:

     There are a few instances of mortals called Artemis or Hermes, but such literal theonymy is relatively rare, and mostly dates from the first century ad or later.

   • 2009, Tobias Fischer-Hansen, Birte Poulsen, From Artemis to Diana: The Goddess of Man and Beast, →ISBN, page 323:

     As is evident from Fig. 8, female theophoric names on Artemi- are quite uncommon and literal theonymy, where the personal name is same as the name of the deity, is extremely rare.