The decline of the first name Marie and Catholic practice in France

And the Maries left. The first name of the Virgin was given to one in five little girls in 1900, almost disappearing today (0.3% of births), replaced initially by first names composed of Mary, the beginnings of the "customization of first names" today at its peak, then by "pop stars" - Brigitte (Bardot), Sylvie (Vartan) and Nathalie (in reference to the eponymous album by Gilbert Bécaud published). Same fate for John - reference to John the Baptist - who became Jean-Philippe, Jean-Michel, etc.

Pope Leo “The Christian matrix is ​​still very present. We can no longer count the villages containing the terms: Saint, Holy Trinity, Church, Abbey,” recalls Jérôme Fourquet on Le Figaro TV. But does the sovereign pontiff not risk only observing “insignificant vestiges”? The number of French Catholics has in fact been in free fall for fifty years and the demographic dynamic does not appear to be reversing.