ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the effects of religion on first names, and because peoples are primarily interested in processes of cultural change we will be inquiring as to the changing influence of religion on first names. For the theoretical description of the changing influence of religion there is the concept known as secularization. Cultural secularization, however, encompasses not only the dissolution of a transcendental interpretive model but its replacement by worldly alternatives. Thomas Luckmann holds that because religion has simply changed from a visible to an invisible faith, there has been no accompanying subjective secularization process. Thomas Luckmann asserts that there have never been any real secularization processes at work, simply an increase in civil-religious offerings and a development of the religious toward pluralism and privatization. This thesis is very much conditioned by Luckmann's understanding of religion. After 1980 the percentage of Christian first names rose—something which we will also be taking a closer look at when investigate fashion trends.
