Is Dismas the first canonized saint?

No source cited on this page supports that claim. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists Dismas as patron of persons condemned to death, which shows veneration, but it gives no record of a formal canonization.

Is Denis the same name as Dionysius?

Yes: Behind the Name gives Denys and Denis as the medieval French forms of Dionysius, and says the Normans brought Denis to England, where it is now usually spelled Dennis. The saint behind it is the first bishop of Paris, whom popular devotion identified with the Dionysius of Acts 17:34, so Denis reaches the Bible only through that merged identity.

Christian Boy Names Starting With D, From David to Dismas, the Thief the Gospels Never Name

The man honored as Saint Dismas is in the Bible, but his name is not. Luke 23:39-43 tells of a crucified criminal who asks Jesus to remember him, and the name Dismas reaches him only through the later Gospel of Nicodemus.

Denis is a medieval French form of Dionysius, according to Behind the Name, and it honors the first bishop of Paris, whom popular devotion identified with the convert of Acts 17:34. David, Daniel and two men called Demetrius carry names the scriptural text itself gives them.

Dominic and Damian enter through saints: Dominic through the founder of the Order of Preachers, and Damian through a fourth-century martyr or an eleventh-century cardinal. Behind the Name supplies the meanings given below for David, Daniel, Dismas and Damian.

Quick Facts

Men named in scripture: David, Daniel, Dionysius, and two men called Demetrius
Name from an apocryphal text: Dismas, in the Gospel of Nicodemus, chapter 10
Name from a merged identity: Denis, the French form of Dionysius, for the Paris martyr identified with Acts 17:34's convert
Daniel's court name: Belteshazzar (Daniel 1:7)
Saint-only names: Dominic (died 1221) and Damian (twin of Cosmas, or Peter Damian)

Is Dismas named in the Bible?

No. Luke 23:39-43 describes two criminals crucified beside Jesus without naming either one: the first derides Jesus, and the second rebukes him and asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom."

Jesus answers the second man, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). That exchange in Luke is where the man later Christians called the Good Thief speaks and receives Jesus' promise.

The name Dismas comes from the Gospel of Nicodemus, also called the Acts of Pilate, an apocryphal text that stands outside the biblical canon.

Chapter 10 of its Latin form says Jesus was crucified with two robbers, "one by name Dismas, and the other by name Gestas." It hangs Dismas on the right and Gestas on the left, and it gives Dismas the rebuke that Luke gives to the unnamed man.

Behind the Name derives Dismas from Greek dysme, "sunset", and describes it as the name "traditionally assigned" to the repentant thief. The meaning belongs to that later name, since Luke records none.

Catholic devotion does honor him as a saint. The Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on patron saints names Dismas as the patron of persons condemned to death and lists the Good Thief among saints' names.

Dismas is sometimes called the first canonized saint. The sources cited here record his veneration and patronage but no formal act of canonization, so that popular label stays unconfirmed.

What each source says about Dismas
Claim	Source	What the source shows
The repentant man is in the Bible	Luke 23:39-43	Yes, as one of two unnamed criminals; Jesus promises him paradise
His name is Dismas	Gospel of Nicodemus, Latin form, chapter 10	Names Dismas and Gestas in a text outside the biblical canon
Dismas means "sunset"	Behind the Name	Greek dysme; a name traditionally assigned to the thief
He is venerated as a saint	Catholic Encyclopedia, "Patron Saints"	Patron of persons condemned to death

A boy named Dismas therefore carries a Gospel figure from Luke and a saint's name from Catholic devotion, joined by a text outside the biblical canon.

Dionysius and Denis: three men from Athens to Paris

Three different men stand behind the names Dionysius and Denis. The first is the Athenian convert of Acts 17:34: after Paul speaks in Athens, "some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris."

The Catholic Encyclopedia identifies him as a judge of the Areopagus. It adds, from Dionysius of Corinth as quoted by Eusebius (Church History III.4), that he became bishop of Athens, a detail Acts itself does not give.

The second man is Dionysius, the first bishop of Paris and a martyr of Gaul, whom Behind the Name dates to the third century and calls Saint Denis. The Catholic Encyclopedia entry says the Areopagite "was popularly identified" with him, so devotion merged the Athens convert and the Paris martyr into one figure.

The third is the unknown author of a set of writings "ascribed to the Areopagite", whom the encyclopedia calls the Pseudo-Areopagite. It notes that the writings follow the terminology of the Council of Chalcedon (451), which places their author centuries after Paul's visit to Athens.

Three men behind Dionysius and Denis
Man	Where he is documented	What is recorded	Later identification
Dionysius the Areopagite	Acts 17:34	Becomes a believer after Paul speaks in Athens, named beside Damaris	Bishop of Athens, per Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius
Dionysius (Denis) of Paris	Catholic Encyclopedia, "Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite"; Behind the Name, "Denis"	Martyr of Gaul and first bishop of Paris	Popularly treated as the same man as the Areopagite
The Pseudo-Areopagite	Writings issued under the Areopagite's name	Follows the terminology of the Council of Chalcedon (451)	Presented himself as the convert of Acts

Denis honors the Paris martyr directly and reaches the convert of Acts only through that popular identification. The form Dionysius, which Acts uses, points most clearly to the believer of Acts 17:34.

David, anointed by Samuel and rebuked by Nathan

David's story begins with an anointing. Samuel anoints him "in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward" (1 Samuel 16:13).

The same anointing returns as an accusation. After David has Uriah placed in the fiercest fighting and left exposed, so that Uriah dies (2 Samuel 11:14-17), the prophet Nathan confronts him in 2 Samuel 12:7 with "You are the man!"

In the same verse Nathan continues in God's words, "I anointed you king over Israel," so the rebuke reminds David of the calling that began in 1 Samuel 16.

Scripture shows the king who carries this name both chosen and rebuked, and it softens neither moment.

The New Testament keeps the name at the center of Christian reading. Matthew's Gospel opens by calling Jesus "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1).

Behind the Name derives David from Hebrew dod, meaning "beloved" or "uncle". Name lists that translate it as "friend" add a sense the name-history record does not give.

A second Christian route runs through Wales, where David is used in honor of the fifth-century patron saint of Wales, also called Dewi.

Why was Daniel given a Babylonian name?

Daniel 1:6-7 names four young men from the tribe of Judah and records what the palace master called them: "Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego."

The verse gives the new names without stating a reason for the change. The book that tells his story still carries his Hebrew name, and its later chapters record the visions in which its angels appear.

Behind the Name derives Daniel from Hebrew Daniyyel, "God is my judge", built from din, "to judge", and el, "God". Belteshazzar, by contrast, is the name the Babylonian court assigned, and the English name Daniel keeps the Hebrew original.

Two men named Demetrius, one against Paul and one praised

The New Testament names two men called Demetrius, and nothing in either text connects them. The first, in Acts 19:24-27, is "a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis" at Ephesus.

He gathers the workers of his trade and warns them that Paul, by saying "gods made with hands are not gods", has put both their business and the temple of the great goddess Artemis at risk.

The second appears in 3 John 12, where the elder writes that "everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself." The letter adds no detail about his life or work.

For a New Testament namesake, that leaves the man commended in 3 John, since the Ephesus silversmith is remembered for rallying opposition to Paul.

Dominic and Damian: which saint each name points to

Dominic points to one man, Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, commonly called the Dominican Order. The Catholic Encyclopedia gives his birth year as 1170 and his death as 6 August 1221.

Damian can point to two saints. Behind the Name records Saint Damian, martyred with his twin brother Cosmas in Syria early in the fourth century, and the two brothers are the patron saints of physicians.

The same source names Peter Damian, an eleventh-century Italian cardinal and theologian, and derives Damian from Greek Damianos, from damazo, "to tame". Which Damian a family means decides whether the name honors an early martyr or a medieval churchman.