Which Christian boy names starting with P are in the Bible?

Paul, Peter, Philip and Philemon are New Testament names, and Phinehas comes from the Old Testament. Patrick, Polycarp and Pius come through saints and popes rather than scripture.

Did Paul change his name to Peter?

No. Paul and Peter are two different apostles: Paul's other name was Saul (Acts 13:9), and Peter's other name was Simon, the name he had before Jesus called him Cephas, or Peter (John 1:42).

Did King Saul change his name?

The second name recorded in Acts 13:9 belongs to the apostle Saul, also known as Paul, while Acts 13:21 calls the king "Saul son of Kish." The Catholic Encyclopedia reasons that the name must have been common in the tribe of Benjamin in memory of that king, which would explain why the Benjamite apostle carried it; King Saul himself is covered with the S names.

Christian Boy Names Starting With P: Did Saul Become Paul, and Who Named Peter?

The verse that joins the best-known P name to its bearer is Acts 13:9, "But Saul, also known as Paul," and it comes four chapters after his conversion, at Paphos on Cyprus. Up to that point Acts calls him Saul, even in the Damascus scenes where his life changes.

Peter came from Jesus himself: in John 1:42 he tells Simon, "You are to be called Cephas," and the Gospel explains that Cephas is translated Peter, a word the NRSVUE notes as "rock" in both Aramaic and Greek.

The rest of the P list divides by source. Philip names two different New Testament men, Phinehas names two Old Testament priests, and Philemon receives one of Paul's letters; Patrick, Polycarp and Pius entered Christian use through a fifth-century missionary bishop, a second-century martyr and twelve popes.

Quick Facts

New Testament bearers: Paul, Peter, Philip (two men) and Philemon
Old Testament bearers: Phinehas (two priests)
First verse joining Saul and Paul: Acts 13:9, at Paphos
Who named Peter: Jesus, in John 1:42 and Mark 3:16
Saint and papal names: Patrick, Polycarp and Pius

Did Saul change his name to Paul?

No verse in Acts says that Saul's name was changed to Paul when he converted. The narrative keeps calling him Saul after the Damascus road and first puts the two names together in Acts 13:9: "But Saul, also known as Paul."

What Acts calls him, passage by passage
Passage	Name used	Where he is and what happens
Acts 7:58	Saul	Before his conversion, the witnesses at Stephen's stoning lay their coats "at the feet of a young man named Saul"
Acts 9:4	Saul	On the Damascus road a voice says, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
Acts 9:17	Saul	In Damascus, Ananias lays hands on him and greets him as "Brother Saul"
Acts 13:7	Saul	At Paphos on Cyprus, the proconsul Sergius Paulus summons "Barnabas and Saul"
Acts 13:9	Saul and Paul together	"But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit" confronts the magician Elymas before the proconsul
Acts 23:1	Paul	In Jerusalem, Paul looks intently at the council and speaks in his own defense

The conversion happens in Acts 9, and the name Saul is still in use four chapters later at Acts 13:7. The Greek wording of Acts 13:9, Saulos ho kai Paulos, is what the NRSVUE renders "Saul, also known as Paul": a second name he also carried.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains the pair through his family background. He belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5) and received Saul at his circumcision, a name that, the encyclopedia reasons, must have been common in that tribe in memory of Israel's first king; as a Roman citizen, he also bore the Latin name Paul.

The same entry, citing Deissmann's Bible Studies, says it was quite usual for Jews of that period to hold one Hebrew name and one Latin or Greek name. It treats his use of the Roman name as natural once his mission turned to the Gentiles, and adds its own remark that Saul "had a ludicrous meaning in Greek."

The setting in Acts fits that account. Acts first gives the apostle the name Paul in a scene with a Roman official named Sergius Paulus, and the Catholic Encyclopedia observes that from Paphos onward Luke names Paul before Barnabas, where Acts 13:7 had still said "Barnabas and Saul."

Paul comes from the Roman name Paulus, which Behind the Name glosses as "small" in Latin. The same reference calls Saul his original Hebrew name and records that six popes later bore the name Paul, so a boy named Paul carries the name under which Acts follows the apostle's mission to the Gentiles.

Who gave Simon the name Peter?

Jesus gave it, according to the Gospels. In John 1:42 he looks at Simon son of John and says, "You are to be called Cephas," and the NRSVUE notes explain that Cephas is Aramaic for rock and Peter, its translation, is Greek for rock.

Mark 3:16 records the same naming inside the list of the twelve: "Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter)." Matthew 16:18 builds on the meaning with "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church," where the Greek has Petros for the name and petra for the rock.

The two apostles' second names arrived in different ways. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Saul already held the Roman name Paul, which Acts 13:9 introduces with "also known as"; Simon received Peter from Jesus as a new name with a stated meaning.

Paul himself keeps the Aramaic form. In Galatians 2:9 he names "James and Cephas and John" as the acknowledged pillars in Jerusalem, so Cephas and Peter are one man called by the Aramaic and Greek words for rock.

Saul did not become Peter. Peter's other name was Simon, as Matthew 4:18 puts it, "Simon, who is called Peter," while Saul's other name was Paul.

Philip of Bethsaida and Philip of the seven

The New Testament has two men named Philip, so a boy named for Philip honors one of two different people. Their records do not overlap: one is called by Jesus in Galilee, and the other is chosen later by the Jerusalem community.

The two New Testament Philips
Philip	From or chosen as	Key passages	What he does
Philip the apostle	From Bethsaida, "the city of Andrew and Peter" (John 1:44)	John 1:43-44; John 12:21-22	Answers Jesus' call, "Follow me," and later tells Andrew when Greeks ask to see Jesus
Philip the evangelist	Chosen with Stephen as one of the seven (Acts 6:5)	Acts 6:5; 8:5; 8:26-27; 21:8-9	Proclaims the Messiah in Samaria, is sent by an angel to the Gaza road to meet an Ethiopian court official, and hosts Paul's company at Caesarea

Acts supplies the label that keeps them apart. When the travel narrative reaches Caesarea, it calls him "Philip the evangelist, one of the seven," and adds that he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9).

Behind the Name derives Philip from the Greek Philippos, "friend of horses," built from philos, "friend," and hippos, "horse." It also notes that both New Testament bearers are regarded as saints, so either man can be the Philip a family means.

Patrick, Polycarp and Pius: names taken from a saint's adopted name, a martyr and the papacy

Patrick was not the saint's birth name. Behind the Name says the fifth-century Saint Patrick was born Sucat and adopted the Latin Patricius, "nobleman, patrician"; a Romanized Briton enslaved by Irish raiders, he escaped, became a bishop and returned to Ireland as a missionary.

Ireland was slow to give his name to its own boys. Behind the Name reports that Patrick was not generally given there before the seventeenth century because it was considered too sacred for everyday use, while England and the rest of Europe used it in his honor during the Middle Ages.

Polycarp comes from the Greek Polykarpos, "fruitful, rich in fruit." Its Christian bearer is the second-century bishop of Smyrna, who according to Behind the Name was burned at the stake and then stabbed when he was martyred.

Pius is a Latin word meaning "pious, dutiful," and it was the cognomen of the second-century Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. Its Christian standing comes from the papacy: twelve popes between the second and twentieth centuries bore the name, and three of them are considered saints.

Who were Phinehas and Philemon?

Two Old Testament priests are named Phinehas. The first, Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, takes a spear into a tent and kills an Israelite man and the woman with him, and Numbers 25:8 says, "So the plague was stopped among the Israelites."

Numbers 25:11 credits him with turning back God's wrath through his zeal. In Numbers 25 the name belongs to a man praised for a killing, so if you name a son after Aaron's grandson, that scene comes with the name.

The second Phinehas is a son of Eli. First Samuel 1:3 names Hophni and Phinehas as the two sons of Eli who were priests of the Lord at Shiloh.

Philemon is known from the short letter that bears his name, which Paul and Timothy address to Philemon, to Apphia and Archippus, and to a house church (Philemon 1:1-3).