I'm trying to pick a confirmation name. It's dead difficult. I thought I was probably going to be given one, but no, I have to think about it.

The thing is, as I get to choose it, I feel it should be something helpful to me rather than just something which sounds cool. I think it would be great if it was the name of a saint who I could aspire to emulate in some way. I like the idea of a saint renowned for courage, perseverance, loyalty, apologetics, devotion and such-like.

On the other hand, although it seems like a bad idea to pick a name just because I like the sound of it, I'm very much in favour of the idea of having a name that sounds a little out of the ordinary, because it'd probably help me to remember it and pay attention to it. Also, given that I'm all of a sudden adrift in a sea of extra-protestant tradition which I don't know so very much about, I'd like it to be something markedly Catholic, to mark it out as belonging to a new stage in my life.

So there you are. I don't know that much about saints really, but I know that I admire Justin and Polycarp. There's two things that worry me about them though. Firstly, they're both martyrs. As such they embody the kind of conviction that I can try to emulate, which is great, but there would seem to be a danger of romanticising martyrdom, and it also seems pretty pretentious. The second thing is how they sound. Justin sounds fairly ordinary and easy for me to forget, but Polycarp sounds absolutely crazy.

I like the idea of Raphael and Cyprian too, but I think it's mostly because I like the sound of them.

Well, it's not like me to decide on something in the space of an afternoon anyway. I shall pray about it.