Godparents

[Serafina]

Just a quick question:

Is there a particular pattern of godparents that you consider traditional (without consulting wikipedia etc. - just gut feeling)?

Eg a girl having one godmother, who is not related to her, or a boy having three godfathers, and one godmother, all who are related.

Thank you

[MichaelB]

I would think it would be traditional (wow, what a laboured clause) to (nice efficient preposition, though) have one godmother and one godfather per child. Nice and balanced, that way.
Although the larger number of my online friends who profess to having godparents usually have only one godparent.

I don't have a godparent, officially, but Mum's got such close and such old friends that they almost are.

[MelancholyBliss]

On Guam there are different types of "godparents". Traditionally, because we are a pre-dominantly Catholic island, most people have one set of godparents, one man and one woman, at baptism at infancy who are "supposed" to carry out what the church asks them too. However, you also have to choose one godparent for your Confirmation around age 15/16. So often, in just that sense, most people have three godparents: 2 from Baptism, 1 from Confirmation. However, it's also common place to designate another set of godparents not affiliated with either Baptism or Confirmation, who usually just represent a special connection to the child and his or her parents.

My boys were both baptized into the Catholic church despite the fact that my husband and I are no longer Catholic. I baptized my sons because it meant a lot to my parents and being that they are raised on an island surrounded by Catholics, it's something they will be exposed to and if they choose to be practicing Catholics, they have that already under their belt. My older son's godmother is Mr. Bliss' cousin and his godfather is my cousin. Both were primarily chosen because we know they'll always be there for my kids and despite the rules we broke, we still had to choose godparents who have been confirmed. When my second son was born, his godparents were two of my cousins, again for the same reasons. However, one of my cousins is not confirmed and can't be the "official" godfather. I still asked him to be godfather in addition to the set Drew already had because I love my cousin, I'm close to him, I know he'll always be there for my son, etc. None of the formalities matter much to me.

So Kane has one set but Drew has his traditional set and an extra godfather.

I consider tradition to be one set.

[vindemiatrix]

It was always one godfather and one godmother for us kids, although I have heard it's also traditional for a baby girl to have two godmothers and one godfather and a baby boy to have two godfathers and one godmother.

[LadyAbby]

I'm not Catholic but I have one godfather and one godmother. I *think* my godfather is the husband of my godmother but I couldn't tell you for certain at least, but I do know who my godmother is. She's been like a second mum to me since I was born, pretty much, and she's still around and our families are still all friends.

[MelancholyBliss]

Oh, on Guam we also consider the husband or wife of our appointed godparents to be other godparents. My appointed godmother married after I was baptized and I consider her husband to be my second godfather.

We also consider the children of our godparents to be our godsiblings. Mr. Bliss' cousin is the only of my childrens' godparents to have a child herself and her son is my older son's godbrother. My parents' godchildren would then also be my godsiblings.

Weird story... My parents are the godparents of my only cousin on my dad's side, the son of my dad's brother. That brother is also the godfather of Mr. Bliss, chosen way back when Mr.Bliss' dad and my unce were good friends (no blood relation at all). So my uncle is Mr. Bliss' godfather. My uncle's son is both my and Mr. Bliss' godbrother.

On Guam godmothers are called "Nina" and Godfathers are "Nino." Not to be confused with Spanish nina and nino as it's not pronounced "neenya" or "neenyo".

[pkgirl]

I technically have a godmother and godfather

[spaceoperadiva]

We asked people to be godparents for our children when they were born and then years later, their grandparents and uncle chose someone else and told the kids that this other guy was their godfather. Yeah, I love my inlaws.