More than 1.5 million Romanians bear the names of Saints Constantine the Great and Helena or their derivatives, according to official data released by Romania’s Directorate General for Persons Records within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
A total of 1,514,907 Romanians are named after the two saints, who are commemorated by the Orthodox Church on May 21.
Among them, nearly one million are women. The most common female name is Elena, carried by more than 800,000 people, followed by Lenuța with approximately 60,000 and Constanța with over 38,000. Other popular derivatives include Constantina, Ela, Eleonora, Helena, Ilinca, Nora, Tanța, and Tina.
Among the approximately 516,500 men bearing the name of the Byzantine emperor-saint, Constantin remains the most widespread, with more than 400,000 bearers, followed by Costel with over 73,000. Around 23,000 Romanians are named Costică, while other derivatives include Costache and Tinel.
Saints Constantine and Helen are honored by the Orthodox Church as “Equal-to-the-Apostles” because of their decisive contribution to the spread of Christianity and the establishment of religious freedom within the Roman Empire.
They are also the spiritual patrons of the historic Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.
Source: Basilica.ro
