Pope Name Generator

Popes have chosen a new name on election since at least 533, when a priest named Mercurius decided a pope should not be called after a pagan god and became John II. By the eleventh century the custom was fixed, and only two men since have kept their baptismal names (Adrian VI and Marcellus II, both in the 1500s). The regnal name is a statement of intent: John Paul I combined the names of his two immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI pointed to Benedict XV the peacemaker and St Benedict of Nursia, Francis honoured the poor man of Assisi, and Leo XIV, elected in 2025, invoked Leo XIII and his social teaching.

The mechanics are simple. A pope takes a name, usually of a predecessor or saint, and if it has been used before he takes the next numeral. John is the most common (23 times), followed by Gregory and Benedict (16), Clement and Leo (14), Innocent (13) and Pius (12). Some names, like Peter, are avoided out of respect for the first pope; others, like Formosus, Lando, Zosimus and Hormisdas, were used once in antiquity and never again, which makes their revival a striking choice for a fictional pontiff.

This list follows those rules. It gives you the true next-in-line numeral for every classic name, plausible revivals of early popes, and never-yet-chosen names of major saints and apostles that a future or alternate-history pope might adopt.