Anyone know why it is that for Caribbean and Latin American Catholics the name Jesus (pronounced approximately HEY-zeus) is fairly common but not, as far as I know, for any other Christians?
its there accent
What does that have to do with the question?
Just a guess, but I’m thinking the name Jesus is just considered socially acceptable in the latin zone, but not so for us up here. Why? I don’t know. Pronouncing it “Hey-Zeus” doesn’t change anything, especially if you’re an ancient Greek I guess. 
I added the Hey-zeus part just to give an idea of how it’s pronounced in Spanish for those who don’t watch a lot of baseball or live around a lot of Puerto Ricans. Of course, how you pronounce it doesn’t change anything as Christian Germans still don’t name their sons Yay-zu.
John, you don’t miss much, but the why it is socially/culturally acceptable, although I didn’t ask it explicitly, is the crux of my question. Muslims don’t have any trouble naming their sons Mohammad, but the majority of Christians wont name their kids Jesus. How come? And why do Christian Latins?
I think the answer is that it is a fairly common name in Spain.
But that’s not really a satisfying answer is it?
Ok, I wasn’t really sure about Spain, but that makes sense. But no, it doesn’t really answer the underlying question.
Many of our common names are biblical in origin, yet it seems socially ‘off limits’ to name any of our kids Jesus. I don’t understand why.
Oops! I don’t know why I hit the “quote” button for that last reply.:o
The closest you can get is JC, the main man. There can be no other. Anything else spells jail time.
My Initials are JC, does that count? =p
Jerrick Crites
Jesus Christ
Close enough. lol
No.
Aww you edited out my ‘=p’ lol, all in good fun though. 
I think it’s just one of those things. No harder to explain than why some people can put plastic pink flamingoes in their front yards and it’s fine, while if you do it in different places people will think you’ve ruined the neighborhood.
Again, look at it over time
First, Catholics don’t really consider themselves Christians. They see themselves as distinct.
Second, names go thru permutations among all cultures. Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards) has skyrocketed to top of the list among Christians and Spanish Catholics in teh last 5 years, faster than any ohter name has ever.
You are just looking at a temporal trend. you may as well ask why the name Aisha and Keesha were top names in one USA group during the 1980s (The Stevey Wonder song Isn’t She Lovely had something to do with it).
secular Muslims don’t do this. It varies among groups (Sunni, Sufi, Shites, etc). Again, look at it over time
Not quite true. Catholics do see themselves as distinct in that the historical belief is that they feel they are the true, original Christian church. They do think of themselves as Christians (a belief that Christ truley is the son of God).
I can easily think of a lot more Catholics who would be insulted by that than Catholics who would be insulted by being called Christians.
Catholics are different from Protestants because they have bingo and the Pope, right? 
Not to mention the fact that Jesus isn’t a really trendy name up here. There are probably a lot of names you would hear down in latin america that you wouldn’t find very often up here.
But yeah, it is intersting that it is such an avoided name.
It is possible that many people who are Christians might find it offensive to name a child Jesus, and many non-chistians might think the parents are religeous fanatics or something. Not that people should be offened, or that they are fanatics, people just tend to lable or stereotype other people. It’s a dumb human kind of thing that probably doesn’t actually have a really good explanation.
Claudia, Herb, and several other names are “avoided names.”
Some Hispanic subcultures named their kids Jose, Jesus’ father, for a while too.