Aureola Aureola An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin "aurea", "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure. In Neolatin languages (as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French) the noun Aureola is usually more related to the disc of light surrounding the head of sacred figures and that in English is called Halo or Nimbus. In the earliest periods of Christian art it was confined to the figures of the persons of the Christian Godhead, but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to several of the saints. The aureola, when
Saint's name hence what is now called a given name was once referred to as a Christian name, originating with the pagans of Europe who discarded their pagan names for Biblical ones when they converted to Christianity and participated in baptism - or that an additional saint's name must be given when the former is impossible. In some cases, parents may give both a saint's name and a secular name to a child, allowing them to use the saint's name for religious purposes and the secular name for all other purposes. This is especially common in cultures, such as in South Korea,