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He chose to go by John II. Since then, most popes have abandoned their birth names and adopted tributes to saints, popes and even relatives who have gone before.

On purpose and by chance, Americans join crowd in St. Peter's Square to watch for signs of a newly elected Pope.

“You’re trying to pick up some of the glow of your predecessor,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.

It is a solemn decision. Newly-elected popes are asked only two questions by the senior cardinal inside the chapel. The first is whether he wants the job. The second: “By which name do you wish to be called?”

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But the choice is not always a nod to papal history. The reformer Pope John XXIII, elected in 1958, said he picked the name it part because it was the name of the small parish church where he was baptized. John is by far the most popular name for a pope to choose, making it  difficult to predict what a John XXIV would be signaling by taking the name.

In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani declared himself Pope John Paul I, the first pope to choose a double name — and the first to declare himself “the First.”

He said that he meant the name as a tribute to his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. They had led the church through the Second Vatican Council, which modernized the church’s relationships with the rest of the world and other branches of Christianity.

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Church analysts say there are several names to watch for as hints to the new papacy.

The choice of Leo XIV could be a call for social justice, said Matthew Bunson, senior correspondent for the Catholic publishing nonprofit Our Sunday Visitor. Leo XIII, who served at the turn of the 20th century, and sought to help the world understand the dignity of workers.

Choosing Pius XIII, on the other hand, would be a more conservative choice, and a “statement of determination to defend the teachings of the faith,” Bunson said. Pius V led in opposition to the Protestant Reformation, and Pius VI and VII both died prisoners.

John Paul III, even if only as a tribute to the beloved, globetrotting John Paul II, might be seen by the world as a repudiation of Benedict, Reese said.

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