Godfather

n. [A-S. godfāder. Cf. Gossip.] A man who becomes sponsor for a child at baptism, in the English and Roman Catholic churches, who makes himself a surety for the child, that he will “forsake the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God’s holy word, and obediently keep his commandments.”

Bingham maintains that, during the first four centuries, there was but one sponsor for a child, and that one the parent, or some person who had the charge of it. Afterward, the number of sponsors was increased, and the parents excluded from the office. Murdock.