It was extensively adopted by early Christians in ancient Rome, due to the importance of baptism.
The onomastic is Saint Renatus, a martyr, Bishop of Sorrento in the 5th century, who is celebrated on 6 October.
In Persian Mithraism, which spread widely in the West as a religion of the soldiers and officials under the Roman Empire, persons initiated into its mysteries were designated renatus (with the meaning of regenerated).
Notable people with this forename include: In Italian, Portuguese and Spanish it exists in masculine and feminine forms: Renato and Renata.
Renata is a common female name in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.