Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the mamas! I went on retreat last weekend at Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine, also known as the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, and remembered all of you — the Sancta Nomina community — in my prayers. ❤️💐

As you all likely know, every year, right before Mother’s Day, the Social Security Administration releases the name stats from the previous year. Such fun for name lovers! The first thing people look at is the Top Ten for both girls and boys, and interestingly, there were no new additions or subtractions from the girl list (one moved up, two moved down, all others remained unchanged), while there was one addition to the boy list (Mateo) and one subtraction (Benjamin). For more — lots more! — be sure to check out Abby’s posts over at Appellation Mountain!

Today’s consultation is for a couple expecting their sixth baby! While they’re Team Green, they have a girl name picked, so they need help with a boy’s name, since, if this baby is a boy, it will be their fifth boy in a row! This little one joins big sibs:

Eleanor Eileen (“Eileen was [mama] Miranda’s paternal grandmother’s name, and we liked the way that Eleanor sounded with it … [Miranda] was a new convert to Catholicism and had little relationship to the saints at the time, so a patron saint didn’t even occur to me. We retroactively made St. Helen her patron – I know now that the Eleanor/Eileen connection to Helen is debatable, but she formed a close relationship with St. Helen before I learned that, so it stuck. 🙂 I also had already fallen in love with the name before I knew that Eleanor & Eileen were technically the same name, but she truly has been a ‘light light’ in our lives and in our family.”)

Mackie John (“Mackie was Miranda’s paternal grandfather’s nickname, he passed away while we were in an ultrasound. His given name was Morgan Matthew, but he only ever went by Mackie. John is the name of a beloved uncle on Miranda’s mom’s side, and St. John the Evangelist is his patron.”)

Samuel Luke (“Miranda was studying Samuel for her master’s degree in theology while pregnant and fell in love with his response to God’s calling. Luke was my maternal grandfather’s middle name. He and I were very close when I was younger. St. Luke the Evangelist is his patron.”)

Marc Paul Raphael (Marc Paul is a double first name; “Marc is Miranda’s dad’s name and he spells it with a “c,” but St. Mark the Evangelist is his name patron. Paul references a few people: Miranda lost her other grandfather during this pregnancy, whose brother was Paul. Fr. Paul is a priest who was assigned to the parish in which Miranda & her family joined the church. He remained our pastor for almost the next 10 years- marrying us, baptizing our first three children, and loving on our family in a beautiful and influential way. Raphael was to honor St. Raphael: Samuel woke up one day paralyzed from the waist down in March of 2020 (right before lockdown). The doctors were struggling to diagnose him but settled on  Guillain Barre, which could have potentially killed him. Miranda and I prayed to St. Raphael for healing and guidance and after two days in the hospital Sam woke up asking to go for a walk around the hospital. His reflexes returned to normal! The doctors changed his diagnosis to acute cerebellum ataxia which is a swelling of the brain stem that can cause leg paralysis but does not necessarily cause permanent damage. Thankfully Sam was back to normal in a few weeks.”)

Rocco Matthew (“We fell in love with St. Rocco during the pandemic. We had no idea that we would need his intercession so badly (more on that below). Matthew served several purposes: it rounded out our four gospel writers as patrons, it honored Miranda’s Uncle Matt who passed in 2019, and finally, honored Miranda’s cousin who passed away 2 days before Rocco’s birth. She was already hospitalized due to complications when she received the news of his illness and quick passing.”)

I really loved reading through the explanations Bryan and Miranda gave of each of their children’s names! I think their choice of St. Helen for their Eleanor Eileen’s patron is perfect and fitting, and I love how they said she’s been a “light light” in their lives and family, how lovely! Eleanor Eileen really is a stunning combo. As for Eleanor and Eileen technically being the same name, I kind of love that they didn’t know that until after they named their daughter, because I love saying the combo out loud! Also, people name their babies things like Anna Grace and Jacob James all the time with no issue because most people just don’t know, so it’s really fine! (I know people with both of these combos: Anna means “grace,” and Jacob and James are two variants of the same name.) Mackie is such a cool name — I love the connection to Miranda’s grandfather! I just finished a consultation for another family to whom I suggested Samuel for the same reason this couple loves it, it is a great name and a great story! Marc and Paul have great connections, and that Raphael story about Samuel, wow!! And Rocco’s story — you’ll be as amazed as I was when you read it below! (Be warned that his story involves potentially difficult medical information for sensitive readers.)

Miranda writes,

“I tend to use the names of loved ones, so I am not really sure that we have a ‘style,’ per se. My dad’s side of the family is Cajun and full of beautiful, unique names that Bryan isn’t always so keen on. 🙂 My cousin mentioned above was named after my great-grandfather, Sampre’ (pronounced like ‘sam-pray’). Sampre’ and my great-grandmother, Philomene … had 11 kids and my dad is one of 7, so there is no shortage of Cajun names to pull from.

We also, obviously love to honor saints with whom we have formed relationships. This time, we would love to honor Blessed Stanley Rother. Rocco was born at 32 weeks. He was healthy, but after one week, he developed a disease called Nectrotizing Enterocolitis. He was rushed to emergency surgery the following day, but we were told the unimaginable: to prepare to say goodbye. They predicted we may have 24-48 hours left with him. The infection had killed most of his large intestine, which was then removed, but his small intestine & stomach were still infected (The surgeon had never seen NEC affect a stomach and did not think it was survivable). We laid our prayers at the feet of St. Rocco, patron of infectious diseases, and St. Matthew, the patron of our tiny baby. We begged Blessed Stanley for a miracle. We baptized our baby at one week and one day in his NICU room. The kind priest reminded us to have hope, but it was so hard after hearing the opinions of the different doctors. However, our God is loving and merciful, and we received our miracle! Rocco is alive and thriving! He no longer even has a colostomy bag. He is a miracle through and through and continues to astound us and his medical team.”

Wow, wow, wow!

“If we have a daughter, we are considering either Dorothy Francis or Dorothy Ann Francis. Dorothy was my maternal grandmother’s name, and Francis is Blessed Stanley’s middle name. I like the double name Dorothy Ann & the nickname Dottie Ann, because what Southern woman doesn’t love a double name? 🙂

For a son, however, we are not as sure. Stanley has the added benefit of being my father-in-law’s middle name. I am drawn to Sebastian. He is certainly a powerful saint! I like Sebastian Stanley, but then, he would be the only of our boys to not have a biblical name. Perhaps a double name: Sebastian James Stanley, but that may be clunky. James is a family name, and I don’t love Stanley as a first name simply due to the popularity of the cup.”

Okay, so I have to interject here and tell you this hilarious thing: when Miranda mentioned “the cup,” I immediately assumed she meant the hockey trophy! My husband and I had considered Stanley for our youngest, so I wrote to them, “Funny enough, the Stanley Cup wasn’t once mentioned in our conversations — is it really that much of an association for you and your family/friends/community?” DEAR READERS. I realized only just now this moment, putting together this post, almost two weeks after sending them my thoughts/ideas/suggestions, that they meant the popular drinking cup! 🤣🤦‍♀️

Back to this lovely couple! Some names they like and are considering include:

• Sebastian
• Stanley
• Francis
• James
• Sampre’
• Jude
• Raymond (family name)
• Dominic
• Damien
• Peter
• Benedict

Names they can’t use because of nephews:

• Christopher
• Jonathan
• Ross
• Anthony

Alrighty! First off, I loved reading about Miranda’s Cajun heritage! I’d never heard Sampre’ before, so I did a little digging and it seems to be related to St. Peter (I found a surname Sampere that is connected to San Pere) — if that is, indeed, the connection, Peter on their list could be an honor name for the Sampre’s in their lives. Also, as much as I love an unusual/unexpected name, especially with family connections, especially with faith connections (if the Peter connection is true), I would hesitate over Sampre’ because of their Samuel — having the same first three letters for two different sons would be kind of weird, no? Maybe they’d both be okay with it in the middle spot? If so, I wonder if they would consider it to fulfill their desire for a biblical name, since it seems to be related to Peter?

I love both Dorothy Francis and Dorothy Ann Francis, and Dottie Ann is adorable! I love a double name, too, and have always loved how well Southerners do them!

Regarding the other names on their list:

• Sebastian: Sebastian is a great name, and his story tends to be one that boys love (at least my boys!) — the arrows sticking in him in his images are always a (boy) crowd pleaser! Haha! I like Sebastian James, and I certainly think Sebastian James Stanley can work, but like Miranda said, it is long.

• Stanley: Bl. Stanley Rother is a fantastic holy man to name their baby after! I was reading more about him for this consultation and was moved, again, as always, by his story. I do like that Stanley is Bryan’s Dad’s middle name — it’s always fun when a name can pull double duty! My husband really liked the name Stanley for our youngest, and he wasn’t even aware of Bl. Stanley! He really likes the nickname Stan! ((This here is where I assured them that the hockey reference isn’t that big a deal! But now, let’s talk about the drinking cup — would that be a dealbreaker to any of you right now?))

• James: I’m moving James up because it could be the answer to their dilemma! Miranda said she feels “drawn to” Sebastian and she also wants to honor Bl. Stanley, but she’s worried that Sebastian Stanley doesn’t have a biblical name; James is a biblical name and a family name, but Sebastian James Stanley is clunky … I think Sebastian James could be the solution, because the mission Bl. Stanley served at in Guatamala, and where he was martyred, is Santiago Atitlan — Santiago means St. James! Wow!

• Francis: I’m having trouble moving on from the perfection of Sebastian James! But of course Francis is lovely, and a nice non-cup nod to Bl. Stanley.

• Jude, Raymond, Dominic, Damien: All of these are great names! I’m glad they included them, to give me a good sense of their taste, but it does seem like unless they change their desire to use Sebastian and to honor Bl. Stanley, these likely won’t be used.

• Benedict: I pulled Benedict out because, with its meaning of “blessed,” they could consider this another way to honor Bl. Stanley without using any of his actual names.

So even though I think this couple has absolutely nailed the name possibilities for their baby if they have a boy, I can always come up with more ideas! 😀 I used the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) as I always do, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and I also did some research on Cajun Saints, just to see if there was any inspiration there. Based on that, these are my additional ideas for this family:

(1) Shepherd, Rother

My first ideas here are other ways to honor Bl. Stanley. I was so moved to read in that account of his life that I linked to above that he insisted on returning to Guatemala even after safely escaping because “the shepherd cannot run.” Shepherd could be a great nod to him because of that, and you could even possibly think of it as a biblical name because the word “shepherd” appears in the bible so frequently, and of course has the extra amazing layer of referring to Jesus, too! Shep is a really great nickname, I’ve always liked it.

Rother is just another option — I know a family who named their son Rother after Bl. Stanley.

(2) Charles

When I was looking to see if there are any Cajun Saints, I came across a story they’re probably already familiar with: that of Servant of God Charlene Richards. Because of her, I thought they might like to add Charles to their list — not only does it have a nice Cajun connection because of her, but there are so many Sts. Charles to choose from as patron, including Pope St. John Paul II (birth name Karol), Bl. Karl of Austria, and St. Charles Borromeo.

(3) August(e), Augustine

Another Cajun Catholic whose cause for canonization has been opened is Servant of God Auguste “Nonco” Pelafigue. August, Auguste, and Augustine are all wonderful names that they might like to consider; Augustine especially has a similar feel to the heavier Dominic and Benedict on their current list.

(4) Xavier

These last two were results of my research in the Baby Name Wizard — they’re style matches for Dominic and Damien. Xavier is such a fun name — X is an amazing initial! St. Francis Xavier is amazing patron, as well.

(5) Tristan

I have always loved that Tristan can have a Marian connection via the title Our Lady of Sorrows! I know some people see the connection to sadness as a negative, but I don’t — this post by Theresa on my blog addresses it beautifully, especially this quote about the Catholic view of sorrow: “It is hope, instead of despair, in the face of tragedy. It is fortitude in the face of upset and chaos. It is trust in the midst of darkness. And it is gratitude in the midst of hardship.” That reminds me of their stories of their Samuel and Rocco!

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for a family with Cajun heritage and a love of Bl. Stanley Rother if their baby is a little brother for Eleanor, Mackie, Samuel, Marc Paul, and Rocco?

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Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation here.

For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!