Happy Awesome Feast Day!
My second was due on the Feast of the Assumption, and when I told my friend’s mom my due date, she said, “Oh! If you have a girl you can name her …”
(I *ahem* assumed [!] she meant Assumpta, but no)
“… Susan!”
Susan? Turns out that many people of Italian descent have used the name Susan as the English “translation” of the common Italian name Assunta. A quick internet search revealed that it’s not uncommon for American women with the given name Assunta to go by Susan—there is even an art gallery called the Assunta Fox Gallery, which is owned by and showcases the art of Susan Volpe. “Volpe” in Italian means “fox,” so Susan Volpe=Assunta Fox. Clever!
Certainly there’s no etymological connection between Assunta and Susan, but my guess is that it may have evolved because of the similarity in sound between the two? Do any of you know more about this? It makes me think that Susan and its relations could be considered Marian … do you agree? Especially with their meaning being both “lily” (in Hebrew) and “rose” (in modern Hebrew) (so is the “lily” Hebrew “regular Hebrew”? Or “old Hebrew”?) — which both have Marian connections.
I hope you all have a faaaaaaabulous holy day and weekend! Holy days=celebrations — be sure to live it up!! 😀
Sancta Nomina 
This has always been one of my most favorite feasts. It was made an extra special day when my hubby took me to our favorite parish in a small town near where I lived in Texas so we could pray a rosary together. He then dropped a knee in front of the Church and put a little ring on my finger making our 15-day-official-engagement even more official 🙂 (we actually had been engaged for months and months, but set a date at the end of July and went ‘public’ and made it official…)
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I didn’t remember you got engaged on this day! Happy engagement-versary!!
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We’re celebrating the anniversary of our engagement too today. This feast day use to be called Our Lady of Glory so I’ve always considered the best name for a baby girl born today would be Gloria or Glory. I named my little homeschool Our Lady of Glory.
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Happy engagement-versary to you too!! 🙂
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This post has got my mind churning with Marian names! Do you have a list of names that could be considered Marian, but that are not super obvious? Or a link you could recommend maybe? Love your blog!!
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I’m so glad you’re enjoying the blog! If you click on my “Mary” tag in the sidebar, all the posts I’ve done on Marian names will come up!
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Instead of Assumpta, a girl born today could be named Anastasia, which means resurrection.
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That would be lovely too, I love names with awesome meanings. 🙂
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This totally revives my interest in Susannah, which has been on my list for so long I felt that it was kind of withering on the vine. I also have a big soft spot for Susan, even though it’s too well-represented to sound fresh–I just love girls’ names that have that wholesome, practical feel. 😉 Susannah does have a dash more romance, and that folk music pedigree, and you make a good case for its Marian connection! Yay!
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Hooray! It’s a great name! 🙂
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I came over from Appellation Mountain just to comment! My great-grandmother’s birth name was Assunta, and upon arriving in the United States from Italy, she changed it to Sue. Not Susan though, just Sue. I’m sure to a native Italian speaker, it was just the easiest way to pick out the middle sound. My great-grandfather changed Nazzareno to Ned. I’m not quite sure how that one happened!
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Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this story Erin!! I’m so fascinated by the Assunta-Susan (or Sue!) connection!
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I already saw the Susan names as Marian, and this just adds to the Marian feel. And I too love Susannah!! Also, this post reminds me of how my Polish grandmother went by an American name that I am not sure directly connects to her Polish given name (probably was more about the sounds being similar). I can’t spell her Polish name, but a nickname for it was “Chessie,” so she went bt “Tessie” (a nod to St. Theresa)… Her Polish name might very well have been the Polish form of Theresa, but it’s hard to say because it sounds so different to my American ears. 🙂
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That’s so interesting! It makes so much sense that similarity in sound would be a factor in choosing an “American” name.
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[…] character in a book I recently read named Annamaria, so pretty) Antonella/Antonia Assunta (I wrote here about how women from Italy named Assunta sometimes anglicize it here as […]
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[…] grandfather of one of our readers (Grandpa’s given name was Assundo, after the Assumption!) (I’ve written before about Susan being used as an “anglicization” of the feminine Italian name Assunta, […]
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[…] it’s “used especially in Ireland.” How interesting! Another interesting tidbit is that the Italian Assunta has often been “translated” as Susan when Italian immigrants came to this co…, therefore I don’t think there’s any reason they can’t use something like Susie as a nickname […]
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[…] hope you all had a wonderful Feast of the Assumption! My story (not) about the name Assumpta continues to be one of my favorites. 😂 Enjoy this consultation by our new baby name consultant, […]
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[…] feast of the Assumption! I always love telling this name story in conjunction with this beautiful feast (which I also included in my book). It always makes me […]
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