Month: August 2015

Good name posts and beautiful Name products

sanctanomina Holy Name of Jesus, Naming nitty gritty, Resources and recommendations , ,

I loved both of these recent posts on the Baby Name Wizard site:

Are Presidential Candidates Running Away From Their Own Names? (It’s all about nicknames! I was most intrigued by Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, Cara Carleton “Carly” Fiorina, and Piyush “Bobby” Jindal — Laura explains how each nickname came to be. The comments were good too.)

15 British Baby Names That Just Don’t Exist in America (Fascinating list! “The top 1,000 names lists from England and Wales include scores of names that don’t register in American stats at all. Let me emphasize that: these names aren’t just rare, they’re statistically nonexistent. Given that the most recent U.S. stats tally more than 30,000 names from Aaban to Zyyon, that’s saying something“)

And in light of my posts on the Holy Name of Jesus (here and here) I was loving these products from the Catholic Company:

An IHS Coffee Mug, where IHS is “the Holy Name of Jesus as it was written in the Gospels, is the first three letters of the Greek Spelling of the Holy Name of Jesus. The name “Jesus”, in Greek, is translated “ihsous.”” (Personalizable!)

IHS Coffee Mug

A Personalized IHS Prayer Card Holder, for all those holy cards we all have that “accumulate over time, often being stuffed in Bibles, missals, or prayer books which causes them be lost or forgotten.” (Personalizable!)

Personalized IHS Prayer Card Holder

These beautiful Jesus Beads, which I’d never heard of, but I loved this: “Jesus Beads originated in the tradition of the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Called a chotki, the strand may have as many as 100 beads or as few as 25. The chotki is traditionally used as a silent “breath prayer”, with “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God” prayed on inhalation and “have mercy on me, a sinner” prayed on exhalation. This is known as the Jesus Prayer, or the Prayer of the Heart, which invokes the Holy Name of Jesus and implores His divine mercy. (You can read about the “Jesus Prayer” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2665-2669)”:

“Prayer to Jesus

2665 The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even though her prayer is addressed above all to the Father, it includes in all the liturgical traditions forms of prayer addressed to Christ. Certain psalms, given their use in the Prayer of the Church, and the New Testament place on our lips and engrave in our hearts prayer to Christ in the form of invocations: Son of God, Word of God, Lord, Savior, Lamb of God, King, Beloved Son, Son of the Virgin, Good Shepherd, our Life, our Light, our Hope, our Resurrection, Friend of mankind. . . .

2666 But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: “Jesus,” “YHWH saves.”16 The name “Jesus” contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray “Jesus” is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.17

2667 This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the invocation, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.” It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 with the cry of the publican and the blind men begging for light.18 By it the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Savior’s mercy.

2668 The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases,19 but holds fast to the word and “brings forth fruit with patience.”20 This prayer is possible “at all times” because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.

2669 The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins. Christian prayer loves to follow the way of the cross in the Savior’s steps. The stations from the Praetorium to Golgotha and the tomb trace the way of Jesus, who by his holy Cross has redeemed the world. “

Jesus Beads

Finally, Devotion to the Holy Face by Mary Frances Lester. I know it’s not specifically about the Holy Name, but I just discovered today that St. Therese’s full religious name was Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, so how coincidental to see this!

Devotion to the Holy Face

Happy Thursday night y’all! (Does anyone else wish it was okay for non-Southerners to use y’all? It’s so useful! I find it creeping into my thoughts though I usually edit it out of my speech … but not tonight! Also, aren’t Thursdays the best? My dad always says that Thursday’s the best day of the week because no one really minds going to work on Friday, since it’s the last day of the week and has a party feel of its own, so Thursday night especially feels kind of like the beginning of the weekend. I suppose that’s the idea behind Thursday nights being Going Out nights in college? So then maybe consider this your happy hour. 🙂 )

(Okay, one more story — my husband went out for a brief drink after work tonight with colleagues, and when he got home I meant to say, “How was happy hour?” but what came out was, “How was holy hour?” Bahaha! I’m still laughing!) 😀

My newest CatholicMom.com column

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer, Holy Name of Jesus , , ,

You all know I’m struggling with these Planned Parenthood videos so you shouldn’t be surprised that my August column at CatholicMom.com (up today) tackles the issue again (my previous post here on the blog, I would imagine Planned Parenthood fears names, was the most shared of all the posts I’ve ever written, by a landslide, so I know you’re all feeling it too): Planned Parenthood vs. the Holy Name of Jesus.

catholicmom-08.19.15

(I blogged about the Holy Name the other day too, especially in regards to Its major promoter, St. Bernardine of Siena.)

Of course I had no way of knowing when I wrote it that the seventh video would be released today, but I’m glad my article’s coinciding with the release of this new information of horror: babies alive after an attempted abortion, with still beating hearts, having body parts harvested, including “how the abortionist made [the “former procurement technician with Planned Parenthood partner StemExpress” who revealed this info] harvest the baby’s brain by cutting his face open with scissors.”

This is a bit from a historical novel I just read (Winter of the World by Ken Follett, about the Second World War, including the Nazis):

image

This particular bit is about how the Nazis rounded up disabled children — and adults too, though it doesn’t reference them in this particular passage — but most of the German citizens either didn’t know it or didn’t believe it.

Then there’s this, from the same book:

imageIt explains more about that very program:

“The program was called Aktion T4 after its address, 4 Tiergarten Strasse. The agency was officially the Charitable Foundation for Cure and Institutionalized Care … Its job was to arrange the painless deaths of handicapped people who could not survive without costly care. It had done splendid work in the last couple of years, disposing of tens of thousands of useless people … The problem was that German public opinion was not yet sophisticated enough to understand the need for such deaths, so the program had to be kept quiet.”

Of course parallels have been drawn for a long time between the Holocaust and abortion, but still I was struck by the similarity between what I was reading and what Planned Parenthood (and all abortionists) is and has been doing. In fact, our government does sanction the killing of handicapped children. Healthy children too! The particular horrors have been kept quiet for some time, and there are those (one example here) that seem to think the same as what’s being said in this passage — that the graphic revelation of horror shouldn’t change hearts because we need to be “sophisticated” enough to understand the need for this “necessary” evil.

Just like the Nazis.

God help us all, in Jesus’ name.

Alumni mag namespotting, and Swistle question

sanctanomina Namespotting, Naming nitty gritty , ,

You know I love getting those alumni mags in the mail! The update section — where everyone shares what they’re doing, like jobs, marriage, and babies — is like a little Christmas-come-early gift. Just the other day I spotted this triplet set (!) (alt characters used for privacy):

S!m0n V!nc3nt
Le0 Charl3s
Cec!lia M@ry

I mean really. A million bonus points to them for Superb Catholic Naming.

I also read this Swistle post yesterday and wondered what you all think: Is Judah “too Judas” for use? I personally don’t ever connect Judas Iscariot with the names Judah or Jude, even though all three are just variants of the same name. Really, all three have totally different feels to me:

  • Judas is one of those names that Catholics aren’t allowed to use (Canon 855 states that, “Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given”)
  • Judah is Ben Hur, or (in my experience) most likely from a Jewish family
  • Jude is all ours (and maybe a little bit Brit, thank you Beatles and Jude Law) because of St. Jude Thaddeus, and his namesake St. Jude’s Hospital, as well as all the little Catholic boys I know named Jude

I have to say, I was surprised that the couple in the Swistle post had heard “the guy that betrayed the savior?” from “99% of our friends and family” — what are your thoughts/experience?

Baby name consultant: Mostly biblical+very saintly names needed for Green Bean #4 (on earth)

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Megan and her husband Stephen are expecting their fourth born baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown). 🙂 Their other kiddos on earth are:

Monica Noelle (Christmas Day baby!)
Rebecca Therese (often called Becca; she was “nearly ‘Rachel,’ but we decided last minute that we liked the ‘-cah’ at the end to match her big sister“)
Jacob Michael

And two little ones in heaven:

Luke
Felicity

(I just love every single one of those names! Awesome style.)

Megan writes,

“I am glad pregnancies are so long because it takes us quite a while to agree on a name (often process of elimination), and then we tend to change our minds in the last week — lol. I blame the Holy Spirit, and He’s never failed us. We won’t know the gender of the baby (and my intuition is never right), so we need boys and girls options … Personally, girls names are so much harder for me than boys names. I like most of the common Old Testament boy names, and lots of familiar saint names, too. For girls, I tend to gravitate to the three-syllable names ending in “ah” [though Megan pointed out she’s not “committed to those syllables or to the ‘ah’ sound”] … Jacob would have been Maria Bernadette if he were a girl [though they’ve moved on from Maria] … We tend to like the names that are easy to say, easy to spell, but not super popular (well, Jacob might be…). So far all the names have a hard sound in them, which I can’t say I’m crazy about. I want the kids’ names to sound complimentary together, but I’m afraid that if we keep the “CK” sound in them for #4, it will be harder to break away for future names.”

Other names they’ve considered for girls include:

Vivienne (“as a pretty name, but no particular other reason, and I’d have to look it up to gauge the Catholicity of it“)
Susanna (“but not excited about Susie and there is a cousin Anna … would we really call her Susanna? I am open to it … or maybe Susie would grow on me“)
Avila (“But I don’t know if I have the courage to use such a different name“)

And for boys:

Gideon (“love the Biblical character, but it’s a little outside my comfort zone“)
Joshua
Caleb
Samuel
David
Jonathan
Micah
Joel
Joseph
Andrew
Thomas
Justin

Also:

“3 of the 4 grandparents have a name connection, so if it’s easy to connect to Brenda or Ellen, that’d be nice. Maybe Brendan for a boy? But it’s not vital … Baby is due mid/late October and there are lots of St. Johns on the calendar around that time. Would it be ridiculous to have another J baby just 18 months after Jacob? Would I be forever getting them mixed up?“

And:

“[Their last name ends with the “lee” sound, so] this eliminates first names ending with the LEE sound because I think it’s awkward. Even some names ending with just the “EE” sound make me pause“

Other names that are off the table because of relatives so named:

Nathan
Xavier
Levi
Matthew
Michael
Daniel
Gabriel
John-Paul
Joseph
Damian
Elijah

Okay everyone, buckle up: I had a LOT of thoughts! First off, I just have to say it — I love Maria Bernadette! I wonder if they’d considered Bernadette as a first name? A friend of mine was going to name her baby Bernadette and nickname her Betsy, which I thought was so clever and fabulous. (She ended up with a boy.)

Vivienne is beautiful, and of course I looked it up — Vivienne is actually a feminine spelling of the French male (!) name Vivian, and there is a St. Vivian, who had been a bishop. (Read more here, but pay no worry to the idea of Vivian as a feminine name being “either an Anglicized form of BÉBINN or a variant of VIVIEN (2)” – any of us who love any version of Vivian would be using it for St. Vivian of course.)

And Susanna! One of my very very favorites! Megan said Anna’s not do-able, and she’s not sure about Susie … there’s also Sukey/Suki, which is a traditional nick for the Susan names, and Zuzu, like Zuzu’s petals on It’s a Wonderful Life. They could do Annie — or is that too close to Anna? Or I’ve even thought Sunny or Sassy could be really cute for Susanna. 🙂

And Avila! I think they should definitely consider it! I see it often enough in families like all of you readers, so I don’t think it’s as out of the mainstream as Megan might suspect. But if it still makes her too uncomfortable, perhaps she can consider putting Mary in front of it? Mary makes any name do-able in my opinion! Mary Avila is just lovely, either as a double first name, or as a first-middle combo. Then they’d have loads of options, like calling her Mary (while always knowing that Avila’s winking from the middle), or Mary Avila, or Avila – all my dad’s first cousins who are women are named Mary+something, and they all go by their middles. Or they could even call her Molly, which is a traditionaI nickname for Mary, and also totally makes sense with the “L” from Avila. And Mary could kind of be an honor name for Megan, as her middle name is Marie. I also have another suggestion tied into this, which I’ll put in my formal suggestions below. 🙂

And Gideon! Also an awesome awesome name, I just love it. If it didn’t sound weird with our last name, I’d totally want to use it!! I personally have found that its lack of natural nicknames is difficult (as you all know, I’m a big nicknamer) BUT (and I know this is crazy) when the actor that played Gilbert Blythe on Anne of Green Gables died, I started thinking about how much I love the nickname Gil, but don’t love the name Gilbert, and how one could get to Gil — and I thought of Gideon with an L middle name, and I’m so in love with this idea that I’m extra annoyed we can’t use it! Gideon Leo, for example, or Gideon Louis – a good biblical name paired with a good saintly name! Even if Megan didn’t want to nickname it though, I love Gideon. I definitely think they should seriously consider this one too. 🙂 If, however, Megan and her husband still can’t get comfortable with it, what about something like John Gideon? John is one of those names that does for boys what Mary does for girls I think — putting John in front of any boy name makes it do-able! John Gideon could go by John or Gideon, or John Gideon.

Finally, before getting to my suggestions, I don’t think John is terrible after Jacob. Yes, they’ll probably mix them up, but I do that with my own kids, even the ones who don’t have matching initials! Hmm … Monica and Rebecca have a nice connection in that they both end in –ca; maybe Megan and her hubs could think of it as Jacob and the new baby if it’s a boy having their own special name connection by sharing the same first initial.

Alrighty! I always shoot for three suggestions for each gender, and I did so here, taking into account no hard K sound and no “lee” sound so as to sound okay with their last name:

Girls
(1) Evelyn or Evelina
I’m pretty psyched about this idea. It was inspired by Megan’s love of Avila and her uncertainty regarding her comfort level with it – both Evelyn and Evelina are from the name Aveline, which behindthename says is “From the Norman French form of the Germanic name Avelina, a diminutive of AVILA.” So Evelyn/Evelina=Avila, but in a more familiar way. So cool! AND it was also listed as similar to Vivienne in style/feel/popularity in my trusty Baby Name Wizard book. Winner! Evie/Eva/Eve are awesome nicknames that also really remind me of their style. And Evelina is long and ends in -a like the other girls.

(2) Eleanor and/or Nell (and its relations) (Or Elena!)
Megan mentioned that she might like to work Grandmother Ellen’s name in somehow –Eleanor was listed as similar to Vivienne in the BNW, and Ella as similar to Luke, so names with that sound seem to fit her taste. I quite like Eleanor with Monica, Rebecca, and Jacob, though I will just warn that Eleanor and Ellen have a tricky relationship etymologically (if you follow that link, be sure to read Sara’s comment as well). I actually started this train of thought with Ellen, and how Nell is a traditional nickname for it, and then I followed the Nell trail — it’s also used as a nickname for Penelope (love!), Helen(a) (so saintly!), and Eleanor — so there’s another connection too. Anyway, it all loops back to Grandmother Ellen, and a lovely way to do so! (I don’t hate “just Ellen” either, I’ve seen it used recently! The nickname Ellie is sweet too.) If Megan and her hubs wanted to match the -a ending of Monica and Rebecca, Eleanora is lovely as well. Or — ooh! — Elena! Like Ellen with an -a on the end!

(3) Lydia or Miriam
I just love Lydia, one of my very favorites. Unsurprisingly (as it’s a biblical name) it’s similar to both Susanna and Gideon in style. Miriam just *seems* like it fits to me — and I have nothing to back that up but my gut! My only hesitation in using either Lydia or Miriam is that they leave Monica out as the only non-biblical name. It’s not a huge deal — Monica’s been used for so long that it has an almost biblical feel — but it’s just something to be aware of. (Like with Mary Avila, Miriam could also be an honor name for Megan — a Mary name like her middle.)

Boys
(1) Jeremiah
Megan basically listed all the boy biblical names as ones she likes! Haha! But she didn’t have Jeremiah listed, which wasn’t at all on my radar anyway until the BNW informed me that Jeremy is similar to both Monica and Rebecca in style. Jeremy didn’t strike me as quite right, but maybe Jeremiah?

(2) Samuel
I know Megan likes Samuel, because she included it in the list of boy names she likes, so I just want to throw my vote behind it as well. Not only do Sam and Jake seem like the most adorable pair of brothers, but Samuel was also listed as similar to Luke in style. What an amazing connection between all three brothers that would be.

(3) Stephen or Simon or Benjamin
I wonder if Megan’s husband would be interested in a namesake? Stephen seems spot on to me, and the BNW concurs — it’s similar to both Maria and Susanna. It’s a bit unusual on little boys these days, but I profiled blogger/author/editor Danielle Bean’s kids a while back, and she has a Stephen Matthias, which I’m still swooning about. Maybe?

I’m not sure I’m getting the vibe from Megan that Simon is exactly her style, but the BNW says differently. 😛 Simon matches up with Vivienne, Susanna, and Gideon (in the form of Simeon), so I thought it definitely deserved a mention. And Benjamin wasn’t on their list of faves, but they have Jonathan on there, and I know a pair of brothers named Benjamin and Jonathan, so I had to suggest it too. Ben and Jake? Come on! So great!

Those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What girl and boy names would you suggest for this family?

Happy Mary Day! And a funny Assumption story for you

sanctanomina Including Mary ,

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!! 😀

Birth announcement: Uebbing Baby Quattro!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , ,

I don’t know what I did with my life before Instagram (despite my recent bellyaching about it — I’ve come around) and Twitter and Facebook — how does one stay abreast of important happenings without them?? Like: birth announcements! Social media (here and here and here) has informed me that Jenny Uebbing has had her baby — a boy! Luke Maximilian! On the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe!

If you remember from my consultation for her, Luke was on her longtime boy list but she’d said,

“meh. I’m fading on this one. But I’ve loved the name since I first saw Star Wars at age 12, and what child doesn’t want that kind of honor associated with his moniker? Plus, the Gospel of St. Luke is my fav“

and I’d said,

“Luke is hard to beat! The Gospel and the Skywalker are of course amazing reference points (reasons why it’s one of my faves too!), and it’s such a good match as a brother to Joseph and John Paul“

and I’m soooo delighted that she and her hubs decided to go with it, and I love love love it paired with Maximilian, and ON HIS FEAST! Can it get more perfect!

And a million thanks to Baby Luke for coming today, because I’d wanted to post about St. Max, but I did the Holy Name of Jesus post earlier (momentarily forgetting what today’s feast is) but now I have a great reason to post for his feast, and birth announcements are the very best posts of all.

Congratulations to Jenny and the whole Uebbing family, and happy happy birthday Luke!!

THE promoter of the Holy Name

sanctanomina Holy Name of Jesus ,

I was doing a little reading on the Holy Name of Jesus — teachings about It, devotion to It, etc. — and discovered that, though many saints loved and promoted the Holy Name (St. Ignatius of Loyola is a notable example, having chosen the monogram of Jesus’ name — IHS — for the symbol of his Order, which he named after Jesus as well [the Jesuits]), there was one saint who rose head and shoulders above them all as the one most known for his devotion to and promotion of the Holy Name: St. Bernardine of Siena.

This might not have meant that much to me, except a little known fact about my alma mater (especially little known by those who didn’t attend, but even also by some [many?] alumni) is that, though its current name is Siena College, its original name was St. Bernardine of Siena College. (I can’t tell you how many people think it’s named for St. Catherine of Siena, even though it’s a Franciscan college and St. Catherine was a Dominican.)

St. Bernardine of Siena College, Loudonville, N. Y.
St. Bernardine of Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y. by Boston Public Library (2011) via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.

How cool to discover that my school’s patron was a superfan of the Holy Name??

So this isn’t really a name spotlight, because Bernardine is kind of … out of fashion? Even among Catholics who go bananas for heavy duty saint names. This is really more of a Holy Name of Jesus post, a note on one of the many awesome things I discovered about it. Which St. Bernardine, being a saint and a lover of the Name, would probably prefer — having Jesus be the focus. Like how St. John Paul the Great would put the crucifix in front of him, so when people looked at him they had to see Jesus first.

Luxembourg-5151 - Pope John Paul II
Luxembourg-5151-Pope John Paul II by Dennis Jarvis (2013) via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Says the Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent:

“… the greatest promoters of this devotion were St. Bernardine of Siena and St. John Capistran. They carried with them on their missions in the turbulent cities of Italy a copy of the monogram of the Holy Name, surrounded by rays, painted on a wooden tablet, where with they blessed the sick and wrought great miracles. At the close of their sermons they exhibited this emblem to the faithful and asked them to prostrate themselves, to adore the Redeemer of mankind. They recommended their hearers to have the monogram of Jesus placed over the gates of their cities and above the doors of their dwelling (cf. Seeberger, “Key to the Spiritual Treasures”, 1897, 102). Because the manner in which St. Bernardine preached this devotion was new, he was accused by his enemies, and brought before the tribunal of Pope Martin V. But St. John Capistran defended his master so successfully that the pope not only permitted the worship of the Holy Name, but also assisted at a procession in which the holy monogram was carried. The tablet used by St. Bernardine is venerated at Santa Maria in Ara Coeli at Rome.”

I love too that St. Bernardine’s partner in crime good was St. John Capistran — one of the friars that I particularly loved during my time at Siena was a Fr. Capistran.

St. Alphonsus wrote about St. Bernardine and the Name of Jesus:

“If we read the life of St. Bernardine of Siena, we shall see how many sinners the Saint converted, how many abuses he put an end to, and how many cities he sanctified, by trying when he preached to induce the people to invoke the name of Jesus.”

So powerful! We could all use a little of that, right?? St. Bernardine, pray for us! Protect us from all evil, in Jesus’ Name.

IHS and St. Bernardine of Siena
IHS and St. Bernardine of Siena by John Donaghy (2013) via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

You light up my life

sanctanomina Housekeeping

I know I’ve gotten gushy on you before, but I just want to say it again — you’re all so great!! I just finished up responding to some emails and putting together consultations and I’m just constantly blown away by the great people this blog has connected me to. What a blessing to “know” so many faith-filled people! I love each and every one of your stories, and I constantly feel the amazingness of the privilege it is to be invited into the intimacy of your families. God is so good. ❤

I’m still a little behind …

sanctanomina Housekeeping

… I’m not sure why exactly — maybe the power outage of the other day? Or just summer, with its swimming and sun and not-sitting-at-the-computer-as-much? Whatever it is, this week I really feel like I’m scrambling. I know I still have a couple people I owe emails to, and I’m just about caught up with consultations — I don’t think anyone’s fallen through the cracks? But if you’re waiting to hear from me and are worried you might have gotten lost in the shuffle, please email me!

Namespotting/hearing

sanctanomina Namespotting ,

I’m backed up on a couple of things (including a few consultations — they’re coming!!) so my quick post for today is:

— I heard on the radio today an ad for a festival at a local parish called St. Adalbert’s, and though I’d never heard it said (I’ve never been to that church) I’d always assumed it was said AH-dul-bert, but the radio guy said ah-DEL-bert, which surprised me. I just looked it up on behindthename and they have the former pronunciation listed. Do you think the radio guy just didn’t know how to say the name? Or have you heard Adalbert said with the stress on the second syllable?

— I saw today a local woman whose given name is Mary Lourdes (love love!), and she goes by Mary Lou. Makes me wonder how many other Mary Lous might really be Mary Lourdes, or named after a Mary Lourdes? My husband had an aunt who went by Lou, and her given name was Lourdes. I’m thinking updated nicknames might be Lola (a la Madonna’s daughter Lourdes nicked Lola. I admit, I love it, the whole thing) or Lulu. I also have a soft spot for Louie on a girl — I have a cousin whose name is not anything like Lourdes/Lulu but my mom nicknamed her Louie years ago and it stuck — I love it, maybe mostly because it’s so affectionate? I don’t know if little Lourdes at My Child I Love You goes by a nickname? I just love seeing Lourdes as a name.