Yesterday’s Design Mom kids’ names

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Do any of you read Design Mom? I’d like to say I do because it looks really chic and big-window-sunshiney and sheer-white-curtains gorgeous, like one of those magazines where each page has a whole lot of what my house needs, but better!, because it focuses on moms and so they know about trying to figure it out with dirty messy house-wrecking children. But alas, as is my way, despite the fact that it’s “praised as a Website of the Year by Time Magazine, and a top parenting blog by the Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine and Better Homes & Gardens,” I didn’t even know about it until yesterday when one of you dear readers pointed out the names of the children of the mama whose house and design talents were featured yesterday. I’m going to take a really wild (=not so wild) guess that that family is a Catholic family because check out these names:

Flavia
Lucas
Bosco
Siena
Hugo

Ohmygoodness.

So if I saw Flavia, Lucas, and Hugo in a sibset, I wouldn’t think much of it. Maybe I’d think they sound really international. Siena is familiar and I feel like it could go two ways: St. Catherine/St. Bernardine (mostly St. Catherine) or (as the Baby Name Wizard says) Savannah/Willow/Dahlia/Shiloh/Luna/Sierra. But if I ever see Bosco? Catholic. And if Bosco is paired with Siena? Catholiccccc. And with Lucas and Hugo? Catholicky Catholicky Catholic. (Also, there’s a crucifix on the table in the third photo, so …) (Also the mom, Celia, is Spanish. From Spain.)

Flavia I had to look into, but I shouldn’t have doubted — not only is there St. Flavia Domitilla of Terracina, but St. Helena’s full name was apparently Flavia Julia Helena Augusta! In my head I was saying FLAY-via, which was a little too much flavors-of-ice-cream (or Flavor Flav, who’s surely on his own journey like the rest of us, but maybe not what you want people thinking of when you introduce your sweet rosebud baby girl?) for me, but when I read that Celia’s Spanish I immediately switched to FLAH-via and oh my, that’s really pretty.

I had to poke around just a tiny bit, just to get a better feel of the site, and discovered that the impossibly stylish founder/designer/mother of six has some pretty awesome name taste herself. Her kiddos are:

Ralph
Maude
Olive
Oscar
Betty
Flora June

They’re not all my taste, but I love boldness in naming, and I love these particular names all together. (I also love that they used to live “in the French countryside, in a farmhouse with a name instead of an address.” I guess you’d have to if you were a famous designer and gave your kids those names. It’s like a movie, no?)

In the spirit of Design Mom, I’ll leave you with this picture, which is probably the only one of my house I would share with the world. I took it last winter because I loved that you could see the brown basket and the Irish vase flanking the toaster behind the glowing candlefire. Also the clean counter. (!) But the real star of the shot is the cheesecake and homemade caramel latte-type thing. Food&coffee’s my jam. Happy Wednesday! 😀

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12 thoughts on “Yesterday’s Design Mom kids’ names”

  1. That sibling-set is so Catholic! Basically any of the names on their own wouldn’t be Catholic (except as you pointed out maybe Bosco, I can’t really see a non-Catholic family picking Bosco), but when you put them together it’s like “Wow! Catholic!” I love the name Siena, and I love this spelling 🙂 Hugo is also a super cool name!

    Flora June sounds so cute and Southern!! I love it 🙂

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  3. Flavia, Lucas, Bosco, Siena, Hugo is a very Catholicky Catholic sibset, for sure, BUT, I am really, really smitten-in-love with Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, Betty, Flora June. That set just made my eyes tear up and my heart go pitter pat.

    Also, I’ve heard of Design Mom but never visited! Off to check it out.

    Also my blog used to feature a lot of photos of my house and it was hard work bc I’m a slob.

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    • Hahahaha grace you’re so funny! I love that it “just made [your] eyes tear up and [your] heart go pitter pat,” that is the BEST reaction to names!!!

      I hear you on the slobbiness … I could NEVER post pics of my house, oh my. I’m not naturally neat anyway, but my boys do.not.care. They’d live in squalor if I’d let them. Gah!

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  4. Flavia, Lucas, Bosco, Siena, and Hugo are so awesome together. On top of the Catholic aspect, they just *sound* so beautiful together. And I discovered Design Mom a few months ago and I LOVE their names. Most of them probably aren’t names I’d give to my kids, but I think Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, Betty, and Flora June sound perfect together. (And I think they’re the right kind of old, vintage-y names. Totally wearable today.)

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  5. Gorgeous! Thanks for the reminder about her blog– so inspiring.

    And Flavia is definitely my favorite. It’s like Flora and Sylvia, but even more unique.

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