Crazy Catholic Names Lady

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty,

It’s so funny how deep into one’s own perspective a person can get, right? (By “person” I mean “me.”) The other night I was talking to another mom at basketball practice, and she brought up her girls’ names (honest! She brought them up, not me!), and was telling me how she and her husband chose them. Their names are Em!l!a and S!3nna (alt characters used for privacy) and of course you know me, I was all heart eyes because Em!l!a is Jp2’s mom’s name and S!3nna (one n but I’ve seen people do two even for the Siena saints) is St. Catherine and St. Bernardine and I was just sighing happily, only to discover that their theme was actually not Catholicky Catholic, but rather “Italian.”

Ah. Right. Not everyone scours all available resources having to do with saints and various ways to honor them (their mother’s name! their place of birth/death/ministry!) when naming a baby. Note to self. 😉

12 thoughts on “Crazy Catholic Names Lady”

    • I knew I wouldn’t seem crazy here! 😀 When I was thinking about it later, I remembered that I’m pretty sure the husband’s not Catholic, and I’m not sure about the wife — I’d assumed she wasn’t Catholic either, but she’s Italian (with family in Italy) so it would be weird for her not to be, right? And they’re sending their kids to a Catholic school so …it’s a mystery!

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  3. Those are such awesome names!! I love them both for whatever reasons they were picked 😀 (As an Italian speaker, I do find it interesting that they picked Sienna because it’s “Italian” when Siena would be the Italian one, and Sienna wouldn’t really exist in the Italian language)

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  5. So both names struck me as Italian place names – Sienna for city Siena obviously and Emilia for city Reggio Emilia or province Emilia-Romagna. So not necessarily for any individuals or even the girl names. And Sienna is a way more common spelling for the baby name – mostly only see Siena, I imagine, in Catholic circles. So the “Italian” theme makes sense to me. Subsequent children; Verona, Lucca, Ravenna, Florence?? ; )

    I do love Emilia for JPII’s mother – and that is what I associate it with now, but you definitely need to be in the “Catholic know” to know that.

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  6. […] I can’t think of any names that are particular to my area as opposed to the rest of the country — I know loads of kids with the new top ten names, and the top names in New York State specifically (which KZG also sent me, name genius that she is) aren’t that different, and no names are coming to mind as those I hear that wouldn’t be as known to other places. (I will say that Sancta Nomina provides a Catholic name pocket though! 😂 The beautiful names of our faith are so familiar to me through interacting with all of you and the research I do for the blog/book/social media, etc. that I forget not everyone is as familiar!) […]

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