Year: 2015

Parish directory

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Personal stories, Real-life naming , , ,

I was looking through an old parish directory recently and enjoyed these sib sets (alt characters used for privacy):

R0salie, T3ssy, Soph!a, and El!za

Br!an, S3an, Cas3y (g),* Col!n, and Mara

M0lly, Grady, and Cla!re

Gr!ffin, T3ss, and N3ll

B3n, Sara, and N0ra

Just!n, Isab3lle, and Al3ssandra

Ke3gan (b),* Qu!nn (b),* and Ol!via (I’m always interested to see how families handle it when they use androgynous-ish names* — generally it seems only one gender gets the unisex names while the other gets an unquestionably masculine or feminine name)

Have you heard of any well named sib sets you’d like to share?

———————–

*Just to clarify — I’m not making a judgment about the names Ke3gan, Qu!nn, and Cas3y by calling them “androgynous-ish” — just pointing out that they’re currently used for both boys and girls. I say “ish” because I personally still consider Ke3gan a boy’s name, though I know a girl with it, so I wouldn’t call it androgynous, but others might. The other two names I’ve heard equally for boys and girls, and I might even say they skew feminine in my experience.

Celebrity guest: Rachel Balducci (Testosterhome)

sanctanomina Famous Catholics, Personal stories, Real-life naming , ,

There were a few bloggers who really helped me through my early motherhood — mamas who were more experienced at living a faith-filled motherhood than I was, and every day I eagerly awaited my computer time so I could catch up with my “friends.” I’m so excited to spotlight one of them today!

Rachel Balducci, of the brilliantly named Testosterhome, showed me what an all-boy house looked like — she’d had her first four boys before I realized I’d have so many boys, and I waited breathlessly with the rest of the blogosphere when she was giving birth to her fifth — would it be another boy?? It was! Then my whole summer was overshadowed with sadness at the suffering of her #5 boy, Henry, and the stress the whole family was under when he broke his leg when he was younger than two, I think, and had to wear a spica cast for what seemed like for.EV.er. And then a few years later we all waited breathlessly again as Rachel was having her sixth baby, and when her last little one was a girl (a girl!) I could hear all of the Catholic internets sighing with surprise and joy and wonder.

So Rachel: Mama of five big-and-little boys and one little girl, long-time blogger, author of How Do You Tuck In a Superhero? And other delightful mysteries of raising boys (also available under its new title, Raising Boys is a Full Contact Sport), newspaper columnist, speaker, and co-host of The Gist, a talk show for women at CatholicTV.

She knows what’s up.

She’s also done an amazing job naming her kiddos, and graciously agreed to give us a glimpse into her and her hubby’s naming thought process! Without further ado:

(1) Well for starters, our first born was going to be August. That was the name we had picked out. I liked the idea of Augustine Asher (both family names) but we live in Augusta and it sounded too much like “Augusta National”! And then our son was born and he had copper hair and looked nothing like what I thought our baby would look like. I really have to see my baby to make sure the name fits. And I sent [her husband] Paul down to the nurses station to borrow the name book. We found Ethan, which we’d discussed earlier. Ethan. We liked the name and loved the meaning. His first name is Paul, like his dad and grandfather and Ethan means “firm” or “enduring.” Also it was unique without being overly so!

(2) Twenty-one months later we gave birth to another boy. And once again I thought about using August (the actual family name). But this son had bright red hair and looked even less like what I imagined. This time I had brought my own baby name book and we looked at every name. And we loved the name Elliott. It’s a modern form of Elijah and means “Jehovah is God.” The big issue with his name was spelling and we labored over how to spell it. We finally settled on two L’s and two T’s, but people almost NEVER spell it the right way. One T is all he usually gets. Oh well, I like this version! His middle name is Stephen, after my dad.

(3) Twenty-one months later and another boy. This time I mostly had the name already picked. I had given up on using August and we went with two family names: Charles Asher. Charles is my grandfather and also a dear uncle of mine and Asher is Paul’s grandmother’s maiden name.

(4) TWENTY ONE MONTHS LATER and ANOTHER BOY. I am not kidding. So this time I used August. Why not. I had run out of all the other names on my list. We used August and then Becket as the middle name because I love Thomas Becket.

(5) We took a five year break from having boy babies and then, when Augie was five and a half we had another boy. We named him Henry Ephrem. Henry is Paul’s great grandfather and Ephrem is my great-grandfather (and my brother’s middle name). My only thoughts on names is really consider the meaning. Henry means “ruler of the house” and the name really works for him. Lawdy. He’s amazing, he’s a tornado.

(6) And then, when we thought we were done (my pregnancy with Henry was really rough, we thought it wouldn’t be prudent to have another baby) we were surprised. And we didn’t find out what we were having…but planned on another boy. And I could not think of any other names for us…except Oliver which unfortunately is my brother’s son so that would have been awkward to use. So…Anyway, then Isabel was born! And that was always on my girls name list (which was never touched) and her middle name is Anne-marie, which is from each of the grandmothers. It’s a lot of name but I had to cram a lot into this one girl!

Aren’t those great names?? I just love the story behind each one — the care, the thought. I love all the family connections. I love how substantial each name combination is. Thank you to Rachel for a great start to the week!! ❤

Did you know this about Anastasia?

sanctanomina Including Mary, Naming nitty gritty ,

I don’t even want to reference the other Anastasia that’s been flooding the media, so I won’t (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, blessed are you), but I will say that this gorgeous name has a tiny bit of a taint for me at the moment. But then I read this today, and while I’ll have to do some digging to find out more (and I don’t have time right now, as a certain 11 month old wants breakfast), I’ll just leave you with it, and if you know more, please share!

“Anastasius, common in the Greek Church, was seldom used in the West, but Anastasia, the name of a 4th-C martyr mentioned in the Canon of the Mass, became a general favorite, and in medieval legend was attached to the Virgin’s midwife.”

~ The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, EG Withycombe (21)

Quick-witted ten-year-old

sanctanomina Uncategorized

I’ve had two recent posts about my oldest, and here’s yet another, because it made me laugh and it has to do with names:

That same night that he said Zachary was a “weird” name, I was working on a spreadsheet of ideas for a mom who recently emailed me hoping for suggestions for her baby-on-the-way. My son actually expressed some interest, so I was telling him her other kids’ names, and what kind of names she was looking for. He grabbed my Baby Name Wizard book and started looking through it, looking up names, and offering suggestions. I was impressed! Several were ones I’d already written down as possible suggestions.

That seemed to annoy him a little though, that he wasn’t coming up with anything I hadn’t already thought of. “Oh,” I teased him, “You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me at baby names!”

“Don’t worry Mom,” he said. “That’s not my dream.”

Mystery solved

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Personal stories ,

Yesterday I told you that my son thinks Zachary and Daniel are “weird” names, and I was determined to discover what names he would classify as normal. My guesses were either super trendy or super crazy-saintly.

I was wrong on both counts: He said he would consider “normal” names to be Jack, Matthew, John, Mark, and Steve — a mix of family members and boys in his class at school. (Notice: no girl names. That’s what happens when there are seven males in a house and only one female, who’s *just* Mom.)

“Weird” names

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Personal stories ,

My ten-year-old and I were chatting on the couch last night while my husband watched basketball (I think? Was there basketball on last night? It was some sports game). Someone on TV said “Zachary” and my son said, “Zachary? THAT’s a weird name.”* Given that he’d said the same about Daniel not too long ago, I suspect he’s either a victim of (on the one end) the names that are very popular/trendy right now (the Aidan-Jayden-Braden Generation, by which I mean nothing negative about those names — just that they’re all the rage right now), or (on the other end) a household in which his mother really really likes to talk about names that don’t tend to fit into the current secular trends. So does he think a not-weird name is Jayden? Or one of my very favorites, which he and I have discussed before: Joachim? I didn’t think to ask him, but I intend to this evening, and will be sure to report back. 🙂

At the same time, I was telling my parents recently that names like Alice, Agnes, and Harriet are starting to come back, and they were both flabbergasted. I’ve also considered that in fifty-plus years, there will be grandmothers named Brittany and Ashby and Wyatt (thanks Kutchers) and grandfathers named Caden and Logan and Saint (thanks Wentzes), which always blows my mind a little. Also how much weirder Grandmas Brittany, Ashby, and Wyatt sound to me than Grandpas Caden, Logan, and Saint. Why is it men age so much better????

How about your kids or other little ones you spend time with? Have you ever seen them wrinkle their noses at particular names? Do you have a sense of which names they think are “weird” and which are “normal”? How about those of you who have/know little girls — what have they named their babies? (I hear a lot of Luke Skywalker around here, and the stuffed animals have names like Bandaids, D2, and Biscuit. So I don’t have any great insights.)

——————————————————

* In other generation-gap news, during that same TV sports thing that was on, a commercial had “I want to be like Mike” as its soundtrack. “Who’s Mike?” said my eight-year-old.

Jessie’s girl!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Birth announcement, Update , , , ,

Back at the end of January Jessie wrote asking for help naming their fourth baby, a girl. She has wonderfully provided us with an update, and a photo!

“Kate! I’m so sorry for not updating you sooner! Our little girl was born on Valentine’s Day and we have just been so caught up in her that I forgot to write … [My husband] decided he would really like to honor his Great aunt, who was like a grandmother to him and to who he was very close to without directly using her names. Her middle name was Mary so I searched all your posts for Marian versions. We ended up with Liliana (lil-ee-ah-na) Grace. Lily for Mary, Ana for St. Anne, Jesus’ grandmother, since he always thought of his Aunt as his grandmother, Grace because I still liked it 🙂  We both love it and I never would have thought of it without your posts which included so many original ways to include Mary/saints in names. Thank you so much! I’ve attached a picture for you in case you want to use it in an update … we did truly love your suggestions. I’ve called dibs on Louise Philomena for next girl!!!“

How wonderful! Something that had really jumped out at me when Jessie first emailed was how she said, “I’d love something that matches the feel of both Eleanor/Ella like my first little girl but by the time I weigh everything else, I can hardly think about that too.” I totally think Liliana fits the bill! Nice job, Jessie and Hubby! And thanks so much for the update — it’s so fun to read the end (but really beginning!) of the story!

DSCN4981

Liliana Grace

Spotlight on: Pearl

sanctanomina Spotlight , , , ,

A reader emailed asking about the name Pearl from a Catholic point of view, specifically wondering if it might be Marian?

Pearl is actually very Catholic, but not in that form. It’s most familiar in the form of …. Margaret.

According to behindthename, Margaret is “[d]erived from Latin Margarita, which was from Greek μαργαριτης (margarites) meaning “pearl.”” There are loads of Sts. Margaret, and loads of versions of the name. My favorites include the French Marguerite and Margaux/Margot, the Spanish Margarita, the Welsh Megan, and my most favorite of all is the Irish Mairead. And the nicknames! Some of them are names in their own right, but they can also be used as nicks: Greta, Rita, Madge, Maggie, Meg, Meta, and others. Even Daisy, because the French form Marguerite is also a noun (marguerite) meaning daisy (the flower), and I’ve heard of a couple little girls given the name Margaret and the nick Daisy.

I mean, come on. Margaret has it going on.

One thing it isn’t, though, is Marian. I couldn’t find any title/appellation referring to Our Lady that included “pearl” anywhere (if any of you can prove me wrong, I’d be beyond delighted!). Even the Irish Mairead, which contains the Irish Mary within it (Maire), has no connection to Mary.

So: Pearl. Beautiful, saintly name, and very Catholic, as long as you look at it through Margaret glasses.

Baby name consultant: Wee Lassie Heckaman

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

It’s March! In my house, March means Irish — Irish food, Irish music, Irish coffee in my green Claddagh mug (okay, maybe just the “coffee” part of “Irish coffee”), Irish green everywhere for the entire month — so what better way to kick it off than with an Irish-y Irish name dilemma?

Theresa and Sean Heckaman are expecting #8, a little girl, who will arrive via a scheduled c-section on St. Paddy’s Day. Their other children are:

Theodore (Teddy) Stephen Joseph

Joshua David Joseph

Patrick Darrel Joseph (also born on St. Paddy’s Day!)

Joseph Wayne Michael

Miriam Anna Rose

Evalena (Evie) Margaret Marie

William (Liam) Fulton Joseph

Theresa gave a lovely explanation for each one, which I’m not including here for space reasons, but each name is a lovely mix of family and saint names (note also the “Joseph” in each boy’s name and the form of Mary in each girl’s).

Theresa wrote in this comment here on the blog:

“I am scheduled for a c-section on March 17th, and we decided to go with the name Rosary Brigid Marie. It’s making me a little nervous because it’s not common and anyone who isn’t Catholic looks at me like I’ve got three heads. I love the nickname Rosie, and can’t seem to settle on any other formal name, so Rosary it is! The good news, though, is that any Catholic who hears it is thrilled 🙂 … I’m having a hard time with the middle names, though. I’m not entirely sold on Brigid, the first draft was Rosary Therese Marie, but that changed when we learned the baby’s birthday, now we have to do something Irish! We’ve always planned on having our girls’ third middle name to be Marie, but we started off with Miriam Anna Rose (figuring Miriam is enough Mary for one name), so I’m not afraid of finding another Mary name, but flow is a problem. Moira and even Maura seem to make it too much of a mouthful. I’m probably overthinking this!”

I’d responded to that comment with:

“Theresa! This is gorgeous! And Rosary has a long history of use in other languages — Rosario, for example, is a name used for both men and women in Spanish, and for men exclusively (I think) in Italian. My mom actually has a friend named this, an older Italian man, and he’s always gone by “Soddy” (I assume because the Italian pronunciation is more like ro-SOD-io? With that semi-rolled R?).The behindthename.com entry says about Rosario: “Means “rosary”, and is taken from the Spanish title of the Virgin Mary Nuestra Señora del Rosario meaning “Our Lady of the Rosary”. This name is feminine in Spanish and masculine in Italian.” So I’m totally on board with Rosary, nice job! And Rosie totally makes it not a big deal — friendly, “normal,” accessible nicknames can make just about any formal name okay, in my opinion. … (I do just want to whisper to you though, since you’ve already decided on Rosary and all, that Roisin is one of my favorite favorite Rose names, and it’s sooo Irish!!! It’s a diminutive of the Irish Rois (Rose), and could totally take the nickname Rosie! Roisin Therese Marie? Mmmmmm!) … Also, the Rose names are considered Marian, and I totally would consider Rosary to be so too — does that help with your flow problem? You don’t need to use Marie (unless you want to of course) because Our Lady is already honored. If you still want an M Mary name there, I agree Moira and Maura don’t flow well, because I think the rhythm of Marie is what works — two syllables, with the emphasis on the second. So Maureen would flow quite well I think (or the Irish spelling Mairin, accents over both i’s).”

I encouraged Theresa to email me if she wanted to chat about it some more, and I’m so delighted that she did!

She gave this further info: “Other first names considered for this new baby: Louisa and Beatrice. I have always wanted a Rosie, though. I think the main problem we’re (actually myself since my husband is fine with the current name, Rosary Brigid Marie) is just the middle names and finding something that really goes together well and has an Irish feel.”

So this is what I have to say about all that:

First off, I actually think Rosary Brigid Marie sounds fine and flows well and — honestly truly — sounds like a name a native Irish person would use (at least in Old Ireland): reverent, Catholic, and Irish. A beautiful, gorgeous name for a St. Paddy’s Day baby! And St. Brigid is St. Patrick’s female equivalent, so I really do think they’ve chosen a brilliant name. (I have a long love of all things Irish — my maternal grandfather was born and raised there, in Cobh, Co. Cork, and my own mom has studied the Irish language, and I studied abroad in Galway while in college, and have visited a bunch of other times … it’s all I can do right now to not replace “mom” with “mum” and start saying “thanks a million” and go make some tea. So I hope my sense is right that Rosary Brigid Marie is a good Irishy Irish name!)

But I will always have a suggestion or two (or three, actually, as I always shoot for) when it comes to names, and here they are:

(1) Alternatives to Rosary

Theresa loves Rosie, but not the Rose names. Rosary is pretty inspired I think, and I suggested Róisín already (though I get that might be too much for someone who doesn’t live in Ireland) (pronounced row-SHEEN), but I also wanted to suggest Rosaleen. Beyond Shannon and Sean: An Enlightened Guide to Baby Naming (by the Nameberry ladies) says, “The Irish had imported Kathleen to America in the nineteenth century, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that the true impact of the Irish “een” names began to be felt. These included not only actual Irish names like Pegeen, Eileen and its variant Aileen, Maureen (a diminutive of Maire, the Irish Mary) and Noreen (a diminutive of Nora), but also Josephine, a French name that was very popular in Ireland; Doreen, an Anglicization of the Irish Dorren or Doireann; and Rosaleen, the Irish pet form for Rose. Colleen — an Irish word meaning “girl” but never used in Ireland as a name — hit the New World in the 1940s, peaking in popularity in the early 1960s” (6) (my emphasis).

Rosaleen is sweet and old-fashioned (in the best way possible) and Irish. I love it. Also, when I’m considering Irish names (as I would have loved to have given my boys names like Padraig and Tadhg but my husband has not a drop of Irish blood and his style is “Bob”), I consider the kinds of names that traditional Irish parents might choose — which may or may not be super duper Gaelic-y Gaelic but almost certainly will be saintly or otherwise heavy-hitting-Catholic (one of my native Irish friends when I was in school there was John Paul — along with a thousand [or more?] other boys his age, as he was born just after JP2 was elected pope). This all brings to mind a friend of mine from years ago named Rosemarie, who is also native Irish, and represented the Gaelic-speaking part of Ireland (the Gaeltacht) in the 2001 Tralee Festival (read about the Festival here and here). I love Rosemarie, and have had it on my list for years, through all these boys of mine.

(2) Alternatives to Brigid

I’m thinking of the second middle as the most obvious nod to the baby’s birth/feast day. Brigid is great — as I mentioned above, she’s St. Patrick’s female counterpart, and even has a cross named after her. Very Irish, very saintly, just lovely. Another idea is Bríd (said breed), which is a contracted form of Brigid and might be helpful if a one-syllable name would work better in that spot. BUT, if other super-Irish ideas are wanted, how about:

  • Catriona — said kah-TREE-nah (like Katrina), an Irish form of Katherine
  • Kathleen/Caitlin — the Heckamans could do Kathleen, that spelling, or Caitlin, which in Irish is said exactly like Kathleen! They’d have an uphill battle trying to get people to say a first name Caitlin as Kathleen, but in the middle they can do anything they want
  • Eilis — said EYE-lish, the Irish form of Elizabeth

I particularly like the idea of a C/Katherine or Elizabeth variant for them, as they haven’t used either one yet with their other girls, and they’re such big Catholic names.

(3) Alternatives to Marie

I know Theresa said they aren’t worried about finding a suitable Marian name, but I thought I’d throw a few good Irish options out there anyway, especially since they’d originally planned on Rosary Therese Marie — if the Marie were to change to an Irish form, they could go back to using Therese if they wanted and still have an Irish-y name:

  • Máire — Beyond Shannon and Sean says this is “the true Irish version of Mary.” They say it’s pronounced like Marie; behindthename says it’s pronounced MOY-ra; babynamesofireland says it’s pronounced MY-ra. That says to me they can choose the pronunciation they want!
  • Some other “Mary equivalents used in Ireland” (according to Beyond Shannon and Sean): Carmel (after Our Lady of Mount Carmel); Dolores (after Our Lady of Sorrows); Máirín – said like Maureen, an Irish diminutive of Mary; Maureen (anglicized form of Máirín); Molly (a diminutive of Mary)

What do you all think? Can you think of any other ideas that might be helpful for Theresa and Sean for their little Irish Catholic baby girl?? Are there any Irish readers out there who can verify my Irish thoughts or tell me I’m full of bologna/blood sausage?