Year: 2015

Birth announcement: Juliet Rose!

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Krystin’s consultation posted at the end of August for their little green bean (=gender unknown), and she emailed me today to let us know the baby has arrived! She writes,

“Hi Kate! I wanted to update you on the birth of our little GIRL (we didn’t know the gender beforehand!) She was born on 9/13/15 and we named her Juliet Rose, one of your suggestions 🙂 My husband and I both fell in love with the name and we feel like it fits our baby girl perfectly! Thanks again for your insights and suggestions!“

Juliet Rose! Can you hear me sighing with happiness through the computer?? Juliet is one of my very favorite names in the whole world, and paired with Rose? I mean, come on. Goooorgeous with a capital G.

Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big sibs Luke, Bennett, and Tessa, and happy birthday Baby Juliet!!

juliet_rose

Juliet Rose

Birth announcement: Emily’s boy!

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Hooray!!! Emily posted her birth announcement!!!!!!!! Her little guy has been given a very handsome name: George Stephen!

Grace (capital G) was the first to suggest George, followed by grace (small g) and eclare — good thinking ladies!! This blog would not be what it is without all of you!

Be sure to hop over there and see his beautiful face. Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big brother Simon, and happy birthday Baby George!!

Reading round-up

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Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary! Such a lovely feast for little Rosary, and also a good day to pray for special intentions — I have one, if you don’t mind adding it to your own. And I’ll remember you all and your intentions in my rosary this evening. ❤

So we’re all going crazy wanting to know Emily’s baby’s name, right? For anyone who didn’t yet see, Emily linked to her consultation on her blog, and added the tantalizing note that she’d actually had the baby that morning, and that she’d reveal his name soon. I’ll share it as soon as she gives the okay!

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, which I just love, and whose Editor-in-Chief, Sara, sometimes offers her thoughts in our comments here (I’m still a little dazzled!), has just added Joachim to its database! You know it’s one of my very favorite names, and I asked Sara about it a few months ago, and she tweeted me the other day to let me know it had been added. I *love* the entry! This is my favorite part: “The name was never common in any culture, but the importance of the saintly father of Mary meant that this name could be found pretty much anywhere” (emphasis mine). That’s one of the things I love about it!

Has anyone seen this article? The New Tug of War Over Baby Names. I totally get having hopes, even very strong ones, that a family name will be used by the next generation; I get feeling badly if that doesn’t happen; I DON’T get offering bribes for baby names! Definitely an overstepping of bounds, no? Have any of you experienced this in your own families, or heard about it happening in real life?

Finally, a reader just sent me this today — I don’t know how I missed it! Cate Blanchett Got Her Son’s Name from a Captain Underpants Book (Yes, It’s True!). Despite how very Catholicky Catholic her kids’ names are, it appears Roman Polanksi and Captain Underpants provided inspiration for the naming of two of her sons. Which just illustrates one of the things I love about saints’ names: You can be as ostentatious or understated about your faith as you want in regards to your kids’ names and no one really need bat an eye; conversely, there are so many saints’ names that no matter your taste (and even no matter your faith), you can still end up with children that make people like me think swoonily of popes and martyrs. 😉

Happy Wednesday to you all!

Birth announcement: Tessa Araceli!

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Last month I posted the consultation for a little green bean (=gender unknown) with big sibs Clara and Hugh. The mama, Amy, emailed me to let me know the baby has arrived — a Little Miss named … Tessa Araceli!

Amy writes,

“I wanted to tell you that she arrived on Friday! I put a birth announcement on my blog along with what we ended up deciding for her name! I thought you might like to know and share with your readers! … Thanks again! Your suggestions fueled lots of discussion! And I broke some of my own rules… Oops! Thanks for the prayers“

So be sure to hop on over to Amy’s blog to see the pictures of the beautiful new babe and the explanation of her gorgeous gorgeous name! Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Tessa!!

Baby name consultant: Little brother for Simon!

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Emily, from the blog Raising Barnes, and her husband are expecting their second baby and second boy! She writes,

“Despite my love of names, we are really struggling to come up with a name we both love. We have a few that we both are ok with, but I really want to find something to fall in love with. Does that make sense?“

Yes indeedy, it makes perfect sense! I know you all agree!

“It is important to us (especially me, as a convert) to have names rooted in our Catholic faith; there is so much awesome material there to work with! Also, it is important to me that my kid’s names aren’t super popular or trendy.”

Catholicky Catholic and not super popular or trendy — got it! 🙂

Their first son is:

Simon Matthew

Which I just love. Such a handsome combo. Emily says,

“We both fell in love with the name Simon early on. Matthew is my husband’s middle name and my father-in-law’s first name … I absolutely love his name, which is part of the reason we are having difficulties with baby #2.”

Names they’ve discussed include:

Maximilian
Sebastian
Blaise (“but I personally don’t like the double B (Blaise Barnes…)“)
Xavier (Emily’s frontrunner)
Miles (her husband’s frontrunner)
Eli (“a distant second place for both of us“)

The first thought I wanted to offer — and please, readers, chime in if you think I’m off base — is that as much sense as it makes that they want to find a name they love as much as Simon, and I fully 1000% agree they should try to do so, I do think that it’s hard to recreate the experience of choosing the most!amazing!name!that is my very favorite name ever! So sometimes, with such a high bar set, whatever ends up being the agreed-upon name might initially have a sort of “settling” or “compromise” feel to it. But I can almost guarantee that as time goes on and it becomes completely associated with one’s beloved baby, that name will become equally as loved as the first baby’s name. I hope that helps Emily and her husband not worry too much!

So: names on their current list. I love Maximilian and Sebastian both. They have a really sophisticated feel to me, but both pare down to really friendly nicknames — Maximilian can be Max or Mac; Sebastian can be Seb/Sebby or Bash (a la Grace Patton’s little guy); and I’ve actually seen Ian suggested as a nickname for both Maximilian and Sebastian.

I like Blaise a lot too, but I can see Emily’s point — Blaise Barnes could be really great and memorable, or it could come across as somewhat cartoonish. Totally their call. I think if they own it, with confidence, and infuse their son with that confidence, it would be totally fine. But if they can’t get comfortable with it or if it feels weird, probably best not to use it.

And Xavier! There’s a little Xavier in my life, and I just love his name. He goes by Xave or Xavey, which are so sweet, and the full Xavier oozes handsomeness too, I think. And there’s no cooler initial than X!

Miles is a recent favorite of mine too, but if it matters to Emily and her hubs (and it may not, and that’s of course totally fine), I don’t love the –s ending of Miles with the –s ending of Barnes. Miles Barnes. Nit picky stuff, but maybe helpful in whittling down options.

Eli is fun! And yet another different style … I feel like Simon + Maximilian/Sebastian/Xavier/Blaise reads “Catholic and only Catholic.” Simon + Miles has a more … pilgrim feel? And Simon + Eli is all biblical. I like each of those feels/styles, and Emily and her hubs certainly wouldn’t have to stick with whichever one went with the name they end up choosing for their little guy — they could have Simon, Miles, Eli, and Xavier someday, all in the same family, totally fine! I think they all work together, because they’re not really far apart stylistically — pilgrim basically IS biblical, and biblical is certainly Catholic. But it’s fun to see it pointed out I think.

As for popularity — here’s how they all broke down in 2014:

Simon: #231
Maximilian: #445
Sebastian: #34
Blaise: #845
Xavier: #88
Miles: #108
Eli: #49

I assumed Eli would be the most popular, and was totally shocked to see Sebastian’s actually the most popular! What?? I don’t know any in real life (though I see it talked about/considered a LOT among the families who read my blog). I know a lot of little Eli’s, so I wondered at first if I just live in an Eli pocket, but upon further thought I realized I think they’re all actually Elijah, and Elijah was #11 in 2014. #11! So that’s something for Emily and her hubs to consider, as there may be a bunch of Eli’s in their little guy’s class who are actually Elijah on the birth certificate.

Okay, on to my additional suggestions. As you all know, I usually start my consultations by looking through the Baby Name Wizard book — it has the amazing feature where it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. It provides really great inspiration and good directions to go in. I looked up each of the names on Emily’s list (including Simon) and wrote down the boy suggestions for each one, and looked for any overlap. She and her husband have very consistent taste! Sebastian is similar to Maximilian, for example, and Xavier is similar to Blaise AND Maximilian AND Sebastian! I love seeing those kinds of things pop up. It all gave me good ideas for other options as well. I always shoot for three, but I had four ideas for Baby Boy Barnes:

(1) Oliver
Oliver was actually one that came to mind as soon as I started reading Emily’s email, before I’d done any research. While Simon is certainly super saintly and biblical, it usually has more of a bookish, Brit feel to me, which I love. Oliver has always struck me as similar. We discussed Oliver for our second boy, and very nearly named our third boy Oliver, so it’s long been a love of ours. We just haven’t felt it was “the one” for our boys just yet, but in considering it we looked up St. Oliver Plunkett, and he is a fabulous saint to have as a patron. But what really clinched it for me is that it was listed as similar to both Simon and Sebastian! Winner!

(2) Isaac
Isaac was another I’d scribbled down for Emily before cracking open my BNW book, so I was delighted to see it listed as similar to Simon and Miles. Isaac is super biblical, but to me it’s also St. Isaac Jogues — the Shrine of the North American Martyrs is near where I live, and he was martyred there. (It’s also the birthplace of St. Kateri.) Isaac’s such a cool name, I love it.

(3) Nathaniel or Gabriel
Nathaniel has that long, sophisticated feel that Maximilian and Sebastian have, and it’s biblical like Simon. And I always think of Nathaniel and Gabriel as having a similar feel — they always remind me of each other — and Gabriel was listed as similar to Xavier, and it’s also biblical. I love both choices for a brother to Simon.

(4) Colin/Cole or Kolbe
Colin was listed as similar to both Simon and Miles (as was Isaac), and it also made me think of Cole (both can claim a connection to Nicholas for saintliness), and Cole and Maximilian both made me think of Kolbe, which I see used with some frequency among Catholic families as a first or middle name. I love the idea of Kolbe, but I wonder if Kolbe Barnes might be too much B together? Or not? I was named Katherine Towne and always called Kate, and it wasn’t until I was grown up and considering how names sound together for my own boys that I realized Kate Towne does the thing I try to avoid — Kate ends in the –t sound and Towne starts with it, so it can sound like Kay Towne (and I’ve always hated when people mishear my name as Kay, but it makes so much more sense to me now than it did when I was growing up). My point being — sometimes us namiacs notice things that no one else does or cares about. I can’t imagine that anyone a little Kolbe B. would come in contact with would be like, “Can you believe they named him Kolbe Barnes?? So many B’s!!” So really, I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about (if there was any concern to begin with). And Kolbe could take the nick Kole if desired, which is really pretty hip.

So those are my thoughts/ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a little brother to Simon Matthew?

All creatures of our God and King

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Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and with it comes the Blessing of Pets. Do you have this at your parish? Or are you otherwise familiar with it?

I wasn’t until I went to college — a Franciscan college — and St. Francis’ Feast Day was a big deal, and so was the blessing of the pets. Now my home parish, which is Redemptorist, does so too.

This year’s feast is particularly poignant for my family, as my brother’s dog died this week — Finnegan, nicked Finney, a boxer. He joined our family in 2006, when my oldest was about the age my youngest is now … there’s been much grieving this week … what a sadness it is when a beloved pet dies! And what a balm to know of St. Francis’ love for animals.

I liked this little article about the feast and the blessing, written by Fr. Kevin Mackin, OFM, former president of my alma mater.

Happy Feast of St. Francis, and God bless all your pets!

ETA: I forgot that I wanted to ask you all about your pets’ names! I’d love to see how your taste changes from naming babies to naming pets. 😉

The names of our Guardian Angels

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Happy feast of the Guardian Angels!

I’ve read so many lovely things online today about them, like If Jiminy Cricket Had a Halo at the Dominicana Journal and Pope Francis: Respect and listen to your guardian angel on Vatican Radio. Reading about St. Pio and his guardian angel has always fascinated me (“Send me your guardian angel”: Padre Pio, by his assistant Fr. Alessio Parente, is my favorite) — I love telling my boys how St. Pio’s guardian angel was his childhood playmate! (Their eyes get huge!) My boys also received Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s Angels for Kids last Christmas, and Fr. Pascale Parente’s The Angels in Catholic Teaching and Tradition is on my wish list.

Of course, I’m also interested in their names, so I found it somewhat striking that St. Pio (at least in the book I mention above) never referred to his angel by name. He’d call him things like, “My little friend,” but never a name. I came across a while ago something that may explain why:

“217 Popular devotion to the Holy Angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations … The practice of assigning names to the Holy Angels should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture.” — Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines, 2001.

I’m familiar with the idea of asking God, in prayer, to let you know your angel’s name, as mentioned in the post Everything you ever wanted to know about your guardian angel,

(“The following question and answer study of the guardian angels is based on the Summa Theologica I, qq.50-64 (angels in themselves) and qq. 106-114 (angels in relation to creatures). STI, q.113, is particularly enlightening, since it is a question devoted wholly to the guardianship of angels over human beings …

Does my angel have a name? Most certainly, God has named all his angels – or perhaps the higher angels have named the lower ones.

How do I find out my guardian angel’s name? You could try asking. But it is also possible that it will not be revealed to you immediately. I should think that in heaven, we would all know guardian angels’ names.”

But I’d never heard of the practice of assigning a name to one’s angel. It must be widespread enough that the Vatican needed to address it though — are you familiar with this?

Taylor Marshall says,

“We cannot name our Guardian Angel because naming another implies authority over the other. I name my children and I name my pets. I have authority over them.

However, my Guardian Angel is OVER me in authority:

Angel of God my Guardian Dear
to whom God’s love commits me here
Ever this day be at my side
To light, to guard, to *RULE,* to guide.

Therefore, I do not have the authority to name my angel. My angel is not my dog, he’s my instructor.

When God gives a new name to someone (Abraham, Israel, Peter), he is signifying His authority over him as that person acts as His vicegerent in His name. Notably, God revealed the names of Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist to their parents before they were born to show His special authority in human redemption.”

He doesn’t give a source for this idea, though, so I’m not sure if it’s simply what he thinks, or if he got it from somewhere. Mark Shea offers,

“[When the idea of naming one’s angel came up in conversation] Fr. Pacwa instantly had on the tip of his tongue the teaching of some mediaeval pope who had condemned the practice. I’m not clear on the reasoning, but the basic idea seems to be that angels are not our chums, but super-powerful spirit beings who should be treated with respect and not back-slapping bonhomie. Or so I gather.”

And a more frightening thought is argued:

“There’s a deeper concern in naming, or trying to discover the name of, our guardian angels. The difficulty lies in discerning which spirits are responding to your seeking. Be assured that evil spirits are as interested in getting close to you as your guardian angel. They will find and use any way possible to derail your efforts to grow closer to God.

You won’t immediately be dragged down with the devil by naming your Guarding Angel, but you will be opening yourself to suggestions that may eventually lead you away from salvation.”

This last point doesn’t have any source offered either, and I admit I’m conflicted on it … on the one hand, how scary, if it’s true! On the other, if it was a real risk, wouldn’t that have been pointed out in the Vatican document I cite above? Also, if one prays to God to know the name of one’s guardian angel, why should one be afraid that an evil spirit might answer? It seems to me that line of thinking would lead one to question all answers to prayer, and perhaps even to think that one’s private conversations with God aren’t protected by Him. I can’t imagine any of that is right.

What have you all heard about all this? Do you know of any other Church sources regarding it?

Thoughts on names from Precious Ramotswe

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You guys, this is one of those weeks! I’m feeling perpetually behind, and I have a whole bunch of things I want to post about, but they all require some concentrated time, and it’s just not happening. So today’s post is quick and easy — a snippet I read the other night. Are any of you familiar with the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith? I love these books. They remind me of how I see this blog — a sweet escape from everything that weighs us down. Anyway, quick background: the stories are set in Botswana, and Precious Ramotswe runs a detective agency with the help of her friend Grace Makutsi (aka Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi); the agency shares space with Precious’ husband’s mechanic shop (his name is Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni).

Mma Makutsi glanced through the half-open door that led from the agency into the garage. On the other side of the workshop, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni was showing his two apprentices an engine part. “You see those two boys out there?” she said. “Charlie and …”

“Fanwell,” supplied Mma Ramotswe. “We must start using his name. It is not kind to be forgetting it all the time.”

“Yes, Charlie and … Fanwell,” said Mma Makutsi. “It is a stupid name, though, don’t you think, Mma? Why would anybody be called Fanwell?” … 

It was wrong of Mma Makutsi, [Mma Ramotswe] thought, to poke fun at Fanwell’s name. “Why is anybody called anything, Mma Makutsi? That boy cannot help it. It is the parents who give children stupid names. It is the fault of the parents.

“But Fanwell, Mma Ramotswe? What a silly name. Why did they not call him Fanbelt? That would be a good name for an apprentice mechanic, wouldn’t it? Hah! Fanbelt. That would be very funny.”

“No, Mma Makutsi,” said Mma Ramotswe. “We must not make fun of people’s names. There are some who think that your own name, Grace, is a strange name. I do not think that, of course. But there are probably people like that.”

Mma Makutski was dismissive. “Then they are very foolish,” she said. “They should know better.”

“And that is what Fanwell himself would probably say about anybody who laughed at his name,” Mma Ramotswe pointed out.

Mma Makutsi had to agree with this, even if reluctantly. She and Mma Ramotswe were fortunate, with their reasonably straightforward names of Grace and Precious, respectively; she had contemporaries who were not so fortunate and had been saddled by their parents with names that were frankly ridiculous. One boy she had known at school had borne a Setswana name which meant Look out, the police have arrived. The poor boy had been the object of derision amongst his classmates and had tried, unsuccessfully, to change the name by which he was known. But names, like false allegations, stick, and he had gone through life with this unfortunate burden, reminded of it every time he had to give details for an official form; looking away so that the person examining the form could be given the opportunity to smile, which they all did.

“Even if their names are not their fault,” said Mma Makutsi, “the way those boys behave is their fault, Mma. There can be no doubt about that. And those boys are very lazy, Mma …”

Funny and wise! I hope you all have a great Thursday!

Some new tabs, and angel names

sanctanomina Housekeeping

I did some housekeeping yesterday and just wanted to point out to you all:

And happy feast of St. Michael, St. Raphael, and St. Gabriel! I’d hoped to do an angel-names post today but it looks like my day will likely be too busy … if you wanted to leave your ideas for names for the angels in the comments, please feel free!

Baby name consultant: Lots of restrictions, lots of creativity

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Tanya, from the blog Our House, and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, a girl. She writes,

“We ALWAYS have a hard time with names. ALWAYS. I’m Armenian and my husband is French Canadian. Our kids are dark haired and have dark eyes so I don’t like any names that sound super American like Hunter or Emily etc. I like unique names that aren’t too weird or hard to say. As a general rule I don’t like any names in the top 100 list by the SS. We did break this rule once with Samuel. I like names that start with E and A and L … No names that start with other kids letters (I,S,K and N) and last name starts with V … I feel like girls names should be feminine and boys names should be manly.”

As soon as I read this paragraph, I felt like rubbing my hands together with glee — I do so love a good name challenge! Then I read their kids’ names … oh my! I love them!

Keira Joyce (Joyce is Tanya’s mom’s name)
Israel Benedict (Benedict after Fr Benedict Groeschel)
Nairi Anne (pronouced NY-rie, rhymes with Riley)
Samuel Fulton (Fulton after Fulton Sheen as dh loves him)

Tanya and her husband know they’re having a girl, and have a couple strong contenders for her name, but I did this consultation for them a few months ago, and I’ll post it in full (minus the boy suggestions — it was before they’d found out the gender), juuust in case. (Also, just because it’s fun. 🙂 )

Names on their original list for a girl included:

Meliné (Tanya’s grandmother’s name, said mel-eh-NAY) (“I love the name but I don’t think anyone will pronounce it correctly and that will drive me nuts. Plus the accent issue…. I honestly don’t even know how to type an accent“)
Constance or Madeline as middles (Tanya’s hubs’ mom’s names)

Names that can’t be used because of cousins:

Elyse
Kateri
Illana

So here are my original thoughts and ideas:

This consultation was such an interesting one! Between the names they’ve already chosen (especially Nairi), and their restrictions/preferences (no I,S,K,N,V; no American-sounding names; prefer E,A,L; no using cousins’ names), and Tanya’s Armenian heritage and her husband’s French Canadian heritage and Tanya’s grandmother’s French name and Keira’s Irishy name, it was a lot to consider, and a lot that I’m not familiar with. I really loved learning more about Nairi, a name I’ve never heard before – it’s an old name for Armenia, which is such a clever/cool/beautiful way to work in Tanya’s heritage! As you all know, I often start with the Baby Name Wizard book for inspiration, as it offers for each entry boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. But the ideas it offered for Keira and Samuel didn’t seem like this family’s style, and Nairi and Israel weren’t even listed, so I felt like I was flying blind a little. So I was extra interested in whether or not Tanya would think I was circling the right areas with my ideas.

Before I list my own ideas though, I had some thoughts about their list: first off, Meliné is just gorgeous. I love that it’s Tanya’s grandmother’s name, and that its Frenchiness is a nice nod to her husband as well. I do agree with her though that its pronunciation will likely be skewered at first pass (I assume most people would say meh-LEEN, especially in absence of the accent), and that accent will definitely be somewhat problematic. I don’t mind the pronunciation meh-LEEN – it’s quite pretty on its own – but I can see why it might feel a big lackluster to Tanya in light of the real pronunciation, as well as not being her grandmother’s pronunciation. I thought maybe a different variation of it, or a similar name, might be a reasonable alternative? I wasn’t able to find it online though … I found Méline, which I think is pronounced more like may-LEEN, which was said to be a French form of Melina, which itself was said to be English, French, and Greek, an “Elaboration of Mel (either from names such as MELISSA or from Greek μελι meaning “honey”). A famous bearer was Greek-American actress Melina Mercouri (1920-1994), who was born Maria Amalia Mercouris.” So that wasn’t terribly helpful … I looked at the variants listed for Melina and thought Melantha and Melania sounded intriguing. Or maybe something like Mila? Similar sounds, but more familiar to Americans. Depending on how close to the actual name a name has to be for Tanya to consider it an honor name, I found some other French M names that I thought might be worth a look:
— Marise (diminutive of Marie – I’m a sucker for a Marian name!)
— Magali (I’ve long loved this one – it’s the Occitan [southern France, et al.] form of Magdalene)
— Margot (solid choice)
— Mireille or its Catalan variant Mireia (gorgeous! They may be trading one difficultly pronounced name [Meliné] for another, but at least there aren’t any accents!)

I also wondered if they might consider Meliné as a middle name? Then it can be said and spelled (accent and all) just as they please with no issues.

Otherwise, I scoured all my go-to sites as well as the BNW book for other ideas that thought might work for them, and while I always shoot for three ideas, I came up with quite a few more, which I’ve grouped into five broader ideas:

(1) French A names
I really like the idea of a French name for this baby, since Keira has an Irishy feel, and Nairi is Armenian – it seems, between Tanya’s grandmother and her husband, that French would make a lot of sense. Using Tanya’s fondness for A names, I looked through listings of French names and loved:
— Amélie (can have the accent, but doesn’t need to, which is a bonus) (I know this is similar to Emily, but doesn’t read “American” to me at all)
— Annick or Anouk (I’ve always loved these variants of Anne. But maybe they wouldn’t care for that, since Nairi’s middle name is Anne?)
— Aurore (I think this is my favorite suggestion for them. It begins with an A, it’s French, it’s got a beautiful sound, and it has R’s in it like Keira and Nairi. It’s also Marian!)

(2) Names “for France”
Because Nairi is an old name for Armenia (and I was clutching at any idea that might work), I looked up old names for France and Canada (and I apologize too if there’s a real political/emotional difference between France and French Canada, where Tanya’s husband wouldn’t feel at all honored by a connected-to-France name … I’m not aware of any, but it’s not my area of expertise!) and found:
— Britta (Brittany would be the actual name, for that part of France, but I’m sure Brittany’s not their style … but when I typed all their kids’ names into nymbler.com, Britta was one of the results, so … maybe?)
— Frances or Franka/Franca or Francesca/Franziska/Franciska (since the Francis names literally mean “from France”)
— Gallia or Galia (Gallia’s not technically a given name, but it’s the old Latin name for France. Galia *is* a real name, though not related to Gallia except in appearance and sound [which I assume they share], it’s a Hebrew name, which could be a nice connection with Israel and Samuel’s Hebrew names while being a nod to French heritage)

Frustratingly, one of the only names I could find connected to Canada that seemed doable – and I was really excited about it for a few minutes – was Scotia (from Nova Scotia). I’d seen someone else consider it recently, and I thought it was brilliant. But then I remembered – no S names! Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, one of the names that was proposed for Canada, when it was being officially named, was Borealia, which is Latin for “northern,” but it makes me think of aurora borealis, which reminds me again of my suggestion above of Aurore. An extra nod to her husband’s heritage? Love it!

(3) Élodie or Laure
I also looked through the E and L lists, and Elodie and Laure both jumped out at me. Like Amélie, Élodie can be spelled with an accent, but it doesn’t have to be. And like with Aurore, Laure has an R in it, which I like as that small thread through the sisters’ names.

(4) Genevieve
Genevieve has been getting more love recently than ever, but it’s still out of the top 200, and St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris! So cool.

(5) Azélie (with or without the accent) or Zabel
Zelie’s recently popular among Catholic families, for St. Therese’s mom Bl. Zelie Martin (born Marie-Azélie), but I haven’t seen anyone consider Azélie/Azelie. It begins with an A! And Bl. Zelie’s going to be canonized this fall, so that would be a really nice connection for a little girl born soon after. And I checked out Armenian names, just to see, and came across Zabel, which is an Armenian form of Isabel – Isabel is listed in the BNW as a style match for Samuel, which makes a nice connection. And can you beat Z as a cool letter??

Those were all my original ideas for Tanya and her hubs. As you can see, I’m big on trying to make connections with names, but I also tried to include names just because I thought they might like them.

As an extra bonus, as mentioned above, Tanya emailed me with their updated list and ideas, and an added dilemma. So fun!

“[Email from a couple weeks ago] As of now we are still not sure on a name for her. We are considering Azelie and Ani and Constance (Coco?) … I do love Aurora but I think its too popular and the French Aurore sounds like its missing something to me. I liked some of your M suggestions but two close friends just had girls and both went with M names (Mary and Mariella) so I want to avoid M for now … [Email from just the other day] Since someone posted on your comments the other day about Constance … I would say the strongest contender now (26 weeks pregnant) is Constance Rose with a nickname of Cora/ Coraline or Coco. Dh says he will call her Constance but he is fine with a nickname too … Cora is my fav but our oldest is Keira so it’s kinda close….would love to hear any other creative C names that could work for Constance.”

So coming up with nicknames is one of my very favorite things (as I’m sure you all know!). I had a ball trying to think of more ideas for Constance besides Coco, Cora, or Coraline and came up with (and as you’ll see, I felt very free to be offbeat!):

— Cosette: If they’re willing to consider Coraline for Constance, then I don’t think length or even that close a connection to the name is that important. I really like Cosette because it’s got the C,O,S of Constance, which overlaps nicely with the O,S,E of Rose if they went with the combo Constance Rose.
— Colette: Cosette made me think of Colette, which is a saint’s name, and since Cosette is sort of a mashup of Constance Rose, I immediately thought Colette could be a sort of mashup of Constance Meliné, which just made me want to fall over with happiness. Beautiful!
— Cosi, Coley — Not only can these made sense as nicknames for Constance (especially Cosi), but they were both listed as nicknames for Cosette and Colette, respectively.
— Costa: I believe this is technically a man’s name, a traditional nickname for the Greek Constantine, but it makes so much sense for Constance.
— Stanzi: I read that Stanzi was the nickname for Mozart’s wife in the movie “Amadeus,” short for her given name Constanze. I thought that was cool!
— Tia: According to Behind the Name, Constance is “a Medieval form of Constantia,” so I think Tia could totally work!
— Tacey/Tacy: I thought at first of Maude Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books, where Tacy is a nickname for Anastasia, but I definitely think it can work for Constance (and fun to have a literary connection too!).
— Tasia: I say this TAH-sha, which echoes for me the “ah” in the first syllable of Constance, never mind the shared T,S, and A.
— Stacia/Stasia: I know, I know, it begins with an S, but on the slight chance an S nickname is okay, I couldn’t leave it off the list. It’s got the “Sta” of ConSTAnce and the sss sound at the end, like Constance. It can be pronounced STAY-sha or STAH-sha.
— Scotia: See Stacia/Stasia — I know it doesn’t stand a chance, but this original idea of mine (from “Nova Scotia,” a nod to hubby’s Canadian heritage), like Stacia/Stasia, shares some letters and sounds with Constance.
— Nicknames for Perpetua: Okay, this is another of my crazy ideas, but since Constance has a very similar meaning to Perpetua, I thought maybe one of the Perpetua nicknames might intrigue? Like: Pia, Pippa, Peppa, Pip, Pep, Poppy.

And finally, I did have one more idea that came to mind very recently for Tanya and her hubs, and it specifically goes against her new no-M-names rule, but it seemed like it might be the very kind of name they like: Meike (said like Micah) or Mieke (said MEE-ka) — the former is described as a German and Dutch diminutive of Maria; the latter is said to be only a Dutch diminutive of Maria. I love the pronunciation of Meike especially, though Mieke gets away from mirroring the “ei” of Keira … they’re similar in length and share some letters with Keira and Nairi, and I love that they’re Marian! Meike Rose, Meike Meliné, and Meike Madeline all strike me as really beautiful combos. (Unfortunately I don’t think Meike Constance has a great flow because of the k-k sound. But that doesn’t have to matter, if they love it.)

Whew! That’s a mama of a consultation! What do you think of the nicknames I suggested for Constance? Do you have any other ideas for first names (given that Azelie, Ani, and Constance are the current finalists) or nicknames for Constance?