Year: 2015

#PopeInUS: Sancta Nomina represented!

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Our faithful reader Grace had the great blessing of being able to see Pope Francis in New York City! She emailed me with her impressions, and some photos:

“Hi Kate!!    

I just thought that you would like to hear about my experience seeing Pope Francis today! First off, I’ve never felt so blessed to wait 4 hours in line to see someone. I would do it again right now even though my feet are killing me. I have to say, one of the best moments happened before Pope Francis drove by. I ended up talking to some strangers in the crowd, which is something I NEVER do and I met one of the most amazing women ever. Her name is Margaret Therese and my word, she is just a woman of God. She just shines this light to you when she talks. She told us about an experience she had when she truly felt the presence of God and it brought me straight to tears. I just want to be her when I’m older. She ended up giving me a medal that was blessed by Pope John Paul II. I don’t think I’m ever taking it off from the chain around my neck (I’ve attached a picture). When Pope Francis finally drove by, my heart stopped. I started crying immediately. I was far away, as you can see in the pictures, but that didn’t matter. This was one of the most amazing moments of my life. My goodness, the light of God that shines through Pope Francis is just crazy. I still can’t believe that I was so blessed to get to see him while he was here in America and get to see surrounded by such amazing people!
God bless you, 
Grace“

Can’t you just hear it? The enthusiasm, the love, the grace that’s so often the marker of pilgrimages, holy events, or other similar encounters with, as Grace said, “the light of God” shining through. If there’s a thin veil that separates us, it’s almost as if it’s made extra-sheer in those places, with those people. I’m moved to tears myself for Grace, for her experience.

Check out her pictures:

grace1a2a
The beautiful medal given to Grace by her new friend Margaret Therese, which had had been blessed by St. John Paul II
grace3
I love the lady climbing up the lamppost in this one.
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Papa!

Thanks to Grace for sharing her experience and her pictures with us, and if any of the rest of you were in DC, NYC, or today/tomorrow in Philly and have experiences and/or photos to share regarding Pope Francis’ visit, feel free to send them on to me!

#PopeInUS: Family saints, Mother Mary, Jim Gaffigan

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That Pope Francis. ❤ To Congress: “Thank you for the lunch invitation! But I’ll be eating with the homeless.” To the Little Sisters of the Poor: “I’m with you, Sisters.” To John Boehner: “I’m gonna make you CRY.” To America: “Let me refer to you as the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave.’ Let me refer to your important and beloved people.” To the United Nations: “In all countries, in light of all issues, real people need to come first, with a special care needed for the poorest.” That man. ❤

Name-wise, did you see that the World Meeting of Families, which Pope Francis will be attending in Philadelphia tomorrow, has a listing of Saints for the Family? So many of our very favorite saints and very favorite names:

Pope St. John Paul II
St. Gianna
Mary, Undoer of Knots (Pope Francis has a special devotion to her)
St. Joseph
St. John Bosco
St. Anne (our very own)
St. Joachim
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Raphael

Speaking of Mary, Undoer of Knots … I’m dying to talk about that other Marian name we were all atwitter about yesterday: Maristella! Several of you said you’d never heard of it before, and I hadn’t either until someone suggested it for Simcha’s baby. (I don’t agree with that commenter’s husband though — despite the fact that it’s technically an Italian variant, as I actually shared with the mama of Maristella “one of the things I love about [the Irish] naming style, especially historically (perhaps less so now), is their heavy use of saints’ names of all cultures/ethnicities.” I know of Irish girls/ladies named Maria (read that only if you want to cry your eyes out), Jacinta, Lucia, Gemma, Philomena … and there’s not a huge amount of difference between Maristella and Isabella, which is used by all sorts of Americans=diverse ethnic backgrounds … anyway. Rant over!) So of course it’s a version of Stella Maris=Star of the Sea and — so cool! — the UK’s Apostleship of the Sea has Stella Maris Masses several times right around now! The pic I posted to Instagram for Maristella is a particularly lovely one too.

And speaking of five children (because our Maristella is one of five, nice segue right?! 😉 ) … Jim Gaffigan (who has five children–>there’s the connection!) is performing at the World Meeting of Families for an audience of over a million people that might possibly include Pope Francis. Wha??? Jim’s got great, solid, saintly names for his kids in real life:

Marre (very intrigued by this one … a user-submitted entry on Behind the Name says it’s a Swedish diminutive of Maria, Martin, and other Mar- names, and that it’s pronounced MAHR-ah … do any of you know anything more/different?)
Jack
Katie Louise
Michael
Patrick

And for his kids on his show:

Elizabeth
Mary
James
Joseph
Daniel (? not sure on this one; I know it’s also the name of an adult character)

(If anyone knows Jim or his wife Jeannie, feel free to point them in my direction — I’d LOVE to chat with them about their names!)

And that’s my name-related Pope Francis wrap-up for today! (I know you love how I made a whole big name post out of the Pope’s visit. 😀 )

Birth announcement: Maristella Katherine!

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Today’s birth announcement comes to you courtesy of a mama who emailed me a few short days before her due date hoping for thoughts/fresh suggestions, and I have to tell you that I LOVE last minute emails! It’s so exciting and such a privilege to be invited into the whirlwind of the newborn time.

So this mama was expecting her fifth baby, a girl, and her other kiddos are named:

Jillian Rose
August Robert
Theodore (Teddy) Joseph
Noelle Teresa

And just a few short days after I got back to her, her little one was born and given the amazingly beautiful, meaningful name of Maristella Katherine! There are so many things about her name that I love! I mean, the first is the obvious: it’s SO Marian, with Maristella being a version of the Marian title Stella Maris. And I love that it has two L’s in it, like her sisters, but none of the sisters’ names are matchy. Nice job!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Maristella!!

maristella_katherine

Maristella Katherine

#PopeInUS: Siblings and a new saint

sanctanomina Pope Francis

So yes, I’m going to be posting a lot of Pope stuff in the next few days!

The first exciting thing is: Today’s the day Blessed Junipero Serra will be canonized! Woooo!!!! You can read his name spotlight here.

Second, my mom was telling me about Pope Francis’ siblings’ names the other day, and I love them all:

María Elena
Alberto Horacio
Oscar Adrián
Marta Regina

And of course he himself was Jorge Mario. His parents were Mario José and María Regina.

I think maybe Alberto Horacio isn’t quite ready for a comeback (but soon! I could see Albert being the new Arthur, which is getting some love recently. And there was a Horatio in my boys’ school for a few years — definitely ahead of the curve, as he’s in high school now), but the others are definitely not only Sancta Nomina style but broader-society style too I think. I mean, yes, they definitely have a Catholic spin — I can’t see just anybody choosing Regina for their daughter — but I could see Maria, Elena, Oscar, Adrian, Marta/Martha, and George (Jorge) on a whole bunch of different kinds of people. Mario too, while it *can* have a religious/Marian connotation if you want it to (and I want it to!), comes across as less Catholic and more ethnic (Italian or Hispanic) I think. (Mario Puso, Mario Lopez [who’s a Pope Francis fan! And he did name his son Dominic, so …].)

I love how PF’s mama gave her first name to one daughter and her second name to another, and I love that he has his dad’s first name as a middle name. But I’m kind of shocked — given their faith AND Papa Bergoglio’s middle name — that there’s no José among them!

What do you think of the Bergoglio sibs’ names? Which would you consider for your child, if any?

A gift for Pope Francis

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I’ve mentioned before about my mom’s book and blog about the adventures of Finney the Leprechaun (who loves God and teaches the faith to little ones through rhyme). Today’s post had me dying with laughter, and it’s so appropriate to share it here because (1) it’s about Pope Francis’ U.S. visit, which begins today!! (2) It mentions names!

If you have little ones and can read it out loud to them, I know they’d love it (as will you). And it has fun and hilarious pictures too!

Do any of you know Pope Francis? (!!) Or do you know someone who does? I KNOW he would LOVE this post, please pass it on to anyone who may be able to point it in the right direction! It’s called “Papa!” ❤

Baby name consultant: Not-so-normal Catholic names

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A mama wrote to me asking for suggestions for not-so-normal Catholic names. I don’t have permission to share her name or her children’s names, but I did want to share my response, and get any other suggestions from all of you.

(1) Last names as first names
I often see in name books certain saints’ last names used as girl’s first names, and often with the note/disclaimer “mostly used by Roman Catholic families” or similar, which I always think is cool. Some of these are: Liguori, Majella, Vianney, Clairvaux, and Piamarta (which I think translates as “holy Martha,” which is kind of cool). The associated saints for those are St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Gerard Majella, St. John Vianney, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. John Piamarta. I’ve referred to the blog My Child I Love You several times before because of their awesome taste in names — two of their girls are Vianney and Clairvaux, and they’d considered Talbot at one time as well, for Bl. Matt Talbot.

There are some saints’ last names that are used for boys, too. Xavier is a great example, although it’s not so unusual anymore. And I think you would want to be a little careful, because some (like those mentioned above) are used almost exclusively for girls, even though they’re male saints’ last names. Some good ones for boys might include: Kolbe (St. Maximilian Kolbe), Campion (St. Edmund Campion), Rice (Bl. Edmund Ignatius Rice), Bosco (St. John Bosco) (Grace just named her baby Bosco!), Jogues (St. Isaac Jogues, said in French like Joe with a G on the end, but in American English I’ve only ever heard it said like Joe with a “GZ” on the end).

There are a whole bunch more here, both in the post and in the comments.

(2) Marian apparition sites
Another kind of name I see used from time to time for girls is the names of places Mary appeared. Like: Lourdes, Liesse, Salette (from “La Salette”), Fatima, Guadalupe (actually used for both boys and girls). Liesse is a new discovery for me, and I’ve just been loving it.

(3) Words (feasts, adjectives, nouns) that give off a Catholic vibe
This sometimes works better within the context of siblings with Catholicky Catholic names, but consider, for girls: Vesper, Eden, Trinity, Pieta. And for boys: Roman, Paschal, Emmaus, Tiber, Creed, Boon. These came from this post (including the comments, nice suggestions offered).

(4) Catholic names from other languages
This would make them “not-so-normal” only from an American standpoint, but that can be good enough. Like, for girls: Belén (Spanish for Bethlehem), Zelie (French, for St. Therese’s mom, who will be canonized next month), Inessa (a Russian [I think?] form of Agnes), Pilar (from a Spanish title for Our Lady), Paloma (Spanish for “dove”), Brid (form of Bridget, said “breed”), Caoimhe/Keeva (just one example of the million unusually spelled Irish names). For boys: Cruz and …. I’m blanking on more! I keep thinking of Xavier, which just isn’t uncommon enough.

(4) Other
Then I just started going through The Catholic Baby Name Book and my own head, trying to find or remember unusual saints’ names I’ve heard, and came up with, for girls: Quiteria (I actually know a mom who was considering this for her daughter), Amata, Keziah/Cassia (biblical), Pia (though I think Piamarta works better because it doesn’t focus so much on the “pee” sound. So unfortunate, because Pia’s a sweet little name).

And for boys: Athan (like Ethan, but not — I believe he was a Welsh saint), Inigo/Eneco (St. Ignatius of Loyola’s birth name; also The Princess Bride!), Ephraim/Efrem (not terribly obscure, but rare), Ivo (more popular in England/Europe I think than here), Aaro (Finnish for Aaron), Eleazar (form of Lazarus).

What do you all think? What names can you add that fit the criteria of “not-so-normal Catholic names”?

Funny pronunciation video

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I linked to this a while ago, but my mom sent it to me recently again, and since one of my new capabilities since I upgraded is embedding video, I wanted to try it out. The recent birth announcement for Molly Róisín made me think of it — the pronunciation of Róisín is discussed/demonstrated (hilariously!), as well as a bunch of my other (admittedly difficult) faves (from YouTube).

Mary’s genealogy; and Joachim and Eli

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While writing up the post about Jesus’ genealogy the other day, I started wondering about Mary’s. I found this article, which sort of blew my mind: Why isn’t Joachim mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy?

Basically, the idea is that the genealogy as listed in the Gospel of Matthew (the one I referred to in my Jesus’ genealogy post) is believed to be that of Joseph, which shows Jesus’ legal lineage, and his claim to the throne of David through his legal father. The genealogy presented in the Gospel of Luke, however, which is different than Matthew’s, is argued by some to be that of Mary, which shows Jesus’ natural lineage, and his claim to the throne of David through blood.

!!!!

One of things I found most fascinating is that some of the Church’s Big Thinkers argue that Mary and Joseph may have been first cousins. I’d never heard that before!

“Many of the Fathers maintained that Jacob and Heli [see below for more on Heli — he’s listed as Joseph’s father in Luke, as opposed to the Jacob listed in Matthew] were brothers and that, after Heli died childless (or, at least, without any sons), Jacob took Heli’s widow for his wife. Of her was born St. Joseph. Hence, according to the flesh, Joseph would be the son of Jacob only; but, according to legal right of inheritance, Joseph would be the son of Heli also. This explanation is certainly plausible, and enjoys the favor of many scholastic doctors as well (including St. Thomas Aquinas) …

If Heli is Joachim [see below for more on that], then we may presume that Joachim died without any sons. Joachim’s widow (presumably, a second wife other than St. Anne) would have married Jacob and bore him St. Joseph.”

So to answer the question posed in the article title, and alluded to in the quote above, another theory is that the Heli that’s listed as Joseph’s father in Luke actually refers to his father-in-law, Joachim:

“… we may follow the opinion of other scholars who maintained that Jacob (Joseph’s father) had died young and that Joseph became a quasi-adopted son of Heli/Joachim through his marriage to the Virgin – for this reason, then, Joseph is called son of Heli.

Whatever the intricate details, the central claim of this theory is that Joachim was called Heli and that this “nick-name” would have been common knowledge to those for whom St. Luke was writing. This opinion is said to have been held by St. Jerome, and is defended with great vigor by Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide. It was a common opinion that enjoyed the favor of many scholars from at least the 1400s up through the early 1900s …

We argue that Heli and Joachim are linguistically related, such that it would be very natural for a single man to go by these two names. Joachim seems to be a variant form of Eliacim, which is abbreviated as Eli, a variant of Heli. Hence, though the two names may at first appear quite different, there is a great linguistic similarity between Heli and Joachim.

In any case, there are many persons in the New Testament who are called by multiple names: Nathanael is called Bartholomew, Thomas is called Didymus, Cleophas is called both Clepas and Alphaeus (though this last is more debatable), Salome is called Mary (her full name being Mary Salome), et c.”

This is the genealogy as listed in Luke 3:23-38:

[God] (those in brackets were not listed in Matthew — he starts with Abraham)
[Adam]
[Seth]
[Enos]
[Cainan]
[Mahalaleel]
[Jared]
[Enoch]
[Methuselah]
[Lamech]
[Noah]
[Shem]
[Arphaxad]
[Cainan]
[Shelah]
[Eber]
[Peleg]
[Reu]
[Serug]
[Nahor]
[Terah]
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Judah
Perez
Hezron
Arni (Ram in Matthew)
Admin (missing in Matthew — maybe this was an admin mistake when transcribing? 😀 )
Amminadab
Nahshon
Sala (Salmon in Matthew)
Boaz
Obed
Jesse
David
Nathan (this is where the Lucan genealogy splits off from Matthew’s)
Mattatha
Menna
Melea
Eliakim
Jonam
Joseph
Judah
Simeon
Levi
Matthat
Jorim
Eliezer
Joshua
Er
Elmadam
Cosam
Addi
Melchi
Neri
Shealtiel (and picks it back up again)
Zerubbabel
Rhesa (and diverges again)
Joanan
Joda
Josech
Semein
Mattathias
Maath
Naggai
Esli
Nahum
Amos
Mattathias
Joseph
Jannai
Melchi
Levi
Matthat (despite the fact that Matthan is listed here in Matthew, and so I might have presumed it’s the same guy, the article I cite above says Matthan and Matthat are two different men)
Heli (Jacob listed as Joseph’s father in Luke)
Joseph

Also, St. Joseph is listed as eleven generations from Shealtiel in Matthew, while in Luke it’s twenty.

So interesting!

Another quick note about the possible Joachim/Heli connection — I’d only ever read the Behind the Name entry that says Joachim is a “Contracted form of JEHOIACHIN or JEHOIAKIM,” where Jehoiachin means “established by YAHWEH” in Hebrew, and Jehoiakim means “raised by YAHWEH.” This idea of it being “a variant form of Eliacim” was new to me, so I looked it up, and while I didn’t find that spelling I did find Eliakim, which means “God rises.” So indeed it does seem that Eliakim and Jehoiakim mean the same thing, or very nearly, and if it wasn’t for this bit of research today I never would have discovered that connection. What do you all think of Eliakim, possibly with the nickname Eli, OR Eli on its own, with the intention of it being a variant of Eliakim, as an honor name for Mary via her dad, as argued by the article cited above? Do you all find Eliakim/Eli more accessible than Joachim?

September CatholicMom.com column

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer

Ack! I posted a screen shot of this on Instagram like an hour ago intending to post here right away and then I was having a million difficulties with the computer and uploading the photo to here and cropping it correctly and then dinner and vacuuming and children shrieking for drinks!

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But here, now, finally, is my post about my post — my September column is up over at CatholicMom.com! It’s all about the Holy Name of Mary — the Feast, the power of the name, its meaning, and some forms of it. If you get a chance, hop on over and leave a comment!

Cate: Closet Catholic?

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So yesterday’s post about little Roman had me thinking about actress Cate Blanchett because she also has a son named Roman — Roman Robert, which is another totally fab alliterative combo — and then I was thinking about her other kids’ names (because I’ve long loved each one), and was so struck (again) by the heavy-hitting saintliness of the names that I had to look up whether or not she’s Catholic. Because who else would name their children:

Dashiell John
Roman Robert
Ignatius Martin
Edith Vivian Patricia

So we have:

I mean, really. The only one that doesn’t scream ROME! (figuratively or literally 😀 ) is Dashiell, and while his middle name mightn’t seem particularly faithy if he was an only child or if his sibs had different sorts of names, within the context of the other kids, allllll I see is St. John [whoever]. Also, apparently they named their first after Cate’s husband’s fave author Dashiell Hammett, who was baptized Catholic. So! (And now I feel like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where everything turns out to be originally Greek. “Kimono, kimono, kimono. Ha! Of course! Kimono is come from the Greek word himona, is mean winter. So, what do you wear in the wintertime to stay warm? A robe. You see: robe, kimono. There you go!” 😀 )

Also — did you know her full name? I only just read it and I’m dying, it’s goooorgeous: Catherine Élise (with the accent and all!). Her great taste in names is genetic, clearly. (Her sibs are Robert and Genevieve. It just gets better and better.) And I’m 1000% not surprised that her full name is so beautiful and classy, since she seems that way herself. (And parents, take heart: apparently “[s]he had a penchant for dressing in masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases during her teenaged years, shaving her head at one point.”)

Anyway, to answer the original question: It doesn’t seem as though she’s Catholic after all — she was actually included in a list of Atheist, Agnostic, or Non-Religious Actors and Directors. So lots of time spent today on a lovely lady who’s only connection to our blog is her (probably) inadvertent use of some amazing saint names! What do you all think of her name taste? Are you as surprised as I to see so many Catholicky Catholic names used by a non-Catholic family?