Month: January 2016

Ann or Anne?

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , , ,

I posted some photos of a beautiful stained glass window depicting St. Ann(e) on Instagram earlier this evening (here and here), and found it notable that “St. Ann” was written beneath her image, and then “In memory of Mrs. Anne Quinn” — both spellings on one window.

So I asked how many prefer Ann or Anne and have gotten several responses (Anne by a landslide, which was my grandmother’s spelling, and the one Anne Shirley vastly preferred, and the spelling I always unconsciously default to, though I’m delighted that one follower let us know her middle name is Ann, which is the spelling of my best friend from growing up’s middle name, and she’s an amazing person, so — good company!). I also posted a poll to Twitter and so far everyone’s voted for Anne (three people).

I looked them up, and Anne is the “French form of ANNA. In the 13th-century it was imported to England, where it was also commonly spelled Ann.” Indeed, Ann is described as the “English form of ANNE (1). In the English-speaking world, both this spelling and Anne have been used since the Middle Ages, though Ann became much more popular during the 19th century.” I checked out the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources to see if there was additional info, and discovered the name Tanneken! It’s a diminutive of Ann(e) — I’m loving it! It’s totally the kind of nickname/diminutive that I go nuts for.

Any of you who haven’t yet commented on IG or voted on Twitter — which spelling do you prefer and why?

I wrote about the Kimye baby for CatholicMom.com

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer , ,

Oh yes I did. Check it out:

The Naming of Saint West

catholicmom-01.20.16

(Isn’t that one of the nicest pictures of them you’ve ever seen? I love how soft and pretty her hair is, and how happy they look.)

I’d love to know what you think of the article! I’m a little bit controversial in it. (I mean, as controversial as Catholic baby naming can be.) One of you may have been quoted in it (not naming any names, I think you’ll you know you are. 😉 ).

 

 

Because you’re all such great prayer warriors

sanctanomina Baby on the way ,

Our friend Tommy Tighe, “The Catholic Hipster,” and his wife have shared sad news on Twitter (read up from the bottom):

tommy_tighe_baby-01.20.16

Please pray for Tommy and Karen and their other children, seeking intercession from Bl. James Alberione. ❤

Do you reserve names for later use?

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty ,

The consultation I posted on November 23 was for a family that had picked out Felicity for a girl — a beloved name, full of meaning for them — only to discover they were having a boy.

Grace commented, “My suggestion is Felix! Since she was really excited about Felicity’s meaning and saintly pedigree, Felix really seems the perfect alternative to me! Popular in the UK, Spain, and Germany, it definitely has a hip, continental thing about it while not being unusual or hard to pronounce, and the x-ending makes it flow very well into middle names beginning with either a vowel or a consonant! I think it’s super awesome for them,” which several of us agreed was a great suggestion.

Sarah commented, “We did this with our first. We loved Natalia for a girl, but he was a boy. Naming him Nathaniel kind of nixes a future Natalia. That said, we loved Nathaniel enough to where there are no regrets. I think it just depends on how much they love Felix. If it hits all the right notes, great. If Felicity still makes their heart sing and Felix is just okay, then I say save Felicity,” which I loved, especially this bit: “If Felicity still makes their heart sing and Felix is just okay, then I say save Felicity.”

I’d commented, “My only worry with Felix is that it knocks out Felicity for the future … which brings up a whole other issue, which maybe I’ll do a post on sometime — what are all your thoughts on reserving names for possible future babies? Have you/would you and why or why not? Felix now at the expense of Felicity later (potentially) is a perfect example …”

I have a small example of that in the naming of my own kids: The first name we decided on for a girl has been the same through all my pregnancies — it’s an honor name for my mom and my grandmother and it won’t change. The middle name has changed several times though, most often in order to honor my mother-in-law in different ways; we’ve also discussed variants of her name as a first name possibility for a second daughter. Then we decided to give our youngest boy a first name that was a variant of my mother-in-law’s name, which knocks out of consideration the variants of her name we’d considered for a first name for a girl. I felt the tiniest of twinges at our decision but really. Six boys, no girls — holding a name in reserve for a second girl seems kind of silly when a first girl hasn’t happened and may never. Also, like Sarah said, I love the male variant we chose for my youngest, so I don’t really miss the possibility of using the feminine variants.

I’d love to know what the rest of you think! Do you/have you/would you save names for future use that knock possibilities out of consideration for this baby right here right now?

 

 

 

Baby name consultant: Baby #5 from across the world

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Though I’ve done consultations for parents living outside of America, today’s the first time I’ve gotten to post one on the blog! Today’s mama is Chelsea from New Zealand, editor of Restless Press (which posted an interview with me last week) and blogger at Grow the Roses.

She and her husband Joseph are expecting their fifth baby on earth, little brother or sister to:

Zelie Rose
Gianna Beryl
Theodore Ignatius Tutonga
Dominic Joseph John

All of which are so my taste, I love them all!

Chelsea writes,

“With all of them we have a modern saint (last hundred or two hundred or so years, relatively recent canonisation). Zelie is named for St Zelie, Gianna for St Gianna Beretta Molla, Theodore for Blessed Theodore Romzha and St Ignatius (husband loved the name, and wouldn’t let it go so he got two saints), and Dominic for St Dominic Savio and St John Houghton (whose feast day he was born on, so that got added in as we couldn’t let that slip for a Houghton baby!).

For middle names we have done a family connected name, but we both come from huge families, with ancestry from all around the world so no shortage of options. Joseph’s grandmother comes from the Cook Islands (hence Tutonga). But there are also Scottish, Irish, Jewish (all old testament prophets), English, Polish, French … in the family. So chances are we find a name and its somewhere in the family tree! Girls we have seem to have gone with more romantic old fashioned names and boys with strong saints.”

I asked Chelsea about Tutonga, as the Cook Islands are completely unfamiliar to me, and I loved her response:

“The Cook Islands are in the middle of the Pacific. My husband’s grandmother was born there, raised in the Rarotonga royal household, but descends from the King of Atiu, an island about an hours flight from Rarotonga (the capital and biggest of the many islands). His grandfather was sent over to Rarotonga in the 1950s as the postmaster, when there weren’t many non-islanders over there, married his grandmother and brought her back to New Zealand and they’ve lived here ever since. My husband and I went over to Rarotonga and Atiu with his grandparents in 2007 for a big family reunion and learnt much of the history of the area and family. Atiu is where he proposed.

Names are passed down or given in their culture. My husband was never given a Cook Island name as a child, and while we were there his grandmother looked for a name for him … He was given the name Tutonga (which we gave to Theodore), who was the scout on the war boats as the Atiuans went from island to island.”

How cool is that? I love learning about new cultures, and learning about them through the lens of names is my favorite.

These are the names/saints Chelsea and Joseph are considering for this baby:

Antonia nicked Annie, for Blessed Antonia Mesina
Chiara, for Chiara Badano
Elodie, for St Alodia (Chelsea loves “french names, but not sure if fits with others or not”)
Marietta

Gabriel
Kolbe (but her hubs doesn’t care for it)

First off, my thoughts about Chelsea and Joseph’s current ideas:

I’d not known about Bl. Antonia Mesina until their email — what a girl! Definitely a great patron, and Annie as a nickname is awesome.

Chiara is one I would have suggested for them if they didn’t already have it on their list, I love her.

I think Elodie’s a great name for this family! It’s French, as is Zelie, and Theodore has some French usage, so I think it fits in fine.

Marietta surprised me! It’s a pretty name, and a pretty rare Marian variant currently, as far as I know — at least here in the U.S. — but not it’s not unknown. It also made me think of Majella — I wonder what they’d think of that? It’s used a decent amount as a girl’s name, after St. Gerard Majella. The pronunciation I believe is most prominent is mah-JEL-la, and it’s an anglicization of the Italian Maiella (my-EL-lah), which is also a really pretty option (though less recognizable as connected to a saint I think?).

I love Gabriel, I think it’s a great fit for this family.

Kolbe is great too, but since Chelsea’s hubs doesn’t care for it, I wonder if they would be interested in Colman? It’s totally different from Kolbe in that it’s not related to St. Maximilian and it’s not a surname, but the Kol- reminded me of Colman, and St. Colman is an Irish saint. Maybe?

I’m always a little less confident when doing a consultation for someone who’s not from America, as I have no idea what’s popular/common/outdated/ugly in New Zealand, for example. Also, I rely pretty heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book for inspiration about what names are similar to others in terms of style/feel/popularity, but it’s all based on American stats. Fortunately though, Catholic saints belong to the whole world! So hopefully these ideas are helpful. I came up with five for each gender (besides Majella and Colman listed above):

Girl

(1) Kateri
I’ll start with the girl name that I think might be least interesting to Chelsea and Joseph, as St. Kateri Tekakwitha is a Native American saint. But it’s one of the first names I thought of for them because here, families who have girls named Zelie and Gianna often have Kateri on their lists. Despite it being a Native American name, I don’t know of any other usage than by Catholics. Additionally, Kateri chose it when she was baptized because it was a variant of Katherine/Catherine and St. Catherine of Siena was her patron. So lots of good stuff going on with the name Kateri! Pronunciation is always an issue — I don’t know if there’s one particular way New Zealanders might say it, but here there are a few different acceptable pronunciations; I wrote about them (and Zelie and Gianna too!) here.

(2) Jacinta
Jacinta also has the same feel to me as Zelie, Gianna, and Kateri — I don’t know many people in English-speaking countries besides Catholics who use it. It’s one of my personal favorites, and my Confirmation name, love it.

(3) Madeleine, or Sophie, or Madeleine Sophie, or Magdalen(e)
Madeline was listed as similar to Dominic in the Baby Name Wizard, as was Sophia, and Sophia was listed as similar to Gabriel as well, all of which made me think of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat. I love both Madeleine and Sophie (I guess she went by Sophie, and her feast day in France is known as St. Sophie’s Day) and could see either/both working for this family. I like that it’s French, but not prohibitively so, if that makes any sense.

Madeleine made me think of Magdalen(e), as all the Madeline/leine names are variants of Magdalene. I think Magdalen(e) comes across as more obviously Catholic than does Madel(e)ine, and it allows for Maggie as a nickname, which is sweet, and reminds me of Chelsea’s idea of Annie for Antonia.

(4) Edith, Teresa, Benedicta
This was mostly inspired by the “relatively recent canonization” theme they have going on. St. Edith Stein is one of my favorites, and Edie is a really sweet nickname. If they didn’t care for Edith/Edie though, her religious name was Teresa Benedicta, so either Teresa or Benedicta would be great as well (and Teresa is also the spelling Mother Teresa used, which is great for a baby who will be born in the year she’s canonized; it’s also the spelling of St. Teresa of Avila. Lots of great Teresas!).

(5) Faustina (Faustine?)
Faustina is also inspired by the “recent canonization” idea. St. Faustina’s given name was actually Mary Faustina, which I also love for this family, especially since they don’t yet have a Marian first name for their girls. Since Chelsea likes French names, maybe they’d like to consider Faustine instead? The family in this post has a Faustine, so lovely!

Boy

(1) Xavier
As soon as I saw Kolbe on Chelsea’s list, I thought of Xavier. It’s a surname, and it’s Catholicky Catholic! Also, as a fun connection, after I’d already scribbled down Xavier as an idea for them, I looked up saints connected to New Zealand and discovered that St. Francis Xavier is its patron saint! I mean, come on. How cool and relevant!

(2) Edmund, Campion
I was particularly interested to find name ideas that went with the style/feel of Theodore, as I thought it struck me as just a little different than the other kids’ names, and I’m not even sure why. Edmund was listed in the BNW as a style match, and I thought it was a great suggestion because of St. Edmund Campion, such a great saint and patron! And he was canonized recently, in 1970.

St. Edmund, and Kolbe from their list, both made me also think of Campion as a first name idea. I’ve seen it used as a first name for boys, in honor of St. Edmund, and I’ve always liked the nickname Cam for a boy.

(3) Sebastian
Sebastian has a really gentlemanly feel to me, which reminds me of Theodore (Grace totally nailed it with naming two of her boys Sebastian and Theodore!), and of course it’s super saintly. The original St. Sebastian is definitely a favorite with the boys I know — they are all delightedly horrified by the images of St. Sebastian pierced by arrows. 😀 But he’s a pretty old saint, so I looked to see if there were any of more recent canonization, and discovered Bl. Sebastian Obeso Alario, beatified by Pope Benedict in 2012 — he was martyred during the Spanish Civil War.

(4) Blaise
St. Blaise is pretty old, but I think it’s a great name for a boy, since it sounds so fiery and speedy. Apparently, it’s also a French name, which I hadn’t realized, though Blaise Pascal makes sense of that. All of which means I had to suggest it, despite it not fitting into the “modern saint (last hundred or two hundred or so years, relatively recent canonisation)” parameters!

(5) Jasper, K/Casper/Caspar, Gaspar
Jasper was a surprise for me — apparently it’s a style match for Theodore and Edmund, which I wouldn’t have thought. I do love it — it’s the name traditionally associated with one of the Three Wise Men. K/Casper/Caspar and Gaspar are variants of it, so sometimes you’ll see those names given as the Wise Man instead of Jasper. Either way, I think they’re all great names! There are some recent Blesseds and Saints Gaspar/Caspar.

And those are all my ideas for Chelsea and Joseph’s littlest one! What do you all think? If any of you are from New Zealand or are familiar with the names in common use there, I’d be particularly interested in knowing if your impressions of the names are different from mine — are there any here that make you say, “Absolutely not!”?

Birth announcement: Beatrice Catherine!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , ,

I did a consultation for Liz and Kevin not too long ago, which would have been a public post if the baby had come a little late, but instead she came a little early! Liz emailed me today to let me know her baby girl has arrived, and she’s been given the gorgeous name … Beatrice Catherine!

Liz writes,

“She’s here! Based on all your suggestions and inspiration, we went with a name that  kind of found us!

Beatrice Catherine was born Jan. 14, 2016 at 6:16pm (8 days early!!!)
7 lbs. 1 oz, 19 in. long!

Her middle name is the namesake of her maternal grandmother, and her first name of course to honor the Saint of the same name and is inspired by the character, Beatrice, in Dante’s Paradiso, part of the Divine Comedy. Beatrice shows Dante heaven 🙂 The name also means ‘bringer of joy’ and with the 2015 we had last year, she truly has brought so much joy to us!!

Thank you so much for everything you do, you helped us so much!!“

Isn’t that just an amazing name?? I see Beatrice talked about, but I rarely see it chosen — I love seeing it! Beatrice joins big sisters:

Ava Elizabeth
Gwendolyn Marie

I just love this sister set! Ava, Gwendolyn, and Beatrice … *sigh* !!

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

beatrice_catherine

Beatrice Catherine

and her amazing-looking can’t-possibly-have-just-given-birth mama (!)

Spotlight on: Ruby

sanctanomina Spotlight , ,

Julie asked me to do a spotlight on Ruby, which I’ve been really loving in the last couple of years, so I’m delighted to do so! She was specifically hoping for faith-based references beyond the mentions in Proverbs in some translations referring to the value of Wisdom (3:15; 8:11; 20:15) and a good wife (31:10) as being greater than rubies (other translations say “corals,” “jewels,” and even “pearls” instead of rubies — this is a pretty good explanation of why).

This web site said, “The ruby has long been seen as the gem of passion, love, and courage for its vibrant red tone” and this site said rubies signify “friendship, fire, love, royalty, happiness, the opening of the heart,” all of which got me thinking about the courage and blood of Jesus and the courage and blood of the martyrs, and the Passion of Christ and His love for us, and His Sacred Heart, so I did a little research down that path and discovered several products with actual rubies used for Jesus’ heart (e.g., Sacred Heart medal; Sacred Heart with Ruby pendant), and several instances of “ruby” being used instead of “red” to describe the color of an object having to do with the Sacred Heart (e.g., Sacred Heart of Jesus Rosary with Ruby Crystal Beads; Sacred Heart Ruby Chaplet).

As for “ruby” and “red” being interchangeable, I found that “ruby” comes from the Latin ruber, meaning “red,” I loved this description of the reason behind red vestments:

“Red has a dual imagery: On one hand, red symbolizes the shedding of blood and is therefore used on Palm Sunday (when Christ entered Jerusalem to prepare for His death), Good Friday, any other commemoration of the Lord’s passion, the votive Mass of the Precious Blood, the days marking the martyrdom of the apostles (except St. John), and the feasts of other martyrs who offered their lives for the faith.

On the other hand, red also signifies the burning fire of God’s love. For this reason, red vestments are won on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and tongues of fire rested on their heads; for the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation; and for the votive Masses of the Holy Spirit.” (source)

I really wanted to find the significance of rubies in art, but couldn’t find anything — do any of you know?

So I’m totally loving the idea of Ruby for the Sacred Heart or for Jesus’ Passion and Death or for the martyrs, and I like that Ruby could also be sort of a Holy Spirit name, based on the red of the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles … using Ruby in these ways feels similar to the usage of Cora for the Sacred Heart, and Halle as part of Hallelujah: they require a little explanation but the intention behind the name is impeccable (and you know how I feel about intentions).

As I’ve mentioned before (here and here), I once saw Ruby used as a nickname for Rebecca and I fell head-over-heels for that first name/nickname combo! I thought of other ways of getting to Ruby as a nickname and came up with ideas like:

Rosa Beatrice
Ruth Abigail (although why you wouldn’t go with Ruthie is beyond me)
Roma Benedicta
Regina Kolbe

But I definitely think “just Ruby” could work with the beautiful connections I mentioned above.

What do you think of Ruby? Would you use it on its own as a given name, or would you prefer it as a nickname? Do you know any little girls named Ruby?

Professional athletes’ names

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty

I know you guys are sick to death of hearing about my love for Joachim, but I have a new question regarding it: As you all know, my husband refuses to budge on the name, and one of the reasons is the NBA player Joakim Noah. My brother, when he discovered that I liked the name, wrinkled his nose and also pointed to Joakim Noah as the reason he doesn’t like it. This is despite the fact that there are a million and one Joachims who play professional hockey and (European) football — those aren’t sports we follow, so they’re off the radar and do nothing to help my cause.

But then, my husband has jokingly (but maybe not?) suggested Donovan about a thousand times because Donovan McNabb used to be his team’s quarterback, and when I told my hubs I was going to suggest Tristan to my other brother and his wife for their little boy on the way, he told me he “doesn’t hate it” and that “Tristan Thompson is pretty well known right now as a basketball player.” So. Apparently that makes a previously not-okay name now okay. When I told my sister-in-law that, she said my brother agreed.

I know the men in my family are not the only ones who are like this — which professional athletes have impacted your baby naming either positively or negatively? I want to hear about them all, but I’m having a particularly hard time coming up with female athletes that have potential to interfere with a couple’s baby naming (other than Anastasia “Nastia” Liukin, who was the topic of quite a few name convos in my family of origin during her Olympics. I’m not pointing any fingers, but you know who you are).

 

 

Company name consultation

sanctanomina Housekeeping

Whoever found the blog today using the search term “catholic suggestions for company names” — if you’re still reading, email me! (sanctanomina (at) gmail (dot) com) I did a consultation a few months ago for a Catholic non-profit looking for a name, it was a lot of fun! I’d love to work on another one, if you’re interested!

“To give witness with joy and simplicity…”

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , ,

Chelsea is a reader from New Zealand (!) and also the editor of Restless Press, which has the amazing “vision to be a modern design, magazine inspired, Australasian based website, containing real life and popular culture from a Catholic Christian perspective, across the spectrum of charisms.” She also gave this great little snippet about it on her blog Grow the Roses, including this quote from Pope Francis, which she said summed up the Restless Press mission quite well:

“To give witness with joy and simplicity to who we are and what we believe in.”

Amazing mission, right? She asked me a few weeks ago if I would mind doing a little interview about Sancta Nomina, why and how I got started doing it, and I’m really humbled and overjoyed that she would think I fit in with her mission, how beautiful and wholesome.

The interview posted on Sunday — here it is for your reading pleasure! 🙂

Naming Catholic Babies: Kate from Sancta Nomina

So cool, right?! And get this — she called me “a baby name guru”!! Seriously guys, my life is made. Never in a million years have I ever thought others would think my obsession with love for names would get me anywhere. 😀 Nor did I think I’d get to connect with people from all over the world who love the names of our faith as I do! My heart swells, “my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” God is so good. ❤