Month: February 2016

Baby name consultant: Baby Girl needs an obviously Catholic name

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Jaclyn and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little girl! She’ll join big siblings:

Lillian Charlotte
Olivia Kathryn
Henry Sullivan

Which is just such a lovely, elegant set. ((sighing with happiness))

Jaclyn writes,

“We have really had a reawakening and increased love for our faith in the last few years, so it’s important to us that that name is a saint (or derivative) or otherwise Catholic in nature…we want someone to hear her name and just know she’s Catholic

We are currently considering Lucia/Lucy, Clare, Gianna, and Azelie/Zelie (though we really want your input on how a Midwestern American would say the name!)

We have always liked Madeline, Eleanor, and Cora as well but they didn’t feel “Catholic” enough. We liked Cecilia but ruled it out as baby has a cousin named that.”

First off, I think Jaclyn’s kiddos’ names are full of faith-y significance! And they’re very consistent style-wise, as are Madeline, Eleanor, and Cora. I’m interested that they don’t think they’re “Catholic” enough — I do know what she means I think, and I have some super duper Catholicky Catholic suggestions below — but at the same time they all can hold their own in the world of saint names: St. Madeleine Sophie Barat is amazing; Eleanor is often given as a form of Helen(a), and St. Helena is wonderful; I’ve seen Cora used recently in reference to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (see the comments on this post especially) — all heavy hitters!

But there are definitely names that are clearly, obviously Catholic to most people. I love how Jaclyn said, “we want someone to hear her name and just know she’s Catholic” — a beautiful hope! I guess there will always be someone who just isn’t familiar enough with Catholicism and its names to get right away that their daughter’s name is a Catholic name, but some that I think are pretty universally known include:

  • Lourdes
  • Therese, Theresa, Teresa (especially Therese, I think, but they’re all great)
  • Maria, Marie
  • Mary+[something] (Mary doubles tend to come across as nun-like, which I love)
  • Bernadette
  • Regina
  • Philomena
  • Rosary (there was a baby on the blog last spring named Rosary and I LOVE it!)
  • Rosemary, Rosemarie
  • Immaculata, Immaculee
  • Cecilia
  • Benedicta
  • Scholastica
  • Magdalene/Magdalena

Others that definitely ARE very Catholic, and almost exclusively so, but might be less likely than those listed above to come across that way, just because of having other associations as well or being unfamiliar, include:

  • Grace
  • Gemma
  • Catherine
  • Elizabeth
  • Margaret
  • Lucy, Lucia
  • Jacinta
  • Felicity
  • Clairvaux
  • Vianney (the Lourdes mentioned above has sisters Clairvaux and Vianney!)
  • Josephine
  • Genevieve
  • Evangeline
  • Karoline (that “K” points right to St. John Paul II)
  • Avila
  • Ava when paired with Maria as the middle name or as a double first name — like “Ave Maria”
  • Azelie, Zelie (I don’t think anyone else is using these but Catholics, but they’re so unfamiliar that I don’t think enough people know where this comes from)
  • Kateri
  • Gianna
  • Chiara
  • Clare
  • Perpetua (I’ve seen Pia and Pippa as nicknames for this, so sweet!)
  • Pia
  • Frances, Francesca

And then certainly there are a million other names that have saintly connections, but are so widely used by Catholics and non-Catholics that they don’t have an exclusively Catholic feel. Some people love that they just get to choose their favorite names and not worry that they’re saintly because so many (most?) names that Americans use today can trace back to a saint somehow. But when you want an obviously Catholicky Catholic name, I think a name from the lists above are your best bet.

So the names this family is considering — Clare, Lucy/Lucia, Gianna, and Azelie/Zelie — are all ones I’d consider to have that really Catholic feel they want. Clara/Clare and Lucy/Lucia are especially really similar to other names they like, style-wise.

As for their question regarding the pronunciation of Zelie, I’m guessing the pronunciation zellie, like rhyming with Kelly, would be their best bet. The Lourdes, Vianney, and Clairvaux sisters I mentioned above also have a sister named Zellie, spelled that way, which makes their pronunciation really obvious — maybe that would help? I have seen other pronunciations for it too, which I wrote about here.

It was fun to put together the lists above of names that are likely to be recognized as belonging to a Catholic girl, but of course I’m sure they don’t all fit the particular taste and style of this family. So I went through the Baby Name Wizard, as I almost always do for consultations, and looked up all the names they’ve used and liked, looking for patterns and overlap, and thought these names (which are included in the lists above) are the closest fit:

(1) Grace (or Mary Grace)
Grace seems a great fit for Jaclyn and her husband! It’s similar in style to their other kids’ names, and has such beautiful meanings, from the grace of God to Our Lady of Grace. Lovely! I especially like that I consider Lillian and Olivia to be Marian names (lilies are associated with her, and another of her titles is Our Lady of Olives), and Grace would fit right in with that. It is quite popular though, which they may not like, as the more popular a name the less any one association sticks to it, so I wondered if they might like Mary Grace? They could still call her just Grace, or Gracie, but the full Mary Grace definitely has Catholic cachet.

(2) Mary, or Mary+, or Maria
Mary on its own is being used less and less these days, which makes it kind of a bold yet very traditional and very Catholic choice. Mary could take Molly as a nickname, as Molly started out as a nickname for Mary, as did Polly; the nickname Mae would be sweet too — I’m offering all of these in case Jaclyn and her hubs like the idea of Mary as the first name but not as the everyday call name, if that makes sense.

Putting Mary in front of any names immediately “Catholicizes” it, I think, so I wondered if they’d consider something like Mary Madeline (reminds me of both Mary Margaret and Mary Magdalene, which are such traditional Catholic combos!), Mary Eleanor, Mary Cora … all so pretty! The middle names could be the call names, or both names all the time — it seems a good way to try to work in names they really like but want to be more heavy hitting faith-wise. Mary Elizabeth is another pretty combo, I know one who goes by M.E. (sounds like Emmy, so cute!). Sophia was a name that is really similar to a lot of names Jaclyn and her hubs like — maybe Mary Sophia? Maria Sophia? Which reminds me that Maria is a great option on its own, and Maria Teresa or Maria Therese would be really pretty too.

(3) Elizabeth, maybe nicknamed Zelie?
Another way of getting around the Zelie pronunciation issue is to use it as a nickname for a more common name. It’s kind of a crazy idea! But I did a consultation for blogger Jenny Uebbing a few months ago, and one of her readers suggested Elizabeth with the nickname Zelie, which incidentally I had just thought of myself before even reading it and thought was brilliant, and a reader here recently reminded me of it as well.

Even just Elizabeth on its own would be a lovely choice (or as Mary Elizabeth, as mentioned above) as it’s definitely saintly and Catholic — The Visitation is considered a really pro-life mystery, because of John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb for joy — so I always think of Elizabeth as a really pro-life and even Marian name, in a sense. But I know it’s been used so much that it might not come across as Catholic enough.

(4) Ava Maria
Ava showed up in my research quite a bit as a name that’s similar to others this family likes. On its own it’s certainly lovely, but pretty popular these days, and I think most people would think of Ava Gardner or other associations, but if it’s paired with Maria as a double first name, I think it’s really very Catholic sounding, as Ava Maria sounds so much like Ave Maria. It could even be hyphenated (Ava-Maria) or make it one name (Avamaria or AvaMaria).

(5) Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn/Magdalena
Finally, I wondered what Jaclyn and her hubs would think of Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn/Magdalena? It’s the origin of Madeline/Madeleine/Madelyn — they’re all variants of Magdalen(e) — but I think I’m correct in thinking that Magdalen(e) et al. come across as extra Catholic. With Magdalen(e) (or whatever spelling) they could have the nickname Maggie, which is the kind of thing I love — a bolder, more offbeat given name with a more accessible, familiar nickname. (Since they’re thinking of Clare, I was also reminded of this little Clare Magdalene, which is a combo I love!)

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Lillian, Olivia, and Henry’s little sister?

Birth announcement: Bennett Michael!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , ,

One of my dearest friends (bridesmaid-in-my-wedding kind of friend) and her husband have welcomed their second baby on earth, and have given him the amazingly handsome name of … Bennett Michael!

One of the most fun parts of his naming is that she and her husband keep their name choices secret until the birth, but she revealed to me not too long ago that they’d actually first heard the name they’d chosen for a boy from one of you readers! So I was a little obsessive about going through old posts and trying to figure out what I thought the name could be, and I totally called it — I even told my husband, just so I’d have a witness! Haha!

So when she texted me the wonderful news about my wonderful newest pseudo-nephew, I was dancing for joy for all sorts of reasons. 😀 ❤ ❤ ❤

Bennett joins big brother Luke Francis, and I don’t yet know if they’re going to call him Ben or Benny but I love every single aspect of brothers Luke and Bennett. Fantastic taste you guys!! Lots of love and congratulations again, and happy birthday Baby Bennett!!

bennett_michael

Bennett Michael

(Fun fact: Bennett’s mama is one of several really close friends of mine from college, and between the five of us we have three girls and lots of boys — Bennett is boy #16!!!)

(Now to go obsessively try to figure out their girl name, which is a totally futile attempt because I know she won’t tell me. 😛 )

 

Birth announcement: Marielle Elise!

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Do you all remember the spotlight post on Ruby? Julie had asked for it, since she and her husband were considering it for their second baby girl — she emailed me to let me know her little one has arrived, and has been given the gorgeous name … Marielle Elise!

Julie writes,

“Hi Kate!

I am the reader that had requested the spotlight on Ruby. You asked if I would share our final choice, and I would love to! We didn’t end up choosing Ruby for the birth certificate, but this little girl came out with bright strawberry blonde hair so it has been floating around as a nickname. 🙂 I tend to be very “nick-namey” so she also goes by Mellie, Ellie, Elle, and Mari-Berrie … Marielle Elise was born in early February! (Pronounced Mary-El)

Our older daughter is Rosalie Gabrielle so you can tell that we gravitate toward French monikers. We liked the idea of both girls having connections to our Blessed Mother via at least one name. Then it happens that my favorite mysteries of the Rosary are the joyful, so their middle names tie into people present at the Annunciation and the Visitation. Both full names have numerous family connections as well.

I have suffered medical complications since her birth so I would appreciate any spare prayers you might have. Thank you and thank you for your blog. Keep writing!“

You all are such great prayer warriors, I know you’ll remember Julie in your prayers. And how wonderful are her girls’ names?! I love that both have a Marian name and a Joyful Mystery name — that’s pretty Master Class naming right there! And I love that Ruby’s still possibly a contender as a nickname — I love that, in Marielle’s case, it would be for her hair, how lovely!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Marielle!! (And remember Julie in your prayers!)

marielle_elise

Marielle Elise

(Can you believe that sweet smiley face on such a tiny girl? ❤ )

 

Spotlight on: Ludmila

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Grandparents — especially grandmothers — have been on my mind this week. Feb. 20 marked the 17th anniversary of my paternal grandmother’s death; Feb. 23 was the 25th anniversary of my maternal grandmother’s; and my mother-in-law — my boys’ grandmother — is rapidly being called home, it won’t be long. Please pray for her and for our family.

In light of all this, today’s spotlight is perfect. Months ago Amanda emailed me this image from the Magnificat:

ludmila

And said,

“I love the story! It seems like more and more of these parent/grandparent saint stories are emerging lately, which makes perfect sense. The saints had to learn from someone!“

And I was so struck by that thought — the impact of grandparents on the faith of their grandchildren — that it’s stayed with me all this time. My boys have been very very blessed to have two grandmothers who have contributed in immense ways to their faith formation, as well as a living grandfather (my dad) who’s a great model of Catholic manhood, and a grandfather in heaven (my father-in-law) who I know has been praying for all of us, and who himself was also a great model of Catholic manhood. And of course we can’t forget our dear St. Anne, Grandmother to the Divine, who holds the Sancta Nomina community close.

But — as much as I’m loving the story of St. Ludmila — that name! Oof! So what can we make of Ludmila. I think the secret lies in the second part of her name: Mila’s got a totally current look and sound, and according to behindthename the -mila element of Ludmila means “gracious, dear.” How lovely! Another spelling is Ludmilla, so –> Milla, a la actress Milla Jovovich, whose given name is actually Milica (said MEE-lee-tsah), from the same element that renders -mila in Ludmila; behindthename says Milica was “originally a diminutive of names that began with that element.” Lida is also given as the Czech diminutive of Ludmila, and the comments on behindthename’s entry for Ludmila list Luda, Lulu, Lidka, and Lila as nicknames for it (among other more ethnic options) — Lulu and Lila seem particularly suited to today’s tastes. The DMNES has an entry for Luda, which is from the same word as the Lud- part of Ludmila, and says that Luda can be a pet form of any Slavic name beginning with that element. Could be cute?

I’m also tagging this as a possible Christmas name, since St. Ludmila’s grandson Vaclav/Wenceslaus, who she had so much influence over in terms of teaching the faith, is the King Wenceslaus from the carol “Good King Wenceslaus.” Cool, right?

What do you all think of Ludmila? Would you consider using it as either a first or a middle? Or would Mila/Milla/Lulu/Lila/Luda be more the way you’d go, if you wanted to name a little girl after this saint? Do you know anyone with this name? What do they think of it? Do they go by a nickname?

“Father in heaven, through the intercession of St. Ludmila, bless all grandparents who seek to share the faith with their grandchildren.” ❤

 

My weirdo namey mind strikes again

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty

I know that some of you do this, I’m sure of it (right? right?), but I also know that it’s really weird, and I think you all are the only ones I can tell that might appreciate it!

I’ve been musing on the names Benjamin and Gwendolyn  for a while (since the Fountains of Carrots podcast, because Haley has a Benjamin and a Gwen) and how cool it is that they have the exact same number of syllables and rhythm and a rhyming first syllable and ending syllable but are completely different otherwise. I really love that kind of thing — names that are totally different but have a connecting thread. A real-life example that I love is someone I know whose kids are A!dan, Laur3n, and Mad3lyn — I love that all of them have the same sound at the end of their names, but spelled three different ways (-an, -en, -yn). The latter two are twins, and I think they’re names are awesomely matched in terms of each seeming very much their own but subtly connected through that last syllable at the same time.

Anyway, whenever I think of two names that I think really go well together for specific reasons — like syllables+rhythm+similar-sounding beginning and/or ending syllables — I like to try to think of a third, to make a nice group of three. It’s one of the reasons I loved so much the imaginary triplets post of a while back.

So yes, I have spent a ridiculous amount of my free mental energy thinking of the perfect name to go with the hypothetical sibling set of Benjamin and Gwendolyn. And then … I got it:

Hendrickson.

Benjamin, Gwendolyn, and Hendrickson.

It’s beyond weird how much satisfaction it’s given me to consider these three names together.

 

Pope told parents to name their daughters after Mary?

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , ,

Whew! My head is spinning after yesterday’s post! You all had so many good thoughts! I do want to let you know that my computer (or WordPress?) has been acting up recently and I can’t always interact with the comments the way I want to — sometimes I’m not able to “like” them in the notifications, sometimes I miss them completely … just this morning I started writing down all the posts that had new comments so I could go back to each one to like all the comments (since the notifications thing wasn’t working) and decided I just can’t — it would take me all morning! But I love each one of your comments, I love all the feedback, I love that this blog is exactly what I hoped it would be when I started it — a searchable database of Catholic name info. You’re all the best! ❤

I also have some more thoughts on yesterday’s post, but I think I need to sit with it all for a while more and organize my thoughts. Stay tuned!

So this is the post I was going to post yesterday before I got sidetracked by Abby’s post. I was doing some name research the other day (you don’t say) ( 😉 ), chatting with some family members about family names, and one of my cousins said she thought, in reference to the many Marys in our family of a certain age (mostly born in the 40s, though there are a bunch of older relatives named Mary as well), that the Pope had told parents to name their daughters after Mary.

You know me, I was immediately like a prairie dog up on my hind legs, totally alert. How interesting! I’d never heard of such a thing — and I assume whatever truth there is to it, if any, is surely not an official statement but perhaps an informal comment, or perhaps something like, “Mary is a wonderful role model for your daughters” which got mistranslated into, “Name your daughters after Mary.” So I took to the internet, searching mostly for anything similar attributed to Pope Pius XII, who was Pope right when the women we were talking about were born and named (1939-1958), and who was pretty Marian, what with his Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and his definition of the dogma of the Assumption, but wasn’t able to find anything. My history-teacher friend and suggested maybe it was the local bishop and not the Pope, so I looked for info about him — also very devoted to Our Lady — but couldn’t find anything like what I was looking for. A priest friend suggested maybe Pope Benedict XV, who was Pope from 1914 to 1922 and who both instituted the old Code of Canon Law (1917), which said that Catholic parents must give their babies saints’ names and if a baby didn’t have a saint’s name the priest was to give one at baptism, and also authorized the Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, so he was namey *and* Marian, and I could see that being the source of this belief. But again, I wasn’t able to find anything official (I did find this interesting article while searching, which talks about naming requirements and practices among different groups, including Catholics. It’s not accurate Catholic-wise, but an interesting read nonetheless).

I also found this article, which says that “For very many years the Catholic Church in Ireland would not baptise a child unless the name chosen was that of a saint or, in the case of a girl, was a version of Mary,” but it doesn’t cite any official source — I’m thinking like any kind of Church documents or regulations that were actually written down and not just unwritten local custom. (Written local custom would be fine!)

Have any of you heard this idea before? Can you shed any light on all this?

Names “foreign to Christian sentiment”

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I had a different post in mind for today — I was actually almost done writing it — when I read today’s Baby Name of the Day over at Appellation Mountain: Lucifer. I had some thoughts that I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to share, so here we are!

I thought Abby did a great job with the post, providing lots of info about the name Lucifer’s place in history, religion, and current pop culture. Lucifer does have a beautiful meaning, and my 11yo was actually asking me recently about it, the fact that its meaning of “light bearer” or similar is full of faith significance, so why can’t we use it? I explained to him that the Church teaches that babies must not be given names which are “foreign to Christian sentiment.” No matter what Lucifer means, it is the deepest depth of all names that are “foreign to Christian sentiment.” There’s just no getting around that one.

My son and I went on to talk more about such things, and I told him that I thought the list of names that are “foreign to Christian sentiment” was one of those things that changes with time and culture — like Adolf (who’s in the news today for other reasons, oh my). At one time it would have been totally fine to use for Catholic babies — it’s a saint’s name, and before WWII had a decent amount of use so a lot of us probably have Adolfs in our family trees, but now I would definitely consider it to be “foreign to Christian sentiment.” Do you agree? I don’t feel that way about its variants though — Adalwolf, Adolphus, Adolfo are all far enough removed from Hitler in my mind that I wouldn’t think twice if I heard of a baby named those names. For my time and culture (21st century English-speaking northeast America), I don’t think Adalwolf, Adolphus, and Adolfo are “foreign to Christian sentiment.” But is Hitler known as Adolfo amongst those who speak Italian? Do Italians have the same reaction of fear and horror when they hear Adolfo as I do when I hear Adolf? If so, perhaps Adolfo is a name “foreign to Christian sentiment” to them in their time and culture. And maybe one day it will all change again, when some amazing Adolf comes along — perhaps a great saint — and the passage of time and the brilliance of the new Adolf will dim our recollections of Hitler’s evil.

Interestingly, the thought that “perhaps … the passage of time and the brilliance of the new Adolf will dim our recollections of Hitler’s evil” is, I think, definitely something to be feared happening to the name Lucifer. It’s got a great meaning; it’s got a current appearance/sound with the Luc- beginning and its similar rhythm to Christopher (which, interestingly, has a similar meaning: “Christ bearer”); it’s sort of exotic because it’s unusual and edgy because of its associations, which are the kind of characteristics that are catnip to certain modern-day parents. Like the parent from this comment from last year who wanted to name his daughter Lilith *because of* the dark associations. If one of the 14 boys who were named Lucifer last year were to become a saint, I could see the name quickly becoming a possibility, even among parents of faith. Would that be a good thing? Names matter, and saying the name of the devil repeatedly and without worry seems very worrisome indeed. I would imagine a holy person who was given that name at birth would change his name, and then he’d be St. So-and-So. (And then people like me would research the heck out of all names associated with him so as to have lots of options for naming a baby after him, including his birth name. Oh dear.)

Anyway. I’ve said a million times and written that for me, “The intention behind the bestowing of the name can be as important — or more so — than the name’s actual origin or meaning or other specifics.” I hold really firm and fast to that notion — except in this case. In this case, intention is altogether completely trumped by the “other specifics.” I say again, and Abby agreed: Lucifer is not an okay name for a baby.

What other names can you think of besides Lucifer, Adolf, and Lilith that would be on the “foreign to Christian sentiment” list?

 

Baby name consultant: Saintly, Italian, meaningful name for Baby Girl

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You can see how much better I did at staying off the computer last week than I did at Christmastime! 😀 I hope you all had a great week, and I’m glad to be back!

In today’s consultation, Elizabeth and her husband are expecting their second baby, a girl! She’ll join her big brother:

George Francesco

Amazing combo, right? I love that George is handsome and normal-ish, and then pow! You’re hit with an amazing and unexpected middle name! And a fun little tidbit is that I recently did a poll on Twitter — what’s your favorite way to name a baby after Pope Francis — and I included both George (for his birth name Jorge) and Francesco!

papal_name_poll-02.14.16

So yeah, George Francesco is just a great name all around. 🙂

Elizabeth writes,

“We would be so delighted if you were to weigh in on our current naming quandary … I’m Italian and my husband is part Scots-Irish … We like names that are fairly traditional (although we could possibly be swayed by a really great not-so-traditional Catholic name), saintly, meaningful, and not too popular. And there has to be an Italian name in there somewhere. I love love love our son’s name and hope to be equally in love with our daughter’s name.

A little background on our son’s naming: “George” is a family name … We love that it’s strong, traditional, not very popular, a saint’s name, and a family name. “Francesco” we chose for several reasons: George was born just a few months after Pope Francis’s election (fall 2013), St. Francis of Assisi is one of my favorite saints, and [there’s a connection to my maiden name as well]. Other potential first names were Gianluca, Luca, Henry, and James, and even though George was the front-runner even before we knew we were expecting, we didn’t officially bestow the name until he was a few hours old. (Funny story about “George”: I woke one morning in July 2013 and saw on Facebook that Duchess Kate was in labor, and I immediately thought “Oh, no, the baby is going to be a boy and they’re going to name him George, and it’s going ruin everything!” Well, it didn’t ruin everything, but I have noticed the name becoming tad more popular lately. 🙂 )

So, for our daughter, we definitely want an Italian middle name (or even first name but “at least” a middle name). We’d like the Italian part of her name to be obviously Italian (i.e. not something that could be easily confused for another origin or that has a widely accepted American pronunciation, for example Maria or Veronica). If we go with an Italian first name, we want it to be fairly easily pronounceable in English, without having to “put on” an Italian accent to say it properly.”

I always think of really Italian names as “confection” names — beautifully delicious. I was excited to come up with some ideas!

Some more thoughts:

“We both love “Francesca” as a first name (for many of the same reasons we love Francesco), but we feel a little weird about using it so soon after naming our son George Francesco… maybe if we have another little girl in the future?

We want our daughter to have a strong saint to connect with (and whose feast day we can celebrate as her “name day”). For George, we celebrate St. Francis’s feast day as his name day, because we love St. Francis and love that there’s so much more to read/learn/emulate about him (in comparison to St. George). I hope that at least one of the saints our daughter is named for will be that way too. I don’t want her to be disappointed if there’s not much to know about her saint or most of what we “know” is as much folklore as fact. (One reason I like modern day saints so much.)“

The names Elizabeth and her hubs are considering include (the asterisks are the current favorites):

*Beatrice (Elizabeth’s grandmother is nicknamed Bea)
*Mary
*Lucy
*Lucia
*Bernadette
Josephine
Emilia
Gianna
Alice (“I’ve always written this one off because “alice” means “anchovy” in Italian, but I recently saw that it’s in the top ten names in Italy, so I guess no one cares“) 😀
Claire/Clara
Giulia/Julia/Giulianna
Jane
Alessandra
Eleanor/Elena

And their favorite middle name ideas (largely dependent upon first name):

Lucia
Chiara
Benedetta
Maristella
Luisa (“I have a great-grandfather Louis/Luigi“)
Rose/Rosa (“I’m afraid Rosa isn’t obviously Italian enough to work with an English-language first name“)
Marie (“my and my mom’s middle name; but would only work if she had a very Italian first name; I wish Maria were a good alternative, but most people associate it with Spanish-language origins more than Italian, at least around here“)

Elizabeth also said she’d love to honor St. Anne in some way but is struggling with ways to do so that fit their style and taste:

“I’ve considered Marianna as a middle name (Mary and her mother!), but neither [of us are] sold on it. And it also has the potential to sound not Italian.”

Also:

“If we name her Beatrice, we could “get around” the Marian dilemma by using a middle name that starts with ‘v’ — so her initials would be B.V.M. I can’t think of that many Italian ‘v’ names that really speak to me, but I’ve thought about Valentina, Viviana, Vincenza…?“

Okay, so I love their list of girl names. Beatrice seems so perfect — it can be Italian, but not necessarily. I also LOVE their idea of using a V middle name for initials BVM for Our Lady. Brilliant! I like Valentina, Viviana, and Vincenza, and another idea is Vittoria — a friend was telling me recently about Our Lady of Victory — Vittoria could be a nice nod to her! It seems that the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was originally the feast of Our Lady of Victory, after the victory of Lepanto, which Our Lady of the Rosary points to as well. Kind of like two Marian titles in one name!  I also like that Vittoria is specifically Italian, as opposed to Victoria, which is used across multiple ethnicities but not Italian. Do you all have other ideas for Italian V- middle names?

Mary, Lucy, and Bernadette are all great — impeccably saintly, beautiful, feminine.

It would be so great to get St. Anne in there! Marianna is a beautiful idea, but if they’re not loving it, I wonder what they would think of Annetta? Behind the Name says it’s a diminutive of Anna with exclusively Italian usage. I could see it being beautiful as either a first or middle name. Mary Annetta? Lucy Annetta? Beatrice Annetta? (Probably not Bernadette Annetta!)

I have similar feelings to Elizabeth about Francesca — gorgeous name! But perhaps for a later girl?

From the rest of their list, Alice, Claire/Clara, Jane, and Eleanor seem great matches for the style of George. All beautiful! Gianna, Guilia/Julia/Giulianna, Alessandra, and Elena definitely skew more Italiany Italian. George and Mary or George and Alice will likely come across as very English, while George and Gianna or George and Alessandra (especially George and Alessandra) will be more surprising. I like both options! I might suggest Elizabeth and her husband give a quick thought to how they see the rest of their children’s names playing out, if they have more. Do they want to feel like they’ve set an English bookish vibe and then if they choose something more Italian sounding it’ll sound out of place? Or do they like the freedom that comes with choosing a different style name from George right now for their second baby, which preserves the possibility of both English-y and Italian names in the future?

I loved their list of Italian middle names! Several of them were ones I’d scribbled down as I’d read Elizabeth’s email initially, before I’d gotten to that part (especially Lucia and Chiara). Benedetta, Maristella, Luisa, Rose/Rosa are all beautiful … I wonder if an Italian Rose variant like Rosetta, Rosina, or Rosella would appeal to them? I love that Marie is Elizabeth and her mom’s middle name — maybe the variants Marietta and Mariella would be good to consider? I like that they contain “Marie” within them, but they also have that Italian twist.

I had a few more ideas for super Italian middle names:
Agostina
Amalia (I know someone from Italy named Amalia)
Annamaria (despite that both elements could seem Spanish on their own, put together they read really Italian to me. Am I crazy? There’s a character in a book I recently read named Annamaria, so pretty)
Antonella/Antonia
Assunta (I wrote here about how women from Italy named Assunta sometimes anglicize it here as Susan!)

Annnnd there are just a lot of gorgeous names! A great list with a lot more options is here (you can see I only got through the A’s!).

I liked this bunch of specifically Marian super-Italian names:
Annunziata
Incoronata (I have a friend whose daughter’s middle name is Incoronata after her Italian grandmother, and it’s hard to find on name sites, but this one says it’s only used in Italy)
Consolata (from Behind the Name: “Means “consoled” in Italian. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, María Consolata.”)
Rosaria

And I’m sure there’s more of those too at that link above! I also love Josephine and wondered if they’d considered the variant Giuseppa?

Alrighty, so I have a few more ideas for this family, based on the names they’ve already chosen and those that they like:

(1) Gemma
Gemma was the first name I thought of. St. Gemma Galgani was an Italian saint and a pretty well known one, so Elizabeth’s little girl would definitely have a feast day — April 11, right near her due date! I also really like that even though Gemma’s an Italian name, it’s been fairly popular in England for a while, so I think Gemma could serve as a nice bridge between George and a future daughter named Alessandra for example.

(2) Stella
Maristella on their list made me think of Stella right away, and I love it for this baby for a first name. As with Gemma, even though it *is* Italian I like that Stella doesn’t necessarily come across as Italian, so it can be that kind of “bridge” name between George and some of their more ethnic options for later daughters.

(3) Carmela
I know Elizabeth might not like this because it’s apparently both a Spanish and Italian form of Carmel, but I think of Carmen as being more common as the Spanish form, while Carmela’s all Italian for me, probably because I know a young Carmela whose family is very Italian, and an older Carmela who’s from Italy. A reader asked for nickname ideas for her little Carmela here. I love that it’s also Marian!

(4) Maddalena
I love Magdalene in any form, but the Italian version is so beautiful, I had to suggest it! It’s got really cute nickname options too — Maddy, Lena.

(5) Giacinta (Jacinta)
I wouldn’t have thought to suggest this except Elizabeth and her hubs have Julia/Giulia/Giuliana on their list. Jacinta’s one of my favorites, and I love the Italian spelling as well (I didn’t even know there was an Italian spelling until discovering that Halle Berry’s character in the Bond movie she was in, who went by Jinx, was actually Giacinta, and Jinx was a nickname. God works in mysterious ways. 😉 ).

(5) Catherine or Caterina
Finally, my favorite idea of these two is Caterina, which was St. Catherine of Siena’s actual name. So beautiful! And so fun that this family can pull it off with their Italian heritage! (I have none!) But I was starting to feel like I was leaning too heavily Italian and not considering the other names they like, and loved discovering that Catherine is a style match for several of their favorites (George, Mary, Alice, Julia). Either one would be just beautiful.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the baby sister of George Francesco?

Birth announcement: Elias Pier Giorgio!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , ,

A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know her seventh baby has arrived — the handsomely named Elias Pier Giorgio!

She writes,

“Announcing the birth of Elias Pier Giorgio, born February 1, at 10:28, in Regina, Saskatchewan, weighing 7 lbs 8 oz.

I think that the Marian connection to Elias, that you made for us, gave the name meaning to my husband and he chose my favourite as a first name. I let my husband choose the middle names and decided it was nice to honour the Saint with both names. Perhaps he was teasing me, for nine months, with Septimus….

The older kids are loving this new brother soooo much. He has barely been set down since the moment he came home.

Thanks for all your suggestions. We all had fun (including aunties and grandma) contemplating these name ideas along with our other ideas.”

I love this little baby’s name!! So handsome and significant!!

His older siblings have equally amazing names:

Connor Kenneth Joseph
Christian Michael David
Mattea Gabriella Grace
Tomas Micah Joseph
Emmett Maximillian Sheen
Magnus John Paul

What a family! I’ve been kind of swoony lately over two middle names — you’re able to fit in so much that way! Beautiful beautiful names.

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday baby Elias!!

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Elias Pier Giorgio

All about Confirmation names over at CatholicMom.com

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer , ,

My February CatholicMom.com column posted today, check it out! Choosing a Confirmation Name

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I know we’ve talked about them before, but if you have more to say about Confirmation names, please do! And if you think this article would be helpful to anyone making their Confirmation this spring, please share it (I wrote it with teens in mind).