Our wonderful, loyal reader eclare, also known as Emma in real life, has had her fifth baby—her fifth boy!!
She writes,
“We have good news to share! Our baby was born this past week!
Reuben Dominic T________
Born January 14th, 9:51 pm
8 lbs 10 oz, 21.75 in. long
Our 5th son, and our 3rd birth at St Isidore AcresWe have always loved the name Reuben, and nearly used it previously for middle names, but each time decided to save it for a first name. This pregnancy we discovered that it fittingly means, “Behold, a Son!” (As if we were surprised to produce a 5th male heir, ha!)
Dominic means “Blessed by the Lord,” so Reuben Dominic’s name altogether means, “Behold, a Son Who is Blessed by the Lord.”
Another amazing name connection that we discovered during Reuben’s pregnancy, is that my namesake Great-Great Grandma Emma had a son Reuben. So we are the 2nd Emma-Reuben mother-son pair in the family tree! And I just got an email from my genealogist aunt who discovered at least 3 Reubens in my mom’s family tree 200 yrs ago… so it’s actually on both sides of my family– so cool.”
Soooo wonderful!!!! If all that wasn’t amazing enough, she and I emailed a bit more and she shared this as well:
“First of all, I am still so excited about our mini-consultation that determined that I could use Ione to honor my grandma Joan… except we had a boy!
Secondly, we go back and forth about considering the Patriarchs to be patron saints, so we are always happy to discover a canonized/beatified person who also bears the name (St Abel the Abbot, for our Abel, and now Blessed Reuben of Jesus, for Reuben).
The discovery of Blssd Reuben was doubly interesting, because he was martyred with another priest, Blessed Arthur (not Blessed Arthur Bell of England, our Arthur’s patron, but another one)! A cool link between our youngest two sons.Thirdly, for some reason this middle name was the hardest for me. Suddenly the two-syllable accent-on-the-first pair sounded all wrong, despite choosing that pattern for all our other sons. For example, Reuben Michael just sounded wrong. I wanted something more the pattern of Reuben Alexander (except I don’t even like Alexander, and the initials would be unpleasant). I was willing to live with the two-syllable pair if the middle was something more unusual, like Reuben Oscar… but that had the unpleasant initials problem as well. So Reuben Dominic was really an answered prayer!
Finally, perhaps the most nerdy connection I am excited about: his two patrons have back-to-back feast days! St Dominic on August 8, Blssd Reuben on Aug 9. (And then my own birthday on Aug 10– 8-10, which was also his birth weight– followed by my patroness, St Clare, on 8-11). Connections, connections!”
But wait, there’s more!
“I’ve always loved the nickname Ben, but have never liked Benjamin. When I first heard of Bennett/Ben I swooned… but then it was very clear that we were supposed to use it as [one of the older boys’] middle name. So I gave up on ever having a Ben… until it occurred to us that Ben could be a nn for Reuben! Only half our boys use nicknames, so not sure if we will use it, but it’s nice to have the option.
The other thing is that we were calling our naming theme “old German farmer” until #4, which sort of still fits, but also gives us a 2nd category “British gent” (#3 and #4). Also, the boys each have a family name and/or part of their godfather’s name, plus their patron is a martyr. But Reuben actually fits in every one of these categories!”
And finally, two things which I’m so delighted by:
“You are the one who convinced me that a blondie can wear the name Dominic … and of course he comes out with dark hair!” and, as Emma wrote in a comment on my Ruby spotlight the day I posted it, “Kate, you and the Holy Spirit did it again: a post on Ruby/Reuben on the very day we named our son Reuben. Amazing!“
I know you’re all loving this info like I did when I first read it! So I know you’re all dying to know the big brothers’ names, and I’m so excited Emma agreed to share them with you all—I’ve loved them ever since she told me about them! (Alt characters used for privacy.)
M@rk 1sidore
Ab3l Benne++
$imon-Pe+er C1ement
Ar+hur 3dmund
Amazing, right? Such great taste!!
Congratulations to Emma and Donal and their four big boys, and happy birthday Baby Reuben!!
Reuben Dominic
Wow!! So much amazing information!! I love the part about the dates! That shows some of the super cool ways that God works 😀
Love Reuben Dominic as well. I’ve been hard core crushing on Dominic lately 🙂
His brother’s names are perfect. I’m curious, does $imon-Pe+er go by both names? If so, that’s awesome! You don’t hear of many boys going by both names.
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Hi Grace,
I’d say he goes by just Simon about half the time, and the rest is split between Simon-Peter and Sy.
I talked a little about our Sy on this post and the comment it links to. https://sanctanomina.net/2015/08/28/nicknames-ways-to-get-to-sycy/
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Thanks for responding Emma!! Simon is such a handsome name 🙂
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I LOVE their names (and especially some of the middle names)! And Reuben/Ben is pretty neat. Congrats to their family!
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Congratulations! Five boys in a row! Wow! Two more to seventh son of seven sons!
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Ha, true!
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So amazing! I love it when a name falls into place like that!!
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Sounds like it was meant to be! Congrats @eclare!
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Wow, what beautifully named children! All of them, but especially swooning over #3 and #4 boys!!!!!
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I knew you would! 🙂
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Oh, and also, what a beautiful baby! Congratulations, eclare!
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Thanks all, you’re so sweet!
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Congratulations!! Such a handsome fellow!! Love his name and his brothers too! You’re an inspiration. I have 2 boys and am in awe of large families of all boys!
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[…] dear reader eclare, aka Emma, for whom I had the privilege of posting a birth announcement for her fifth baby and fifth boy almost two years ago, has had her sixth baby — her sixth boy! She and her husband have given […]
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[…] at 165 in 1980. Based on this info, it doesn’t look like it’ll become trendy any time soon. One of the families on the blog named their son Reuben, and he’s the cutest! Ben is such a great nickname and a natural one for Reuben; Rube is the most […]
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