Month: March 2016

Baby name consultant: Martin Lad #6

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I have been SO excited to showcase today’s mama and her beautiful family and wonderfully named children, and offer some ideas for her baby #7 – who’s also her sixth boy! Welcome Colleen of Martin Family Moments!

Colleen’s definitely a kindred spirit, her blog posts always make me feel like I’m chatting with my own best friends, especially the ones from college. In fact, she attended Franciscan University of Steubenville, which had been my #1 choice for a long time in high school until I decided I didn’t want to be that far from my family, especially my sisters, who were tiny when I started college. I was just musing today that if I’d gone to FUS, I would have known Colleen! She graduated a year behind me and I bet we would have been friends, not only for her personality that shines through in her writing, but also because she finds scapulars hanging out of boys’ shirts to be attractive (I thought I was the only one! My husband calls it “Catholic catnip” 😀 ). And she loves JP2. And she’s from the Northeast, so we totally would have bonded over being so far from home. And, the reason I scheduled her post for today, the fact that she loves Ireland and her Irishness (her name’s Colleen. I mean, come on) (I know she’ll love that all of my boys wore green to school today, with the cutest being my 4yo who’s wearing a shirt that says, “I drink me milk by the pint” and my almost-2yo who’s wearing a white t-shirt that has a green-tie-with-white-shamrocks printed on it 😀 ). Also, and I’m not even joking, one of my actual best friends from college—one of the ones that I think of every time I read Colleen’s posts because they’re just so familiar, just the way my friends and I are with each other—was honest-to-goodness hounding me to do a consultation for Colleen. So that settles it: Colleen would have been one of our best friends.

She’s got amazing taste in names too, which puts her right up there at the top of the list. 🙂 Check them out:

John-Paul
Andrew Pauric
Eamon Philip
Margaret Rosemary (Maggie)
Alexander Blaise (Xander)
Declan Kolbe

I mean, she totally had me at John-Paul. And one of the first boys I met when I was studying abroad in Ireland was John Paul. I also loved discovering, when reading the how&whys behind her naming, that Pauric was not actually the name of the uncle her Andrew Pauric was named after, but rather Padraig, and the Pauric spelling reveals one of the acceptable pronunciations of the name. So many Irishy things we’re learning today!

So when I was discussing with Colleen her and her hubs’ naming requirements and restrictions a few weeks ago, she said,

“I want really Irish names, but my husband likes saintly traditional names. I usually win out 🙂  we should know gender in two weeks, so you can just focus on one set of names. Current favorites are Elena Mae (husband approved) and Rowan Asher (husband unapproved)“

And then after they found out their new baby is a boy she gave me these additional difficulties,

“1) Not using our nephews or nieces names, which include – Maura, Gavin, Liam, Maeve, Rory, (Joseph) Finn, Joanna, Thomas, Lenora, Miriam, Josephine, Nadia, John, Caitlin, Brogan, PJ, Clare, Megan, Bridget, Katherine, Ryan, Grace, Lillian, Abigail, William.

2) My husband can almost always associate a name with a student he’s taught and that totally influences his opinion.  He’s been teaching for 13 years, so he has quite a list!  But there’s no way you would know any of these, so go with the flow 🙂
Our last name is Martin, so nothing like Martin or Martina.  And the initials probably shouldn’t be DAM or HAM or anything that could be embarrassing!  I love girl nicknames that are cute, ending in -ie or -y…we love the nicknames Annie, Lainey (which would be Elena’s), Ally.
Oh!  And we can’t reuse any of the names we were going to use for our past babies, which include – Brendan, Kayleigh, Emily, and Felicity.”
And then when I looked back on the naming post I linked to above and also this one, I discovered some more names that are on the no-go list:
Dean
Sean
Brian
Robert
Patrick
Jacob
As well as these names that they really like but can’t use for various reasons:
Maximilian
Benedict
Christian
Jonathan
Casey
Cory
Taylor
And names that Colleen likes:
Brennan
Kieran
Kane (Colleen’s mom’s maiden name)
Nolan
Niamh
Non-saint names — “because how are we going to ever create new saint names unless we name our kids non-saint names?“
And names that Phil likes:
Emily
Evelyn
Saints’ names
And also:
Re: the difficulties with others’ butchering of Eamon: “I think that might be the last time we use a mostly unrecognized Irish name again.”

And finally, the most recent update:

“Since we’ve found out it’s a boy, we’ve been leaning towards names with a strong “n” sound…after realizing that we have a JohN-Paul, ANdrew, EamoN, XaNder, and DeclaN.

Top contenders are Bennet(t), Evan, Rowan/Ronan.
I would still love a cute nickname for whatever name he has (like Benny for Bennett) and I have been so good at trying to keep an open mind until I read your post 🙂 “

Okay! Whew! I think I got everything in there and I’m pretty sure none of my ideas violates any of the rules but there’s certainly a chance I missed something so if Colleen reads any of my ideas and thinks, “She’s terrible at this, I *told* her such-and-such wouldn’t work!” I probably won’t be too surprise.

I do need to point out though that Colleen related a story of having decided on Casey for one of her older boys, only to have both her and her husband meet girls named Casey, which crossed the name off the boy list (she says, “I’d rather give a unisex name to a girl than a boy“), so I know she’ll want to know that Rowan is actually included in the Androgynous list in the Baby Name Wizard, and that the one I’m most familiar with (not knowing any in real life) is Brooke Shields’ daughter Rowan. So I’m definitely in the Ronan camp for Baby Martin.

Speaking of the Baby Name Wizard, I just want to remind you all, as I’m sure you already remember, that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents used and like because the BNW lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that match in terms of style/feel/popularity. It’s such a useful tool, even for only pointing me in the right direction, you know? So when I say “such-and-such is a style match for such-and-such,” you know I’m referring to my trusty BNW.

And now, without any further ado (I’m really good at “further ado” and I often have to cut myself off!), here are my ideas/suggestions:

(1) Biblical: Benjamin

John, Paul, Andrew, Philip, and Alexander are all biblical names, so methinks they might be open to considering some others. Benjamin is a style match for both Andrew and Alexander, and it’s kind of like the Benedict they don’t feel they can use (because “we already have one son named after a Pope”) and the Bennett they’re considering AND it has the “strong ‘n'” sound all their other boys have. Also the awesome nickname possibility of Ben(ny).

(2) Irish: Cormac, Cashel, Owen, Connor, Miles

Ooh I have so many ideas for this category! Cormac is the first — saintly and Irish, and with the fabulous nickname Mac.

Cashel is offbeat and unusual but I love it so much for its meaning — “The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion” and it’s “reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century” — and for its possible nickname of Cash. Swoon!!!

Owen has the strong N and not only is it Irish but it can have the awesome patron saint of one of my very favorites, St. Nicholas Owen. (No good nickname options though.)

Connor is totally one of those “cute boy” names, in my opinion — handsome and Irish and so cool. And it’s got the N’s! Nicknames are harder for Connor — there’s the old-school Connie, like Connie Mack, but I don’t know too many parents these days who would be okay with that.

And Miles — I have to suggest Miles!!! The old Irish name Maolmhuire (“devotee of Mary”) is anglicized as Miles or Myles. A Marian boy’s name is so to die for!! Being only one syllable (or you could make it two, depending on your dialect) it doesn’t need a nickname, but Milo’s a cute option (even though it doesn’t make it any shorter).

(3) Biblical+Irish: Daniel, Gabriel

Finally, two names really stuck out at me as being particularly Irish while still being biblical. The first is Daniel. You canNOT get more Irish than Danny Boy. Oh Danny Boy! With N’s!

Can any Irish girl listen to that song and NOT decide then and there to name her boy Danny?!

The second is Gabriel, which is certainly not as Irish as Daniel, but is used enough — actor Gabriel Byrne is a great example, as is super duper famous longtime Irish TV personality Gay Byrne (whose given name is Gabriel Mary Byrne. I just die. ❤ I wrote about the Irish Gabriels here).

And Kane is my hearty suggestion for a middle name for almost all of these — it’s a family name and it sounds ah-MAZ-ing to me with all of my ideas, even the ones that start with a K sound. Love love love.

And those are my ideas for Colleen and Phil! What do you all think? What other names would you suggest for a wee lad whose big sibs are John-Paul, Andrew, Eamon, Maggie, Xander, and Declan?

 

Heaven’s gain is our loss

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Another Sancta Nomina baby has been called home — please pray for his or her mama and family. St. Anne, please bring them comfort and peace. ❤

Gettin’ my Irish on

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It’s St. Paddy’s Eve, y’all! ❤ 😀 ❤

I’m really excited to be speaking tonight at a dinner for Irish Catholic women on the usage of the name of Mary by the Irish in Ireland and America — I’ll be sharing a little history, a little language, and some really cool names (like my fave Miles that I’m always pushing on all of you!), and the comments you all left on this post were tremendously helpful! Go raibh maith agat! (“Thank you” in Irish!)

One of my college roommates sent me this article, which I thought was pretty great: Irish Names: Here are 17 unusual ones to give your baby by Nameberry cofounder Pamela Redmond Satran. Some of my personal faves are on there, like Emer (one of the co-founders of the student pro-life group at the university I attended in Ireland was Emer, so I have all good feelings for the name) and Nuala and Senan, and I’ve been crushing on recently on Fia/Fiadh. (Kind of reminds me of Fiat … hmmm …)

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve also got a special treat lined up tomorrow — a bonus consultation for an Irish name for the seventh baby/sixth boy of this mama colleen (who’s an actual Mama Colleen)! I can’t wait! I’m also totally cracking up over the in-utero nickname she says they have for the Little Mister:

“Enda Dunn. It’s an Irish name that means “Mom and Dad are really, really tired.” 🙂 “

Finally, I think you’ll probably all enjoy this article: Staunchly defending second-hand blarney. It’s an Irish Times piece from 2001, when I was the New York Rose in the Rose of Tralee Festival in Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and while it doesn’t paint the greatest picture of the Festival (the author was definitely snarky before snarky was even a word), it says quite nice things about me. 🙂 I was doing some paperwork this morning and came across it and it made me laugh out loud. 😀 (I’ve actually tried to figure out who the author was, so I can thank him — he says some of the nicest things about me anyone’s ever said. Am I just missing his name? Can anyone help me out?)

If you’re finding all this greeny green tiresome already, I apologize, because I’m kind of a handful about all this. 😀 But if you love all things Irish as I do, be sure to look back over my old posts tagged “Irish names” and I ‘ll even repost this video, because I love it:

And for all of you who love to read to your little ones, check out Finney the Leprechaun and his faith-filled story-rhymes (the drawing of the church in this post may or may not have been drawn by my oldest boy ((proud mama face)) ).

That’s all I have for now, but I’m not promising I won’t be back again later today with more! We’ll see! 😉

Birth announcement: Helen Margaret!

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Yes, if you’ve been following my recent posts about Dwija and her baby, you’ll likely recognize the name in the title of this post: Dwija’s baby girl was born via emergency c-section on Sunday! I would have posted the news when I read it, except I read it as I was on my way into a meeting at church Sunday evening, and I got home too late, and then yesterday was consultation day and I really try to keep the whole day devoted to the family in the post to maximize their exposure. I’m sorry to be so late with this!

That link above is to the birth story, and I’m still amazed at the fact that she was born on 3/13 and weighed 3lbs 13 oz. The best news: she’s “very healthy and happy and safe.”

Also be sure to check out Dwija’s Instagram feed, as there are lots of sweet pictures of that teeny tiny girl! St. Helena, St. Margaret, St. Roderick (on whose feast day she was born), pray for this baby and her mama and her whole family.

Congratulations to the whole Borobia Family, and happy birthday Baby Helen!!

Baby name consultant: Eleanor’s little sister

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It’s Irish week! Woo!! No better way than to kick it off with a consultation for a mama named Maureen! 😀

Maureen and her husband Adam are expecting their second baby — their second girl! Big sister is:

Eleanor Maureen

Such a beautiful combo — elegant and sweet.

Maureen writes,

“We are expecting baby girl #2 in May, little sister to Eleanor Maureen! Eleanor was a name I have loved since grade school and think Eleanor Roosevelt and St. Helen are great women for our first daughter to look up to. Both of our parents gave their first names to their children as middle names, so Maureen was the obvious choice for a middle for the first girl and if we are ever blessed with a boy his middle name will be Adam (my husband). However, for girl #2 I think I want to give her a different middle name although my husband would be fine with another _____ Maureen.

We both would prefer a more uncommon name, but not so uncommon that people will always look at her askance when she tells them her name and we want the most traditional/common spelling for any name to minimize people spelling her name incorrectly.

The name also must be classic to fit with Eleanor (sometime goes by Ellie, but rarely). So we can’t have an Eleanor and a Mindy, for example. I’d prefer her name to not start with E. We’d also like some Marian connection in her name, either first or middle. We have predominately German and Irish heritage in our families, but aren’t limited to choosing names from those cultures.

I love the name Margaret, but we have close friends with a Margaret (Maggie) and my husband is adamant that we can’t be “name thieves”, even if we choose a different nickname or just call her Margaret. I like Isabel, Susanna, and Genevieve for their elegance, strength, femininity, and style fit with Eleanor, but my husband doesn’t like those particular names. He likes Hannah, as do I, but it doesn’t seem to have the same classic elegance that Eleanor does.

I’m not big on nicknames and will likely call her whatever her first name happens to be, so the actual name has to work for me, but if there is a nice nickname to go with the perfect name it would make the grandparents happy. Not a requirement though, as they’ll be happy with a new grandbaby!

Do you have any suggestions for us? I know we are being difficult. 🙂 “

Of course, they’re not being difficult at all! I love hearing all the rules and requirements/restrictions — it’s real-life naming, baby! 😀

Alrighty, first, I love that they used Maureen’s name for Eleanor’s middle name, lovely! And I’m interested that Adam would be okay with their second daughter having the same middle name —  it’s quite a common/traditional thing for all the girls in a Catholic family to have a form of Mary in their names, and since Maureen *is* a form of Mary, doing it again — or using a different Marian name — is quite traditional. Very nice!

I loved that Maureen characterized Eleanor as having “classic elegance” — perfect description! I also liked all of the names Maureen’s interested in: Isabel, Susanna, Genevieve — all favorites of mine, all beautiful. I agree that they fit well with Eleanor. I can see what she means about Hannah too, though I do love it. Such a sweet name.

So as you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like in the Baby Name Wizard, which has the amazing feature of listing, for each entry, boy and girl names that match the entry in terms of style/feel/popularity. I then look for names that have overlap — that are listed as similar to more than one of the names they like — and go from there, looking for saintly connections, etc. Based on all that, my ideas for this Wee Lady are:

(1) Lillian or Violet
I thought of Lillian right away when I read Maureen’s email, even before doing any research, though I was delighted to see in the BNW that it’s a pretty good match for their taste. Behindthename.com says Lillian is probably originally a diminutive of Elizabeth (Lily is a traditional nickname for Elizabeth), but it can also be considered a form of Lily. Lilies are associated with Mary, so I consider Lily and its variants to be Marian. The full Lillian I think is quite a good match for Eleanor, and the nickname Lily is available to the grandparents if desired. But maybe Ellie and Lily are too similar in sound?

Violet struck me as having a similar feel to Lillian (they both have that English feel, and both flower names), and it was listed as a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve. And it can also be considered Marian! (See the link in the Lillian paragraph for more info.) I love that Maggie Smith’s character is Violet on Downton Abbey — that’s exactly the feel I get from it. Vi is a fun nickname too.

(2) Catherine or Caroline
I was originally going to just suggest Catherine, which is a gorgeous name (and not just because it’s mine! Ha!) (though I spell mine with a K) and I would describe it has having a classic elegance — like Kate Middleton, whose given name is Catherine. I have friends who have a little Catherine, and they call her Catherine exclusively (she’s not even two yet and it totally works), but certainly Cate, Catie, etc. are possibilities for nicknames. St. Catherine of Siena is a great patron. I was thinking of Marian names that would go nicely in the middle, and I thought Catherine Mary has a really nice regal sound to it, and Mary’s kind of unexpected in the middle (as opposed to the more familiar middle Marie) which made me think of …

… Caroline, because I’d posted a birth announcement for one of the blog readers not too long ago who had named her daughter Caroline Mary, and I was so struck by the simple elegance of the combo — it made me think that Caroline would be quite nice as a sister to Eleanor as well. I’ve seen a lot of people using Caroline in honor of St. John Paul II (his birth name was Karol, the Polish version of Charles, of which Caroline is a feminine variant). Carrie’s a sweet nickname, or Caro, or Callie, or Carly.

(3) Beatrice or Beatrix
I’m guessing that if Maureen and Adam like these names, that Beatrice would be more their style, but Beatrix with that spunky X can’t be ignored, so I’m including them both. It’s not a name I usually think of, but Beatrice, like Violet, was listed as a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve, and I as soon as I saw it I thought it would be a great idea for Eleanor’s sister. It’s got a pretty great meaning too—behindthename says, “Probably from Viatrix, a feminine form of the Late Latin name Viator which meant “voyager, traveller”. It was a common name amongst early Christians, and the spelling was altered by association with Latin beatus “blessed.”” Isn’t that cool? Bea is one of the sweetest, spunkiest nicknames too, in my opinion.

(4) Josephine
Josephine was yet another name that was a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve! So of course I had to include it. Despite it being French, it has a really English feel to me, and it’s literary (Jo March!), and St. Joseph is such a wonderful patron. It’s got great nickname potential too: Jo, Josie, Fina, and I’ve even seen Sophie, which I thought was pretty inspired.

(5) Abigail
Abigail is a style match for both Isabel and Hannah, and I liked that one was a name Maureen likes and one was a name Adam likes, so it seems like a nice compromise. The full Abigail is quite sophisticated I think, and reminds me of Abigail Van Buren, like the Eleanor Roosevelt connection for Eleanor, and Abby is a sweet nickname.

(6) Clara
Finally, Clara. Clara is sweet and simple, but elegant because of it. It’s a style match for Eleanor, which is so fun, and St. Clare of Assisi is such a great patron, as is Bl. Chiara Luce Badano (Chiara is the Italian for Clare/Clara). The one downfall is that it doesn’t have any nickname options, but it’s a pretty small package, so I wouldn’t consider that a deal breaker (but maybe Maureen and Adam do?).

As for other Marian ideas, some of my favorites, which I think work quite well for firsts or middles, are: Maria, Rose, Rosemary or even Rosary, Grace, Mercy (nice for this Year of Mercy!), and Immaculata or Immaculee.

And those are my ideas for Eleanor’s little sister! What do you all think? What would you suggest as a good match with Big Sis and/or a good Marian name?

Namespotting: Ave!

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I was doing some name research today (what!) and came across this awesome story of a little girl whose parents believe was healed through the touch Pope Francis. That in itself is, of course, the most amazing part of the story, but the part that’s most relevant here — and made me want to cheer — is that her name is Ave!

Ave!!! I LOVE it!! I’m saying it AH-vay, like Ave Maria,(though I don’t know if the family says it that way … though the only other way I can think it might be said is like Eve but with a long A? To rhyme with “behave”?), and I’ve long thought it can work as a first name, being so similar to Ava. I love love love seeing it used in real life, so the next time I suggest it to someone I can point to this beautiful little girl as an example. My whole day is made. 🙂 ❤

Name announcement: Baby Hahn!

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Until yesterday I’d never had a pre-birth “name announcement” post — and here’s the second one in a row!

I posted the consultation for Ana from Time Flies When You’re Having Babies back in January, and while the name they’ve chosen and announced for their baby isn’t one of the ones I’d suggested, it’s totally in keeping with their style thus far and I’m just dying over it because it’s so darn cute and handsome and sort of crotchety (in the best way possible — kind of like the comments I got that one of my boys’ names is better suited to a “grown man with a cigar hanging out of his mouth … like a stevedore down on the docks!” — I LOVE that! 😀 ).

Little Mister’s name is: Fred Bernard, “likely to be called “Freddie”, named for Mike’s grandfather and Bernard of Clairvaux.” Congrats to the Hahns, and continued prayers for the rest of the pregnancy and labor+delivery!

Name announcement: Baby Borobia!

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As I posted the other day, Dwija’s water broke the other day at 32 weeks, but as she blogged yesterday, the baby’s fine and still in utero, and Dwija’s in the hospital for the next two to three weeks (at least?) to give her baby more time. Thank God!

It was also important to Dwija that everyone be able to pray for the baby by name, and so they’ve announced: Helen Margaret! Or rather, “Miss Helen Margaret Borobia (nicknames Nellie, Kitty, Flufferbutt. When you have 6 older siblings, you get nicknames FAST).” 😀

Please continue to pray for Mama Dwija and the beautifully named Baby Helen!

Sweet baby in heaven

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A mama who’d had a consultation lined up let me know she’s lost the baby. Please pray for her and for her family; St. Anne, please give her peace and comfort. ❤

Birth announcement: Sullivan James Pasquale!

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A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know she had her baby boy, and given him the meaningful name of … Sullivan James Pasquale!

He joins big sibs:

Bodhi Mira
Kodo Ze’ev
Ossian Alexander

And his mama writes,

“I wanted to share with you that our sweet baby boy was born on January 21st at 4:45 am. He was 8 lbs, 4oz. We decided to name him Sullivan James Pasquale Knox, which wasn’t even on our radar initially, but unfortunately we unexpectedly lost a dear family member just a week before he was born and made our choice based on that. Thank you so much for helping me on such short notice! Sorry again for taking so long to get back to you. We’ve been busy getting ready to enter the church on Easter! I can’t wait!“

Don’t you love her enthusiasm about entering the Church! I get goosebumps over every single conversion story, I just love them. And I love little Sullivan’s name — Sullivan’s one of my favorite last names to use as a first name, James is so saintly, and Pasquale is perfect for a baby born right before Easter to a mama who’s entering the Church at Easter! I love too how she was able to use a somewhat uncommon name along the lines of her older kiddos’ names while still bringing in her newfound faith.

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

sullivan_james_pasquale

Sullivan James Pasquale