Happy feast of St. Dominic!! đđđŸđ It’s a special one too, because this year is the Dominicans’ 800th annivesary of its founding!!
(Off topic but on topic, that link brings you to an interview about this Jubilee Year with Fr. Cassian Derbes, OP. Cassian!)
Being a lay Dominican, today is always a special day for me, and I’m feeling celebratory đđđ so not only do I have this consultation for you today (I LOVE the Monday consultation posts!), but I have a special treat for you all tomorrow, which is also the feast of St. Edith Stein AND my No. 2’s tenth birthday! I can’t wait for you to see it! What a great couple of days!
But first! Tori and her husband are expecting heir second baby, a second boy! She writes,
“Our oldest is Kolbe Daniel. Daniel is my husband’s name and we both really love St. Maximilian. We were considering naming him Eli Augustine which we still like. Other names that were thrown around were:
Lucas
XavierAnd if he was a girl we were thinking Stellamaris.
For this baby we are really liking Blaise … not sure about middle names and that’s the only name we’ve seriously talked about. If he was a girl we were thinking Azelie.”
Well I just love this family’s style — I’m a huge fan of all these names!
I so much enjoyed working on this not only because I love their taste in names but also because it’s pretty fun that they have, in a sense, a pretty clean slate with only Kolbeâs name and a few names they like to use as inspiration.
I was interested to note that Xavier, Blaise, and Azelie all share a prominent Z sound, but I couldnât think of others that I thought Tori and her hubs might like– I’d be interested in any ideas you all had for Z-sound boy names that would fit with Kolbe.
You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, but itâs not always helpful for those who love Catholicky Catholic names as this family doesâKolbe, Azelie, and Stellamaris arenât included in the book, for example. But never fearâI was able to come up with quite a few ideas for based on the names that *are* in the BNW (Eli, Lucas, Xavier, Blaise, Stella) as well as my own ideas.
So! All that said, I did also want to just say that starting with a saintly surname (Kolbe) presents a somewhat of an interesting situation in that most of the names that I would say are most similar to Kolbe’s style are other saintly surnames (I did a post on them a while ago), but if Tori and her hubs choose another saintly surname for their second baby, will they feel like they’ve cornered themselves into a particular style?
I spent some time thinking about that and decided that I think going with another name that seems obviously surnameyâlike Vianney or Boscoâfor their second baby might very well create that boxed-in feeling. For some reason, it feels different to me than if they named their first two babies with names beginning with Kâin general, I would say that a theme hasnât been created until three or more babies are so named, but the last-name-as-first-name thing is tripping me up!
I decided, though, that I think Xavier is the kind of surname that would be totally fine to use for their second baby because of the fact that itâs been used as a first name for so long that a lot of people (especially non-Catholics) donât know it started as a surname.
I do think that if they have a bunch of kids, thereâs no problem at all with having some with saintly surname names and some with regular first names as long as theyâre all interspersed, does that makes sense? Eli and Lucas are both great options that would help mix it up (I’d also love it if they wanted to move Augustine from the middle spot to the first name spot. Or August? Or Ambrose? Ooh — Ambrose has a prominent Z sound! At least the way I say it … maybe that would appeal? I love the nickname ideas Sam, Bram, and Brody).
Of course if Tori and her hubs hate all of what Iâm saying, then I hope they know I expect them to completely disregard it! My only hope is to be a help, not to add stress! In the end, giving your children names you love is a great gift.
Okay! So these are my other ideas for this little guy:
(1) Fulton
As with Xavier, I feel like Fulton would be a fine choice for Kolbeâs little brother, since it started as a last name but most people know it as Fulton Sheenâs first name.
(2) John Paul, JohnPaul, Johnpaul, John-Paul
John Paul (or however they’d want to spell it) is such a great match for Kolbe in my opinion! It’s obviously faithy and thought it’s two names together, they’re short names so the whole thing is only two syllables, which seems the length that Tori and her hubs are drawn to.
(3) Bennett
I almost listed Benedict, but Benedict doesnât seem quite right to me for this familyâa bit clunkier maybe than I think they might likeâso Bennett seems a great option. Itâs a medieval diminutive of Benedict, and itâs got a surname feel (and of course some usage that way), as well as the awesome nickname Ben.
(4) Leo
Leo is an awesome little package of a nameâmasculine, traditional, and saintly (Pope St. Leo the Great!).
(5) Gabriel
Gabrielâs a style match for both Lucas and Xavier, and I consider it to be a Marian name as well (for the Annunciation). Itâs one of my favorite names for boysâfull of faith significance, and the friendly nickname Gabe is great (Iâve also seen Gil, which I looove).
(6) Jude
Finally, Jude, for our beloved St. Jude Thaddeus. Awesome name, awesome patron. I did a spotlight on it here.
What do you all think of these ideas? What other name(s) would you suggest for Kolbe’s little brother?
The only “Z” name that’s leaping out at me is Ezekiel, which they might like if Eli was going to be a nickname for Elijah, but if they don’t like the full Elijah, then I doubt they’d like Ezekiel! If they have a Kolbe, Ezekiel & later an AzĂ©lie I think that sounds nice without being too repetitive, even if they nickname to Kolbe, Zeke and Zelie. Plus, then you have the Polish surname, a Hebrew name and a French name–super diverse!
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I like Ezekiel! Nice idea!
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James and Charles both have that end “z” sound like Blaise.
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Ooh yes! Of course! Great ideas!
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Ambrose, I’m partial to Blaise đ, Boaz?, Hayes?, Isadore, Moses, Sebastian nn Seb pron. Zeb
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I love Zeb for Sebastian! Also Boaz!!
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I have also heard Baz for Sebastian!
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Yes! Love it!
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And Balthazar!
For there are a gazillion girl names with a z sound!
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Balthazar’s awesome!!
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I love the name Lucas, and I think it looks amazing next to Kolbe. Jude seems to fit perfectly, too. And here are some names with a strong Z sound: Isaac, Isaiah, Basil, Xander and Zachary.
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BASIL! I love that, Mary-Agnes! When Blaise was little he would switch around the order of the letters in his name after B and it developed into an inside joke about his alter-ego, Basile. He’s a gentleman and very quiet and well-behaved to the contrary of Blaise’s spirited and LOUD behavior đ
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That is a terrific story!
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Haha! So cute!
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Ohhh I’m loving Isaac, I wish I’d thought of that one!
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Browsing your posts and wanted to add that I have a Kolbe and Isaac!
In birth order, Kolbe David, Isaac Austin, Eva Therese, and Alexis Chiara đ
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Ohhhh my Christina, your children have ah-MAZ-ing names!!
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I LOVE Eli Augustine! Kolbe and Eli would be so cute together đ I definitely think they should really consider that one for this little baby.
Jude and Leo are great suggestions đ I think they would both also sound great with Augustine if they decided to stick with that!
Weirdly, Adrian popped into my mind (maybe my mind is on Olympic swimming and Nathan Adrian, who is one of my faves), but I really like Kolbe and Adrian together! Adrian feels so strong and underrated to me.
What about Owen? Again, another random one I feel like but I just like it with Kolbe.
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Like for Kate to cover Olympic names!
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Ooh yes, that would be fun! I’ll try to do so!
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Yes, please do!
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I’m with you, Grace. The Olympics are such a great way to get inspiration on names. I just watched a female swimming competition and those girls have some amazing names!
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Yes! I was loving the girls’ names last night!
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I’m obsessed with the Olympics, especially the swimming. You’re so right that all the women seem to have great names!
Katie Ledecky’s full name is Kathleen Genevieve, and I don’t know if her family is Catholic but her name screams Catholic to me!
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Ooohhhhhh I LOVE that!!!!!
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Speaking of Olympians, did you guys catch the story about Kathleen Baker having Crohn’s disease? I ended up googling her and found an article about what she has overcome and the severity of her Crohn’s. She’s only 19. AMAZING.
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I did hear that, and I was amazed — what a cross to bear!! How awesome that she was able to compete despite it!!
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Kathleen Genevieve is giving me all the heart eyes! đđđ
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Guys, Wikipedia says Katie Ledecky is Catholic! (Wikipedia always uses the phrase “a Roman Catholic” which kind of annoys me because it seems like qualifying the universality of the Church, almost making it denominational. I never thought about it until I heard Patrick Madrid saying that was a pet peeve of his).
Also, her mom’s name is Mary Gen! (Probably Mary Genevieve.) This reminds me of a woman in our neighborhood whose name is Maribel, short for Mary Isabel.
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Sooo great!! Mary Gen is cute too!
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Kathleen Genevieve gives me heart eyes too Grace đ
Kathleen Baker is truly an inspiration. Her doctors told her she couldn’t swim competitively but she didn’t rest until she found a way to keep swimming and look at her now! At the Olympics!
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Adrian and Owen are great!
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I randomly saw some Instagrammer has a baby daughter named Olympia, speaking of Olympics and names!
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Haha so cool!!
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That is just delightful!
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[…] Sabrina requested the other day that I write about Olympic names, so she (and any of you who are interested) will be happy to know I just submitted my August CatholicMom column, which will post next Wednesday — all about Olympic names! So sorry you have to wait until then to read it, but in the meantime I’d love to know what names are your favorites of these 2016 Summer Olympics (I was tweeting a bit the other night about some of the ones I loved: here, here, here, here). […]
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Love all the suggestions…never tire of John Paul…was thinking, though, about your z thought which brought my mind right to a thought I was having about John the Baptist’s Father, Zechariah. It sounds like Tori and her husband might consider such a name…?
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I love Zechariah!
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[…] a conversation about the Olympics ensued on a post that had nothing to do with the Olympics when one commenter said, âIâm obsessed with the Olympics, especially the swimmingâ and went on to share that âKatie […]
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[…] mentioned as Katherine Morna Towne. But so cool too! (And really, Grace deserves the kudos, because she was the one who told me the particular factoid that Tommy […]
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I have a Blaise Vincent, Victoria Beatrice (Tory B), and a Vivian Marie myself, and we are considering Kolbe for our next due this month. Love seeing a family with a similar style. And love that we chose Blaise for our son!
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You have great names!! Prayers for labor and delivery!!
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I have a daughter named Vianney (pronounced the French way â V-N-Aâ) , a son named Giorgio (for Pierre Giorgio Frassati) and another daughter named Avila. Just some more ideas for anyone looking to name their children after Saints in a not so conventional way.
If I have another girl it will be Danica (Means morning Star after the Blessed Mother) Kolbe
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I love your style!!
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