Baby name consultation: No. 6 baby/No. 5 boy with some serious rules!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, ,

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday!! I think the joy of heaven must be similar to the joy of children on Christmas morning. šŸ’•šŸ’•šŸ’•

And happy feast of St. Stephen! A perfect tie-in with one of my ideas for today’s family. šŸ˜‰

Michelle and her husband are expecting their sixth baby and fifth boy in January! This little guy joins:

Henrik Gaetano (“Henrik after the Scandinavian Saint, Gaetano after his great grandfather“)
Philip Llewellyn (“St. Philip the Apostle, Llewellyn after his great grandfather“)
Martin Sven (“St. Martin de Porres, Sven – great grandfather“)
Dennis Robert (“St. Denis, Robert – great grandfather“)
Brigit Catherine (“St. Birgitta of Sweden, St Catherine of Siena“)

“We have lost two children and named them according to their days of their delivery so we also have Mary Sophia (after Our Lady of Wisdom and St Thomas Aquinas) and Vincent Marie (St Vincent Ferrer and Our Lady).“

Such great names! All classic and saintly, but unexpected too, I love them! And all those Dominican saints! šŸ‘Œ

Michelle writes,

“We are out of great grandfathers for middle names but are leaning towards Dominic or Guzman as possibilities (Dominican year of jubilee).

My favorite right now is Victor, for ‘Christus Victor’ but hubby isn’t thrilled. His top runner right now is Walter but I’m not feeling it and his connection is only that he likes the name.

Our rules have been two syllables for the first name, a strong Patron Saint and Catholic story, not top 100 in popularity, no repeat first initials so names that start with H,P,M,D,B are out. We have gravitated toward more Scandinavian/Germanic sounding names, though Dennis doesn’t quite fit with that. There has also been a six letter trend, but hubby is willing to forgo that trend as long as it is two syllables! Deo Gratias!

I’d love to hear your ideas, if you get a chance!“

This was so fun to work on! You know I love naming rules — the more the merrier! I love a good name challenge. šŸ˜

First though, a few thoughts about their current ideas: I love Victor. I even wrote an article about it! And Iā€™ve been hearing Walter here and there both secularly (my sister-in-lawā€™s a huge fan!) and religiously (Servant of God Walter Ciszek, amazing story). They both fit Michelle’s criteria, I think either one would be great for her little guy!

As for other ideas, I looked up all the names Michelle and her hubs already used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as you all know it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity; I then cross-checked my results against the Social Security info for name popularity to be sure they were out of the top 100; and I also used the NameFinderĀ with their ideal parameters (no H, P, M, D, B; 6 letters; 2 syllables). Based on all that, these are my ideas for this family:

(1) Stephen
I noticed how Michelle singled Dennis out a little in terms of not really fitting into the Scandinavian/Germanic-sounding names of her other children (even though his name definitely fits with his sibs in terms of popularity arc), so I tried to give a little extra attention to the names that were particular similar to his. Stephen was one and I love it for them! Stephen Dominic is really handsome! (And today’s St. Stephen’s feast day! Woo!) (Did any of you catch that Stephen’s not six letters though? D’oh! I didn’t realize until way after the fact! But I’m keeping it on here because I love it. ā˜ŗ )

(2) Gregor
Gregory was another name that was listed as similar to Dennis, but it has the wrong number of letters and syllables. But Gregor is the German form, and it fits perfectly! Gregor Dominic is great, and I donā€™t mind Gregor Guzman either.

(3) Edward or Edmund
Edward is a style match for Henry (no entry for Henrik) and Walter, and is a great, handsome name. But I thought maybe Edmund would be more their speed? Edward was No. 158 in 2015, but Edmund hasnā€™t been in the top 1000 since 1997, and the most popular it ever got was No. 130 in 1914. It derives from Old English elements (and St. Edmund Campion was English), but it has use elsewhereā€”there’s a German-Czech philosopher named Edmund Husserl for example, and Bl. Edmund Bojanowski was Polish — so there’s good evidence that it fits in well with the other kids’ names.

(4) Albert
Iā€™m love love loving Albert for Michelle’s little boy, for the amazing Dominican St. Albert the Great! Albert Dominic would be amazing; I like Albert Guzman too; and if they were willing to be ā€œDominicanā€ rather than St. Dominic specifically, they could do Albert Magnus! Magnus is Latin for ā€œgreatā€ AND a Scandinavian name!

(5) Colman
This is neither Germanic nor Scandinavianā€”itā€™s the name of an Irish saint (which fits nicely with Brigit)ā€”but I always (weirdly) think of Irishy names as having a similar feel to Scandinavian names (that Viking influence!), so it seems like it would fit for this family! I also took a picture when I was in Ireland of a sign on a wall that said, ā€œColman Rasmussenā€ā€”I took it because my husband is half Norwegian and his momā€™s maiden name was Rasmussenā€”but it seems to reinforce my thought that an Irish name might be close enough to Scandinavian to appeal to Michelle and her hubs. (Yes, I’m a little nutty.)

(6) Gerald or Gerard
These are both Germanic names, and if I had to choose, I might favor Gerard because of St. Gerard Majella, but there are a bunch of holy Geralds as well.

(7) Casper
My last idea is Casperā€”a name I love and wish it would get more play! I love that itā€™s the name of one of the Three Wise Men (aka Jasper or Gaspar, depending on where you lookā€”theyā€™re all variants of the same name, with Casper being the Scandinavian form), and since Michelle’s due in January this might be particularly perfect, since the Three Kings’ feast is Jan. 6.

And those are my ideas for Michelle and her hubby! What do you all think? What would you suggest for the little brother of Henrik, Philip, Martin, Dennis, and Brigit?

26 thoughts on “Baby name consultation: No. 6 baby/No. 5 boy with some serious rules!”

  1. Using the Steven spelling would make it only 6 letters. I particularly like Albert and Gregor for this family. I’m sure it’s in the top 100 but Joseph is a great six letter name with a great patron so maybe they could find another language variant of the name that still was six letters but not as popular?

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  2. Istvan is the Hungarian version of Stephen (like the saint-king). Maybe as a middle?

    How about the Edouard spelling of Edward? Or Edgar seems more their style…

    Frederic or Fredrik. (Same ending as Henrik though.)

    Rasmus
    August
    Clement/Clemens
    Josef
    Reuben
    Conrad
    Felix

    Looking forward to their newest pick! Great set of names.

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  5. Walter has grown on me recently and I think it works really well with this family. I like the Servant of God Walter Ciszek connection mentioned – who as you said has an amazing story. There is also St. Walter of Pontoise.

    Of the consult suggestions I really like Gerard best and also Albert. I am also intrigued by Casper (or Kaspar) as it is both German and Scandinavian. I honestly don’t know as I feel like it is still pretty out there but such a cool name with the 3 kings connection. And also for St. Gaspar del Bufalo (who was named Gaspar Melchior Balthazar del Bufalo since he was born on Epiphany – 1786), founder of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.

    How about Anders (Scandinavian Andrew)?

    Since they are open to relaxing the 6 letter pattern but keeping 2 syllable a couple options that fit style-wise and out of top 100 are Raymond (St. Raymond of Penafort- cool story or St. Raymond Nonnatus) and Lewis/Louis (St. Louis of France). Both of which come from Germanic names.

    I am also wondering about Nelson. I know it is more English but seems to fit in many ways. The reason I kind of connected it to German was because of Venerable Nelson Baker of New York. His father, Lewis, was a German Lutheran pastor and his mother was Irish Catholic. As a priest he had developed a “city of charity” under the patronage of Our Lady of Victory in Lackawanna, New York. It consisted of a minor basilica, an infant home, a home for unwed mothers, a boys’ orphanage, a boysā€™ protectory, a hospital, a nurses’ home, and a grade and high school. Since 1986, Our Lady of Victory parish and the Diocese of Buffalo have been working on the cause of Father Baker’s canonization. So he has a “Victory” connection as well. Maybe Nelson Victor as a possible.

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  8. I love all of your suggestions, Kate. Nail on head. My only suggestions are Jerome and Alfred. Jerome is an awesome saint (he had a pet lion!) and I love the combo Jerome Guzman. Alfred is also a great saint, has the nickname options Al, Fred, and Alfie, and I love the combo Alfred Dominic. Also, G.K. Chesterton has the fantastic Catholic poem “The Ballad of the white Horse” about King Alfred the Great.

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  10. So many great choices Kate! I love Gerard for them! It seems like it would fit them! Casper flows nice too!! I also immediately thought Jerome but so many good options!

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  12. Justin! 6 letters, 2 syllables, there’s St. Justin and maybe they could make an exception regarding popularity (it’s #45). It’s a different initial, but probably too similar to Martin?

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