Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!! 🎉🎆🎉🎆🎉🎆

I saw this interesting tidbit on Twitter today:

I loved that! And it reminded me of this mama, who’d considered Sylvester for her baby … I’m not great at predicting trends, but with lots of old names coming back, I’m saying it now: maybe Sylvester’s next!

What a year it’s been! I myself am glad that 2016 is over … it’s been a rough one for me and mine and lots of people I know — maybe a lot of you as well! Here in my house, our whole year was marked by the sickness and death of my mother-in-law and the aftereffects of dealing with her wishes and her house … I’ll be glad for me, our kids, and especially my husband to move on from it all in 2017! And of course, THE ELECTION! No matter which way you voted, I think we’re all still recovering! I hope our little corner of the internet has been the bright spot for all of you that it has been for me. ❤

It was fun to look back over the year and see what notable things happened here on the blog. I’m still amazed at how many people love to read and chat about the names of our faith like I do! As of today, since I started the blog in June 2014 (but really since January 2015 with Simcha’s consultation post):

• Over 400,000 hits
• 578 blog followers (includes Facebook)
• 492 Instagram followers
• 290 Twitter followers
• 122 consultations done (a couple still in the queue), including the 60 I posted, including for some of our favorite bloggers (Ana, Chelsea, Dwija, Colleen, Tanya, Arwen, Lisa, Susan, Laura, Rebekah, Blair) and three international consultations (Austria, New Zealand [Chelsea, mentioned earlier], England, and the Cayman Islands [Rebekah, mentioned earlier]), including one for twins, even with a nearly three-month consultation hiatus
• 87 birth announcements, including two sets of twins (here and here); the babies of bloggers Molly, Shannon (Chews Life), Shannon (We, a Great Parade), Chelsea, Susan, Ana, Arwen, Lisa, Dwija, Colleen, Andrea, Laura, Tanya, Rebekah, Blair, Rosie, Lindsay;  my fourth nephew, my first niece, and my godson
• 5 guest posts: Lindsay (My Child I Love You), Katheryn (Bucket and Roon, Juniper Plum), Hope (Hope and Justin), Sharon (Baby My Love), Kate (KateWicker.com)
• 2 name consultations for organizations (a not-for-profit and a small business)
• 12 name spotlights
• The Sibling Project started
• 3 giveaways (here, here, and here)
• 1 charity fundraiser
• 1 Pinterest page started
• 1 pilgrimage taken to thank St. Anne for her patronage and prayers and to give thanks and pray for all of you ❤
• 17 name polls posted on Twitter
• 1 interview by Simcha Fisher, which she used in her Aleteia article on Catholic baby names
• 1 appearance on Jennifer Fulwiler’s show
• 1 appearance on the Fountains of Carrots podcast
• 1 mention on The Chimney podcast
• 1 appearance in a Momjunction infographic as a “name expert”
• 1 talk given at at a dinner for Irish Catholic women on the usage of the name of Mary by the Irish in Ireland and America
• 1 chapter written for inclusion in The Catholic Hipster Handbook (due to be released Fall 2017) — fingers crossed it makes it into the final!
• 1 new venue for sharing posts: Association of Catholic Women Bloggers
• Countless incidents of gasping for breath with disbelief and gratitude over the amazing opportunities God’s given me through this blog

Can you believe it?? What a year!! As always, I remain so grateful for all of you — your interest, enthusiasm, and kindness to me and each other. ❤ ❤ ❤

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve, and a very blessed and holy New Year! (And be sure to check out Jennifer Fulwiler’s Saint’s Name Generator for a patron saint for 2017! I got St. Margaret of Antioch — check out my IG post to read more about her!)