Year: 2016

Baby name consultant: Lillian or Marie, Noah or Jude?

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Theresa and her husband are expecting their third baby, gender unknown! This wee babe will join big sibs:

Abigail Rose nicked Abby
John Andrew nicked Jack

Which are just great names — biblical, traditional, can’t-go-wrong kind of names.

Theresa explained that she doesn’t love how popular Abby has become (though the meaning of “her father’s joy” for their firstborn seemed perfect), and that,

“My husband’s name is John … and his father was a John with a different middle name and his father, etc etc. So we kept with the tradition of naming him John with a different middle name. We picked Andrew because my maternal grandfather is John Andrew and always goes by Jack. So perfect all around.”

Names they’re considering include:

Girl
Marie: “My middle name is Marie named after my late paternal grandmother. I wanted to honor her by bringing the name to the front again because I don’t know any other Maries but it seems like everyone’s middle name is Marie. It’s difficult coming up with a middle name for a name I associate with being the middle. I prefer Marie Therese (pronounced ter-ez, the French way). My hubby doesn’t really like it. [Another possibility is] his sister’s name, Tamara. She passed away suddenly a few years ago at 38 years old and left behind 5 children.”

Lillian Marie: “Our short list when we were pregnant with Abby was Abigail, Evelyn, and Lillian. John loves the name Lillian Marie and would love to have Abby and Lily as sisters. He also thinks Abby and Marie is a cute pair. I can imagine Abby always having roses and Lily having lilies when we do gifts and crafts. Anyway, Lillian Marie is a very Marian name so I love it for that reason too. I just feel bad abandoning my initial goal of making Marie a first name. My other concern is how popular Lily has become. I can’t decide!!!”

Boy
William Michael nicked Liam or Will: “I’m not a fan of this name for many reasons. [My hubs] is hesitant because he hates other nicknames like Bill and Billy.”

Dominic Michael: “I like the saint but we are having a hard time shedding the Jersey Shore feel we get with this name. I imagine someone with more Italian traits and we are very pale people :/ Plus, we don’t like any of the nicknames.”

Elijah Michael: “[My hubs] likes Eli as a nickname but I don’t. I don’t really feel like Elijah fits our family.”

Jude Michael: “I think it would be cute to have John, Jack and Jude but Jude would have to grow on me. I’ve never known a Jude besides Jude Law and I wonder how manly it is. I hear lots of people are naming girls Jude now and that bothers me a little. But of all the boy names Jude is the top for both of us at this point.”

Also Noah, Logan, Tristan, “But I want the name to be Catholic and sound like those names. John doesn’t like any of those names except Noah, but it’s way too popular now.”

“I just wish there was a boy name that stood out as “that’s the one!” and we both liked it.”

Okay, first off, I love Theresa’s kiddos’ names! Abigail Rose and John Andrew, and Abby and Jack, are great sibling names, nice job Mom and Dad! I can see already that they’re worried about popularity—Theresa said she has a bit of name regret over the fact that Abby is so popular, and she’s concerned at how popular Lily and Noah are, even though it seems pretty clear that she loves all those names! This is where popularity statistics are harmful rather than helpful, in my opinion. I hate seeing parents moving away from names they really love because they’re worried about popularity. I feel like it will be extra hard for this couple, because so many of the names they’re considering are super popular right now:

Abigail: 7
Abby: 437
Abbie: 791
Abbey: 904

John: 26
Jack: 40
Jackson: 17

Marie: 564

Lillian: 26
Lily: 25
Lillie: 579

Evelyn: 15

William: 5
Liam: 2

Dominic: 68

Elijah: 11
Eli: 53

Jude (boys): 156
Jude (girls): not in top 1000

Noah: 1

Logan: 14

Tristan: 101

As you can see, Abigail is a top ten name, as is William, Liam, and Noah. Not far behind are Jackson (not a name they chose, but definitely contributing to the feeling that Jack is well used among little boys currently), Evelyn, Elijah, and Logan in the top twenty, and John, Jack, Lillian, and Lily in the top fifty.

So if their goal is to have a truly less popular name, then Marie, Dominic, Jude (boy), and Tristan are more aligned with their goal. But I’m not convinced that less popular is a good idea for them, because their favorite names are the more popular ones! So I’m going to implore them to not worry about popularity at all when making their choice—I think they’ll be much happier with a name they like, even if it’s a name a lot of other people like as well. And they have great names on their list! They have history and significance, and not a one of them is made up/invented.

One of the ways to “liven up” a name that feels otherwise overly popular is to pair it with an unusual middle name. Theresa loves Noah, but Noah Michael pairs the #1 name with the #9 name (which was previously the #1 name for generations)—but Noah Tristan is an unexpected, unusual combo, and very handsome. Or for Lillian, maybe Lillian Tamara? Or Lily Tamara?

Regarding Tamara, I wonder if Theresa’s husband would be okay with shortening it to Mara? Doing so makes it really similar to Theresa’s Marie, and might make a nice compromise between Theresa and her hubs, either as a first name or a middle. Lillian Mara is lovely, as is Mara Lillian (and they could even use Marie as a “nickname”!). Mara’s even less popular than Marie at #739.

Regarding Marie as a first name, it definitely seems like it should be their frontrunner, since (1) they love it, (2) it has family significance for Theresa, (3) Mr. thinks Abby and Marie are a cute pair, and (4) it’s the least popular of the options they’re considering. A little Marie would be quite a surprise, in a good way! And I think the best middle names to pair with it are names that flow well and/or that they wouldn’t otherwise use in the first spot. I love the combo Marie Tamara—it’s got family significance that Theresa’s husband seems really excited about, which is a nice balance for Theresa’s family-significance Marie, and Marie Tamara is a truly unexpected combo, which I find really exciting. If I heard that a little baby girl was named Marie Tamara, I’d be a little swoony over it! For real! And when I found out the family significance behind it, I’d be kind of blown away by it, honestly.

I looked into Tamara a bit to find out more, and it does have a date-stamped feel, as its peak of popularity was in 1974 at #64 (not even that popular back then) and its nickname of choice was usually Tammy, which peaked on its own at #8 (!) in the late 60s/early 70s, but the name Tamara itself is quite lovely and biblical! It’s the Russian form of the biblical Tamar, which was the name of the daughter-in-law of Judah and a daughter of King David—she’s included in Jesus’ lineage! How great is that?!

I also love Marie Therese as well—I knew a Marie-Therese growing up, and always thought it was such an elegant combo. That actually might be an interesting way to go—I wonder if they would consider Marie-Therese as a double first name? They could still call her Marie for her everyday name, and then they could add a middle name.

As for abandoning Marie in favor or Lillian/Lily, whichever they don’t use now they could reserve for a possible future daughter, which could be an argument in favor of not using Marie as a middle for Lillian, if they decided to use Lillian for this baby. That way they could revisit Marie as a first name if they ever have another daughter.

A couple thoughts on their boy names:

— I think it’s highly unlikely that a little William would be called Bill or Billy these days—Will and Liam are the two nicknames currently in use, I don’t think any of today’s parents or anyone younger would default to Bill or Billy. An older person might, not realizing that Will and Liam are preferable, but all they’d have to do is quickly, firmly, and consistently correct anyone who makes that mistake. One thing to note is that William and Lillian are the exact same name except for the first and last letters, and Lily and Will/Liam have a similar sound as well, so it seems to me that whichever they use for this baby (if any) would knock the other out of consideration for possible future use.

— A lot of people seem to be worried about Dominic being most appropriate for those of Italian extraction, and there certainly are Italian Dominics, but it’s a pan-European name that has usage in every culture. My dad knew a Dominic nicked Dommy growing up, which I think is so cute, and Nic and Nico are not terrible at all, but my real love is the full Dominic. I think it’s a great option! And if their hope is to have a Catholic-sounding name, Dominic is their man.

— Elijah and Eli kind of cracked me up, especially since Theresa said they don’t really feel like they fit her family—you all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard the names the parents have already used and those they like/are considering, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and Elijah is a style match for Abigail and Eli for Noah so, at least on paper, it’s very much Theresa’s taste. But if she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t like it! This is another time in which statistics might not be helpful—just because it seems like parents should like a name doesn’t mean they will, and feeling like a name doesn’t fit one’s family is a much better indicator.

— Jude is a great name, and another one that has that really Catholic feel that Dominic has (though the Jude Law association does dilute it a bit. But also makes it more familiar to others, which can be helpful). There is some usage by girls, but it’s important to know that, as I noted above, Jude as a given name for girls hasn’t ever been in the top 1000 names since the Social Security Administration started keeping track in the late 19th century. For reference, there were 135 girls named Jude in 2015, as compared to 2636 boys.

Whew! I had a lot of thoughts on everything! Haha! I do have some further ideas for this family, which are all based on my research and my own namey mind:

Girls
(1) Anna or Hannah
The most fun part of the Baby Name Wizard is finding names that are listed as matches for two or more of the names on the parents’ list—it’s such an indication of parents’ taste! Anna and Hannah are variants of the same name, and one or the other was listed as a match for Abigail, John, William, Jude, and Noah. Pretty cool right?

(2) Elizabeth
Lily is a traditional nickname for Elizabeth, though not used too much as such I don’t think, so even though Elizabeth is more popular than Lillian (it’s #13), using a more unexpected nickname like Lily makes the whole package seem a bit more unusual. If they like Elizabeth but not Lily as a nickname for it, there are loads of nicknames that are less common for it that might help them feel like they’re choosing something a little more offbeat. Some of my favorite less-used nicknames for Elizabeth are Liddy, Tess, Zelie (I’ve not actually seen this used for Elizabeth, but I totally think it can be, and a nod to St. Zelie at the same time), and Libbett (I know someone who goes by this). There are other ideas here, including Sabeth, which I’d never heard of before it was added in the comments but it has a great saintly connection.

(3) Molly
Molly’s a match for Abigail, Abby, Jack, and Noah, and its origin is as an Irish diminutive of Mary, so it’s Marian! It’s long been used as a given name in its own right, and I love it for this family, but it would knock out Marie as a first name for the future. They could do Marie as a given name with Molly as the nickname—a little unusual but totally legit.

(4) Sofia/Sophia/Sophie
These names are definitely popular—Sophia is down to #3 from having been #1 from 2011 to 2013 (Sophie’s #104 and Sofia’s #14)—but they’re such great matches for this family’s taste, and really faith-y! Sophia’s a match for Lillian and Dominic, Sophie for Lily, and Sofia for Elijah. It means “wisdom,” so it’s a biblical/faith concept, and there’s a St. Sophia as well as St. Madeleine Sophie Barat who’s referred to as St. Sophie (Sophie the Giraffe was named after her!).

(5) Natalia
Natalia might have a bit more of an exotic flair than they’d like, but it’s a gooorgeous name, and faithy on a couple different levels—it literally comes from the Latin for “birthday of the Lord,” so a nice connection there to Jesus, and there are two great Sts. Natalia. It’s also fairly uncommon at #118. Some sweet nickname options too: Natty, Talia, Lia.

(6) Fiona
Fiona’s such a dark horse here, it cracks me up that I’m including it in my suggestions for Theresa and her hubs! But it was listed as a style match for Liam, Jude, Logan, and Tristan! I think it’s a great name and not nearly used enough. If they didn’t care for it as a first name, it would make a great unexpected middle—Marie Fiona, Molly Fiona, and Lillian Fiona are all striking me as really pretty combos.

Boys
(1) Luke
I feel like Luke solves all their problems! I’ve often thought of it as the Jude more traveled (or rather, Jude is the Luke less traveled!), and since Jude is their frontrunner right now, maybe Luke has a chance of being high on their list as well. It’s saintly and Marian (in the sense that his gospel is the most Marian and includes Our Lady’s beautiful Magnificat), and a style match for Jack, Lily, and Jude. It doesn’t have the potential issue that Jude has regarding feminine usage—there aren’t any girls named Luke! And at #28 it’s not overly popular, being very comparable to John and Lillian (both #26).

(2) Gabriel
Gabriel’s a style match for Abigail and Elijah, and it has more of an obviously Catholic feel than Elijah has, so it might feel like a better fit for this family. Gabe’s a great nickname and feels a lot like Jack to me—a sturdy, masculine, one-syllable name. It’s #22 on the chart.

(3) Caleb
Theresa and her hubs do love their biblical names, what with Abigail, John, Elijah, Jude, and Noah! Caleb has a similar feel to Abigail, Elijah, and Noah especially, and I think it’s so sweet for a little boy and solid for a man. Cal is a possible nickname that’s really great too.

(4) Owen
It might seem like Owen takes their naming in a different direction—more Celtic than biblical—but it’s actually a style match for Abigail, Lily, Liam, Logan, Noah, and Evelyn. It’s #36, so a little less popular than some of their other favorites, but not a total mismatch either. St. Nicholas Owen is an amazing patron for a little Owen!

(5) Cole/Colin/Nicholas
Speaking of Nicholas, this family of names did well for Theresa and her hubs in my research as well. Cole and Nick are both style matches for Jack, Cole is a match for Jude, and Colin for Tristan—both Cole and Colin can be nicknames for Nicholas, or they can stand on their own with any of the Sts. Nicholas as their patron.

(6) Henry
My last idea is Henry. It’s a match for Jack, Lillian, Lily, William, and Evelyn, and its popularity is in what I’m thinking of as their sweet spot at #29. Such a great name, and lots of great saints.

And those are all my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Abby and Jack’s little brother or sister?

The names of Longmire

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Do any of you watch the series Longmire? My mom got my husband and I hooked on it, and we really enjoy it — there’s suspense (each episode is a murder mystery) and romance, and a lead actor that I think is perfectly cast (and I recently found he’s Australian, which amazes me, just like Hugh Laurie in House and Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary — brilliant at hiding their true accents!).

But the names are what I wanted to share with you — I’ve been loving them!! Starting with Longmire (whose first name is Walt)’s daughter. When I first heard her name I thought it was Katie and I didn’t have much thought about it. But when I found out it was Cady, I was much more into it! Spelling makes a difference!

One of the deputy sheriffs is Branch Connally. As far as nature names go, if I saw Branch on a list of possibilities, pre-Longmire me might have secretly scoffed and thought What next? Twig? But guys! He is SUCH a Branch! Hearing this hunky cowboy sheriff called Branch totally makes it feasible for me. It does have a little soap opera feel to it, but I definitely don’t think it’s as silly as I would have before.

The other deputy is Vic, short for Victoria, but Vic so suits her, and far better than Vicky or Victoria ever would. She’s a tough girl!

Other names that I love hearing:

Henry (played by Lou Diamond Philips!)
Mathias (police chief on the reservation)
Mica (criminal)
Barlow (Branch’s bad-guy dad)
Lizzie (Walt’s lady friend. It perfectly suits her.)
Dacus (a character’s son, said DAY-kuss)
Fiona aka October (!)
Vehoe (sounded like Vio)

And those are just the characters I’ve encountered already … the full cast list shows these treats as well:

Malachi
Eamonn
Trot
Jeremiah
Hugo
Owen Bennett (what a great first+last combo!)
Duncan
Zip
Daxner
Rosco (what do you all think of this name? I came across it in some research I was doing of names popular in the 1890-1910 time period [spelled Roscoe] and I thought huh. It doesn’t seem to have any saintly connection though …)
Gus
Merwin (!)
Gareth
Dunston

Those are just the names that jumped out at me from the really long list of characters. Interesting right? (Zip and Trot!)

I thought it was so awesome and totally unexpected that one of the episodes I watched recently involved a Basque family that had moved to Wyoming and were sheepherders! And St. Ignacio’s feast day played a role in the episode! There was all sorts of info about Basque culture and history (Walt explained. He knows everything.), it was really cool — Mary (skimac)’s our Basque expert — have you heard of this show and that episode Mary?

The series is based on The Longmire Mysteries book series by Craig Johnson, and usually I love books more than their TV or movie counterparts, but I don’t know … I’ve really fallen in love with the characters as they are on TV as played by the actors that play them.

Have any of you read the books? And seen the show? Can you compare them?

Birth announcement: Anastasia Marri!

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My dear friend (and Sancta Nomina reader!) Joanna and her husband Lowell have welcomed their sixth baby — fourth girl! — and given her the gooorrrgeous name … Anastasia Marri!

I asked Joanna for the name details and this is what she said,

“We switched our girl name choice 2 weeks before we had her! Anastasia has been on the potential name list since Phillip. Lowell decided one Sunday morning that he preferred it to our original choice, Rita. I found myself immediately agreeing with the choice. It just felt so right. As a bonus, Anastasia means resurrection which we felt was perfect nod to still being in the Easter tide. Her middle name was going to be Pilar or Marri. I preferred Marri as one of the definitions of Mari is “the month of May”, which is our Lady’s month, and Mari is a cognate of Mary in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_(given_name)) We pronounce it “mah-ree” and chose the double R because it looked prettier. 🙂 My maternal grandmother’s middle name was Mae and she had some Danish blood. So, in a far stretched way, the name is also family related in addition to our “holy name connections” :).”

How beautiful, all of it!! Of course, I didn’t expect any less — all of Joanna’s kiddos have amazing names! Anastasia joins big sibs:

Faith Immaculata
Felicity Rose
George Patrick
Phillip Christopher
Karolina Mercy

Finding out Faith’s middle name when I first met Joanna — and swooning over the full first+middle combo — really helped inspire me in regards to Catholic baby names in general and Marian names in particular. So I’m extra delighted to share the great names of this family with you all!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Anastasia!! (Joanna says you can feel free to check out her blog as well!)

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Anastasia Marri

Birth announcement: Taavi Ross!

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I posted a consultation for Shannon, from the blog We, A Great Parade, and her husband back in April, and she’s let me know her baby has arrived, a handsome little boy with the handsomely eye-catching name … Taavi Ross!

Shannon writes,

“Hi Kate! Wanted to let you know that we welcomed our son on May 20th! (We barely missed a shared birthday on the 19th!) 9 lb 6 oz and 21 inches long. It was a peaceful and quick labor, and we are so thankful for his little presence in our family.

His name is Taavi Ross Evans!

Taavi (pronounced tah-vee) is a derivative of David and means “beloved”. It was a name we found after you and I did the consultation, so not one I had mentioned to you. My husband and I love the sound, the meaning, and the nod to both the poet-king and the bishop Saint who is also the patron of poets! Ross is a family name on my husband’s side.

Big brothers Alyosha and Moses are adorably proud.

Thanks for all your and your readers’ help brainstorming! It was such a fun and helpful experience!“

I love all the meaning behind this little guy’s name! And I’m always so intrigued by Finnish names, it is SO cool to see a family use one.

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

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Taavi Ross

Baby name consultant: Green bean No. 5 needs an elegant, slightly offbeat name

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Happy Memorial Day everyone!! 🗽 Many many thanks to all those who died in defense of our country. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May then rest in peace. 💕 🙏

Colleen and her husband who are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean! 🌱 He or she is joining big sibs:

Hanna Marie
Angele Therese nicked Angie
Nadia Renee
Leo Sebastian

Such gorgeous, elegant names!!

Colleen writes,

“We like some slightly offbeat, heavier French but some foreign-ness to them names that can be normalized if people flip out (such as Angie), but they do need to stem from saints or have a faithful meaning.”

This is such a fun “theme” to work with — there are so many delicious names to choose from!

Names they’re currently considering include:

Girl
— Margaret Alice
— Elizabeth Anne
— Azelie Colette/Catherine
— Rosemary Bernadette
— Gloria Mercy
— Annelise
— Bridgette (“this is the only name that [my hubs] has brainstormed to me, so I put weight on it. This was back when we were expecting Nadia, and he now doesn’t remember, but when I said it without saying its source, he swooned all over again“)
— Mireille (“I love these Marian-looking French names. One just as pretty but slightly easier to pronounce would be great. I understand this would be something like “meer-AY”“)
Ruth

Boy
— Louis Clement (frontrunner; “I have huge devotion to the famous saintly Martin family (Louis, Zelie, and their children), so Louis would be pronounced the French “Loo-ee.” Clement for the year of mercy“)
— Louis Jerome (further 2nd place; “Jerome meaning holy name, from what I can find, and obviously a saintly background“)
— Samuel Joseph (“it’s fading in both of our love for it, but we haven’t 100% nixed it“)
— Jeanluc Vianney (“love it, love the double 1st name, but I worry that it’s SO French“)
— Joachim Vianney (“I’d do a nickname of either Joah or Jovi … [Colleen’s hubs isn’t feeling it, but his] oldest brother’s full name is Jory Christopher, so that sound combo is already familiar, but unused. I also think Joachim Vianney ties together Hanna and Angie’s names with Hebrew & French“)

(Omgoodnessgracious you guys! Did you see that JOACHIM is on her list?! Hurrah!! 😍 🎉)

Colleen says,

“I feel like we have a lot of lovely options if this baby is a girl, but not a lot for a boy. We are pretty smitten with the idea of Leo & Louis bopping around being boys together, but we’re so used to girl options…it feels strange to have so few for boys!“

And an additional consideration in regards to girl names is that,

“[T]he frontrunners right now are either Rosemary Bernadette or Gloria Mercy. I have concerns about a Gloria coming next, though.

Our Angie is aptly named, and is our sensitive soul. If we have a Hanna, Nadia, and Gloria, and ANGIE…even though I think her full name is the most elegant of them all, Angie will hear and FEEL that she’s the only “ee” girl. She would love a girl named Gracie or Rosie. I love the name Rosie as well. Gracie/Grace is lovely, but [my hubs] doesn’t go for (English language, clearly Nadia means Hope, but he wouldn’t consider Hope itself) virtue first names. But he’ll accept Rosemary. Win-win there.”

Finally, names they like but can’t use for various reasons include:

Ellis
Wilson
Michael
Anthony
Kolbe
Thomas
Nathan
Andrew
David
Lincoln
Martin

Alrighty! So first, some thoughts about the names on their list of considerations:

I think it’s so sweet they’re worried about Angie and her sweet sensitivity! It played a big role in the names I came up with for girls for Colleen and her hubs (below). Rosemary certainly takes care of that, and I also wondered if they’d consider nicknaming Gloria “Glory,” or just using Glory as the full name? Or Mercy as the first name? Or Mercedes nicked Mercy? I love Mercedes for them! (Spotlight on it here.) Also Bernadette as a first name could go by Bernie or Birdie or Benny … but is the –nadette part too similar to Nadia?

The rest of their girl ideas are great, and I only had a couple thoughts, like: What about Marguerite instead of Margaret, to up the French aspect? What about Elisabeth instead of Elizabeth? (Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur is a favorite of mine.) Annelise seems a bit much with Hanna, but it made me think they might like just Elise instead of the full Eliz/sabeth.

Mireille is gorgeous! I wondered if the variants Mireia or Mireya might be easier? And Bridgette is beautiful, and I agree with Colleen — any time my husband tells me he likes a name I try to figure out how to make it work, because he rarely offers ideas. I also love Ruth, especially Ruthie — that could be Angie’s “ee” name! Though they didn’t ask for middle name ideas, I’m really digging the first+middle combo Ruth Azelie, swoon!

For boys, Louis Clement and Louis Jerome are fab, no quibbles here.

Samuel Joseph is so handsome, and Jeanluc Vianney! Wow! I had a couple thoughts about Jeanluc — first, if they did JohnLuke or John Luke or Johnluke or John-Luke (which I think is my favorite) they could still have the French feel and the double first name without all the Jeanluc-ness of it, you know? John-Luke Vianney is so handsome! (It made me wonder if they’d considered Vianney as a first name for a girl? It’s got that “ee” ending, like Angie, and the family at the blog My Child I Love You has a little girl named Vianney. They also have a Clairvaux, who goes by Clair sometimes, and I thought that was a great suggestion for this family as well.)

And of course I love that Colleen loves Joachim! A girl after my own heart! I was thinking … if she really wanted to try to convince her hubs … would pairing Joachim with a middle name like Robert or Gregory or Gerard or Jerome and using the nickname Jory appeal to him? Using his brother’s name Jory as a nickname as a nickname for Joachim + [something with R in the middle] makes it feel more familiar and connected to family …

As for new ideas for Colleen and her hubs, I struggled a bit, mostly because I rely so heavily on the Baby Name Wizard to point me in the right direction (it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity), and so many of their names weren’t in it (like Angele … there’s Angela, but I don’t think Stephanie, Tamara, and Melissa are style matches for Angele like they are for Angela). And I was really feeling the French vibe, but then Nadia brings in a Slavic element … So I just went ahead and made a list of names I *thought* might work, with some help from the BNW as well as my own mental files.

Girls
(1) Domitille
Back in November I posted a pseudo consultation for a family who likely won’t have any more babies, but wanted to have some fun thinking of ideas in the slight possibility that they might. The mom is from France and the dad is Irish-American and they decided the mom would name the girls and the dad would name the boys. So the girls all have French names, and the boys all have Irish! Haha! Anyway, the French girls’ names are super French, being that the mom is French, and I thought of them right away when working on this for Colleen and her hubs. One of the girls is Domitille, and she sometimes goes by Domi (DO-mee), which I thought fit right in with Angie (and Domitille ends in –le like Angele!). (Their other girls have beautiful names as well, and I suggested a bunch more French names to them, so I think it’s definitely worth a look!)

(2) Sylvie
I was definitely on an “ee” kick (you’ll see it in my next two suggestions as well!), and French was my main inspiration, so Sylvie was a natural fit. A mom told me recently that she named her daughter Sylvie Regina and I almost died with happiness, what a great combo! I love how it sounds so much like Salve Regina.

(3) Lucie
Lucy was listed as a style match for Leo and Alice, and I thought it really went with the sweetness of their other girls’ names, but I loved the idea of changing the spelling to the French Lucie. I think they could also think of Lucie as a nod to St. Louis Martin, because of its similarity in sound, or I’ve often thought Lucy/Lucie could be a natural nickname for Louisa, so maybe they’d like to consider that?

(4) Felicity
I know, Felicity is neither French nor any kind of exotic, but I love it, and it’s a style match for Annelise, which is pretty cool (I do love Annelise). I waffled about whether or not to include it here, and ultimately decided to because I love seeing Hanna, Angele, Nadia, Leo, and Felicity listed together. It’s a totally subjective gut-reaction kind of thing.

Boys
(1) Maximilian
Even though I found it harder to come up with ideas for boys, I tried to come up with a few more than girls’ names, because they seem so set with girls’ names. Maxim is a style match for Nadia, Max for Leo, Maximilian for Sebastian, and Maxwell for Annelise. So Max- names seemed like they’d be the kind this family would like, and if I had to guess, I think Maximilian would be their favorite out of all of them. And it’s St. Maximilian Kolbe without the Kolbe that’s on their no-go list!

(2) Gerard
I always think of Gerard and Jerome together, so seeing that they’re considering Jerome for a middle name made me think of Gerard. Then I saw that it’s a match for Therese and Colette—voila! Certainly Gerry/Jerry’s a natural nickname, but I also like the idea of Ged/Jed.

(3) Gregory
Gregory is 100% inspired by Leo. Leo, to me, is always Pope St. Leo the Great, and Gregory is Pope St. Gregory the Great. Two Pope St. the Greats have to be brothers! Rory and Gus are two nicknames I think are a bit more current than Greg (Gus could come from something like Gregory Stephen, ohhh my).

(4) Xavier
My brother has a Leo and I suggested incorporating Xavier for their second son, because for some reason I always think of them as going together. I think Xavier has some good use in France, and it’s certainly got the saintly cred.

(5) Blaise
Blaise is one of my favorite names for a boy, because its fiery sound totally reminds me of my own little boys whizzing around the house/yard/you name it. And it’s French!

(6) Dominic/k
Finally, Dominic or Dominik. I kept trying to find names that ventured a little bit from French into maybe Slavic territory, a la Nadia, and Dominik seemed like a really good fit. The “k” ending makes it seem just a little more Nadia-esque, but the Dominic spelling is fine too, and in fact my father-in-law’s dad was from Poland and spelled his name Dominic, so either one could be great. I love Dominic/k as a brother to Leo and to their girls.

And those are my ideas for Colleen and her hubs! What do you think? What names would you suggest for a little brother or sister for Hanna, Angele, Nadia, and Leo?

Do you have a Zelie born in 2015?

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I was just catching up on emails and FB posts and saw that one of you wonderful readers, mama to a Zelie, wondered (in response to my article about Zelie/Zaylee) how many readers welcomed a Zelie/[other spelling] in 2015? There were 50 of them born in America in 2015 and my theory is that many/most of them have some connection to our Sancta Nomina community (either readers of the blog or friends/relatives of readers). Add yourself in the comments if you qualify! 😀

Spotlight on: Juliet(te)

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Ages ago Grace asked for a spotlight on Juliet(te), specifically to figure out the faithy connections. Juliet is one of my favorite favorite names, and I’m delighted to finally post this spotlight!

So Behind the Name tells us that Juliet is an anglicization of Juliette or Giulietta, which are diminutives of Julie or Giulia, which are the French and Italian variants of Julia, which is the feminine form of Julius, and it’s through Julia and Julius that Juliet(te) gets its faith significance.

As the DMNES points out, Julius is Caesar, and also three popes, one of whom is a saint. Julia is a figure in the New Testament, greeted by Paul and numbered among other “holy ones” (Romans 16:15) as well as several saints (CatholicSaints.Info offers a whole bunch of Sts. and Blds. Julia, as well as several Sts. Julius. Focusing on the holy women, a couple that jump out at me include Bl. Rose-Chretien de Neuville, one of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne whose religious name was Sr. Julia Louise of Jesus; the more recent St. Giulia Salzano, who had a devotion to Our Lady and the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was canonized by our Pope Benedict; and St. Ursula Ledochowska, whose birth name was Julia — she started the Ursulines of the Sacred Heart and her body is incorrupt. And others! Regarding Juliet specifically, there’s a devastatingly sad Golden Legend entry about St. Juliet, aka Julitta and Juliot, and her son St. Quirine, aka Cyriacus, which may or may not be true.)

So Juliet(te) has some impeccable credentials faith-wise! I suppose the question becomes, do you prefer just Juliet/Juliette, or would you rather use it as a nickname for Julia? I think using Juliet/Juliette as a nickname is pretty rare, but I love the idea of it because it offers more options, and it’s also so sweet! I always think of diminutives as being particularly lovey, so calling a Julia “Juliet” I think makes it seem really like, “Oh my sweet little Julia!”

And which spelling do you prefer? Juliet, Juliette, or even Juliot like the old French? And do you nickname a little Juliet? We’re big nicknamers here, and I think the full Juliet would automatically get shortened to Julie or Jules, which aren’t my favorite … I’ve seen Jilly as a nickname for Julia, which I think is sweet, and I think it could work for Juliet. Or Jet, which is edgy and cool, so if your Juliet decides to punk out when she’s a teen she could have all her friends call her Jet. I love that idea more than I probably should! 😂 ✈✈✈ There’s also the old nickname-from-a-mashup-of-first-and-middle, so Juliet Noelle can become Juno or Junie. But I think, if it were me, I’d really push for the full Juliet, it’s just so beautiful.

Also, Catholic Digest Editor-in-chief Danielle Bean has a Juliette, and mentions the thing any Juliet(te) will have to deal with: Romeo. She says it’s no big deal, and it isn’t to me either, but maybe you all feel differently? Even with the Romeo connection, I feel like it gives Juliet all the good feels from that story (sweet young love, romance) and none of the bad (foolish youth, defiance, disobedience, suicide). Do you agree?

What do you all think of Juliet(te)? Would you or have you named a daughter Juliet(te)? Do any of you know any Julias who go by Juliet(te)?  Do you know any Juliet(te)s who go by a nickname?

Name ideas for imaginary Baby No. 10

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One of you lovely readers sent me the link to this article about John Clark of Seton Magazine, because he lists the full names of his nine children:

Athanasius Chrysostom
Veronica Marie
Demetrius Innocent
Tarcisius Bellarmine
Philomena Guadalupe
Dominica Rose
Bonaventure Duns Scotus
Immaculata Faustyna
Mary Katherine

After I stopped absolutely dead-faint swooning over those names (!!!), I was excited to read this bit:

“I am open to suggestions for the next child, if by the generosity of God there is a tenth. Maybe Lisa and I should initiate a naming contest—submit ideas for the name and the winner gets a free dinner for four at Jack in the Box. If you are inclined to do so, be sure that the name is: 1) at least four syllables, 2) the name of a doctor of the Church, and/or 3) someone who directly conversed with Jesus.”

And I know he was being cheeky but I also had to see how recent the article was, just in case, but alas it’s from 2010 and I did a tiny bit of research and he’s still listed as a dad of nine so I don’t think there were any more babies. But I couldn’t let such a fun opportunity go by! I gave it some thought and came up with these ideas:

Girl

(1) Archangela

Reader Lisa let me know about Bl. Archangela Girlani not that long ago and I’ve been loving her name ever since. It’s four syllables and while her profile doesn’t say she conversed with Jesus she did have the gifts of ecstasy, levitation, and miracles. So there’s that.

(2) Apollonia

Five syllables! Also not a Doctor or conversed with Jesus, but “After her teeth were broken with pincers, she was given the choice of renouncing Christ or being burned alive; she lept onto the fire herself.” A nice twofer here too for any Godfather fans. 😉

(3) Christiana

I just looove the name Christiana. And why name after a saint who conversed with Jesus when you can name after Jesus Himself?!

(4) Maristella

I think we all got swoony over this name when this mama used it for her lovely little lady! A beautiful name to honor Our Lady, who did indeed converse with Jesus.

Boy

(1) Theophilus

The book of Luke and the book of Acts are addressed to Theophilus, meaning “friend of God.” A nice little twist on Theodore!

(2) Nicodemus

Nicodemus is another of my favorite fantasy names! I’ll never be able to convince my husband of it, but it sounds like John Clark could be convinced! Nicodemus in the bible helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare the body of Jesus for burial. ❤ (Also … Arimathea? Hmmm….)

(3) Stanislaus

I posted a little recently about St. John Paul’s devotion to St. Stanislaus of Cracow. Every time I see his name I think of JP2 and the fall of Communism. Awesome awesome associations. Stanislaus is a rule-breaker at only three syllables, but it’s so long — it just looks like a four-syllable name, doesn’t it?

(4) Maolmhuire

I’ve suggested Miles a million times because it’s used as an anglicization of Maolmhuire, an old Irish name meaning, “servant of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” But I’m thinking that for the Clark family, Maolmhuire might be the preferred version! I *think* it’s said male-MWEE-rah, which is only three syllables, but I could be wrong, both about the pronunciation and the number of syllables. Maelmarius is given as the Latin variant — maybe that’s a better bet?

And those are my ideas for imaginary Clark Baby No. 10! What about y’all? Can you think of names that would follow John Clark’s “rules”?

Eleven new Dominican priests

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You guys, my Dominican Province — the Province of St. Joseph (Maine to D.C. and west to Ohio) — ordained their largest number of men to the priesthood in 45 years this past weekend! Says Charlotte Hays in her National Catholic Register article “Dominicans Ordain Largest Number of Friars in 45 Years“:

“The 11 new priests, mostly men in their 20s, were ordained at a May 21 Mass that filled to capacity the Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is across the street from the Dominican House of Studies and seats 6,000 people.”

Mostly men in their 20s y’all!! We are in good hands!!

And they were ordained by none other than Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, himself a Dominican and adjunct secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

You know. No big deal.

😲😍😲😍😲😍

But what are their NAMES?? was of course my immediate question, because I know a lot of Dominicans take new names (swoon!) (a young Fr. Thomas More LastName, OP baptized my godson this weekend [that’s Fr. Thomas More, double first name, thankyouverymuch]), and I was excited to find them:

Clement
John Baptist
Dominic Mary
Raymond
Joseph-Anthony
Michael Mary
Patrick Mary
Louis Bertrand Mary
John
Gregory Maria
Athanasius

I love each one! And all those Marys!!!

What a wonderful thing for the 800th year anniversary of the Dominican Order! Please pray for our new Dominican priests!! ❤

Baby name consultant: Biblical and/or French/German-ish name for No. 4 green bean

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Monica and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, gender unknown! This wee babe will join big sibs:

Cora Marie (“after the heart of Mary“)
Levi Alphonsus (with Jesus) (“St. Alphonsus Ligouri is my husband’s favorite saint“)
Regina Marie (“Queen Mary“)

How great are those names!! You know I love Marian names, and Levi’s so handsome.

Monica writes,

“We are expecting in August and I’d love to hear your ideas on names for us. This is our 4th. We don’t find out the gender ahead of time, so we are looking to pick out a boy and a girl name. I feel like we are going to have a harder time choosing a boy name … I like nicknames but my husband does not. He says he could possibly be convinced, so I guess there is a chance. Cora and Regina don’t really have nicknames, but I’m not opposed to something that can be shortened … We are open to, but not stuck on Marie as a middle name even though the oldest two girls have that. We didn’t plan to do it that way, but once we decided on Regina it seemed weird to pick any other middle name … We don’t really have name rules and are really excited to hear your thoughts.”

Names they like/have considered include:

Girls
Agnes (“At the top of the list so far [we’ve considered it each pregnancy]. There is something about it and St. Agnes, but I can’t decide if it’s too old school“)
Margaret
Bernadette (“We’ve ruled it out because Bernadette … is such a mouthful” with their last name)
Gertrude (“It would be challenging if [hubby] won’t give in to a nickname“)
Catherine (Monica’s hubs’ “#1 choice, but a little to common for me“)
Hilda (“after [hubby’s] saintly granny“)
Leona

Boys
Elijah (“would have been Cora’s name if she were a boy) — it’s been ruled out as we have a godson named Elijah now“)
Fulton or Victor (“one of them would have been Regina’s name, we were leaning towards Fulton“)
Gerard
Gregory
Jerome

Such a great and somewhat unexpected bunch of names! I particularly loved considering the style of names like Agnes, Gertrude, Hilda, and Leona — they have that fusty feel that’s really great, and I think it’s a bit ahead of curve — I think names like that will be hot soon (I already know of a celeb baby named Agnes — actress Elisabeth Shue named her daughter Agnes Charles) — so Monica and her hubs are trendsetters!

I agree with Monica that Gertrude will be challenging, as she puts it, if her husband isn’t open to a nickname! It’s just a really big, clunky name for a little girl to deal with. Of course, if they named your daughter Gertrude and called her Gertrude, then she would just be Gertrude and it’d be fine. It does have the darlingest nicknames though — Gertie and Trudy are so sweet.

If they’re seriously considering Gertrude, then I’d say there isn’t any name that’s too “old school” — Agnes seems tame compared to Gertrude to me! Agnes is a great name, and the little Agnes in the movie Despicable Me gives it a nice familiarity (and she was adorable).

Margaret is lovely and saintly, I don’t have much more to say about it than that!

Bernadette is great, and it gave me a good sense of their taste, even though they’ve ruled it out (bummer).

I feel about Catherine similar to how I feel about Margaret — it’s lovely and saintly, but it definitely is more common than some of your other ideas.

Hilda I love for this family, I think it’s awesome! I love that it’s a family name, and for a saintly family member — how nice! I would have suggested it — or some form of it, like Hilde or Hildi — if it wasn’t already on their list. I’ve seen St. Hildegard of Bingen being considered by people like us here on the blog — Hildegard’s a big name, like Gertrude, but shorter names that are related, like Hilda, are a great way to work with it.

Leona’s interesting! I see Leonie from time to time, because of St. Therese’s sister, but not Leona too much, so again — trendsetter!

As for the boy names, I feel like Fulton, Victor, Gerard, Gregory, and Jerome all have a certain feel, which I think Cora and Regina and the girl names on their list fit in with well, and then they have their biblical Elijah, which is a great match for Levi. It was fun trying to come up with ideas that fit one or the other — either Victor/Jerome or Levi/Elijah — and, even better, ideas that fit both.

As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and the names 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. I did so here, and added in some other ideas of my own, and came up with seven ideas for each gender:

Girls
(1) Helen(a)
Helen was actually the first name I thought of for this family, before I even started doing my research as it’s got a little of that “old lady” feel. Helena is a lovely variant as well.

(2) Edith
Helen was quickly followed by Edith in my mind for Monica and her hubs, for St. Edith Stein. I admit one of my favorite things about Edith is the nickname Edie, but the full Edith is lovely too, and I love St. Edith Stein.

(3) Hope, Faith (Mercy?)
Hope is a style match for Victor and Faith’s a style match for Levi, so I thought maybe a virtue-esque name like that could be a nice bridge between the two styles they like. I also really like that Hope can be considered Marian, for Our Lady of Hope. Neither Hope nor Faith nickname well, which is probably a good thing for this family. They both also made me think of Mercy, which doesn’t seem quite like their style, but I thought it was worth mentioning, especially since their baby will be born during the Year of Mercy.

(4) Anne, Anna, Anita, Annette
These were all matches for their styles, and Monica’s Confirmation name is actually Anne, so I thought it might be a nice nod to her to use an Anne name. Anna fits the feel of their biblical theme; Anne is more the Catherine/Margaret part of their list; Anita and Annette fit in with Victor, Gerard, and Jerome.

(5) Yvonne
I’m so interested to see what they think of Yvonne! It’s never been on my radar at all, but it was listed as a match for Gerard, Jerome, and Bernadette! I didn’t even know if it was saintly, but indeed it is — there’s a St. Ivo, who’s also known as St. Ives or St. Yves, and Yvonne’s a feminine form of those names. When I saw Yvie listed as a nickname, I was sold — Evie’s a pretty hot nickname right now, for Evangeline, Evelyn/Evelina, and Genevieve, and Yvie’s a cool twist on that. (Yvie!) (Monica’s hubs has got to be on board with that! I’m dying over how visually edgy and audially popular it is — what a cool nickname!)

(6) Greta
Greta seems to me a pretty great option for this family. It’s a variant of Margaret, which they have on their list, but certainly less common than Margaret. It’s one of my favorites of the Margaret names.

(7) Magdalen(e)/a
Finally, Magdalen/Magdalene or Magdalena seemed like a great idea for Monica and her hubs. I think of it as kind of like “the biblical Margaret” because it can take the nickname Maggie, like Margaret, but it’s so biblical, and it goes well with Levi.

Boys
(1) Leo
Leo is a style match for Cora, and as soon as I saw it I loved it as an idea for this baby. It’s not very uncommon right now, but it’s saintly and papal, a great name.

(2) Hugh/Hugo
Hugh was also a style match for Cora, but I wasn’t sure if I thought Monica and her Mr. would be interested in Hugh or more so in the variant Hugo. I think they definitely have a somewhat German/Dutch/French sensibility with the names they like, and Hugo fits right in with that. One of the Sts. Hugo was a spiritual student of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

(3) Edward or Edmund
Both of these names were listed as similar to their style, and I couldn’t tell which I thought they’d prefer (if any)? They’re both great and saintly in their own rights — I feel like I’ve been recommending them a lot lately, but St. Edward the Confessor and St. Edmund Campion are both amazing.

(4) Clement
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer is the patron of my parish (a Redemptorist parish) and when I read that St. Alphonsus Liguori is Monica’s husband’s favorite saint I thought Clement might be the perfect suggestion. It’s similar in style to a number of the names on their list, and has the added awesomeness of meaning “merciful” — a perfect name for the Year of Mercy!

(5) Alois/Aloys or Aloysius
This is probably the name that I’m most unsure about for my boy suggestions for Monica and her hubs, but Alois was in the list of German and Dutch names in the BNW, as so many of their favorites are, and one of my good friends (who’s a wonderful young priest) has Aloys as his middle name, which I always think is really cool, and then Alphonsus made me think of Aloysius, so put all that together and I thought I definitely needed to suggest it.

(6) Conrad
I love the name Conrad, and it’s similar to a bunch of names on their list. There are a bunch of Sts. and Bls. Conrad, and it can be spelled Konrad as well.

(7) Tobias
Finally, Tobias is one of the suggestions I’m most excited about for this little one. It’s super biblical like Levi and Elijah, and it’s in the “Antique Charm” and “German and Dutch” lists in the BNW — a great bridge for their styles!

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little sister or brother of Cora, Levi, and Regina?