Year: 2016

Lenten almsgiving (to Catholic Charities) PLUS fill your Easter basket … all in one go!

sanctanomina Resources and recommendations ,

I swiped the title of this post from Monica’s post of the same name over at Catholic Bloggers Network (I hope she doesn’t mind!), in which she talks about today’s Zelie & Co. Charity Auction — she lists all the bloggers and artisans who have teamed up for this endeavor, and all the charities that will benefit. Be sure to check it out!

All of the action is happening on the Zelie & Co. Instagram feed today. I’ll be posting on my own Instagram as well, but all of the bids have to happen at Zelie & Co. The auction starts at 9am Central (10am Eastern) and will go all day until midnight Central/1:00am Eastern tonight.

Here’s our beautiful set:

HappyNestZelieCharityAuction Full Set Collage2

All in all, our set includes:

The whole thing’s valued at $145! If you have babies, you know know these would be such great things to have, and they would make a wonderful gift for a new mama too — so nice to have beautiful, useful, baby-friendly things! And all of the money raised goes to charity — ours is PerpetuaLife Care, Inc., which is a 501C3 not-for-profit dedicated to supporting my local affiliate of the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility™, Gianna of Albany.

Thank you for any support you’re able to give this effort!

 

A few short hours until the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction!

sanctanomina Resources and recommendations ,

I’m getting so excited about the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction — tomorrow’s the day!

Theresa has worked so hard to put together a simply beautiful set of items for the auction, which will benefit PerpetuaLife Care, Inc., which is a 501C3 dedicated to supporting my local affiliate of the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility™, Gianna of Albany.

gianna_bag_teaser

I’ve been posting pictures of the pieces in our set all afternoon/evening over on my Instagram — be sure to check them out!

ZelieCharityAuctionSneakPeek

Be sure to follow the hashtag #ZelieCharityAuction to see all the beautiful items being offered by so many beautiful ladies!

The auction will start at 9am Central (10am Eastern for my part of the country) and will run until midnight CST. Highest bidder wins the set! (And the second- and third-highest bidders on our set will also get a NamePrint from me. 🙂 )

 

Baby name consultant: Baby #4, awesome initials please

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Dianne and her husband are expecting their fourth baby and third girl! Their older kiddos are:

Ava Lilian
Sophia Elizabeth
Caleb Augustin

Love. Love. Love.

Dianne writes,

“My husband prefers initials that spell things, but so far we haven’t done that well with the other children! Ava’s initials are ALM (and we stretched that to say she’s our almsgiving). It’s obviously not a deal breaker, but it’s nice.

We liked Ava because it was close to “ave”, the start of a Ave Maria … “Lilian” is her aunt’s name. Spelled with one middle L, being the Filipino way to spell it. (My husband is Filipino and I’m white, so our kids are mixed race. We considered more traditional Filipino names, but they’re mostly hispanic in origin and we don’t feel like that works well in the US with our heritage).

Sophia’s name was almost going to be Olivia, but my grandmother (middle name Elizabeth) died shortly before her birth. And for whatever reason at the time, I didn’t like Olivia Elizabeth and decided that Sophia went better with it. Since then, my cousin named her daughter Olivia, so I’m not keen on using it again.

We thought that Caleb Augustin was just a real strong name. We dropped the “e” on Augustin because we thought it helped to pronounce it as “Au-GUS-tin” instead of “AUG-us-teen.” His first name was almost Augustin, but I didn’t want a Gus (we did like the nickname Augie!), and I ultimately thought it would be too “weird” sounding outside of our Catholic circle.

We didn’t consult “top name” lists until after we named our kids. We had no idea how popular they are. I would probably prefer a name not at the top of the popularity list like our other kids, but again, not a deal breaker. I do want names that are common enough to 1) be pronounceable, and 2) not seem too weird on future job applications, etc. We would also love a very strong saint’s name, or at least some obscure connection to a saint.”

This was so fun for me to read, I love being given lots of information about the hows and whys a couple named their children.

For this baby, their top name contenders are:

Siena — (“Catherine of Siena is my patron saint. I don’t really like Catherine“)

Seraphina — (“we like that she could go by something more common sounding — Sera — while still having a beautiful name, that reminds us of the angels”)

Adele — (“A beautiful saint name. We don’t love the mental association with the singer, but we don’t dislike the musician, so it’s still a contender.. ha“)

Charlene, Charlotte, and Madeline — (Dianne likes but her hubs doesn’t care for Charlene or Charlotte, and Dianne’s not confident Madeline goes well with their last name)

Basically, it all boils to these three things:

1) Are these names too similar to Ava or Sophia’s names?
2) if we have future girls, are we locking ourselves into a name ending in “a” if we choose Siena or Seraphina? I’d lean towards Adele because of that reason, but I think Siena Adele sounds prettier than Adele Siena.
3) what nicknames would be good for these names?

Alrighty, first off, I love that Ava’s name was chosen because it’s close to Ave! I actually know a little girl named Ava Maria, for that same reason. Ava Lilian is a beautiful combo, and I love her initials!

Sophia is a beautiful name, and sounds lovely with Elizabeth. I do see what Dianne means about Olivia Elizabeth not flowing well!

I love Caleb Augustin, so handsome! We almost named our youngest three boys Augustin, that spelling, for the same reason Dianne and her hubs used that spelling—we wanted au-GUS-tin, not au-gus-TEEN. In the end, just like them, we just couldn’t pull the trigger! But I do still love it.

As for the names on their current list:

Siena is a great name, and a great way to honor St. Catherine of Siena if you don’t care for Catherine. It is similar in sound, rhythm, and length to Sophia, but with Caleb between them I don’t think it’s a huge deal. They could also consider a variant of Catherine — there are so many! Caterina was Catherine of Siena’s actual name (Catherine is an English and French version), and there are a million more variants here. I wouldn’t think of nicknaming Siena, would you? I could maybe see Sia working, if you really wanted to shorten it, but there’s the singer reference there as well (who’s actually quite well named: Sia Kate Isobelle. Gorgeous!).

Seraphina is one of my favorites, such a gorgeous name! But it is very similar to Sophia, more so than Siena I think, because it shares the beginning S-, the ending –a, and the –ph- in the middle. If Dianne and her hubs decided they wanted to use it anyway, there are some sweet nicknames for it: Sera, as mentioned; also Fia, Fina, Fifi, and even something sweet like Sunny! Another way to make it just a little different is to use the French Seraphine instead, which eliminates the –a ending. It also made me think of Josephine — it has a similar length and rhythm and some shared sounds, but that it starts with J- automatically makes it more different from Sophia.

Adele is great if they want to move away from names that end in –a. I agree that Siena Adele sounds nicer than Adele Siena, but of course they could do a different middle. Something like Adele Josephine, for example, or even Adele Seraphina — both sound lovely to me! I think the most natural nickname for Adele is Ada, which doesn’t work with their Ava, but I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t do Elle or Ellie, or even Dell — kind of sweetly tomboyish.

Charlene I was surprised by! It’s feminine and pretty, but has more of a mid-century feel to it (style matches would include Marsha, Gayle, and Francine) than the other names on their list. Charlie and Lena are both cute nickname ideas.

Charlotte, on the other hand, didn’t surprise me at all! It’s very consistent with the other names they like style-wise. It (along with all the names on their list) helped inform my ideas for below.

Madeline is also beautiful and consistent with this family’s style. I don’t mind alliterative first name-last name combos as much as some others do — I think Madeline M____ could be really kind of M-memorable! 🙂 And with an I- middle name, MIM is a cute nickname option. This is me being crazy, but I’ve seen Mim as a nickname for Miriam, so they could possibly see MIM initials as a super subtle nod to Mother Mary? I know, my thought process is not to everyone’s taste … 😛

I did come up with some other ideas, of course! I can always come up with name ideas! As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up all the names that the parents have used and like in the Baby Name Wizard book, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. I then look for names that show up as similar to more than one of the names they like, and I comb my own head for ideas as well. With all that, I had six ideas for this little baby girl on the way:

(1) Isabel or Isabelle
I know they already used Elizabeth for Sophia’s middle name, and Isabel(le) is a variant of Elizabeth, but its sound and appearance is so different — and it would be in the first name spot instead of the middle — that I thought Dianne and her husband might be willing to consider it. It’s very similar in style to the other names they like, and going with Isabel or Isabelle rather than Isabella gets away from the ends-in-a names. As for the initials spelling something, I’m reminded of the little girl named Isabelle Verity who goes by Ivy because of her initials I.V., so sweet! That doesn’t work with sister Ava, though … or what about something like Isabelle Helen or Isabel Hope for initials IHM=Immaculate Heart of Mary? (Other good initials-as-nicknames ideas here.)

(2) Violet
Violet is kind of, ahem, flowery (haha!), which is how I’d describe Seraphina as well, and yet it also reminds me of Adele in some way — pretty and feminine but also solid and traditional. It can also be considered Marian, which is always a huge plus in my book! Violet Isabelle M___ would have the initials VIM, like “vim and vigor” (vim means “robust energy and enthusiasm,” love that!).

(3) Caroline
Caroline is long like Seraphina, and was inspired by (and is a variant of) Charlotte; its –ine ending also calls to mind Seraphine, Josephine, and Madeline. A lot of Catholic parents have been loving Caroline recently because of St. John Paul’s birth name of Karol (and I’ve seen Karoline and Karolina as well, to get even closer to his name). I can’t think of spelling a word with initials, but Caroline Adele M___ would be CAM, which could lead to nickname Cammie.

(4) Grace or Faith
Grace and Faith are virtue-esque names, like Sophia. Grace is also a style match for Charlotte and August (Augustin(e) isn’t listed in the book), and Faith is similar to Caleb. Grace can refer to God’s grace, as well as Our Lady of Grace, and of course Faith refers to all of what we believe. They are so similar to me in terms of faith-y significance that I would think popularity would be the deciding factor, if they decided they like these ideas. Faith is vastly less popular than Grace, but just as sweet in my opinion. I don’t have any ideas for initials-words for Faith, but Grace Emmanuelle M___ could be GEM — great initials for their little gem!

(5) Vivian or Vivienne
People who like Seraphina tend to like other long, frilly, saintly/faith-y names like Genevieve, Evangeline, Veronica, and Vivienne (lots of V’s!). Of those, I thought Vivienne would be of interest (perhaps more likely as the spelling Vivian, being shorter and closer in length to the big sibs’ names). I don’t *think* it’s too similar to Ava, with the V’s, but maybe you all think it is? Especially if they go with the nickname Vivi, which is so sweet, but very like Ava. See Violet above for an initials-word idea.

(6) Abigail or Chloe
I’m listing these two together because neither one are names I’d come up with on my own, but they both were similar to several names Dianne and her husband like: Chloe to Ava, and Abigail to Caleb, Madeline, and Olivia. Both are biblical names — Chloe was a woman in the New Testament who housed St. Paul, and Abigail is in the Old Testament (King David’s wife) and is referred to as Abigail the Matriarch, with a feast day of September 1. Chloe Adele M___ (CAM, like Caroline above) or Abigail Irene M___ (AIM, like “aim for heaven”)?

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would suggest for a little sister to Ava, Sophia, and Caleb? Any other initials-make-words ideas?

Naming regret

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty

I’ve heard from some of you about using or not using a name you wished you hadn’t/had for one of your children (and I posted a little about it here), but I’ve been thinking about naming regret recently — specifically, how do you move on from it? Does the less-than-perfect name you chose become a name you like because it’s associated with your beloved baby? Does the beloved name you didn’t choose fade into the background as you fall in love with the name you gave your baby?

Would you/have you ever considered changing the baby’s name after having already named him/her?

If any of you have experienced this, I’d love to hear your thoughts, and whether there’s any advice you might offer someone who’s having a hard time with their child’s name, whether soon after birth or even years later.

Spotlight on: Philomena

sanctanomina Spotlight ,

This was yet another reader request, and I’m really glad for it, because Philomena’s kind of a funny duck.

On the one hand, there aren’t a whole lot of names that are exclusively Catholic. I mean, I claim lots of names as ours, for impeccable Catholicky Catholic reasons, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world agrees. But when it comes to Philomena, I think the whole world *does* agree: it’s Catholic. Catholicky Catholic. Oozing Catholic cachet. Do you agree?

The funny part is, though St. Philomena is the source of our love and devotion for this most Catholic of names, she’s no longer on the liturgical calendar, having been removed in 1961 at the directive of Pope Paul VI because of lack of historical evidence.

Is this news to any of you? Because it was to me when I first found out from the mama of this consultation a year ago. Up until I then, I was blissfully ignorant, and from what I can tell, much (most?) of the Catholic world is as well.

So this is the story, according to this site: In 1802 a tomb was discovered with an inscription that could say “Pax Tecum Filumena” if the words were reorganized, and inside was the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl and a vial of her dried blood. Then:

philomena

I don’t think “since the 1960’s, she has been almost forgotten” is totally accurate, both because I know there are people still bestowing her name on their children, and because of the laity perhaps not being totally clear on what exactly the Church was saying.

From what I can tell, the Church isn’t saying she’s not a saint. This article made a good argument (though based on research that the author doesn’t link to so I can’t verify):

“Now, a question that must be addressed in this essay is what the Sacred Congregation of Rites said in regard to Saint Philomena. They removed the feast of Saint Philomena from the calendar based on the lack of historical evidence for her existence. It is very important to note at this point that the Congregation of Rites did not have any ecclesiastical power of any kind. It was only a “liturgical directive”. This directive however left many people confused, and rightfully so. In fact, it left bishops concerned too. Bishop Sebastião Fernandes of Mysore, India, whose cathedral was consecrated in Philomena’s honor, sent a letter to Pope Paul VI in 1964. This correspondence was sent to Mugnano by Bishop Fernandes as follows:

“What must I do for the people in my diocese who are greatly troubled by the decree of the Sacred Congregation regarding St. Philomena?” Paul VI responded, “Do not let it disturb you and do not disturb your people; let devotion to St. Philomena continue as before” (proseguiva come prima)[vi].

These words should be a comfort to those who have faith in the intercession of Saint Philomena, and reinforce the notion that devotion to her has never been officially abolished or suppressed.”

I love what now Bl. Paul VI’s response was! I also love this from that same site:

“We have the bones of a young girl, we have a grave that shows the marks of martyrdom, and we have more approved miracles coming from the intercession of this saint than most canonized saints of our times. What does it matter if her original name was Philomena or not? Does it matter whether or not we have no historical documents to prove her existence? No! We have papal approval, and we have miracles. The only way to deny the existence of Saint Philomena is to deny that the miracles which catapulted her to public veneration just 35 years after her buiral discovery in Rome. I assure you, venerating Saint Philomena will be most providential for your soul, for she is powerful with God. Saint Philomena, pray for us! For the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, Amen.”

I like how he says, “What does it matter if her original name was Philomena or not?” I’ve often had the same thought about Sts. Joachim and Anne — we get their names from the Protoevangelium of James, which is not canonical, so there’s a chance those aren’t the names of Mary’s parents, but so what? If they’re not, we have no others to put in their place, and Mary DID have parents, so why not remember them as Joachim and Anne? When we think of their names, we’re thinking of them, you know? This site gives some more really good info, including:

“[To St. Pio] St. Philomena was the “Princess of Heaven”. After the liturgical reform of 1961, Father Pio used to imperatively reply to whoever dared to doubt the existence of the Saint: “for the love of God! It might well be that her name is not Philomena, but this Saint has performed many miracles and it is not the name that did them.” This is the wisest reply: who wants to understand, will understand!“

Speaking of whether Philomena was actually the girl’s name or not, the name itself has a beautiful meaning. The site I just cited says, “The name Philomena (fee-lo-MAY-nah) is of Latin origin. The inscription on the original loculus tiles, is Filumena. The word filia is Latin for daughter. The word, lumena, is Latin for, light, lamp, lantern; light of day; the eye; clearness; understanding,” while Behind the Name says, “From Greek φιλος (philos) “friend, lover” and μενος (menos) “mind, purpose, strength, courage” … [Filumena] may have in fact been a representation of the Greek word φιλομηνη (philomene) meaning “loved”.” So whichever of those is correct, they’re all beautiful meanings for a little girl and easily full of faith significance if you so desire.

St. Philomena certainly has a history of love in the Church, by Popes and Saints even, and with the name having the Catholic cachet it has, I still think it’s definitely a beautiful name for a Catholic family to consider. Do you agree?

There are the spellings Philomena (English, German, Greek) and Filomena (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch), and I myself go back and forth as to which spelling I prefer. There are also loads of nickname options, which I’ve mentioned before: Fia, Fila, Fina, Finn, Finna, Lola, Mena, Minnie, Pia, Pim, Pina, and Pippa. Each one so darling!

I’d love to know you what you all know about St. Philomena! Especially if you have any further light to shine on the subject from sources that aren’t critical of various Popes and the Church (I found too many of those when I was doing this research).

And tell me also your thoughts on the name — would you/have you considered Ph/Filomena for a daughter? Which spelling do you prefer? Do you know any Philomenas? Do they like their name? Do they go by a nickname?

Choosing the fabric for the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction (it’s namey!)

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty ,

When Theresa and I teamed up for the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction, one of the first things she asked me to do is take a look through her fabric options and let me know if I thought any of them struck me as particularly “Gianna.” What a fun task! I’ve always loved when, for example, shoes have names — I’ve always wondered who gets to decide the names, and how do they do so? And what a fun job that would be! I worked in advertising before I had my boys, and there were a couple of times we were asked to give some time to naming a product — I LOVED those projects. (Are you surprised? 😀 )

So anyway, this was the image of St. Gianna I had in mind when I was looking through fabric swatches:

st_gianna

So I was thinking lighter colors — pinky maybe, or light blue — and Theresa was thinking “classy and feminine,” and one of the fabrics that hit me just right way was the one that she said she was initially drawn to as well! She said it “seems beautiful, classy, understated, and something about the blue chevrons reminds me of the Italian Alps,” which I 100% agree with. She’s paired it with a blush-y pink, and the whole effect is, in my mind, so much the picture of St. Gianna above. The mountains in the background, the blue and pink flowers on her dress … total home run. Be sure to check out the sneak peek she’s given of the fabrics!

Birth announcement: Josie Rosalyn!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , ,

A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know her baby girl has arrived and has been given the lovely name … Josie Rosalyn!

She writes,

“We welcomed another daughter on November 10 and named her Josie Rosalyn!  Josie to honor my grandfather whose middle name was Joseph and Rosalyn to honor my grandmother whose middle name was Rose.  Thank you so much for helping us name our daughter!  Your suggestion of Rosalie inspired Rosalyn for a middle name when my husband decided Josie was his favorite first name.  I will be sure to save your suggestions to hopefully use again in a few years 😉 “

What a wonderful and meaningful choice! I think you’ll be extra impressed when you read her other children’s names:

Aidan James
Maren Patricia
Sadie Elizabeth

Do you see the pattern? They all have five-letter two-syllable first names! And each such a great choice! Nice job Mom and Dad!

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

josie_rosalyn

Josie Rosalyn

Zelie & Co. Charity Auction!

sanctanomina Resources and recommendations , ,

Have you all heard of Zelie and Co.?* It’s a group of independent Catholic Artisans who have teamed up to offer some exclusive sets at great discounts through their Instagram flash sales — it’s a great group to follow on IG if you don’t already!

So this lovely lady, Theresa from Happy Nest Home Goods (she makes beeeaaauuuuutiful things! Check out her etsy shop; she’s also on Instagram), who is one of the immensely talented Zelie & Co. Artisans (and who’s also the mama behind this nickname consultation post from May!), has asked me to partner with her for an exciting upcoming Zelie & Co. event: a 100% fundraiser for some awesome Catholic charities as a way to kick off Lent.

ZelieCharityAuction Logo

Can you guess how honored and humbled and totally thrilled I am to be asked to participate in something so wonderful??!!!

This is how it’s going to go:

Theresa is busy making an exclusive set of items valued at at least $100 retail, and I’m contributing a gift certificate for one of my NamePrint Printables ($25 value), all of which will go up for auction as a set on Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wednesday, Tuesday Feb. 9) — that’s next Tuesday y’all! Can you believe Lent’s almost here??

You’ll be able to bid on the items from the time they post at 9:00am Central Time (10:00am Eastern, which is my time) until midnight Central Time that same day; the bids will increase by $5 increments, and of course the highest bidder will win the set. Bids will be taken on the Zelie & Co. Instagram page only.

Best of all, 100% of the money will go to the charity of my choice!

Yes! I get to choose the charity! Gianna of Albany, which is my local affiliate of the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility™, is founded on the premise that each person is a precious and unique gift from God. It is committed to delivering excellent health care through medical and lifestyle interventions that are consistent with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services (ERD), including NaProTECHNOLOGY™ (Natural Procreative Technology), a revolutionary women’s health science that respects the dignity of women by working cooperatively with their natural cycles.

Gianna of Albany’s Dr. Jan Patterson has been a huge help and support to me as a Natural Family Planning instructor, and has been a Godsend to women/families I personally know who are/were struggling with infertility and other fertility-related issues; we are so blessed to have her. I really want whatever we raise to support her efforts, so Theresa and I have decided to give the money to PerpetuaLife Care, Inc., which is a 501C3 dedicated to supporting Gianna of Albany. Fittingly, only after I told Theresa of my chosen charity did she share with me that she and her husband had suffered from infertility for the first several years of their marriage and it was thanks to a great NaPro doctor (and, of course, Our Lord!) that they were blessed with their sweet baby boy. So it’s just a perfect fit all around. I am so excited to help mamas and babies and families in this way!

So I’m going to be posting about this a few times over the next week, here on the blog and all my social medias (Twitter and Facebook, and especially Instagram, where all the action will be happening) — including sneak peeks of Theresa’s beautiful items! Please spread the word as much as you can, and I hope you all can participate! As an extra incentive, I’ll also give a customized NamePrint Printable to the second- and third-highest bidders. 🙂

The quick deets:

And please join us in asking St. Zelie and St. Therese for their intercession for the success of this event, for all of the participants, and the charities and the people they serve!

—————————————-
* Of course I had to include the namey bit about Zelie & Co. — I just love this:
“We have chosen St. Zelie as our namesake because we think she gets us 😉 St. Zelie was an exquisitely talented lacemaker! And she used her talent and keen intellect to create a very successful business. She built something that was a blessing to her family and at the same time raised Saints! That’s what we all aspire to do!”

Birth announcement: Reuben Dominic!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , ,

Our wonderful, loyal reader eclare, also known as Emma in real life, has had her fifth baby—her fifth boy!!

She writes,

“We have good news to share! Our baby was born this past week!

Reuben Dominic T________
Born January 14th, 9:51 pm
8 lbs 10 oz, 21.75 in. long
Our 5th son, and our 3rd birth at St Isidore Acres 

We have always loved the name Reuben, and nearly used it previously for middle names, but each time decided to save it for a first name. This pregnancy we discovered that it fittingly means, “Behold, a Son!” (As if we were surprised to produce a 5th male heir, ha!)

Dominic means “Blessed by the Lord,” so Reuben Dominic’s name altogether means, “Behold, a Son Who is Blessed by the Lord.”

Another amazing name connection that we discovered during Reuben’s pregnancy, is that my namesake Great-Great Grandma Emma had a son Reuben. So we are the 2nd Emma-Reuben mother-son pair in the family tree! And I just got an email from my genealogist aunt who discovered at least 3 Reubens in my mom’s family tree 200 yrs ago… so it’s actually on both sides of my family– so cool.”

Soooo wonderful!!!! If all that wasn’t amazing enough, she and I emailed a bit more and she shared this as well:

“First of all, I am still so excited about our mini-consultation that determined that I could use Ione to honor my grandma Joan… except we had a boy!

Secondly, we go back and forth about considering the Patriarchs to be patron saints, so we are always happy to discover a canonized/beatified person who also bears the name (St Abel the Abbot, for our Abel, and now Blessed Reuben of Jesus, for Reuben).
The discovery of Blssd Reuben was doubly interesting, because he was martyred with another priest, Blessed Arthur (not Blessed Arthur Bell of England, our Arthur’s patron, but another one)! A cool link between our youngest two sons.

Thirdly, for some reason this middle name was the hardest for me. Suddenly the two-syllable accent-on-the-first pair sounded all wrong, despite choosing that pattern for all our other sons. For example, Reuben Michael just sounded wrong. I wanted something more the pattern of Reuben Alexander (except I don’t even like Alexander, and the initials would be unpleasant). I was willing to live with the two-syllable pair if the middle was something more unusual, like Reuben Oscar… but that had the unpleasant initials problem as well. So Reuben Dominic was really an answered prayer!

Finally, perhaps the most nerdy connection I am excited about: his two patrons have back-to-back feast days! St Dominic on August 8, Blssd Reuben on Aug 9. (And then my own birthday on Aug 10– 8-10, which was also his birth weight– followed by my patroness, St Clare, on 8-11). Connections, connections!”

But wait, there’s more!

“I’ve always loved the nickname Ben, but have never liked Benjamin. When I first heard of Bennett/Ben I swooned… but then it was very clear that we were supposed to use it as [one of the older boys’] middle name. So I gave up on ever having a Ben… until it occurred to us that Ben could be a nn for Reuben! Only half our boys use nicknames, so not sure if we will use it, but it’s nice to have the option.

The other thing is that we were calling our naming theme “old German farmer” until #4, which sort of still fits, but also gives us a 2nd category “British gent” (#3 and #4). Also, the boys each have a family name and/or part of their godfather’s name, plus their patron is a martyr. But Reuben actually fits in every one of these categories!”

And finally, two things which I’m so delighted by:

“You are the one who convinced me that a blondie can wear the name Dominic … and of course he comes out with dark hair!” and, as Emma wrote in a comment on my Ruby spotlight the day I posted it, “Kate, you and the Holy Spirit did it again: a post on Ruby/Reuben on the very day we named our son Reuben. Amazing!“

I know you’re all loving this info like I did when I first read it! So I know you’re all dying to know the big brothers’ names, and I’m so excited Emma agreed to share them with you all—I’ve loved them ever since she told me about them! (Alt characters used for privacy.)

M@rk 1sidore
Ab3l Benne++
$imon-Pe+er C1ement
Ar+hur 3dmund

Amazing, right? Such great taste!!

Congratulations to Emma and Donal and their four big boys, and happy birthday Baby Reuben!!

reuben_dominic

Reuben Dominic

Baby name consultant: Name for a little Austrian lady

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I have really loved connecting with parents from all over the world over our shared interest in names of our faith, so I’m excited to post today’s consultation, from Sabrina in Austria! She and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little girl, though when she first wrote to me they hadn’t yet found out the gender (hence the references to boy names they’d considered, which I’ve left in for inspiration).

This baby will join older siblings:

Parsifal Hubertus
Aurelia

Which I just love! Sabrina writes,

“Our first son is called Parsifal – the germanized version of Perceval. As you might have guessed, we weren’t really practising [our faith] back then, so the second name is Hubertus, however we don’t have a huge culture of using middle names here though. Our daughter is called Aurelia. As you see, the names are quite uncommon, so we need one that fits in with them as well, Peter or Paul just won’t do it 😉 For a boy, we already considered Vito. I sort of like the name and concerning the degree of rareness it would fit, but I was told it would not fit to the style of the two others. There’s also still the consideration of calling him Richard, after my husband’s grandfather, however this would not quite fit in with the rareness.

For a girl, I’d absolutely adore Vivien (or any variation thereof), but my husband doesn’t like it too much. Genevieve would be great and going along with Parsifal well, but it is a tad too un-German to pronounce. My husband likes Agatha, but I think it’s the epitome of an old lady’s name. I’d also like Seraphina if it wasn’t too close to my own name. Also, it would be nice to avoid the too common ones, you can find a current list of them here.

I browsed the lines of our monarchy’s ancestry after reading about our princess, and while the men had all sorts of beautiful names (the more common ones being Franz, Josef, Karl and such), nearly everyone of the women was named Maria, Anna or Theresia. Isn’t that weird?

What we also considered – it would be a bold move and a break with our principle to not use genuine double names, but I really like the idea and my husband does too – was Stella Maris. Stella is a known name here, pretty uncommon but not unheard of, and it would be such a beautiful attribution to the Holy Virgin.

… around here, we can’t just go on and name our kids however we want (like that “Saint” post you posted), the magistrate decides whether it is actually a name and will approve of it. A friend of mine wanted to name her daughter Amalaswintha, after a gothic princess, but they declined and so they had to choose Amalia. Also they nearly declined even our Parsifal, however, they found one or two bearing that name in Germany. 🙂 “

I had fun working on this! I always love delving into names that are more unusual. That said, however, I only know what’s considered unusual for Americans, so I apologized in advance to Sabrina if some of my suggestions were too popular for her, or were names that Austrians would consider unattractive. I was fascinated by the lists of the most popular names she linked to—names like Maximilian, Tobias, Felix, Elias, Fabian, Sebastian, Florian, Valentina, and Magdalena are all the kinds of names I normally would have suggested to a parent with children named Parsifal and Aurelia. I love learning about differences between countries and cultures, and names provide such a fun way to do so!

Okay, these are my thoughts about their ideas:
— Vivian: I love it too! Vivian and Vivienne have been fairly popular here recently, along with other V-heavy names like Evelyn/Evelina, Evangeline, and Genevieve (see below). Vivian derives, as far as I can tell, from Latin vivus meaning “alive,” and Vito, which they’d considered for a boy, is from vitus meaning “life,” so that’s an extra connection Sabrina and her husband might appreciate. Or maybe they’d consider Vita? I quite like Vita! I think it would work really well as a sister to Parsifal and Aurelia.

— Genevieve: A gorgeous name! It’s a recent favorite among several of the Catholic families I know, and a name that’s often loved by those who also like Vivian/Vivienne! A name that’s similar in appearance and length and is more uncommon (at least here) is Guinevere. There’s a St. Winifred of Wales who’s also known as St. Guinevere.

— Agatha: Here, too, Agatha is firmly still an old lady name, though I do think it’s going to coming back into a certain popularity, on the heels of new revivals Alice and Agnes. I do think the nickname Aggie is cute!

— Seraphina: Yes, I love Seraphina too. It’s similar in style to Genevieve and Vivienne — Sabrina has very consistent (and lovely!) taste! But I can see that it might be bothersome to have mom Sabrina and daughter Seraphina.

Those are my thoughts on their current ideas, and of course I came up with some other ones for them as well. As you all know, I always rely pretty heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book when doing a consultation, and its list of “Exotic Traditional” names seemed just the right style for Sabrina and her husband. Using that list, and some other ideas, I have these suggestions:

(1) Veronica or Veronika
I think Veronica/Veronika would fit in nicely with Parsifal and Aurelia! I love that it’s long and sophisticated; it’s got that great V like Genevieve and Vivian; and it’s a great Catholic name!

(2) Anastasia
Sadly, this gorgeous name has been ruined for American Catholic parents for a while, because of the novel series Fifty Shades of Grey. But if it doesn’t have that association in Austria, I would love to see it used! Anastasia is so pretty and saintly, with the amazing meaning of “resurrection,” which is so great for a baby born near Easter. I don’t know if it would bother Sabrina and her hubs to have two A names, but I think Aurelia and Anastasia are different enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.

(3) Philomena or Filomena
Philomena/Filomena is uncommon and exclusively Catholic here (even though it seems St. Philomena is no longer a Saint; the meaning of the name is beautiful anyway. I’ll be doing a spotlight on it soon — stay tuned!), and I love that I think all of these nickname options could work: Fia, Fila, Fina, Finn, Finna, Lola, Mena, Minnie, Pia, Pim, Pina, and Pippa.

(4) Eleanor, Eleanora, Leonora, Lenora
One of my favorite features of the Baby Name Wizard book is that it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity (in America). I looked up all the names that Sabrina and her husband have used and like, and looked for any names that were similar to more than one of their favorite names, and Eleanor and variants were a big hit for them! Lenora was listed as similar to Percy (the entry most similar to Parsifal/Perceval); Eleanor is similar to Genevieve and Vivian; Eleanora is similar to Aurelia; and Leonora is similar to Agatha. To me, that’s pretty overwhelming evidence that they might like one of these names! Are they rare enough for Austria?

(5) Raphaela
Raphaela is a style match for Seraphina, and I really like that it refers to St. Raphael, who is one of the archangels, and Seraphina refers to the seraphim. Nice connection! Beautiful name.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest to Sabrina and her husband for Parsifal and Aurelia’s little sister? If any of you have knowledge of naming trends in Austria, I’d love to hear what you think of the suggestions here!