Baby name consultation: “Unique, foreign, vintage” name needed for no. 5 green bean

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Amina and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown). šŸŒ± This little one joins big sibs:

Casimir Wesley “Cas”
Miette Faye “Mimi”
Errol Shepherd
Petra Frances

Aren’t these great names?! Casimir is one my husband and I considered for one of our boys, and I still have a soft spot for it. Miette is such a sweet, affectionate name! And Errol and Petra are both amazing as well … in fact, with Miette and Errol they’ve chosen two names Iā€™ve never once seen any parent use or even consider. Well done!

Amina writes,

“I would categorize our names as… unique, foreign, vintage.šŸ˜¬šŸ¤·šŸ½ā€ā™€ļø

We weren’t Catholic when we named our oldest son, Casimir, but it happens to be a unique saint name, so hey hey! We actually got the name from a song and we loved it. We were dabbling into our conversion around the time and when we discovered it was a saint (and a famous polish general), that was cool too. It set the tone for the rest of the siblings. His middle name, Wesley, is after my husband.

Our second child, Miette, was not named after a saint, despite us being confirmed into the church during her pregnancy. We always loved the name, which is French for “little crumb.” A bit too endearing for some, but it works well for her. Her middle name, Faye, is also a family name. We figured there would be a Saint Faye, but alas, there isn’t, unless you count the Saint of Santa Fe, Saint Faith. We feel she has a strong connection to Saint Therese of Lisieux, French, and known as “the little flower”. Little crumb/ little flower, almost the same right? Her personality is spot on with what we’ve read about young Saint Therese.

Our third child, second son, Errol, just kinda got a name we agreed on. We love the soft but strong sound to it. His birthday falls near Christmas, so we decided on Shepherd as a middle name. We figured he doesn’t need a saint name with this duo as his name pays homage to Jesus.

Our fourth child, second girl, is Petra Frances. She was due around the feast of the assumption, and we almost named her Petra Remedios (I just love this Marian name, for our lady of Good Remedy), but I actually chickened out. Yep. I was eager to use Frances to pay homage to Pope Francis as well, and noticed she was due around a few Saint Francis/ Frances feast days. So, she didn’t get a Marian name, and she was born the 16th instead of the 15th.

So, the reason I am writing is that I am coming back to Remedios for a girl. After full on chickening out, we’d like to use it in the first name place. I think it just needs a super wear-able nickname. I’m not fond of Remy, which is the most obvious nickname. I have thought of Edie, Edda, Romy. Do you see any others?? We think she will be Remedios Inez, if that helps.

On our ongoing girl list we have names like Opal and Fig, as well as Phillipa, Perpetua, Simone, and Belen. (We probably won’t ever use Perpetua, as it’s too close to Petra.)

If we have a boy, we plan on naming him Aesop Junipero. I am finally letting my husband take the reigns on this one, as he’s been pushing Aesop for awhile. Junipero, we both love, after Junipero Serra. We were very moved by his canonization. My other contender is Ambrose, but my husband really wants Aesop.

I have Peregrine and Bonaventure on my boy list too, though I don’t think they will ever win my husband over. I love Arthur as well, to tone any names combos down.”

How cool is Aesop Junipero? I love it. So bold and offbeat but faithy and literary and familiar. I also love the categorization of their name taste as “unique, foreign, vintage.”

Re: nicknames for Remedios (awesome Marian name), I think the nicknames Amina has come up with (Edie, Edda, Romy) are pretty great. I did a quick search online for other ideas, and found this blog post, which explains that in Chamorro, the language of the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands (including Guam), nicknames are usually taken from the end of the name, and it specifically gave the example of Remedios nicknaming to Medo. I like that! And I think Medi works too. But maybe theyā€™re too similar to Miette? Other ideas I had were:

  • Rio or Rios
  • Ria
  • Rida
  • Dee or Didi
  • Emmy

And if Amina and her hubs were open to looking at nicknames using a mashup of first and middle names, Remedios Inez can result in:

  • Rina
  • Riz

As for additional girl names, it was fun to try to come up with some new ideas! Since their style encompasses names from various languages, as well as word names and literary nods, I felt almost like the skyā€™s the limit! I also didnā€™t limit myself to saintsā€™ names, as I agree with Amina that as long as the middle name is a saint, or either of the names has a tie to the faith, they’re covered.

These were my favorites for them:

(1) Hero
Hero is the kind of name only a certain kind of family can pull off, but I love it, and I think this family would be up to it! It was mostly influenced by Aesop on their list, and those who arenā€™t aware that the literary Heros were female might be confused, but otherwise itā€™s such a great name. There was a family on the BabyCenter name boards back when I was pregnant with my first (thirteen years ago!) who had a daughter named Hero, and I always thought that was so cool.

(2) Iona or Ione
These names are so similar in appearance, but totally different in background/meaning! Iona is Scottish, the name of the island where St. Columba founded a monastery, which provides a good saint connection. Ione is Greek and has the amazing meaning ā€œviolet flower,ā€ which they could possibly consider to be Marian since violets are a symbol of Our Lady. They were particularly exciting because, as you all know, I usually use the Baby Name Wizard as my primary resource when doing consultations, but Petra, Simone, Ambrose, and Arthur were the only names from their list that it contained, so I didnā€™t think it was going to be too helpful BUT Iona was listed as a style match for Petra, and then when I took their names over to the NameMatchmaker, Ione was a match for Casimir!

Not only can Ione be possibly connected to Our Lady through its meaning, but there were also some sites that argued that Ione is a feminine form of John. Nameberry says, “Some livelier foreign versions of Joan include Giovanna, Siobhan, Ione and Juana” and apparently there are several places in literature (like Shakespeare!) where Ione was used interchangeably with Joan! You can read that here — Ā bottom of p. 156 and top of p. 157, the link takes you right to it. So St. Joan of Arc or Bl. Jane of Aza or any of the Sts. John could be patron for a little Ione!

(3) Annick
Annick was another result from my research on the NameMatchmakerā€”a match for Miette. I love that itā€™s a form of Anna, so St. Anne is an easy patron, and it’s certainly unique and I think it goes really well as a sister to Miette and Petra. I also love that it would give each girl her own name-ending (not that that matters at all! It’s just kind of cool).

Those were my top three suggestionsā€”I tried to make them a mix of languages and inspirationā€”but there were a bunch of other names that I scribbled down for this family as I was doing my research as possibilities, like Zara, Stasia, Lorna, Aranza/Aranxa, Sonrisa, Annunziata, Immaculata, Jacinta, Iolanthe, Flora/Fleur, Cressida, Clio, and Greer, and Ines/Inez totally would have been on this list if they werenā€™t already planning to use it for a middle name.

Amina also said she was open to hearing ideas for boys, even though they’re pretty set on Aesop Juniper, so I didnā€™t spend a huge amount of time on it, but the ones that caught my eye when doing my research as similar to names they’ve used and like were: Bertram, Cajetan, Nunzio, Pascal, Tycho, Bram, Homer, and Archimedes.

And those are my ideas for this little one! What do you all think? Do you have any other nickname ideas for Remedios, or other ideas for girl names in general? If any boy names come to mind, feel free to list those as well!

33 thoughts on “Baby name consultation: “Unique, foreign, vintage” name needed for no. 5 green bean”

  1. I think Demi could also work as a nickname to Remedios. It has a little bit of a dosey-doh with the letters, but it doesn’t seem like a crazy stretch if you like it.

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      • I did originally hear Casimir from that song! A sad song, but still lead to a baby name šŸ˜‚ And OH MY! Peregrine nickname Pip was my first choice for our second son (as you can see from this post it’s still on my list). I tried so hard but I couldn’t get my husband on board. Love it.

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      • My sister was Philippa and we called her Phis all her life. She was only Pip to her husband.
        When I saw Fig in Amina’s list I immediately thought it was a great nickname for Philippa

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  3. They have an adventurous naming style! Was great to read . I like the Remedios and Kate your ideas of Iona, Hero and Aranza. It was hard to think of any suggestions that were unique enough. All I thought was perhaps the Spanish word for “Heaven” is “Cielo” pronounced “Sielo”. Best wishes.

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  4. I read on Behind the Name that Miette is actually an old nickname for Marguerite, which means any of the Sts. Margaret can be her patron!
    I love the name Inez so much that I suggest using it as a first name šŸ™‚
    Or they could use Rosario (similar to Remedios, but easier to nickname) or Imaculata. Or maybe Kateri or Beatrix!

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  5. I am LOVING their style. We have a middle name Immaculata, had considered Rosaria, and have an Ambrose. Currently crushing on the name Ransom for a boy, which seems totally up your alley.

    Also, Blythe of the fike life has a daughter named Hero. I somewhat think she liked.the name from Shakespeare and then her daughter was born on the feast of Herodotus?

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  7. Remedios is such a great name, and great fit with the other siblings! Go for it, if it feels right. Emmy and Rio are very cool nicknames.

    I am also loving Hero. For some reasons the name Sailor also comes to mind. I think it matches with Shepherd nicely, and indeed the “fisher of men” references of Jesus.

    Opal is just amazing too! What awesome style. Whatever name you pick, I know it will be stunning combo.

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  8. Oh and boys names …… Is saw Aesop and Peregrine, and thought if you do a mashup, you can get the name Aerie (being the nest of an eagle or peregrine!). Reminds me of the verse in Isaiah about God flying us up on the wings of eagles. I have never heard of an Aerie before, but I would love to meet one šŸ™‚

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  11. I think Rosie works great as a more traditional nickname for Remedios. Or they could go with Rae or Rainee. Or Reggie since Inez is a form of Agnes, so Reggie would have the “Re” of Remedios and the “g” of Agnes (from Inez). Or how about Reza? Or Dixie or Dizzy or Donnie or Dessa?

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  12. I love this mom and sibset (they are all SO cute). I think you should go for it if you love those names, of course, but maybeeee I can see them better in the middle spot. They are sliiiightly more out there than the other kids’ names. Aesop is particular looks a bit hard to spell, is the name of a fancy soap brand, and sounds a tiny bit too similar to Errol (the way I pronounce it, at least). Peregrine Aesop though is amazing! Ambrose, Anselm, Basil, Blaise, Aurelien, Bonaventure, Constantine, Sylvan, Sylvester, Severine, Cosmo, Cyprian, Crispin, Cassian are all names I can see with your sibset (a lot of them go with Aesop as a middle name).

    For a girl have you considered Juniper? Or is too trendy for you? Or Inez as a first name? If you end up going with Remedios I love Rio as a nickname! I’m sure you’ll pick an amazing name.

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  14. I’ll just add a slightly dissenting voice.

    I think Remedios is WAY too out there for a first name. All the other children have recognizable and gender-specific first names and I don’t think Remedios is a good fit.

    As such, I strongly advocate for Remedios in the middle name spot. That way you can call her Remedios or a nickname, while bestowing a more traditional first name, like Inez (I love this name) for her sake.

    Aesop is a very interesting pick. I think it is cool, as are all the rest of your name options!

    Best wishes.

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