Happy feast (a day late) of Mary, the Mother of God!! And Happy New Year!! Have we ever been so happy to see a new year?!!

Last year was certainly the year of Bad Things. So much suffering, and none of us untouched, though many of us were scourged more than others.

As I started to go back through my posts from 2020, I wondered if this was going to be a bummer of a post — was there anything good that came out of this past year? I was quickly reminded that, yes!, there was so much good that came out of this past year: all your beautiful babies! Sancta Nomina exists for babies and their families — it was such a joy to be surrounded by the hope and love of each of you as I reread your stories. What a beautiful way to begin this new year! I know you’ll love to do so as well:

• I did 66 baby name consultations in 2020, 25 of which I was given permission to post! You can find them (and all previous consultation posts) here.
• I posted birth announcements for 40 babies! (All birth announcements can be found here.) Welcome again to Perrin Fae, Bosco Anthony, Michael Gabriel, Barbara Josephine, Lillian Joy, Liliane Cruz, Anna, Claude Indiana Emmanuel, Chiara Maris, Valor Joseph, Magnus Craig, Marigold Azélie, Lolek Augustine, Felicity Colette, Levi Nathaniel, Jeffery Sherwood, Charlotte Avery Katherine, Thérèse Lourdes, Noah Anthony, Benedict Campion Marie, Evangeline Truth, Elanor Josephine, Felix Owen, Sojourn Hyssop Arise, Magdalene Anne, Arthur Paul, Michael Augustine, Iris Miriam, Bernadette Frances, Henry Kapaun, Aurelia-Rose Celeste, Titus Joseph, Magdalen Gianna, Tristan Raphael, Oskar Karl Wolfgang, William Daniel, Judah Abraham, Ann Margaret, Philip Charles, and Agnes Therese Marie! Some of our favorite public Catholic personalities and businesses are represented in this list of new babies, including Studio Senn, Catholic All Year, Just Love Prints, Rose Harrington Art, Philip Rivers, In Honor of Design, Leah Darrow, Camp Patton, and Trials of Faith (I love supporting all of you who are doing your part to be light in the world!). Some of these babies join older siblings who had previously been celebrated on the blog — it’s such fun to see families grow! I love welcoming new families as well — thank you for sharing your baby joy!

The hardships of the past year weren’t absent from the blog, however. I wrote specifically about the wretched virus a couple of times:

• Saints that are helpful for epidemics generally and this pandemic specifically (St. Corona, St. Bernadine, Sts. Rosalia, Rocco, Patrick, and Our Lady, Crowned, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus)
• The parents of a few of the babies whose birth announcements I posted explicitly noted that the names or births were specifically affected/influenced by the pandemic (Noah, Elanor, Michael)
• This article I wrote for Nameberry: Babies Named Corona Are No Joke
• These articles I wrote for CatholicMom: Babynaming in the time of coronavirus and Others’ Long-Ago Suffering Provides Hope In Hard Times

I shared resources for continuing the fight to overcome racial injustice:

• These powerful prayers
• The certain non-coincidence that the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus fell on Juneteenth in 2020
• Several articles about Black names and naming
• These powerful patrons: Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Servant of God Mary Elizabeth Lange, Venerable Henriette DeLille, Servant of God Julia Greeley, Venerable Augustus Tolton, Servant of God Thea Bowman

And I wrote about the sad life of Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) and the sad deaths of Kobe and Gianna Bryant and their co-passengers.

In the business-as-usual category, I shared some thoughts on the 2019 name data that was finally released by the Social Security Administration after a several-months-long delay. I was so grateful to be able to take my annual St. Anne pilgrimage to thank her for her care for us all. I posted some Fun Friday questions:

• What is your Name Fuss threshhold?
• Did Mom name the girls and Dad the boys?
• Did your devotion to your children’s name saints come first or second?
• Catholic names for pets

I did some name spotlights:

• Magdalene
• Willow and Willa
• Romilly
• Quinn
• Hildegard
• Names to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus

I shared these name stories:

• Eden, Abrie, Bradley, Blaise, and Valen
• Porter Joseph (note that this beautiful story may be difficult for some as it’s about stillbirth and contains photos)

I welcomed one “celebrity guest”:

• Pauline, who started reading as a daughter and continues as a mama!

And I pulled together these meaty posts:

• Saintly nickname names
• Feminine-feeling nicknames for boys
• Spellings that signal gender in names that sound the same
• The power of names in literature and the bible
• Notes from Scottish forenames
• How to name an entity
• Irish family names from a certain era
• a Becket, a Kempis, a Cruce
• Names of some of Bl. Solanus’ confreres
• What’s in a (Catholic) name? {An interview with Sancta Nomina by Jenny Uebbing}
• New names for Brothers of two religious orders, and a question about religious name changes
• Nicknames for Lawrence
• Disrespectful to use names for God?
• Odds and ends: Marian edition
• Names for St. Joseph
• Advent/Christmas names, St. Joseph, St. Andrew, et al. (includes nods to St. Audrey and St. Olaf/Olave, and a fun discussion of the popularity of Bartholomew in England)
• The naming of Jesus, SN in Croatia, and Irish naming trends

I continued writing for CatholicMom.com:

• Celebrating Catholic Schools
• Saintly Nicknames as Given Names
• Babynaming in the time of coronavirus
• Others’ Long-Ago Suffering Provides Hope in Hard Times
• Saints’ Birth Names: Great for Babynaming
• A Litany of School Saints: Protection and Help for the Academic Year (my family and I have prayed this so fervently since school started!)
• Book review: Miraculous! Catholic Mysteries for Kids by Kathryn Griffin Swegart
• Praying the Rosary With Children (this got picked up by a Croatian site!)
• Gruesome Saint Stories: Off-Putting for Parents?

And Nameberry:

• Babies Named Corona Are No Joke
• Best Cool, Unique Saints’ Names (repost; originally published June 2016)

I again offered my now-annual and super-popular (thank you!!) Black Friday/Cyber Monday baby name consultation deals, and instituted the Consultation-for-Book deal, which will continue indefinitely!

One weird thing that happened is that WordPress did some sort of site redesign that has affected my ability to see comments on posts as they come in — by the time I realized this a few months ago, I’d already received a whole bunch of comments, and as anyone who has ever emailed me has likely encountered, when I have a backlog of something (emails, comments) it takes me a looong time to get caught up. I’m still not caught up on post comments — I’m at least a couple months behind. I’m so sorry! I’ve always loved the conversation on here in the comments, and I’m always writing, “Catch up on blog comments” on my daily to-do list. I’ll keep plugging away!

For 2021: It’s the Year of St. Joseph! I can’t wait to see all the babies named for our good St. Joseph! And I have some new ideas for Sancta Nomina that I think you’ll love! Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of months, and in the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy the content that we all love: consultations and birth announcements and I’m always happy to receive name stories about the beautiful ways you’ve reflected our faith in your children’s names, whether you’ve had a consultation or not!

As always, my every-year word for Sancta Nomina is gratitude: for all of you, for this beautiful ministry I’ve been allowed to have, for the joy and hope your babies and the names for our faith provide, and for the love God has for each one of us. ❤ ❤ ❤

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My book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links) — perfect for the expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady in your life!