Year in review: 2023 (quietly normal)

sanctanomina Housekeeping

Happy New Year!! Happy feast of Mary, the Mother of God!! πŸŒΊπŸŽ‰πŸŒΊπŸŽ‰πŸŒΊπŸŽ‰

Time for my annual recap! I’ve done one every year since I started the blog — I think they’re really fun to look back on:

As for 2023, it was definitely a quieter year than past years, but there was still a lot of fun content! I did 34 baby name consultations, 12 of which I posted on the blog — check out the baby name consultations tag to read them. One of the private consultations I did was for a postulant in an Order who had the option of choosing a religious name when she became a novice — that was fun! If there is anyone else out there, man or woman, who is in a similar situation and would like help coming up with ideas, I’m here for you! (And anyone else who would like their own baby name consultation, or would like to give one as a gift [I have gift certificates available], all the info you need is here.)

Another of the consultation posts was actually a prediction post for my newest nephew, and one of you guessed his name! Reader VEL predicted Malachy with the nickname Mac, which is exactly what my sister and her husband named him! Nice job, VEL!

In addition to Mac’s birth announcement, I posted 12 others — welcome to the beautifully named Calvin Francis, Heidi Rose, Joseph Mark Clement, Georgia Katherine, Felix Isidore, James Rafael, Remember Ocean Terebinth, Marigold Elizabeth, Benedict Jude, Stephen Scott, Maria Josephine, and Ivylisse Victoria!

I posted 3 Fun Friday Questions: How do you pronounce Therese?, Do you choose your child(ren)’s Confirmation name?, and Surprisingly biblical and non-biblical-biblical names?

I did a spotlight post on the name Ferris (did you know it’s a form of Peter??).

I posted on some topics of interest, including:

My book of Marian names continues to be one of the greatest joys of my life! It’s available directly from Marian Press at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy and on Amazon (not affiliate links), and perhaps at your local Catholic shop! I seriously use mine all the time, both when I’m trying to remember information about a name for my own self, and in baby name consultations.

I looped in some Mom stuff when I posted about my son’s broken leg in the beginning of September and when I posted an update on Instagram the other day — the Sancta Nomina community is full of great prayer-s, and I was so grateful to be able to share that with you — it was a rough fall, and I’m sure that any prayers you directed our way helped us get through it!

I was even able to squeak in a St. Anne pilgrimage, as has been my custom every summer since I started Sancta Nomina! Many of you know that, early on, St. Anne became the patroness of Sancta Nomina, and these pilgrimages have been my way of trying to thank her for her intercession. We went to the St. Ann by the Sea church in Marshfield, MA while on our Big Family Vacation — a much smaller pilgrimage than what we’ve attempted in the past because of all that we have going on in our Big Kid family. As I noted in the post at that link, it’s amazing to me that it’s become harder to make this trip as my kids have gotten older and we have older-kid responsibilities like their summer jobs, as well as the addition of my own job. I wrote an article for CatholicMom.com years ago about what a “pilgrimage” looks like for our family of many small children, in hopes it might be helpful for other families of small children who think a pilgrimage might be totally un-doable, never thinking that it might become more difficult to even plan one as those small children grew up! (You can read that article here: Pilgrimages for Parents of Young Families.) But indeed, that’s the point we’re at. You can read about my previous St. Anne pilgrimages here:

I still have hopes of making it to the Sainte-Anne-de-BeauprΓ© Shrine in Quebec someday — maybe for my tenth blogiversary! Which is next year?? Is that right?? Gah, that might be too soon! We’ll see — stay tuned!

I titled this review “quietly normal” because I think that 2023’s Sancta Nomina activity is representative of how things will likely continue going forward — a little less than in the early years, but still here, still a source of solid Catholic naming information, conversation, consultations, resources, and recommendations. You can continue to find me on Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter (@sanctanomina on all three), though I’ve pulled way back on social media (my posts still automatically post to FB and Twitter).

Thank you all for joining me in this lovely corner of the internet! I’m so grateful for you all! I continue to keep you all in my prayers, and I hope 2024 is a wonderful year for you all!!

πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ’–

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