Happy feast of St. Mary Magdalene! Here‘s an article I wrote a few years ago in celebration of her feast day in which I offer some of the ways that she has popped up throughout history.

Today’s consultation is for Hannah and her husband who are expecting baby no. 2 — a little boy! Little Mister joins big sister:

Rafaella (“We named our daughter Rafaella and call her both Ella and her given name. Rafael is a family name on my side of the family, and it ended up that we found out she’s a girl on the heavenly birthday [not her official feast day but the day she died] of the only female St. Rafaela in the Church – St. Rafaela Porras Ayllón. It was one of our top two names and then it ended up that God already knew she was a Rafaella.”)

Isn’t that an amazing story?? And such a beautiful name!!

Hannah writes,

“Right now we have two names we are thinking of choosing between, Leo Dominic and Peter Ambrose. I think we both like Dominic as a middle name for Peter too. Both names are ones that were not on our radar as possible baby boy names with our first pregnancy, and were not names we were considering when we found out this one is a boy. 

After finding out, my husband had a dream that our son was 6 months old and we were still throwing out possible names to name him. One of those names was Leo. The morning after his dream, and before he even told me about it, the name Leo popped into my head. 

The name Peter came to me just before I became pregnant, or it could have been within the first week before I knew I was. I had never considered it as a possible name for us before.

I like the name, but I don’t like the nicknames for it. 

At the moment, it doesn’t seem we’ll have a name for our son until we meet him when he’s born … but it would be nice to have it narrowed down beforehand.

I am looking to see if there are other names we should be considering. Especially if they’re shorter and have good meanings behind them. It is also a plus if they can’t easily be nicknamed.

One of the top boy names we had last time was Dominic, but after finding out we’re having a son, it doesn’t feel right for this little boy.

Sebastian, Jacob, Gabriel, and Theodore are other names we have tossed around. We like Sebastian but it’s a bit long. We love Jacob but I’m not a fan of the meaning. We like Gabriel, but I don’t like any of the nicknames. It’s also another archangel name. We both do like Theodore with the nickname Theo.

It seems our naming style for a boy is a bit different than for a girl. Top names for a girl were Serafina, Evangeline, Magdalena, and Agnes. Agnes being the only one out of the ordinary in that list!

Our top names for this boy turned into Leo, Peter, and Jacob. We do like that they are shorter. I like that they sound softer like our daughter’s name, and also strong.”

Names they can’t use include (though Hannah particularly loves Andrew nn Drew, Benjamin, and James):

• Andrew
• Jonathan
• Stephen
• David
• Timothy
• Michael
• James
• Thomas
• Benjamin
• Nathan
• Charles
• Daniel
• Robert
• Patrick

This was fun to work on! I loved reading about Hannah’s husband’s dream and that she was thinking about the name Leo even before her hubby told her about it! Leo certainly has all the things they’re looking for: shorter, good meaning, not easily nicknamed (though it might be helpful to know that I have a bunch of Leos in my family and while the younger generations are able to enforce the full Leo, the olders tend to go by Lee!), and I think it goes great with big sister Rafaella. Leo Dominic is a really handsome combo!

Peter is also a great name! I especially like it paired with a more unexpected middle name like Ambrose; I also quite like Peter Dominic. I have a friend whose son is Peter Damian, after Doctor of the Church St. Peter Damian, which I’ve always thought was a cool combo. That said, Peter does seem less well suited than Leo, based on the fact that it’s not a shorter name (though technically does have the same number of syllables as Leo), it’s easily nicknamed (and Hannah doesn’t like the nicknames), and it doesn’t have that “biblical-ish name dream” story that Leo has … I wonder if they might like the variant Pier, either as an unexpected nickname for Peter, or as a given name? Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati is the inspiration here, and though his devotees tend to get upset about people using Pier to honor him, since he went by Giorgio in life, I wouldn’t let that stop this anyone who was interested in using Pier — we use parts and variants of Saints’ names all the time to honor them (e.g., Charles and Lolek for St. John Paul II).

In addition to Leo and Peter, they have a great list of possibilities! I thought I’d offer my thoughts on them, in case they’re helpful:

• Dominic: While I love Dominic — it’s one of my very favorites! — I’m not too disappointed that they’re not really considering it for a first name for this baby, since I think siblings Rafaella and Dominic come across as having a heavy ethnic feel — Italian-ish or Spanish, Latinate of some kind. That doesn’t have to be a problem! I actually really love it when families lean into their heritage when naming their babies! But I didn’t see any evidence in Hannah’s email or in her last name to suggest that she or her husband have heritage of that nature? Again, that doesn’t have to be a problem — Catholic parents often choose names of beloved Saints outside of their own family heritage! I love that we have such a wide pool of names to choose from! But it might make them feel boxed in to use Dominic after Rafaella — siblings Rafaella, Dominic, and Jacob sound a little jarring, for example. (Again, that doesn’t have to be a problem! There’s no reason they can’t choose names that sound jarring together, and honestly, many people wouldn’t even notice! I just want to be sure I share all the thoughts that I think are relevant.)

• Sebastian: Sebastian is long! It’s got lots of fun nicknames like Seb, Sebby, Bastian, and Bash; my kids also have a friend Sebastian who goes by Baz. But if they’re trying to stay away from nicknames, Sebastian probably isn’t the right name for them!

• Jacob: Though Jacob was buried in the list of names Hannah and her husband have discussed, later on in her email Hannah said that Leo, Peter, and Jacob are their top frontrunners. I love the name Jacob! Like with Peter, I like the idea of an unexpected middle name for Jacob, since it’s such a familiar name. Also, I know they prefer not to use a nickname, but I think Jake is one of the very best! So friendly yet strong. (As a side note, Hannah said James is a name she likes, though they can’t use it because it’s a cousin’s name — I just wanted to point out that Jacob and James are the same name! Jacob is the Hebrew and James is the Latin.)

• Gabriel: Gabriel is one of my very favorite boy names ever! However, with big sister Rafaella I like it better as a middle for this family, at least for this baby immediately following Rafaella (never the heavy Archangel influence!). Peter Gabriel would be great if the music association doesn’t bother them! A name that I thought might be able to take Gabriel’s place on their list is Gideon — there isn’t a natural nickname for it (though I’ve been partial to something like Gideon Louis with the nickname Gil) and he’s a huge hero in the Old Testament.

• Theodore: I’m not surprised Hannah and her hubby like Theodore and Theo, since Leo is high on their list! Based on their preference for shorter names that don’t nickname easily, I would say Leo is a better fit for them, however, I also have a friend who recently named her son Theo (not Theodore), so that’s an option, too. Also, I think it’s the kind of thing where they can use either Leo or Theo(dore), not both, so they’ll want to give some thought to which one they like better, or which one they’d be sorrier to lose.

• Even though they can’t use Andrew/Drew, Benjamin, and James, I’m glad Hannah mentioned that she loves them, as they gave me extra information to use in my research.

• I’m also glad she mentioned the names on their girl list! Serafina, Evangeline, and Magdalena all have a similar feel to Rafaella in my mind; Agnes is a little surprising, but I’m seeing it more and more. Though it’s very common for parents to prefer different styles of name for their girls versus their boys, I think there’s also usually a sense of not wanting the two styles to clash, so it was helpful to see what they’re thinking for a future daughter.

Alright! On to new ideas! I did my usual research in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I also paid special attention to names that are shorter, have good meaning, and aren’t easily nicknamed, as well as names that I thought fit their preference for “soft but strong.” Based on all that, these are names that I think Hannah and her husband might like:

(1) Joachim nn Jake

Okay, despite the fact that they’d prefer not to nickname, I just had to mention this idea! I absolutely love the name Joachim and tried to convince my husband of it through several of our boys. Not only is this the name we honor Our Lady’s father under, but I had thought that the nickname Jake really “made” this idea! (We couldn’t use Joe.) Since they love Jacob, I thought I’d throw that out there.

(2) Caleb

Jacob was a big inspiration behind this idea, too, as Caleb is a style match for it and I often see that parents who like Jacob also like Caleb. Caleb is one of the sweetest, softest boy names I know! While it’s generally considered to derive from the Hebrew word for “dog,” which isn’t the greatest meaning, there’s also a theory that it could mean “whole, all of” plus “heart,” which is wonderful. Even the dog meaning isn’t bad — St. Dominic is known as the hound of heaven, so Caleb Dominic could actually be very meaningful to anyone with a Dominican sensibility!

(3) Bennett

Since they can’t use Benjamin, there’s a good bet they can’t use Bennett, either, because of the shared Ben nickname, but if there was a chance they could use Bennett, I think they might like it! It’s a medieval diminutive of Benedict, so it’s got great faith connections, and I think it has that softer feel they’re looking for.

(4) Matthias

I was excited to see that Matthias is a style match for a bunch of names they like, first and foremost Rafaella! It’s also a match for Dominic, Serafina, and Evangeline — that’s amazing to me! It’s one of my favorite biblical names, and I often think of it as having Catholic character because Matthias was chosen by the apostles — the first “Church council”?? 😉— to replace Judas.

(5) Milo or Miles

Milo is a style match for Leo and another name I think they’d probably like to consider if they didn’t already have Ella: Elliott. I have always loved Milo’s amazing meaning: “devotee of the Virgin Mary” via an Old Irish name with that meaning that Milo has traditionally been used as the anglicized version of (Maelmhuire). I also think Milo has a softer feel while still being squarely masculine. However, I worry that Milo might take Leo and Theo out of the running, so the variant Miles might appeal to them more — it shares the same Marian meaning as Milo, as it, too, has traditionally been used as the anglicized form of Maelmhuire. Miles can also take the added meaning of “soldier” as the Latin for soldier is miles. Very cool for a little boy!

(6) Oliver

Oliver showed up so much in my research for this baby! It’s a style match for Leo, Sebastian, Theodore, and Madeline (standing in for Magdalena, which doesn’t have its own entry in the BNW; Madeline’s matches have often seemed to me to be similar to what Magdalena’s might be); additionally, I know a little Oliver who has brothers named Benjamin and James, so it definitely seems like a name Hannah and her husband would like! I would also definitely put it in the “softer” category.

(7) Simon

This is another match for Leo, and one that I would consider “softer.” I know of two little boys named Simon Peter — maybe that’s how they can work Peter in? As a middle name for Simon? (For what it’s worth, both little Simon Peters I know use it as a double first name!)

(8) Tobias, Tobiah

Tobias is a match for Dominic and Evangeline — it’s always fun for me to see a name that is a match for both boy names and girl names on parents’ lists! It’s the Greek form of Tobiah, which they might also like — the “ah” ending gives it a softer feel. Tobias and Tobiah mean “Yahweh is good,” which is great!

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Rafaella/Ella’s little brother?

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For help with Marian names, 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). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!