I just put up a post about St. Anne’s feast day yesterday, and now this — what better way to celebrate St. Anne even more than with a special guest post!

I received an email from a reader a few months ago that made by whole year — she’s fourteen years old and had written to me to let me know how much she loves the blog and how much she loves babies and baby names. How many of us can see ourselves in her?? I asked this young lady if she would be interested in writing a guest post explaining about her interest in names, and I was delighted that she said yes! (I was sure to secure her parents’ approval as well.) I know you’ll all enjoy reading this!

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Being named Clementine, and being born 14 years ago before my name supposedly became more popular, I’ve always been curious about why I am named Clementine, and I suppose that curiosity grew into an interest in all names. I am named Clementine Marie; Clementine because my parents loved the name (though they’ve never told me a specific reason), and Marie after Mary our Mother and my Mom’s middle name.

I have loved the Sancta Nomina blog since I was introduced to it in October, and I read all the archives over a couple months :).

I am the oldest of 5 children, with 4 younger brothers. I was actually allowed to help choose my youngest brother’s name. My Dad gave me the two choices (Thomas or Albert), and I picked Thomas. I was ten at that time. Maybe some day Thomas will thank me for that.

I have always found names fascinating, and over the past four years I’ve kept a spreadsheet of all the birth announcements from my grandparents’ newspaper; my grandmother clips and saves them for me, and I occasionally get them in the mail. I use my spreadsheet data to make bar graphs of the most popular first and middle names each year (separating boys and girls), and I compare the results with the national trends. (Sometimes there are some strange names.) So far this year Ava and Piper are tied for the lead for girls, and Oliver is leading the boys. Several times I’ve noticed that people who had a baby a couple years ago are now having another, so sibling name-sets is another thing I’ve ended up keeping track of.
My taste in names has definitely changed as I’ve gotten older. When my brother and I were really little we had Lego families, and the children in mine were given names such as John, Paul, Catherine, Gianna, etc.

Over the past few years I’ve gradually started to like more obscure names, and I keep a running list for future children.

Some girl names on my list are:

• Azalea Louise, nicknamed Zelie; Louise is my Confirmation name for St. Louise de Marillac, and Azalea because of St. Zelie.
• Faustina; I really want one of my future daughters to have the middle name of Faustina after St. Faustina, because God’s mercy and love needs to be shown to everyone.
• I also like the names Miriam, Rosamond, Magdalena, and Sophia.

For boys I like these names:

• Edmund Louis, after St. Edmund Campion and Bl. Louis Francois.
• Jude Francis de Sales; St. Francis de Sales is amazing!
• Theodore Dismas; I know Theodore is popular, but I like it anyways, and Dismas after the Good Thief.
• I also like the names Oliver, Phineas, and Dominic.

Sometimes whenever our friends from Church have babies I will give the parents suggestions. It’s probably really annoying, but one couple used an idea of mine (although I think they were already considering it).

By the way, feel free to check out my blog at https://holy2thelord.wordpress.com/.

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I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did! I’m sure we’d all love a peek at Clementine’s bar graphs — that’s fascinating information! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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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!