Author: sanctanomina

Birth announcement: Ronan James Eugene!

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Yes! It’s a two-birth-announcement day!!

I posted the consultation for Theresa and her husband back in May, and it was particularly fun because, as she’d said, “Boy names are so much harder! … I don’t really know what boy names [my husband] likes. I don’t know if he knows … He doesn’t like names that are super specific to any ethnicity (Seamus, Carlos, Giovanni) or most Old Testament names (Noah, Elijah, Isaac) or names that are gender neutral or feminine sounding. If you can find a boy name we both like, I will be amazed!”

Though I wasn’t able to come up with a name her husband would go for, Theresa herself discovered the elusive name, and just emailed me to let me know their son arrived last week — Ronan James Eugene! She writes,

“If you remember, we were having a particularly hard time with boy names, so of course, in early June, we found out we were having a boy. We had a difficult time deciding. We eventually landed on Ronan James. I saw Ronan somewhere on a list of names for people who like Patrick (got that idea from you), and I liked it. Once I found out that there have been several St. Ronans — I was sold. My husband took a little more convincing and time but eventually agreed. James was because we both like it, and I feel like it goes with everything, but mostly because my husband’s Great Uncle Jimmy died this year and we thought it would be a nice tribute. So we were all set … then in September, my father passed away after a very long battle with MS. His name was Patrick Eugene. Since I already had a Patch (Roy Patrick III) for my husband and father-in-law, we decided to add Eugene to Ronan’s name for my dad. Ronan James Eugene was born on October 30. Thank you for all your help, and I love reading your blog.”

What a perfect name! I particularly like that one of Theresa’s favorites had been Finnian, and Ronan seems really similar to me, and one of her husband’s favorites had been James, so putting the two together, and then adding in Theresa’s dad’s name, just ties everything up in a handsome little package.

Congratulations to Theresa and her husband and the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Ronan!!

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Ronan James Eugene

Birth announcement: Teresa Catherine (Tessa)!

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Back in June I posted the consultation for the wee one whose mama just let me know has arrived: Teresa Catherine, called Tessa! Mama Beth writes,

“We named her Teresa Catherine after Mother Teresa and St Catherine of Siena ❤ And so far we are calling her Tessa … She was born 10-10, 7 lbs 11 oz 21 inches 🙂 “

The name decision has a beautiful story too:

“I was infertile for 4 years. I ended up having stage 4 endometriosis and I’ve had 3 surgeries to remove it. The last one was this past December. I used to go on a mission trip to Mexico every summer until my oldest daughter was born. The last summer I went, I went with our priest to the missionaries of Charity and attended mass with them. Afterwards I asked the sisters to pray that I could have a baby. (We had been married and trying to conceive for 3 years at this point.) The sisters literally started laughing and jumping up and down and said, “this is Mother Teresa’s specialty!” They gave me a medal and a card with a piece of her sari in it and promised to pray. Exactly one year later (to the day) we found out we were pregnant with Madeleine. 🙂

So a few months ago, I was cleaning my drawers and found the Mother Teresa medal and put it on. I had never considered the name Teresa. One evening I asked my husband what he thought of Teresa and call her Tessa. He immediately said “I think that is it!” We visited St Maria Goretti’s relics a few weeks ago and I touched the medal to the glass so now it’s a 3rd class relic too!

We actually didn’t know her middle name for sure until I was in labor. Ken really liked Catherine, but we considered saving it for a first name. But we decided we wanted it for her. My aunt’s middle name was Catherine, she died of cancer when I was 10. And my husband is a convert and right after he converted he went to Europe for 5 weeks and visited Catherine of Siena’s church over there.

So Tessa is named after 2 great saints! 🙂 “

Stories like these are one of the many reasons I love this blog — how wonderful to hear the powerful and amazingly personal ways in which God works in our lives, often through the intercession of the Saints! And hearing things like, “I had never considered the name Teresa” gets me all excited too — it’s so fun to discover what’s hiding in our hearts!

Congratulations to Beth and her husband and their older children, and happy birthday Baby Tessa!!

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Teresa Catherine

Baby name consultant: Baby #5 (boy #4): John Paul? Augustine? Matthew? Or … ?

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Keri and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, a boy! Their other kiddos are:

Keegan Thomas
Emma Claire (called “Emma Claire”; “I am thinking of officially adding “Therese” as her middle name and changing her first name to “Emma Claire” instead of just “Emma.” It was always our intent to call her Emma Claire, I just used Claire as a middle to give her flexibility which I now sort of regret. Seeing as how St. Therese is one of her special saints and she died on Emma Claire’s birthday, it seems fitting to add it to her name.”)
Evan Jacob
Andrew Paul

Great names, right? Strong, handsome names for the boys, and I love Emma Claire as a double first name.

Keri writes,

“We are Catholic converts. Through the years, as we have waded more deeply into the Church and its teachings, we have become more and more “Catholic” in our naming practices. I wish I had given Keegan a more “Catholic” name. St. Thomas the Apostle is his patron. St. Clare (along with St. Therese) is Emma Claire’s. Since “Evan” is a form of “John,” St. John the Baptist is his patron. Andrew has St. Andrew has a patron. Given that his birthday was close-ish to St. Andrew’s feast day and it was on our short list, it seemed like a winner.”

I just have to insert here that, though I know what Keri means about Keegan, I wanted to reassure her — behindthename.com says Keegan is “From an Irish surname, the Anglicized form of the Gaelic Mac Aodhagáin, which means “descendant of Aodhagán”. The given name Aodhagán is a double diminutive of AODH.” So I looked up Aodh, and it said Aodh has been traditionally anglicized as Hugh — and Hugh is a saint’s name! The saints with that name are often in the form of Hugo, but Hugh and Hugo are the same name, and New Advent even has an entry for St. Hugh the Great. So her Keegan Thomas can claim two wonderful saints for his own. ❤

Keri continues,

“My husband has lobbied for “John Paul” for every single boy and for some unknown reason, I have always rejected it. John Paul is now on our short list. We have also seriously considered “Augustine” (nn — “Gus”) but I am not quiiiiite sure I am so bold … If we go with John Paul, middle name would likely be “Augustine.” These are two very important saints to us, both heavy influences on my husband, in particular, in his conversion. In fact, John Paul is his confirmation name.”

Other names on their list include:

Benjamin
Alexander (“Alexander has been a runner-up for every boy we have. I really like “Alex” as a shortened version”)
Matthew (“just not sure it has that “zing” to it”)

And those they like but can’t use:

Nicholas
Thomas
Patrick

So my thoughts regarding their ideas: John Paul is a great name, a great saint, a great patron for a boy, and so awesome to have the connection to Keri’s husband through his Confirmation name! But I do feel I have to point out that they already have a John (Evan) and a Paul (Andrew’s middle name), and while those certainly aren’t deal breakers by any means — if they want to name their unborn son John Paul they should go right ahead and do so! With my full blessing! 😀 — it might also soothe them that they’ve already used John Paul, in a sense. It might help them feel freer to move on to a different choice for this little boy on the way, you know? (It’s worth noting that there’s certainly precedent for naming more than one baby after the same saint — Jenny Uebbing‘s got two little ones named for St. Maximilian Kolbe! And it works! And it’s totally fine and the sky didn’t come crashing down! Also, as Keri did note in a later email, “my friends convinced me that because they have two totally different patrons it was ok. 🙂 ” Yes indeed, I 100% agree.)

There are also other ways of working St. John Paul into a name, like by using a form of his pre-papal name Karol. I’ve seen a lot of families use Charles, Karl and Carl, Karol, Charlotte, Caroline and Karoline/a in honor of JP2 — Charles for a boy seems especially relevant right now.

Augustine is also an awesome name, but it does seem a little different in style than the other kids’ names — much heavier. John Paul can fit in I think without raising eyebrows, but Augustine would be a little more baffling. So I really like it in the middle name spot for this baby. However, if they were open to considering August, I think it fits in their naming style a bit more, and they could still use the nickname Gus. But I think what seems like it might fit even better is Austin — Austin is an old form of Augustine, a “medieval contracted form” of it, according to behindthename. A little Austin would legitimately be able to claim St. Augustine as his patron, and it’s certainly a less bold choice than Augustine. I quite like August John Paul, August Charles, Austin John Paul, or Austin Charles for this family (especially Austin), I love how both options allow them to honor both of the heavy influences on Keri’s husband’s conversion.

Benjamin, Alexander, Nicholas, Thomas, and Matthew are all really great, solid, biblical names — I’m particularly interested that Alexander was the runner up for every boy! That definitely says something … I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they have an Alexander some day, even if it’s not this particular boy. And Patrick echoes the Irishness of Keegan, so I can definitely see the appeal there. Overall, a great, solid list. I wonder, instead of Matthew, since Keri said she wasn’t sure if it has enough “zing,” if they might consider Matthias? It’s a more international form of Matthew and has a heavier biblical feel.

So those are my thoughts on the names Keri and her husband have been batting around, but I had a few other ideas that I thought might be worth considering:

(1) Kolbe or Bennett (et al.)
As a name nut (or “namiac,” as my mom calls me!), I really like to see sibling sets that have a balanced feel name-wise. This certainly is much less important than a lot of other factors, but when I first looked at Keri’s kids’ names, I really wanted to loop Keegan in somehow. Emma Claire, Evan, and Andrew can really hang together style-wise, while Keegan looks to be a little on the outside. It’s totally understandable that as they’ve grown in their faith they’ve drawn closer to the names of our faith (santa nomina), which is so great, and I really wanted to come up with a suggestion or two that would have more of the feeling that Keegan has, while being really Catholicky Catholic. Kolbe was the very first one that came to mind: It’s a last name, like Keegan started out as; it starts with K, which is aesthetically pleasing to me — just that alone makes Keegan make more sense within the context of his siblings’ names; and it has a really current sound — like Colby and Cody and Kobe — which Keegan also has. At the same time, St. Maximilian Kolbe is of course an amazing patron, and I’ve seen Kolbe used a lot by the heavy-duty Catholic families I know. I think Kolbe John Paul works fine, or Kolbe Augustine (wow that is a heavy hitting name!), or Kolbe Charles.

Another name in this vein that also seemed like it might work is Bennett. It too is a medieval form of a saint’s name — Benedict! And given that they’re considering Benjamin, Bennett is a really great option, since it allows for the nickname Ben.

Otherwise, it might be worth their while to look at lists of saints’ last names to see if any strike their fancy for a first name — there are two posts in particular here that have a lot of great ideas, both in my post and (mostly) in the comments: Last names as first names  and Baby name consultant: Not-so-normal Catholic names. I think this is a really great pool of names to draw from if Keri and her husband want to find a name that is more like Keegan stylistically.

(2) Luke (or Lucas) (nicknamed Lolek?)
Luke has the same great, solid, biblical pedigree that so many of Keri’s other favorites have. I’ve always loved that it’s a really Marian name for a boy — the gospel of Luke mentions Mary more than any of the others; it’s the one which the prayer the Magnificat comes from; and it presents Jesus’ genealogy that some believe goes through Mary rather than Joseph. Additionally, in the consultation I did for Jenny, because of her love of JP2 someone suggested Lolek as a nickname for Luke, which I thought was just inspired — Lolek was JP2’s childhood nickname! (That same commenter also said she knew of a little boy with Lolek as his middle name, so that’s an option too, for honoring JP2.)

There is the consideration that Keri’s last name is one syllable, and if that were problematic for her with a one-syllable first name, I’ll change my suggestion to Lucas. Lucas Karl and Lucas Augustine are striking me as particularly handsome.

(3) Jonathan or Justin (with a P middle name? For JP initials)
As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up all the names — already-named kids and names on the list of considerations — in the Baby Name Wizard book as it lists, for each entry, names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. When I looked up all of Keri’s names, it was amazing to me how much overlap there was in her style — Alexander, Benjamin, Nicholas, Andrew, and Thomas routinely showed up — so I started noticing what other names were often linked with theirs. Jonathan was one of the names, and I immediately thought it might be a great option. I love that Jonathan has the John sound of John Paul, but it’s not actually a John name, so it doesn’t compete with Evan. Additionally, I thought if Keri and her husband paired it with a P middle name — Jonathan Patrick maybe? — they could call him JP, which of course are John Paul’s initials; of course, he’s routinely referred to as JP or JP2 or JPII, so it would be both obvious and subtle at the same time.

Justin isn’t tied to too much other than my gut feeling. My suggestion of Austin is what made me initially think of it — both the similar sound and feel they share, as well as the fact they’re both sort of “underground Catholic” — few people seem to know that Austin comes from Augustine, and few people seem to know that Justin Martyr was a heavy duty Church Father and therefore Justin is a heavy duty Catholic name. Justin feels similar to Evan to me, and it’s listed as similar to Matthew, so I thought it might hit the right notes. Similar to Jonathan, if it was paired with a P middle name, Keri’s little boy would have JP initials. I like Justin Patrick a lot.

(4) Christopher or Samuel
Christopher and Samuel were others that kept popping up as similar to other names Keri and her hubs like, especially Emma, Alexander, and Benjamin (Samuel), and Andrew, Nicholas, and Matthew (Christopher), so they definitely needed a mention. Chris and Sam are great boy nicknames.

(5) Nathaniel or Gabriel
Both Nathaniel and Gabriel were two others that had lots of overlap in the Baby Name Wizard for this family’s style, and they always kind of remind me of each other — their style is so similar, the big difference being (to me) that if you like longer names, Nathaniel fits the bill, and if you prefer shorter, Gabriel. Nathaniel was listed as similar to Benjamin, Nicholas, Alexander, and my idea for them of Samuel; Gabriel was listed as similar to Benjamin, Nathaniel, and my idea for them of Luke. Gabriel especially is often included in the Catholicky Catholic category, with his ties to Mary in the Annunciation.

So those are my ideas for Keri and her husband! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for Keegan, Emma Claire, Evan, and Andrew’s little brother?

Birth announcement: Philip Rivers’ baby has arrived!

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Chargers’ QB Philip Rivers, favorite football player of Sancta Nomina 🙂 , and his wife Tiffany welcomed their eighth baby and sixth daughter, Clare, this past Wednesday!

Despite the fact that I was googling every couple of days to be sure I didn’t miss the announcement, I didn’t see it until earlier today, hence the belated birth announcement. But better late than never! You can read more here (awesome article. I’m constantly blown away by how he and his wife are loud and proud about their faith and marriage. Catholic courage, baby!) and here.

It was so fun being given a sneak peek into the Rivers’ baby naming, and knowing ahead of time what little Miss Clare’s name would be! Thank you all for keeping Tiffany and Baby Clare in your prayers, and congratulations to the Rivers family!!

Updated to add: I assume the little one’s full name is Clare Magdalen(e) but I haven’t seen any report to confirm that, nor to confirm the spelling.

The Marshall Kids

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Okay, so I made a huge name blunder by not digging around to find Taylor Marshall’s other kids’ names after I shared that he and his wife had welcomed their eighth baby … and then eclare said they were named in a video in the actual post that I’d linked to … and I didn’t even remember there being a video, but indeed I clicked over and there it was … but only six of the eight were named so I did my due diligence and dug a little deeper and yes, I now know the eight Marshall children’s names. Whew! It’s hard work staying on top of the Catholic baby naming world! 😉

They are, all of them, most wonderfully well named:

Gabriel
Mary and Rose (twins) (I believe)
Jude
Becket
Blaise
Elizabeth called Lizzie
Margaret Grace Carol (Maggie? I don’t think he’s said so …)

*Sigh.* I love each one. A great great bunch of names (and a great bunch of kids, if they’re anything like they were on this video. So cute!)

Also, when Taylor announced Miss Margaret was on her way, he asked for name ideas. What. Where was I. I don’t know, I think I was still feeling scattered and overwhelmed with awe that people were actually reading my blog (who am I kidding, I’m STILL in awe!). So sorry to have dropped the ball! Maybe I’ll have it together better when Marshall Baby #9 is on the way! 😉 (No pressure Taylor and Joy! We all get it! God’s will be done! Enjoy this babyswoon with your darling newborn! ❤ )

Dealing with hard-to-handle saints’ names

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Our reader Charlotte, who blogs at To Harriet Louise, commented thusly on the Caroline/Charlotte post: “This comment about Clare/Caroline made me smile because I’ve started reading Lives of the Saints, and just today I was thinking, “I think the only way I’d be able to use some of these names is if I used some of the same letters or just scrambled them around!””

And I said: “Oh do share! What were some of your ideas?”

And she went ahead and wrote a whole post! Rethinking Saints’ Names. Charlotte’s got a lot of great ideas for names like Aelred and Porphyry — !! I think her approach is a great one for dealing with those kinds of names — I just can’t see a little Porphyry today, great as the saint may be. And when the intention is to honor the saint, and to call him or her to mind in the saying of one’s child’s name, I really think this idea is totally legitimate.

Have any of you given your child a name in honor of a particular saint, but the name you chose wasn’t the same as the saint’s name, and wasn’t a variant, but was something more like what we’re talking about here — using sounds or letters from the name, or a portion of the name? (I know one of you honored St. Polycarp with a little Polly, which is just like voila! So great!)

My 9yo named his paper bird Primary

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty

Isn’t that a great title? Sounds like the title of a mothering memoir …

Anyway, it says just what happened: My 9yo came home from school yesterday with a paper bird he’d made in art class (he LOVES art class), and as he was swooping it around he said, “His name is Primary.”

“Primary??” my 7yo burst out. “That’s a girl’s name!”

Isn’t that funny? I might’ve thought the reaction would be, “Primary’s not a name!” So I was thinking about why he would think it was a girl’s name … I immediately thought it looked like a mashup of Primrose and Rosemary, which made me kind of love it. But my 9yo insisted the bird’s a boy, and Primary’s a boy’s name, and I can see that too — it was kinda reminding me of Peter and Pope because of its similarity to primacy. All of which is hilarious, this wondering whether Primary is a boy’s name or a girl’s name, because there’s some truth to the idea that Primary is not a name in that I’ve never seen it used as one … but also that it is a name, now that it’s been bestowed as one. Who here will be adding Primary to their baby name list? 😉

P.S. This same boy also named his stuffed lion Bandaids when he was tiny. So Bandaids is now also a name. 😛

More regarding patron saints

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As a follow-up to my patron saint post of last week, I wanted to be sure you knew about CatholicSaints.Info, which I use a lot for saint info and which I’d linked to in my CatholicMom.com article — on its homepage are a bunch of different patronages listed by general topic (e.g., Patron Saints of Cities and Patron Saints of Family Matters) as well as saints who had specific life states, occupations, etc. (e.g., saints who were converts, widowers, visionaries …), which can make for quick research when you’re looking for a patron saint. It also has patronage topics listed alphabetically, as well as a search function if that’s easier. As with my Caroline/Charlotte post, it was as easy as searching for those names and seeing the listing of saints or blesseds that came up for each one. Thanks to Terry for creating and maintaining such a great resource!

Patron saints for Caroline and Charlotte

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One of the question I’ve gotten the most frequently by readers over the past few months is whether there’s any saintly connection for the names Caroline and Charlotte. If I’d had my druthers about me I would have tried to post about this last week on the actual feast day, but since I feel like I rarely have my druthers about me (!), I don’t usually have it together for feast days and holy days in the sense of posting name-appropriate posts for those days.

So the feast day I’m referring to is for my very favorite patron saint for the Charles names, of which Caroline and Charlotte (and Karoline, Karolina, Carolina, Carla, Karla, Carol(e), Karol(e), Carlotta, and Carly) are a part, being feminine variants of Charles: our great St. John Paul II, whose pre-papal name was Karol, which is the Polish for Charles. I know loads of little ones named in his honor in this way.

I do think C/Karoline/a and Charlotte are the most popular ways for girls to be named after JP2 right now, but our reader skimac left this in a comment last week:

“I was looking at usage/popularity stats on ourbabynamer.com for Karol and Karole. The Karol variation existed alongside the significantly more popular Carol/Carole during it’s midcentury heyday. Carol was almost 200% more popular at peak, then both fell out of favor overall, but look at the blips in the stats in 2005 (the year JPII died). Karol reached its all time high of 315 (previous high for year was 257 in 1958). Following 2 years still elevated in comparison to previous 3 decades and Karole variation back on chart (5 baby girls) for first time in a dozen years. Then another jump in 2012 which was the year following his beatification. Wonder if this year, when stats are released, we will see a bump again since it is it would be a year following his canonization in [April] 2014? Definitely reflects the John Paul II effect in Catholic naming.”

karol1karol2

I was surprised to see this, since I think the general perception of Carol(e) and Karol(e) are that they’re still a little dated … but then skimac also shared that blogger/author/apologist/BigCatholicGuy Taylor Marshall and his wife had their eighth baby last week, on JP2’s feast day!, and gave her Carol as one of her middle names. So! Carol(e) and Karol(e) are certainly viable options.

There are other patron saints available for Caroline and Charlotte though, which is perhaps particularly helpful for those who already have a little John Paul running around. There are a bunch of Saints and Blesseds Charles — my personal faves are St. Charles Borromeo and St. Charles Garnier, and even Charlemagne — yes, THE Charlemagne (which translates as Charles the Great) — is a Blessed. If you preferred a female patron, there are also Bl. Karolina Kózka, Bl. Theresa Gerhardinger, born Caroline (and also known as Bl. Caroline Gerhardinger or Bl. Karolina Gerhardinger), Bl. Charlotte Davy, and Bl. Charlotte Lucas (Pride and Prejudice fans, take note!).

What are your favorite patrons for Caroline and Charlotte?

Baby name consultant: Irishy unisex surnamey name needed for Baby Girl #6

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I wrote about today’s mama in this post of a few months ago, where I wrote about her #5 daughter, who was diagnosed with hydrocephalus in utero, and their journey from no will we absolutely not abort this baby to today, where that baby girl is four years old and a total pip. (Molly blogs about their experiences at Priceless Little Pearl. I LOVE reading the updates.)

That little girl, Meagan, is about to become a big sister! Her parents, Molly and Brian, are expecting their sixth baby, another girl! (Yes, I will have to get my six boys together with their six girls someday! 🙂 ) Their other daughters are:

Reilly Elizabeth
Kaitlin Marie
Anna Clare
Maura Grace
Meagan Theresa Gianna

I love their style. I would call it Irishy and feminine for the first names, and super saintly/faith-y for the middles. Names that are on their current list are:

Emma
Bridget
Kelsey
Erin
Quinn
Cara Josephine
Emerson Rose

Molly writes,

“We aren’t “set” on any of those names … I do like Erin and Emma but not sure because of popularity, which is why Emerson was born. We had also liked Kaylee, but WAY too similar to Kaitlin….. we had Morgan on the list but that went away because way too close to Maura and Meagan combined … We are open to any names really but we have such a strong trend of Irish/Celtic it’s going to be really odd to stray from that… we love girl names, unisex names or last names as first…. I’m not a fan of flowery names… etc.. the only reason Josephine came up as a middle was because Brian’s Godfather whom he was very close to, Joseph, died years ago and it sounded flowery enough to tone down Cara or Quinn.”

So their list of names is basically the exact kind of list I’d expect — in fact, before Molly told me what they were considering, I’d already jotted down Bridget and Quinn! Bridget totally seems right because of the Irishy names they love, and Quinn does too, both because it’s Irish and it’s a last name like Reilly. Ven. Edel Quinn has been mentioned a few times here on the blog too (e.g., here, here), so it’s definitely been on my radar as a great name and great patron for a little girl. I also love some of the Bridget variants, especially Briege.

I love Emma and Kelsey for them too, they all seem to exactly fit my impression of their taste. I don’t really love Emma as a sister to Anna (my own personal baggage — over the years my hubs and I have discussed the idea of sisters Anna and Emma and decided they were too similar. But of course my opinion means nothing if Molly and Brian love it!) but Emerson nicely gets around all that — it’s a last name like Reilly, it’s got the Em- sound like Emma, it’s a great option.

Cara Josephine and Emerson Rose are actually new additions to the list since Molly and I first talked about names, and they’re clearly the most “complete” and are current finalists, and I like them both for this baby girl. Quinn is also still quite high on their list but they’re having a hard time coming up with middle name ideas. I quite like Quinn with Josephine, and just sounding out other ideas in my head I also like the rhythm of:

  • Quinn Emilia (it gets that Em- sound in there, and it was John Paul’s mom’s name!)
  • Quinn Sophia (which reminds me of some of the other girls’ middle names, especially Grace, Clare, and Marie)
  • Quinn Caroline (like Cara, but also a nod to JP’s pre-papal name of Karol … or Quinn Karoline?)

When I read that they like Kaylee, I immediately wanted to suggest Ceili, which I’ve seen some parents use — it’s pronounced the same, but it’s an Irish word referring to a social gathering involving dancing and folk music (like an Irish dance party!) — but I guess that doesn’t get away from the issue of it sounding too much like Kaitlin.

I love Cara — it means “friend” in Irish, and it also reminds me that I know a family who named their daughter Caragh (pronounced the same), if that’s at all helpful. And I also found this lovely treat at Baby Names of Ireland: Caireann or Cairenn, pronounced like Karen, meaning “little friend” or “little beloved.” Maybe nice in the middle, if not as a first?

And of course I did come up with some more ideas! I always shoot for three, but I have a couple more than that for this family:

(1) Lucy
Anna, Maura, and Meagan especially made me think of Lucy, as did Clare and Grace. Lucy is sweet and saintly, I love it.

(2) Cassidy or Casey or Carrigan
Cassidy is one of my favorite suggestions for this baby girl. It’s originally a last name, like Reilly, and it’s Irish, and it has the awesome nicknames of Cass and Cassie. I kind of really like that Reilly wouldn’t be the only one with a lastname name if she were to have a little sister Cassidy. Casey is similar — a last name, a unisex name, an Irishy name, a great name — but is it too like Kaitlin? I guess I wouldn’t cross it off the list, since Kaitlin is #2 and this new baby is #6 so they’re not next to each other.

I really like Carrigan for them too — it’s like a combo of Cara and Erin (or the Cairenn I mentioned above) with a little Irish jig in the middle. Some may not like the hard g of Carrigan closely followed by the hard G of their last name, but I don’t mind it. Carrigan Rose would be gorgeous, or maybe Carrigan Jo for Brian’s godfather, and it could easily take the nickname Cara.

(3) Brynn or Brenna
Brynn begins with Br- like Bridget and rhymes with Quinn! I like Brynn a lot—I knew a family when I was growing up with three girls named Gr33r, Brynn, and T!erney (alt characters used for privacy), and being a name nut even back then I thought they had the most amazing names. Brenna was listed as similar to Maura in style/feel/popularity in the Baby Name Wizard book, and Brynn was listed as similar to Fiona, which I’d looked up thinking it might be kind of Molly and Brian’s style, so I thought they definitely deserved a mention. While I don’t think Brynn has any saintly connections, Brenna could be a form of Brendan, who’s definitely a saint, or Brennan, which could be considered a variant of Brendan (if that was their intention), but actually has it’s own origin, and there aren’t any St. Brennans that I know of.

(4) Allison/Allyson
This one surprised me—I looked up all their names in the BNW as well as names I thought might be the right style, and while there weren’t a whole lot of suggestions that were common to more than one of their names, Allyson was listed as similar to Kaitlin and Allison as similar to both Meagan and Erin (which I had thought might provide some good ideas for you). A friend of a friend recently named her daughter Al!s0n S0ph!a, which was really surprising to me, and also really lovely I thought.

(5) Shea
Shea is also an Irishy unisex last name, and I think it’s one of the prettiest sounds. I could see Shea Louise being a really pretty combo for example, or Shea C/Karoline.

So those are my “official” suggestions! There were a few other names that I debated putting on the list, and for one reason or another they didn’t make the final cut, but I thought I’d put them here anyway, just in case: Fiona, Aisling (or Aislinn—which it just occurs to me is actually really similar to Allison/Allyson, at least in appearance), and Sarah. And some others that were listed as similar to more than one of the other girls’ names: Avery, Deirdre, and Delaney. And I really wanted to suggest Nora, and kept having to remind myself that they already have a Maura! But ooh — that just made me think — maybe Nola? (Abbreviated form of the Irishy Irish Fionnuala.)

What do you all think? What other suggestions do you have for Molly and Brian’s sixth little girl?