Author: sanctanomina

Nicknames: Ash/-ash

sanctanomina Nicknames

You all know I’m a big fan of nicknames, so it should come as no surprise that I’m constantly on the lookout for new/interesting/different/offbeat nicknames for “normal” names, or “normal” nicknames for unusual/long/difficult/complicated given names.

Recently, I’m loving nicknames that rhyme with Ash. Dashiell nicked Dash has been a favorite of mine ever since The Incredibles — how totally clever was it to give a speedy kid a name that nicked to Dash?! And how cool is that nickname anyway? I’m not a huge fan of Dashiell, but for Dash? I’d consider it. I’d prefer to find a different name that nicked easily/logically to Dash though … like … David Shepherd? Daniel Seamus? Can you think of others?

I’ve seen Cash and Nash used now and again, and they always appeal to me, so I must just really like the -ash sound. I’ve seen Cash for Johnny Cash, and Cash as a nickname for Cashel. I could see it maybe working as a quirky nickname for Christian or maybe even Charles. Until very recently I’d only seen Nash used as a stand alone name, but then it occurred to me (or maybe I saw somewhere?) that it could be a natural for Ignatius or Nathaniel. I kind of love that idea!

Bash is one of the cleverest nicknames for Sebastian, in my opinion. I love that Grace’s boy is Sebastian nicked Bash, sooo cool.

And finally, what inspired this post was this comment from Sarah about a little Athanasius nicked Ash. Ohhh my! Clever clever, I love love love it! (I was also thinking Nash could work for Athanasius too).

What do you all think about the Ash/-ash nicknames? Do they appeal to you? Have you heard other examples, and what are the given names?

A kiss from Pope Francis

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A Sancta Nomina baby was kissed by Pope Francis in Philadelphia!

Jenny’s baby Luke had the amazing blessing of being kissed by Pope Francis, and an amazing picture was taken of it, and I’ve seen it on social media about a THOUSAND times since, between just the regular Pope Francis coverage while he was here and Jenny’s constant sharing and resharing of it (which I would totally do too, Mama! And maybe a bigger-than-life-size print made and framed and hung on the front of the house. Discreet like.), but it wasn’t until one of you wonderful readers emailed me a link to the story to be sure I’d seen it and said, “One of your consult babies got kissed by the pope in Philadelphia!” that I thought about it in that way.

One of our consult babies got kissed by the pope in Philadelphia!!

Well. Between Grace sharing her PF story and photos with us and Jenny’s baby being kissed by him, Sancta Nomina did pretty darn well during the papal visit. 🙂 ❤

Baby name consultant: Saintly, nature-y name that follows the rules needed for Green Bean Baby #3

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Chelsea Anne (lucky girl, with our own St. Anne as a patron!) and her husband Timothy are expecting their third baby, gender unknown (green bean!). She writes,

“My husband and I wait until birth to find out the baby’s gender, so we are on the hunt for a boy’s name and a girl’s name.

Interestingly enough, my daughters were named before I was even considering reverting to Catholicism. Saints weren’t even remotely on my radar. And yet, there is that Catholic glimmer in both of their names! It seems like a sign to me that I am on the right path.”

Okay, you guys? This is one of the very reasons this blog has been such an amazing blessing to me — I get to read stories like this! The workings of the Holy Spirit can be evident even in baby naming.

Their girls are:

Celeste Marie (both family names; “I love that the name Celeste is rooted in Latin and that it is familiar in many languages. I love that it is ancient and somewhat rare. I also love that it reflects the natural world (the celestial, starry, heavenly, bodies).”)

Rosa Maeve (Rosa’s a family name and Maeve a tip of the hat to Chelsea’s Irish heritage; “Rosa’s first name is also familiar in many languages, as it has that Latin root. It is also somewhat rare (Rose is far more common). And it reflects the natural world (in the case, in Rosa’s earthiness!) I don’t even know how to explain her middle name, except to say that we were called to give her the name Maeve because of her mischievous wild temperament!“)

I could just die over both of their names. Sooo beautiful!

“I wasn’t consciously aware of the above patterns when they were born, but the commonalities I find between my daughter’s names are:

-Traditional, romantic
-Latin Root/familiar or accessible in many Western languages
-Have a Marian aspect (“Marie” and “Rosa”)
-Reflect the natural world in a very subtle way (in the above cases, the elements of Earth and Air)
-I tend to like “ethnic” sounding names
-My husband pointed out that both their middle names start with M and have five letters, which was unintentional but very noticeable to me now

The baby name wizard book describes both the names Celeste and Rosa as “womanly” which is very cool to me. I tend to like the idea of naming grown-up people rather than babies! … If I do have another girl, it would be cool to honor a Saint for her first or middle name, maybe include a subtle Marian aspect. I love rare, high-impact, somewhat intense, romantic, traditional names.

I also feel interested in honoring the sea with this child’s name, for some unknown reason … but thats not a rule.”

BUT … speaking of rules …:

“I do have a few pesky naming rules. The good news is that I am quite open-minded so you might get me to budge on some of these. Especially if the suggestion is really, really cool.

Rules
-I would prefer not to choose names (for either gender) that repeat the first initial (C, R)
-I would prefer not to choose names that repeat the ending of the name. In other words, I have always liked “Lucia”, but I feel that the “a” at the end of that name already belongs to my Rosa. When I call my children’s names outloud, I love the idea of their names having distinct endings. For Celeste, this is a non-issue. But if you eliminate girl’s names ending in the letter “a”, you definitely wipe out a lot of options.

My heritage is very important to me (especially because my children will receive my husband’s very common last name). I am Cuban/Spanish, Irish, German, Dutch. My husband’s ancestry is English, Irish, German … Because I am so new to Catholic naming, I am sure there are names out there that I am just not even aware of. I would love to find some new names (or reexamine names I have overlooked), particularly in the girl category!“

Some of their favorite names are:

Beatrix
Brigid
Margaret (but popularity is an issue)
Genevieve (ditto re: popularity)
Therese (“my husband cant seem to pronounce this tho…“)
Maris
Pearl (but used by a friend)
Luz

Padraig/Padraic Willem
Forrest/Forest Willem
Seamus Henry
Simon Henry
Duncan ___

And names from their family tree:

Ellen
Helen
Cullen
Anne
Ivo
Palma
Margaret
Patrick/Padraig
Willem
Bernadina
Magdelena
Edward
Catherine
Lillian
Molly
Maureen
Thomas
Francis
Arthur
Aloysius
Victor
Graciela
Luisa
Matthew/Mateo
Simon
Beatrice
Lucia
Grace
Lola
Olive
Henry
Nathaniel
Phineas
Samuel
Mabel
Muriel
Elisabeth
Edwin
Willard
Elias
Forrest
Everett
Pearl

A further note:

“I tend to really go for Irish boy names, as you can see by the list above. For boy’s, I also like the idea of using a name that is traditional, HANDSOME, hearty, possibly with a Latin root, that includes at least one nod to a Saint (in either the first name or the middle name). The only name on this list that reflects the natural world in any way is Forest, which is probably why it is the favorite of my farmer husband.”

Also, because I know you’ll all love it, Chelsea told me that getting feedback from me “is like having a name doula” — a name doula! I might just have to put that on my business card! 😀

Okay, first my thoughts about their current list:

Their girls choices are all great and lovely! It’s fun to see a mix of names I see a lot through the blog (Genevieve, Therese, Margaret) and those I’d love to see more often (Beatrix, Brigid, Maris, Pearl, Luz). I personally don’t think they can go wrong with any of them. I particularly like how Maris can fit into the five-letter-beginning-with-M pattern they already have for Celeste and Rosa’s middle names, and it’s Marian, and it’s related to the sea—it seems like they have a perfect middle name right there!

The boys names have a very different feel to me than the girl names, and I like them all. I’m particularly impressed with the super Irishy Irish Padraig/Padraic! AND I discovered recently that St. Patrick is the patron of organic gardening! Since Chelsea’s husband is a farmer, I thought that was particularly meaningful. I have an idea for a middle name for Duncan, which I’ll include in my suggestions below.

I had fun coming up with ideas for this family, because of all the rules! I love love a good name challenge! I always shoot for three, but I came up with so many ideas that I grouped them into five suggestions for each gender:

Girls

(1) Carmel
Aaaand right off the bat I’m breaking rules! But I’m hoping this might be one of those really, really cool suggestions that they don’t mind, especially since the C doesn’t make the same sound as Celeste. Carmel is for Our Lady of Mount Carmel—it comes from the Hebrew for “garden,” and is the name of a mountain in the Holy Land featured in the book of Kings (chapter eighteen). In this chapter, the prophet Elijah challenged King Ahab to call on his god Baal to start the fire of sacrifice, while Elijah would call on the Lord. “The God who answers with fire is God,” Elijah said, and “All the people answered, ‘Agreed!’” (1 Kings 18:24). Not surprisingly, Our Lord was victorious. Afterward, Elijah instructed his servant to look out to the sea from Mount Carmel and report what he saw there; six times the servant reported there was nothing to see, and Elijah sent him to look again. On the seventh time, the servant told Elijah, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea” (1 Kings 18:44).

This is the coolest part: Carmelite tradition holds that Elijah understood this cloud to be a symbol of the Virgin Mother who would bear the Messiah, as foretold in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14).

I’ve done a little research on it, and one place I found online explained, “When the servant of Elijah saw a small cloud rise from the sea, God revealed to Elijah that a certain child, Blessed Mary, symbolised by that cloud would be born of sinful human nature, symbolised by the sea.”

Tradition also suggests that, even in Old Testament times, a group of hermits followed in the example of Elijah by living on Mount Carmel and leading lives of contemplative prayer; praying, in fact, for the coming of the Virgin Mother. Then,

“On the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, the spiritual descendants of [Elijah] and his followers came down from Mount Carmel. Fittingly, they were the first to accept the message of Christianity and to be baptized by the Apostles. When, at last, they were presented to Our Lady, and heard the sweetest words from Her lips, they were overcome with a sense of majesty and sanctity which they never forgot. Returning to their holy mountain, they erected the first chapel ever built in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. From that time devotion to God’s Mother was handed down by the hermits on Mount Carmel as a treasured spiritual legacy.” (source)

In the thirteenth century AD, so my favorite version of the story goes, the hermits left the mountain and went to Europe, where they received Papal approval for their Order, and became known as the “Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel,” or, the Carmelites. Later that same century, on July 16, 1251, Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, and gave him the Brown Scapular, promising, “‘This shall be the privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.’ In time, the Church extended this magnificent privilege to all the laity who are willing to be invested in the Brown Scapular of the Carmelites, and who perpetually wear it.”

So Carmel is Marian and related to the sea! I love it, I think it would be smashing for Chelsea if she has a little girl. If she hates the C, because of it repeating the first letter of Celeste’s name, behindthename.com says that the Hebrew word, when transliterated, becomes Karmel, which for some reason we then make Carmel, so Karmel would be a possibility. It also strikes me as Irishy and womanly, probably because the only Carmel I’ve met was a middle aged woman who ran a B&B in Dublin. Also, the Spanish version is Carmen, which they also might like because of their Spanish heritage.

(2) Hildi or Edith
It’s hard to follow Carmel with all its info! But I had immediately thought of Hildi when I was reading Chelsea Anne’s email. St. Hildegard of Bingen (who was famous for her writings and poetry and prophetic visions) was recently declared a Doctor of the Church, which is a big deal because she’s a woman (there are three other women: St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese, and St. Catherine of Siena), and I know of a little girl named after her—I can’t remember if they named her the full Hildegard or just Hildi, but she goes by Hildi and I’m just head-over-heels in love with it. It’s so sweet! I definitely think Hildi stands on its own, despite technically being a nickname, and it fits all their naming rules. Another option, if they preferred a non-nickname name, is Hilde, which is the German and Dutch (their heritage!) version of Hilda, which is related to Hildegard, but Hilde is said the same as Hilda, so unfortunately there is the –a ending that’s already Rosa’s. (And I wasn’t sure if they didn’t want to repeat the ending sound of Celeste (T) or actual letter (E)? So there’s that too. Hildi gets around all of that.)

Hildi made me think of Edith, because of its Germanic-ness, and Edith is St. Edith Stein, whose religious name in life was St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a convert from Judaism and died in a concentration camp during WWII. She is awesome, and I’m seeing Edith get quite a bit of name love among Catholics recently. The nickname Edie is beyond adorable too. Both Hildi and Edith have a womanly feel to me, like Chelsea said she liked about the Baby Name Wizard’s description of Celeste and Rosa.

(3) Margo
Chelsea said she loves Margaret but its popularity is concerning—I think Margo’s a great alternative. It’s a variant of Margaret, and I think it can take all the Margaret nicknames if they wanted it to. The original Margot, of which Margo is a variant, is French, so the T is silent, but since they wanted to avoid repeat endings, I thought maybe the T was too close to the appearance of Celeste? Margaux is another acceptable spelling. Margaret also means “pearl” so using a Margaret variant would honor the Pearl in their family! Pearl can also be Marian (I blogged about it!), so Margo could be considered a very subtle Marian name. I also like that Margo is five letters starting with M, so if they didn’t care for it in the first name spot, they might like it in the middle. (I also wonder if they’d like the Irish form of Margaret, Mairead? It rhymes with parade.)

(4) Pilar or Belén
These two were inspired by all their rules and their Spanish heritage. I’m not sure if they’d be interested in a Spanish name, but I love both of these. Pilar is from a title of Our Lady, and under this title (María del Pilar) she was declared Patroness of Spain and of all Hispanic Peoples by St. John Paul II in 1984. Belén is the Spanish form of Bethlehem. Both gorgeous, meaningful names!

AND — ohmygoodness!!! — I didn’t know this until right this minute but TODAY is the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar/Nuestra Señora del Pilar!

(5) Verity or Amity
I did a little research in my BNW, looking for connections and overlap with the names that they’ve used and liked, and was following a path from Forrest to Mercy to Amity, which also made me think of Verity, which I’ve always liked—Amity means “friendship” and Verity means “truth” so they’re really great meaning names, AND they don’t break any of the rules!

Boy

(1) Elias or Elliott
I spotted Elias right away in their list of family names, because it’s one I’d already had in mind for them as I was reading the beginning of Chelsea’s email because of the Carmel connection—Elias is the Greek form of Elijah, so using it for a boy could be thought of as a nod to the sea and honoring Our Lady all in one. And it’s a family name for them! If Chelsea and her hubs didn’t like it as a first name, I thought it would be an amazing middle name for Duncan. Duncan Elias is so handsome! And Elliott actually originated as a diminutive of Elias, so they could use Elliott both as a connection to Carmel/Elijah and their family member named Elias.

(2) Declan
I thought Declan seemed a perfect addition to their list, based on their desire for “Irish, traditional, HANDSOME, hearty … includes at least one nod to a saint.” St. Declan was a contemporary of St. Patrick and is quite loved in Ardmore in Ireland. One of my cousins used it for her little boy, and I just love it.

(3) Nicholas, Brendan, Elmo/Erasmus
I wasn’t totally sure if their desire to honor the sea was also for boy’s names, or just girls? But I looked up patron saints of sailors, and St. Nicholas, St. Brendan (Irish!), and St. Elmo (also known as St. Erasmus) are all. All these names fit the rules as well.

(4) Isidore, George, Fiacre
I also looked up patron saints of farmers and similar, which is how I discovered that St. Patrick is the patron of organic gardening. There’s also St. Isidore, patron of farmers, which I’d known, and St. George is the patron of farmers, field workers, and shepherds, which I hadn’t known! And I thought they might be really intrigued by Fiacre—it’s the French form of the Irish Fiachra, and is the name of an Irish saint who settled in France—and he’s the patron of those who grow vegetables and medicinal plants, and of gardening in general. How cool! Now I know that each of these names has the same ending as Celeste, but I as I mentioned I was a little unclear as to whether they didn’t want to repeat her ending sound (T) or her ending letter (E), so I took a chance.

(5) Heath, Jasper, Timothy
When I was looking up names in my BNW, looking for connections and overlap with the names that they’ve used and liked, I found Heath as a brother name for Amity, and I immediately thought they might like it because of its nature connection. It originally meant someone who lived on a heath, sort of like an uncultivated field. Jasper was a brother name for Everett, which I was intrigued by from their family names, and I loved Jasper for them because it’s a kind of rock (nature!), and also one of the names traditionally assigned to one of the three Wise Men (Casper is a variant of Jasper, which is also sometimes given for that Wise Man). And Timothy! Chelsea’s husband’s name! I only recently discovered that timothy is hay! Or rather, it’s a kind of grass that is “widely grown for hay in the United States” (according to the dictionary). I don’t know if she or her hubs would like using his name as either a first or middle, but it’s pretty cool to have that nature/farm-y connection.

Whew! Those are all my ideas! What a mama of a post! What do you all think? What names would you suggest to Chelsea Anne and her husband for their little baby-on-the-way?

I love to do name consultations! If you’d like me to give your name dilemma a go, check out my Baby name consultant tab.

P.S. to my last post

sanctanomina Housekeeping

I forgot to say — I prayed for you all during the meeting today, during the beautiful Mass we had, and I asked each of the relic-ed (?) saints to pray for you all as well. You’ve all been such a blessing to me! ❤

Dominican religious names, etc.

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I went to a Lay Dominican Regional Meeting today and had the great pleasure of meeting an awesome Dominican priest named Fr. Bede — Bede! I love it!! I’ve suggested it before as a nickname for Benedict, but I have to say, today I was loving it on his own. I asked him if it was a religious name or his birth name, and he confirmed it was his religious name, taken in honor of Fr. Bede Jarrett, OP. I asked him how many of the Dominican friars take a new name, and he thought about two-thirds. I thought that was really interesting! I also heard him talking about one of his brother friars whose name is Br. Athanasius. Swoon!

It also made me realize that I don’t think I ever told you all that I have a religious name — we’re able to take one when we take our vows if we’d like to, and mine is Maria Rosa Dominica, for Our Lady, St. Rose of Lima (a Third Order Dominican and my birthday saint), and St. Dominic of course. Some of our other members are: Esther Anthony, Mary Catherine, Mary Dominic and … I can’t remember who else! I’m pretty sure we have a Thomas (for Aquinas) … gah! How is my namey mind failing me?! I’ll have to get back to you with the others, each one is so beautiful and so personally meaningful.

We also had the amazing blessing of having several relics on display during our meeting — St. Dominic, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. John Neumann, Bl. Bartolo Longo (aka Br. Rosary, love it!), and Fr. McGivney (our meeting was held at our local Knights of Columbus hall). I felt like we had a roomful of heavenly friends with us. 🙂

I hope you all had a great Saturday!

Birth announcement: Juliet Rose!

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Krystin’s consultation posted at the end of August for their little green bean (=gender unknown), and she emailed me today to let us know the baby has arrived! She writes,

“Hi Kate! I wanted to update you on the birth of our little GIRL (we didn’t know the gender beforehand!) She was born on 9/13/15 and we named her Juliet Rose, one of your suggestions 🙂 My husband and I both fell in love with the name and we feel like it fits our baby girl perfectly! Thanks again for your insights and suggestions!“

Juliet Rose! Can you hear me sighing with happiness through the computer?? Juliet is one of my very favorite names in the whole world, and paired with Rose? I mean, come on. Goooorgeous with a capital G.

Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big sibs Luke, Bennett, and Tessa, and happy birthday Baby Juliet!!

juliet_rose

Juliet Rose

Birth announcement: Emily’s boy!

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Hooray!!! Emily posted her birth announcement!!!!!!!! Her little guy has been given a very handsome name: George Stephen!

Grace (capital G) was the first to suggest George, followed by grace (small g) and eclare — good thinking ladies!! This blog would not be what it is without all of you!

Be sure to hop over there and see his beautiful face. Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big brother Simon, and happy birthday Baby George!!

Reading round-up

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Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary! Such a lovely feast for little Rosary, and also a good day to pray for special intentions — I have one, if you don’t mind adding it to your own. And I’ll remember you all and your intentions in my rosary this evening. ❤

So we’re all going crazy wanting to know Emily’s baby’s name, right? For anyone who didn’t yet see, Emily linked to her consultation on her blog, and added the tantalizing note that she’d actually had the baby that morning, and that she’d reveal his name soon. I’ll share it as soon as she gives the okay!

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, which I just love, and whose Editor-in-Chief, Sara, sometimes offers her thoughts in our comments here (I’m still a little dazzled!), has just added Joachim to its database! You know it’s one of my very favorite names, and I asked Sara about it a few months ago, and she tweeted me the other day to let me know it had been added. I *love* the entry! This is my favorite part: “The name was never common in any culture, but the importance of the saintly father of Mary meant that this name could be found pretty much anywhere” (emphasis mine). That’s one of the things I love about it!

Has anyone seen this article? The New Tug of War Over Baby Names. I totally get having hopes, even very strong ones, that a family name will be used by the next generation; I get feeling badly if that doesn’t happen; I DON’T get offering bribes for baby names! Definitely an overstepping of bounds, no? Have any of you experienced this in your own families, or heard about it happening in real life?

Finally, a reader just sent me this today — I don’t know how I missed it! Cate Blanchett Got Her Son’s Name from a Captain Underpants Book (Yes, It’s True!). Despite how very Catholicky Catholic her kids’ names are, it appears Roman Polanksi and Captain Underpants provided inspiration for the naming of two of her sons. Which just illustrates one of the things I love about saints’ names: You can be as ostentatious or understated about your faith as you want in regards to your kids’ names and no one really need bat an eye; conversely, there are so many saints’ names that no matter your taste (and even no matter your faith), you can still end up with children that make people like me think swoonily of popes and martyrs. 😉

Happy Wednesday to you all!

Birth announcement: Tessa Araceli!

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Last month I posted the consultation for a little green bean (=gender unknown) with big sibs Clara and Hugh. The mama, Amy, emailed me to let me know the baby has arrived — a Little Miss named … Tessa Araceli!

Amy writes,

“I wanted to tell you that she arrived on Friday! I put a birth announcement on my blog along with what we ended up deciding for her name! I thought you might like to know and share with your readers! … Thanks again! Your suggestions fueled lots of discussion! And I broke some of my own rules… Oops! Thanks for the prayers“

So be sure to hop on over to Amy’s blog to see the pictures of the beautiful new babe and the explanation of her gorgeous gorgeous name! Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Tessa!!

Baby name consultant: Little brother for Simon!

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Emily, from the blog Raising Barnes, and her husband are expecting their second baby and second boy! She writes,

“Despite my love of names, we are really struggling to come up with a name we both love. We have a few that we both are ok with, but I really want to find something to fall in love with. Does that make sense?“

Yes indeedy, it makes perfect sense! I know you all agree!

“It is important to us (especially me, as a convert) to have names rooted in our Catholic faith; there is so much awesome material there to work with! Also, it is important to me that my kid’s names aren’t super popular or trendy.”

Catholicky Catholic and not super popular or trendy — got it! 🙂

Their first son is:

Simon Matthew

Which I just love. Such a handsome combo. Emily says,

“We both fell in love with the name Simon early on. Matthew is my husband’s middle name and my father-in-law’s first name … I absolutely love his name, which is part of the reason we are having difficulties with baby #2.”

Names they’ve discussed include:

Maximilian
Sebastian
Blaise (“but I personally don’t like the double B (Blaise Barnes…)“)
Xavier (Emily’s frontrunner)
Miles (her husband’s frontrunner)
Eli (“a distant second place for both of us“)

The first thought I wanted to offer — and please, readers, chime in if you think I’m off base — is that as much sense as it makes that they want to find a name they love as much as Simon, and I fully 1000% agree they should try to do so, I do think that it’s hard to recreate the experience of choosing the most!amazing!name!that is my very favorite name ever! So sometimes, with such a high bar set, whatever ends up being the agreed-upon name might initially have a sort of “settling” or “compromise” feel to it. But I can almost guarantee that as time goes on and it becomes completely associated with one’s beloved baby, that name will become equally as loved as the first baby’s name. I hope that helps Emily and her husband not worry too much!

So: names on their current list. I love Maximilian and Sebastian both. They have a really sophisticated feel to me, but both pare down to really friendly nicknames — Maximilian can be Max or Mac; Sebastian can be Seb/Sebby or Bash (a la Grace Patton’s little guy); and I’ve actually seen Ian suggested as a nickname for both Maximilian and Sebastian.

I like Blaise a lot too, but I can see Emily’s point — Blaise Barnes could be really great and memorable, or it could come across as somewhat cartoonish. Totally their call. I think if they own it, with confidence, and infuse their son with that confidence, it would be totally fine. But if they can’t get comfortable with it or if it feels weird, probably best not to use it.

And Xavier! There’s a little Xavier in my life, and I just love his name. He goes by Xave or Xavey, which are so sweet, and the full Xavier oozes handsomeness too, I think. And there’s no cooler initial than X!

Miles is a recent favorite of mine too, but if it matters to Emily and her hubs (and it may not, and that’s of course totally fine), I don’t love the –s ending of Miles with the –s ending of Barnes. Miles Barnes. Nit picky stuff, but maybe helpful in whittling down options.

Eli is fun! And yet another different style … I feel like Simon + Maximilian/Sebastian/Xavier/Blaise reads “Catholic and only Catholic.” Simon + Miles has a more … pilgrim feel? And Simon + Eli is all biblical. I like each of those feels/styles, and Emily and her hubs certainly wouldn’t have to stick with whichever one went with the name they end up choosing for their little guy — they could have Simon, Miles, Eli, and Xavier someday, all in the same family, totally fine! I think they all work together, because they’re not really far apart stylistically — pilgrim basically IS biblical, and biblical is certainly Catholic. But it’s fun to see it pointed out I think.

As for popularity — here’s how they all broke down in 2014:

Simon: #231
Maximilian: #445
Sebastian: #34
Blaise: #845
Xavier: #88
Miles: #108
Eli: #49

I assumed Eli would be the most popular, and was totally shocked to see Sebastian’s actually the most popular! What?? I don’t know any in real life (though I see it talked about/considered a LOT among the families who read my blog). I know a lot of little Eli’s, so I wondered at first if I just live in an Eli pocket, but upon further thought I realized I think they’re all actually Elijah, and Elijah was #11 in 2014. #11! So that’s something for Emily and her hubs to consider, as there may be a bunch of Eli’s in their little guy’s class who are actually Elijah on the birth certificate.

Okay, on to my additional suggestions. As you all know, I usually start my consultations by looking through the Baby Name Wizard book — it has the amazing feature where it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. It provides really great inspiration and good directions to go in. I looked up each of the names on Emily’s list (including Simon) and wrote down the boy suggestions for each one, and looked for any overlap. She and her husband have very consistent taste! Sebastian is similar to Maximilian, for example, and Xavier is similar to Blaise AND Maximilian AND Sebastian! I love seeing those kinds of things pop up. It all gave me good ideas for other options as well. I always shoot for three, but I had four ideas for Baby Boy Barnes:

(1) Oliver
Oliver was actually one that came to mind as soon as I started reading Emily’s email, before I’d done any research. While Simon is certainly super saintly and biblical, it usually has more of a bookish, Brit feel to me, which I love. Oliver has always struck me as similar. We discussed Oliver for our second boy, and very nearly named our third boy Oliver, so it’s long been a love of ours. We just haven’t felt it was “the one” for our boys just yet, but in considering it we looked up St. Oliver Plunkett, and he is a fabulous saint to have as a patron. But what really clinched it for me is that it was listed as similar to both Simon and Sebastian! Winner!

(2) Isaac
Isaac was another I’d scribbled down for Emily before cracking open my BNW book, so I was delighted to see it listed as similar to Simon and Miles. Isaac is super biblical, but to me it’s also St. Isaac Jogues — the Shrine of the North American Martyrs is near where I live, and he was martyred there. (It’s also the birthplace of St. Kateri.) Isaac’s such a cool name, I love it.

(3) Nathaniel or Gabriel
Nathaniel has that long, sophisticated feel that Maximilian and Sebastian have, and it’s biblical like Simon. And I always think of Nathaniel and Gabriel as having a similar feel — they always remind me of each other — and Gabriel was listed as similar to Xavier, and it’s also biblical. I love both choices for a brother to Simon.

(4) Colin/Cole or Kolbe
Colin was listed as similar to both Simon and Miles (as was Isaac), and it also made me think of Cole (both can claim a connection to Nicholas for saintliness), and Cole and Maximilian both made me think of Kolbe, which I see used with some frequency among Catholic families as a first or middle name. I love the idea of Kolbe, but I wonder if Kolbe Barnes might be too much B together? Or not? I was named Katherine Towne and always called Kate, and it wasn’t until I was grown up and considering how names sound together for my own boys that I realized Kate Towne does the thing I try to avoid — Kate ends in the –t sound and Towne starts with it, so it can sound like Kay Towne (and I’ve always hated when people mishear my name as Kay, but it makes so much more sense to me now than it did when I was growing up). My point being — sometimes us namiacs notice things that no one else does or cares about. I can’t imagine that anyone a little Kolbe B. would come in contact with would be like, “Can you believe they named him Kolbe Barnes?? So many B’s!!” So really, I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about (if there was any concern to begin with). And Kolbe could take the nick Kole if desired, which is really pretty hip.

So those are my thoughts/ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a little brother to Simon Matthew?