Author: sanctanomina

Names for a Christmas baby

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Uncategorized

Okay, so I considered Pascal for my born-at-Eastertime baby, but other than that the only holiday I would consider trying to work into a baby’s name born at that time is Christmas.

There are so many great Christmas names! And I don’t mean Holly and Ivy and Merry, festive as they are, but names brimming over with the Joy of the Season and its Reason for being. There are honor names, like:

Emmanuel or Emmanuelle or Emmanuella — from the Hebrew “God is with us,” a name for Jesus

The Chris- names, like Christian, Christopher, Christina or Christine or Christiane — literally for the Christ Child

Luke — Luke’s gospel is the only one that tells the story of the birth of Jesus

Joseph — the man chosen by God to take care of Mary and Jesus, a good and just man

Mary, Marie, Maria, et al. — the handpicked-by-God mother of Our Savior

Jesús — it’s not considered reverent to use the name of Jesus in English, but it is in Spanish

Balthazar — the name traditionally given to one of the three Wise Men

Caspar (Latin form of Jasper) — another of the three Wise Men

Melchior — the third Wise Man

Nicholas or Cole or Claus or Nicole or Nicola or Nicolette or Colette — besides Mary, Jesus, and Joseph, the saint most associated with Christmas. He loves the Baby Jesus.

And there are meaning names, like:

Natalie or Natalia — according to behindthename.com, “From the Late Latin name Natalia, which meant “Christmas Day” from Latin natale domini”

Noel or Noelle — means “Christmas” in French

Stella — means “star” in Latin

Any of the Angel names, like Angela or Angeline or Angelica — they were the first to sing Gloria! to the newborn King

Gloria — praise and worship in one word. That’s why we sing “Gloria in excelsis Deo!” (Latin for “Glory to God in the highest!”) at Christmastime (you know the one: “Glo-ooooo-ooooo-ooooo-ria in excelsis Deo!”). It’s one of the ways we thank God for HIs love for us in the gift of His Son

Deo — Latin for “to God” (as in “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” see above). An unusual choice, but one I’ve heard in real life. In the Latin hymn it’s said “DAY-o” but the boy I know of with the name says “DEE-o.” Maybe best for a middle name?

Magi — no, not Maggie, and for that reason maybe best as a middle name. It’s said MADGE-eye, and means the Three Wise Men. (It kind of reminds me of Jedi)

Shepherd — they were the first to come see and love and welcome and worship our Little Lord

Joy — I won’t include Merry in this list, as it’s a bit generically Christmas (i.e., too removed in people’s minds from the Birth of Christ) to me, but Joy? That’s what Christmas is. Joy to the world!

What are your favorite Christmas-y names? Do you know anyone born at Christmastime who was given a related name? Do you have any other ideas for appropriate names?

Taking a new name: One Order’s history

sanctanomina Including Mary, Personal stories ,

I was thinking about religious names today — the names that a sister or nun, brother or priest might take as their new name upon making their vows — and came across this article: The “Sister Mary” Naming Custom, about the naming tradition of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM).

Until 1920, the sisters of IHM had Mary as the first part of their new religious name. One list given of those received and professed includes, “Igidius, Johanna, Gerard, Liguori, Agnes, Anthony, Ignatius, Xavier, Stanislas, Colette, Gertrude, Clara, it is not necessary to say that every one had the name of Mary preceding the other name as it is customary with us.”

The first sister to have a name that deviated from this tradition was named Sr. Margaret Mary (the change being that Mary was the second name rather than the first. You know, those sisters and their adventurousness 😉 ), and “[a]fter Margaret Mary, others began to have Mary, Marie, or Maria as the second part of their name. We also began to see Latin names like Cor Mariae, Beata Maria, Maria Pacis as well as titles like Marie de Lourdes and Mary de Montfort, Marie Rosary and Mary Immaculate given as religious names.”

I just want to swoon over those gorgeous Latin names! And do be sure to read the comments, where some more names are given.

Do you know any priests or religious who took a new name, and if so, what was their birth name and what is their new name? What name would you take? If you were to include a Marian name, which one would you choose?

For more on the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) see their web site. The Wikipedia entry was also informative.

On my bookshelf: The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names

sanctanomina Naming resources, On my bookshelf

When The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (Third Edition) by E.G. Withycombe was recommended by a fellow name nut, I promptly headed over to Amazon to check it out and discovered all sorts of inexpensive options. The one I bought for $1.55 used to be in the Pasadena City College Library and has a big red “Discarded” stamp on it, which makes me love my copy even more.

It’s an awesome book, for a few different reasons:

(1) It provides commentary on each name, which is my favorite feature of any name book. Most of the time in this book it’s just the etymology and history of the name, which I find endlessly fascinating (e.g., “Egbert (m.): compound of Old English ecg ‘sword’, and beorht ‘bright’, the name of the traditional first King of all England (died 839) and of a Northumbrian saint (639-729). It seems not to have survived the Old English period, but was revived in the 19th C”), but sometimes it provides the author’s opinion, which often comes across as somewhat condescending, especially where Americans are concerned, and which I find endlessly amusing. For example, “Shirley (f): this is apparently a surname (derived from a place-name) used as a christian name. The first example noted is the heroine of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Shirley (1849), who, as an only child and an heiress, was given ‘the masculine cognomen’ Shirley, a family name. I have found no clue to the modern prevalence of Shirley as a christian name in the Southern States of USA. It has now become a common name in England, owing to the number of children named after the child film-star, Shirley Temple”. Another example is the pronunciation of Anthony: “The intrusive h in the spelling Anthony was a late development, and seems not to appear before the late16th C … the h is, of course, silent, but there is some danger nowadays of a spelling pronunciation (already in use in USA), and the older spelling is to be preferred.” Oh those stupid Americans and their “Anthony”! Another condescending example: “Dawn (f.): the use of this as a christian name is a 20th-C invention of novelette writers, which has sometimes been adopted in real life.” (I feel like it’s obvious, in just those few words, what E.G. thinks of novelette writers, and of those who have decided to use the name Dawn in real life.)

(2) It provides a British perspective, which is entertaining in its unfamiliarity. The example of Shirley above and its prevalence in the “Southern States of USA” is one, and the author’s habit of pointing out which families in England use certain names is another (e.g., re: Aretas, “The daughter of Aretas Seton, Governor of the Leeward Islands, married at the beginning of the 18th C Edmund Akers, ancestor of the present Lord Childston, and from that time the name has been in regular use in the Akers (now Akers-Douglas) family”). I also love reading how certain surnames arose from first names (e.g., “Brice (m.): St. Britius or Brice, Bishop of Tours 444, was responsible for the vogue of this name in England and France in the Middle Ages. It is probably of Celtic origin. Brice and the diminutive Bricot were fairly common in England in the 13th and 14th C and have left traces in the surnames Brice, Bryce Bryson, Brisson, Bricot.”) It’s sort of fascinating to me to see how the author’s country’s history is so immediate to him or her (there’s no indication anywhere in the book whether E.G. is a woman or a man) — details, genealogies, stories going back centuries are as known to him/her as American history is to me, I suppose, but then my sense of my local history is so comparatively short — a couple hundred years at most.

(3) It provides an intriguing perspective of Catholicism through naming practices. For example, “Loretta (f.): a name common in Roman Catholic use, derived from Our Lady of Loreto in Italy, a famous place of pilgrimage. Lourdes is used similarly as a christian name, but usually as a second name only.” I also find really interesting the allusions to Catholic/Protestant tension, often specifically in light of the Reformation, such as with “Blase … Blase or Blaze survived the Reformation and is found occasionally in the 17th C,” “Aloysius (m.) … used in Britain only by Roman Catholics,” “Barbara (f.) … It was still fairly common in the 16th C, but, like other names of non-scriptural saints, it tended to drop out of use after the Reformation,” and “Teresa, Theresa (f.) … It is first found as Therasia, the name of the wife of St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in the 5th C, who was converted by her. She was a Spaniard, and the name was for many centuries confined to the Iberian peninsula … It did not spread outside the Iberian peninsula until the 16th C, when the fame of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-82) carried it into all Roman Catholic countries. In recent times the popularity of the name in such countries has been increased by St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-97). It was not much used in England until the 18th C, when it was introduced by the admirers of the Empress Maria Theresia of Austria.” And Martin:

Martin (m.): Latin Martinus, apparently a diminutive of Martius ‘of Mars‘. St. Martin of Tours was a 4th-C soldier, later Bishop of Tours and apostle of Gaul; the story of his sharing his cloak with a beggar was a favourite subject of medieval art, and St. Martin was a favourite saint in England and in France; there are over 170 churches dedicated to him in England. Martin was a common christian name from the 12th C until the Reformation, and gave rise to many surnames, e.g., Martin(s), Marten(s), Martinson, Martel (from the diminutive Mart-el), Martlet (from the diminutive Martin-et). After the 15th C the name was less common, but never fell into complete disuse. The names of the birds martin and martlet are derived from Martin (cf. French martinet ‘swift’, martin-pecheur ‘kingfisher’).

As with most books on my bookshelf, I wouldn’t use this as a sole source of info on names, but it definitely fills out my knowledge of the etymology, history, usage, and reputation of many names used in the English-speaking world, including “Catholic” names.

Spotlight on: Nic/k- names

sanctanomina Nicknames, Spotlight

Not nicknames, Nic/k- names — names that start with Nic/k: Nicholas, Nicodemus, Nicanor, Nikolai, Nico, to name a few.

Last Saturday was the Feast of St. Nicholas, which got me thinking about this post. We’ve considered it once or twice for our boys, mostly to get to the nickname Cole, but I like Nicky too. Cute for a little boy, strong for a man. (Side note about Cole: I love Cole, and we considered using it just as it is as a given name, but it feels just a little too Caden/Brayden/Jayden to me, despite it’s long history of use [Old King Cole!]. We also considered Kolbe nickname Kole, but it too is too trendy feeling to me=just too cool for us.) (I also don’t love the possibility of Cole becoming Coley, as names for babies seem so wont to do. Coley’s a girl’s name.)

Nicodemus: One of my fave fave favorites. (My husband? Not so much.) I’m a big fan of names that are similar to “regular” names but have a twist of some kind; Nicodemus feels that way to me because of the Nic nickname, and because it’s Biblical/New Testament — theoretically it should be just as acceptable as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Right? But it’s so so rare that I guess no one else agrees with me. 😦 (The Nicodemus of NIMH hasn’t helped.)

Nicanor: Pretty cool huh? It’s a saint’s name, it’s got a great nickname, it’s unusual, it kind of sounds like a Lord of the Rings/Narnia/Sword in the Stone kind of name. Why aren’t more parents choosing Nicanor?

Nikolai: Swoon. That’s all I have to say. Because it sounds so Russian to my ear, if we were of Russian extraction, I’d be all over this. (Though it’s also Scandinavian, as are my children … and actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rocks it, and he’s not Russian — he’s Danish … hmm …)

Nico: I just love Nico. It’s short and sweet; it’s traditional and masculine; it’s pan European, which I really like in a name. But it feels too cool/hip/Italian for us.

There are other loads of other Nicholas variations besides those mentioned here (e.g., Nils, Claus), and feminine versions as well (e.g., Nicole/Nicola, Colette) — if you want to honor a Nicholas in your life/family tree or St. Nicholas himself, you have loads of options. Which are your favorites?

Namers extraordinaire: Hanson brothers

sanctanomina Personal stories ,

Like with the Royal baby post, this one veers a little outside of my main topic of Catholic baby naming into non-Catholic celebrity babydom. But the Hanson brothers, of MMMBop fame, and their wives have done, in my opinion, an extraordinary job naming their children.

Oldest brother Isaac and his wife Nikki have: Clark Everett (called Everett), James Monroe (Monroe), and Nina Odette (no word on whether she’s called Nina or Odette)

Middle brother Taylor and his wife Natalie have: Jordan Ezra (Ezra), Penelope Anne (Penny), River Samuel (River), Viggo Moriah (Viggo), and Wilhelmina Jane (Willa). (Mom Natalie is a name nut like us, and has blogged about the naming of her children here [first four] and here [number five].)

Youngest brother Zac and his wife Kate have: Ira Shepherd (Shepherd), Junia Rosa Ruth (Junia), and George Abraham Walker (Abraham).

There are so many things I love about their naming style. I love that they have a whole-family tradition of going by middle names — a really nice way for cousins to feel connected. I love that their collective taste is a little funky, with an often Christian spin, as seen with Biblical names James, Jordan, Ezra, Samuel, Moriah, Junia, Ruth, and Abraham. Junia is one of my favorites of their choices, and I love it followed by Rosa Ruth. I also love their adventurousness, as they seem to just choose names they want to choose.

What do you think of the Hansons’ names? Do you have examples of families whose naming you admire?

Spotlight on: Cornelius

sanctanomina Nicknames, Spotlight

Today is the feast of Pope St. Cornelius, so what better name to spotlight than his?

Cornelius. Not a common name. I’m not quite sure what to think about it. On the one hand, it’s a Pope’s name, and a pope who became a saint (he combated heresy and an anti-pope and died a martyr). It’s also an old Roman family name, and has become one of those pan-European names, with a variant in nearly every European language. Some of them are quite cool, like Cai/Kai/Caj/Kaj (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish), and there are some interesting diminutives too, like Cees/Kees (Dutch). I knew a man whose first name was Cornelius, but he always went by Neil, which is also a possibility. And I just discovered that Connie Mack‘s given name was Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. That is really cool. (I cannot recommend strongly enough to always always read the comments for each entry on Behind the Name — there is so much great real-world information there.)

On the other hand, though, Corny is a pretty natural nickname. Corny just doesn’t work these days. Right? I think kids still say it: “You’re so corny,” “That’s so corny.” Which is a bad thing. Or at least not a good thing. Right? Additionally, Corny always makes me think of Cornflake S. Pecially, which shouldn’t be a bad association (Mr. Rogers!) but isn’t a good one, in my opinion, for a baby. And as cool as the Connie Mack connection is, Connie just doesn’t seem doable for a boy these days (see also: Carroll, Meredith, Courtney …). Really, for me, I can’t see being able to warm up to Cornelius.

Which is really unfortunate, because I do love its historical and religious pedigree and international flavor. It’s got all the elements I look for in a boy’s name, but sometimes … that’s just not enough. (Alexander is another name that I feel similarly about — it hits all the right notes except the one that makes me like it. A post for another day.) If you love Pope St. Cornelius, or have a Cornelius in the family you’d like to honor, I could see it being a smashing middle name. Or, consider the female variant Cornelia, with its own history (the name of a woman considered to be the “ideal Roman woman”) and many sweet nicknames (Corrie, Lia, and my favorite: Nell).

Do you know anyone named Cornelius? Does he like his name? Does he have a nickname?

Baby on the way: Prince or Princess, and Predictions

sanctanomina Baby on the way, Personal stories ,

Will and Kate are having another baby. The internet is already atwitter with predictions for names, like last time:

Royal Baby’s Name and Sex: Bookmakers Taking Bets

Royal Baby No. 2: The Internet Reacts with Jokes, Excitement and Plenty of Baby Names

The Royal Name Game: 10 Potential Names on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s List

What Should Prince William and Kate Middleton Name The Second Royal Baby? POLL

Kate Middleton’s Baby Name Predictions From the Expert Who Picked ‘George’

But, like last time, I just can’t get too into it. Royal baby naming is so different than regular baby naming, don’t you think? I mean, it seems that they only choose from a certain pool of names, which I’m not interested enough in to even figure out what that pool is. (So says the mom who won’t stray outside of Catholic saints when naming her children. But our pool is so large!) And they string so many names together, what with the four or five middle names (or, I guess, just two, as in the case of Prince George), all of which are meaningful to them, I know, but I don’t even really know what the criteria is that they use. It certainly doesn’t seem to be flow, at least to my ear (though I think Kate and Will did really well with the flow of George’s name). And again — I’m just not interested enough to figure out what formula, if any, they all use.

But, if I had to guess, I might think of these names (first names only) as befitting a brother or sister for Prince George Alexander Louis:

Charles, Francis, Philip

Elizabeth, Caroline or Charlotte, Jane

I personally always look to family names as one of my first places of inspiration, hence Charles (Will’s dad), Francis (Kate’s dad’s middle name), Elizabeth (Kate’s middle name, her mom’s middle name, and Will’s grandmother’s name), and Caroline/Charlotte (feminine form of Charles; Carole is also Kate’s mom’s first name, and Charlotte is her sister Pippa’s middle name). I also like my sib sets to go together, to feel similar in style, hence Philip (chosen at first because I know a little George who has a brother Philip, and then I realized it’s also a family name for Will — it’s his grandfather’s name, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip — and a family name for Kate — her sister Philippa/Pippa), and Jane (Jane Seymour, not the greatest association, but it’s British and royal, and I like it with George). I think Francis might be the outlier here — it doesn’t strike me as a royal British name — but I’m keeping it on there anyway.

For middles, I would look again to family — any of those I mentioned above would make good candidates, as would Diana (in fact, I’d be shocked if they didn’t use some part of Diana’s name somewhere for a little girl), Spencer (Diana’s maiden name), Michael (Kate’s dad’s first name). It was mentioned that the Scottish would be happy with George’s middle name of Alexander; perhaps Margaret would make a good contender for a middle for a girl for the same reason? (It’s “still considered the Scottish national name.”)

So. If it were me naming the sibling of big brother George Alexander Louis, I’d choose:

Philip Spencer Francis

Caroline Diana Margaret

I didn’t read any of the articles I cited above before making my picks, and now that I’m perusing them … I see Philip, Caroline, Diana, Elizabeth, Charles, Charlotte from my lists; others mentioned include James and Victoria. Ok, I didn’t do too badly picking names that a royal might choose! The only picks of mine that I don’t see mentioned are Spencer, Margaret, Francis, and Jane.

And I’ll also throw out a gender prediction: I’m guessing boy, since Kate is sick like last time (prayers for her! Hyperemesis gravidarum sounds like the very Pit of Despair), and all my pregnancies have been more or less the same in regards to level of sickness, and I’ve only had boys. Very scientific assessment, I know. Be sure to check back when the baby’s born to see how I did!

(Guest) spotlight on: Mercedes

sanctanomina Spotlight

I have a special fondness for Marian names, and Mercedes is one of my favorites. How many times have I wished that it wasn’t also a car brand! I loved hearing it in the movie The Count of Monte Cristo (the one with Jim Caviezel), and in high school it was given to one of my best friends as her Spanish name to be used in Spanish class.

Laura Wattenberg (the Baby Name Wizard) just blogged today about Mercedes and how such a devout Catholic name became a car brand. It was pretty fascinating — as she put it, “the emblem of German engineering [is possibly] a product of French literature, with Spanish Catholic origins, via an Austrian Jew. Nobody said names were simple.”