Baby name consultant

Baby name consultation: Spanish middles and Mexican saint names for baby no. 5 if a boy

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

I know Lina in semi-real life — we “met” online and have mutual real-life friends; she also runs F&P Birth and Breastfeeding Services: Women Serving Women (FB page here) (F&P stands for Felicity and Perpetua! 😍), which I know many of you might be interested in knowing about — so I’m delighted today to post this consultation for her fifth baby, a little green bean (gender unknown)! 🌱

This little one joins big sibs:

John Diego García (“named for the obvious saint, as well as my deceased FIL, John“)

Joseph Sebastián García (“named for both my husband’s grandfathers and my husband has a devotion to St. Sebastian and didn’t want it for a first name. I wanted to keep all middle names spanish, so its “Sebastián” instead“)

Rita Maureen García (“My middle name is also Maureen, after my grandmother, who is now deceased. Rita is … b/c she paid for our wedding 😉 “) (St. Rita is amazing! She’s one of the patrons of lost causes and I personally know of a couple other examples where she came through big time! Lina’s referring here to her prayers for St. Rita’s intercession in paying for their wedding.)

Michael Agustín García (“for [Bl. Miguel Agustín Pro] … Augustine was [also] my great great grandfather married to Lina, for whom I am named“)

Note that Garcia is Lina’s maiden name, not the family surname (which has more of an English/Irish feel) — I LOVE how she’s worked her heritage via Spanish names (accents and all!) and her maiden name into her kiddos’ names, and I just love the whole set together — they go by Johnny, Joey, Rita, and Mikey — sooooo cute!!

Even though they don’t know if this baby is a boy or a girl, they only need help with boy names (their girl name is Evangelina Claire García). Lina writes,

“Since two of my boys have Mexican saints for names) … i would LOVE to find another mexican saint to use for a boy name.  Nothing has struck me … In the past, we’ve tossed around Ignatius (call him Nate), Gabriel, Lawrence Rey called Larry [Lina’s dad’s name is Larry King; Rey is Spanish for king] and…. who knows.  Seriously, we’re stumped … Oh and obviously our kids have 2 middle names since Garcia is my maiden, so it should flow with that.  and we don’t really want James b/c no more J names.

so tl;dr – boy name help, middle must be spanish, fantasy is mexican saint for the name.  thanks!!! 😀 😀 “

This was such a great consultation to work on! You all know I love when there are “rules,” and trying to come up with great combos that work in Spanish names and Mexican holies was fuuuuun!

So first off, I just have to say that I love the idea of Lawrence Rey for Lina’s dad! I wondered if finding a different nickname for Lawrence (or none at all — know a little Lawrence in my son’s class at school! He goes by the full Lawrence always, which cracks me up—such a big name for a little guy!) might help? I did some research on nicknames that are used for Lawrence, and thought of some that *could* be used (even if I didn’t find any evidence of them already in use), and I suspect that Lina and her hubs aren’t really offbeat in their taste in names/nicknames BUT Larry is pretty offbeat right now so what about:

— Lenny: I love this idea … I think it (because of Leonard) has the feel of Larry/Lawrence, but is a bit more “with it” right now, what with Leonard on Big Bang helping to pave the way for those kinds of names.

— Enzo: I know Lina’s hubs isn’t into Spanishy Spanish first names, but Enzo can be a nickname for Lorenzo, which of course is the Spanish Lawrence, so I thought they could do Lawrence nicknamed Enzo if they wanted to, which would be a fun way to work in Lina’s heritage in an everyday sort of way (and Enzo is so cool).

— Lance: I’m not sure what they’d think of this? But I saw it listed somewhere as a possible nickname for Lawrence, being that it’s like a contraction of Lawrence … I could see it being really cute on a little guy.

— Laddy: This is my own idea, inspired by Taddy for Thaddeus, Matty for Matthew, etc. Could be cute, no?

— Laz, Lon, Ren: My guess is that none of these are quite Lina’s taste but I could be totally wrong, so I thought I should list them here. There are some more nickname ideas for Lawrence here.

Also, regarding their idea of Gabriel, there’s Bl. Gabriel Escoto Ruiz, who was born in Mexico (though he was martyred in the Spanish Civil War).

Alrighty, so you all know I use the Baby Name Wizard for almost every consultation, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did use it when doing this consultation for Lina, but I actually didn’t start with it—rather, I googled “Mexican saints” and used these sites here and here, picking saints, blesseds, and venerables who had names I thought Lina and her hubs would like. I then cross-checked my ideas against the names the BNW said they’d like based on John, Joseph, Rita, Michael, Evangeline (no entry for Evangelina), Gabriel, and Lawrence (no entries for Ignatius or Nate). Based on all that, these are my ideas:

(1) Philip
I think Philip is my #1 idea for Lina and her hubs—one of my own personal favorites, with the great Mexican patron St. Felipe de Jesús. The nickname Phil has a similar feel to me as Larry, but it’s also the reason a lot of families don’t choose the name—if they love Phil, great! If they don’t, there’s also Pip (perfect for a little guy! And he can just be Philip as he grows up), Flip (I worked with a Philip called Flip, kinda cool … it also echoes the original Felipe), and Finn (especially with an N middle name … I loved the idea of Philip Neri nn Finn but couldn’t get my hubs on board).

(2) David
There are three Mexican martyrs that can work here: St. David Galván-Bermudez, St. David Roldán-Lara, and St. David Uribe Valasco, each one is pretty amazing. Davy/Davey’s a super cute nickname too, and I think David/Davey fits right in with Lina’s current and future kids’ names.

(3) Peter
Two Mexican martyrs here: St. Pedro Esqueda Ramírez and St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado-Lucero. I’ve been digging Pete/Petey recently, so cute!

(4) Gregory
I love Gregory anyway—the BNW says, “Popes, saints, and Gregory Peck! Can a name get any more distinguished?” 😁—and there’s a Ven. Gregorio López who, though born in Spain, was a missionary in Mexico and is apparently much beloved there. This site calls him Blessed but as far as I can he’s still Venerable. Like Phil, I know some families are turned off of Gregory because of Greg, but Rory can work as a nickname (though I already know Lina doesn’t care for Rory, but I’m leaving it here in case it’s helpful to any of you), as can Grey, and I think even Gus could work if Gregory was paired with an S middle name.

(5) Paul
Ven. Pablo de Anda Padilla is the inspiration here—and he had a brother José and a sister María Rita! I know a couple little Pauls who go by Paulie, so cute!

(6) Louis
St. Luis Batiz Sainz is another Mexican martyr (what holy ground is there in Mexico, with all the martyrs’ blood!), and Louie is an adorable nickname!

And those are my main ideas for first names with Mexican patronage, based on what I perceive to be Lina and her hubs’ taste. There are a few others that I considered including in the above list and ultimately decided against for various reasons, but thought I’d list them here just in case: Matthew (for St. Mateo Correa Magallanes), Anthony (Bl. Antonio, Child Martyr of Tlaxcala; Bl. Antonio Pérez Lários), and Andrew (Bl. Andrés Solá Molist).

Some other names that I thought might make good middle names include Salvador, both for Jesus and for St. Salvador Lara Puente; Manuel, both for Jesus and for St. Manuel Moralez or Ven. Manuel Martín del Campo (I also love the nickname Manny, so cute!); and Rafael for St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia.

If they wanted to get a little crazy, I also love the ideas of Guadalupe (traditionally used for both boys and girls) and Tepeyac for middle names—so unexpected and Mexican! Or Cruz, which can refer to both Jesus and Mary. Or Mario, which has traditionally been used to honor Our Lady, even though etymologically it’s not related.

I also love the idea of Lorenzo as a middle name, for Lina’s dad!

And if they decided to go off the Mexican-Saint first-name idea (and doing a Mexican Saint in the middle could preserve their Mexican-Saint-name theme without pigeonholing them), Thomas and Francis are two that seem like perfect brothers to their crew (Tommy and Frankie!).

So if I were going to put together some full name ideas, I like:

Philip de Jesús García (I loooove the idea of “de Jesús” in the middle!)
Philip Lorenzo García
David Manuel García
David Salvaldor García
David Lorenzo García
Peter de Jesús García
Peter Lorenzo García
Gregory López García
Gregory Lorenzo García
Gregory Cruz García
Paul Salvador García
Paul Manuel García
Paul Rafael García
Paul Lorenzo García OR Paul Lorenzo Rey García, which I know is a lot of names, but Paul is so short, I think it totally works
Paul Guadalupe García (again a short, familiar name like Paul can take a longer, more exotic middle really well)
Louis Rafael García
Louis Guadalupe García
Thomas Lorenzo García
Thomas Gregorio García
Thomas Felipe García
Francis Lorenzo García
Francis Gregorio García
Francis Felipe García (I love the alliteration here)
Gabriel Salvador García
Ignatius Manuel García

I could go all day coming up with handsome combos, but I’ll stop there! Haha!

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for a little brother for John, Joseph, Rita, and Michael, taking into account two Spanish middles and a preference for Mexican saints/blesseds/venerables?

Baby name consultation: Brother name for Jude and Isaac

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Stephanie and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown)! 🌱 This little one joins big brothers:

Jude Patrick
Isaac Edward

Awesome names, awesome style, love them!

Stephanie writes,

“We really like the name Hope for a girl … My husband really wants a Mark Edward III for a boy. I really don’t want to do a “the third.” I could possibly do Mark with a different middle name, and call him by the middle name, but I don’t like the confusion of the exact same name. My boy name preferences fall along the lines of Micah [though unusable because their last name sounds really similar to it], Blaise, Fisher (after St. John Fisher), and Ephraim. My husband isn’t as adventurous with his names, but he did mention Maccabee at one point! My husband is [also] open to Benedict.”

Okay, so first off, I kept in the bit about Stephanie and her husband liking Hope for a girl, for inspiration, but they really only need help with boy names.

Regarding the idea of Mark Edward III, I love Jude and Isaac together, and while Mark does fit in with them in because they’re all biblical and saintly, I feel like Jude and Isaac give off a particular vibe that Mark doesn’t. I’m not quite sure how to describe it … “scholarly” and “sophisticated” come to mind re: Jude and Isaac, but I don’t think Mark is unscholarly or unsophisticated, so that’s not quite right … Do you all know what I mean? Do you agree?

Also, they’ve already used Edward for Isaac’s middle name, and while “matching vibes” and different middle names isn’t a requirement at all if Stephanie and her husband like a particular name, these thoughts might be helpful for Stephanie in trying to convince her husband away from using Mark Edward III.

I was trying to think of various ways that Stephanie’s husband could have the *feel* of a III without actually doing a literal III, and I came up with:

  • Using the same first name, but a different middle name (and he could even go by Trey/Trip/Tripper if they wanted him to, for Mark III, even though he wouldn’t be III on paper [and would therefore avoid some of the paperwork nightmares I’ve heard about])
  • Using a variant of Mark — there’s Marco, Marcus, and Marek. I also discovered the surname Markson, which does actually mean Mark’s son (I saw it spelled somewhere as Marxon too, but then I couldn’t find that again … I think they could definitely do it though if they wanted to!)
  • Using Stephanie’s husband’s initials — an M first name and an E middle name. I think this is my favorite idea for them, and I have M.E. thoughts below
  • How about any nicknames Stephanie’s husband goes by? Any nicknames given to him by college/sports buddies, or some funny thing his family called him when he was little that could perhaps be fashioned into a first name?

Beyond that, I used Jude, Isaac, Hope, Micah (though I know this is off the table because of their last name!), Blaise, Fisher, Ephraim, Maccabee (!) and Benedict as inspiration in my research, which, as you all know, almost always starts by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I also combed through my own mental files and came up with the following ideas:

(1) Matthias
Matthias is my favorite idea for them in the “use your husband’s initials” idea (and just in general too, I love it!). It’s got more of an Old Testament rhythm and sound I think, which fits in nicely with Isaac, but it’s actually a New Testament name, which is nice for Jude. And Jude and Isaac are two particularly Catholic biblical names, in my opinion, since St. Jude is so revered and St. Isaac Jogues is so amazing, and I’ve often thought Matthias is a really Catholic biblical name because he was chosen by the others to replace Judas—sort of like the first Church Council! 😁 Something like Matthias Ephraim for M.E. initials, or a less heavy middle like Matthias Evan (kind of fits with the Jude’s Patrick) or Matthias Eli, or, if they didn’t mind heavy, Matthias Emmanuel.

(2) Miles
Miles is my second favorite idea for this family in the M.E. idea. I’ve pushed it on a lot of people! One of its characteristics is that it’s used as an Anglicization of the old Irish name Maelmhuire, which literally means “servant of the Virgin Mary.” So great, right? A legit Marian name for a boy! I didn’t think of it though until I saw that it’s a style match for Isaac, Hope, and Julian, which I know isn’t Jude, but some use Jude as a nickname for Julian, so I’m really feeling it for this family! Because it’s so short I love it with Emmanuel; Ephraim and Eli both go quite nicely with it as well!

(3) Malachi or Malachy
Maccabee made me think of Malachi, as I think they can both take Mac as a nickname, which is so great. The spelling Malachy is Irish, and though Stephanie didn’t mention anything about being Irish and their last name is so German, I latched onto Jude’s middle name (Patrick) when looking for further information.

(4) Pierce
Pierce is listed as a style match for Jude and Blaise in the BNW and one of you readers left a comment about someone they know who named their son Pierce for how Our Lady’s heart was pierced by a sword. Amazing! I like that it’s biblical like Jude and Isaac (as it’s a form of Peter), but also fits that sort of distinguished, scholarly feel I get from Jude and Isaac as well.

(5) Fulton
Fisher on Stephanie’s list made me think of Fulton, and I thought I’d suggest it—maybe her husband would like it better than Fisher? It has more of a first-name feel than Fisher, since most people are familiar with Ven. Fulton Sheen; this post on nickname ideas for Fulton might also be helpful. I also see families who use or consider the name Fulton also use or consider Jude and Isaac, so I think it fits well. I really love how Fulton Mark sounds, if they were open to putting Mark in the middle!

(6) Bennett
Finally, I wondered about Bennett for this family. It’s inspired by Benedict, since it’s a form of Benedict, but it’s lighter and some find it a little easier to work with than Benedict. It’s also a style match for Hope, as well as Luke, and I’ve often thought of Jude and Luke as two sides of the same coin (people who like one tend to like the other, though the more adventurous usually land with Jude, while the others tend to go with Luke), so I thought it was a great fit with Stephanie’s boys. I think Bennett Mark sounds quite nice as well!

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for the little brother of Jude and Isaac?

Baby name consultation: A first name, C middle name for baby girl No. 5

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Josh and Mari are expecting their seventh baby, and fifth girl! You might remember this beautiful family from a birth announcement I posted for them last year; to recap, this little lady joins big sibs:

Ariana Camille
Audrey Caroline
Caleb Daniel (Daniel is Josh’s middle name)
Amelia Clare (“Millie”)
Anne-Catherine Gianna (“Gianna” or “Gigi”)
Charles Michael (“Charlie”)

Such beautiful names, all! As you can see, there’s a clear A.C. theme for the girls, which Josh confirmed that they do, indeed, want to continue with, and that the only names they’ve really thought about so far include:

Annaliese
Angeline (Mari’s middle name)
Cecilia
Charity

I love working with themes! And I love the names they’re considering! Anneliese is a favorite of mine; Angeline is so wonderful because of it being Mari’s middle name; and Cecilia and Charity are two beautiful, faith-filled names (as are Anneliese and Angeline, of course). I would hesitate over using Anneliese though, since it’s an Ann- name and they’ve already got Anne-Catherine (and Ariana and Gianna). I really think my favorite idea for them is Angeline—they want an A name, and they’ve already used Josh’s middle name, so using Mari’s A middle name seems perfect. Angeline Cecilia has a beautiful flow, and a really heavenly feel to it. Angie, Lina, Cece, Celia, and Lia could all be nicknames.

That said, of course I have more ideas! 😁 I went through the Baby Name Wizard first, looking up each of the names Josh and Mari have used and those they like/are considering, looking for any A and C names that are similar in style/feel/popularity to their other kiddos’ names, and then I also perused the list of saints’ names in the back of the book for inspiration (it’s a bit more offbeat than the usual lists of saints’ names, which I thought would be helpful here, since so many A+C names have already been used), and of course picked through my own mental files. Based on all that, here are my A ideas:

(1) Avila
This is one of the first I thought of for this family. It can be for St. Teresa of Avila or St. John of Avila, and can take the sweet nickname Avvie, or even Ava.

(2) Ava
Ava is actually a really good fit for them style-wise, and I know of families who have used it coupled with Maria, as a nod to Mary via the Ave Maria (Hail Mary). I could see Josh and Mari doing something like Ava-Maria C___, but even just Ava could be a nod to Our Lady, as it’s a variant of Eve and Mary is considered the New Eve.

(3) Alice, Alicia, Adelaide, Aleydis
All these names are variants of the same name, which is why I’ve grouped them together. Alice is such a sweet, vintage-y name that is popping up all over; Alicia is so similar in spelling but with a more modern feel; Adelaide has such a beautiful sound and the fun nickname options Addy, Ada, and Laidy; and Aleydis is such an unusual variant (I’ve also seen it spelled Aleidis). You can read about saints with these names here.

(4) Adeline, Adele, Adelia
These, too, are variants of the same name, though different from the grouping above (even though Adelaide and Adeline look similar they are unrelated as far as I know). Like Adelaide, Adeline is beautiful and nickname-rich—Addy, Ada, Della, and Lina. Adele is fairly associated with the singer, but not overly so I don’t think. My cousin recently named her baby Adelia, which I’d never heard of before, but turns out is a variant of Adele, and it opens up the possibility of Delia as a nickname. This St. Adele was German, which is a nice since Josh and Mari have some German in their ancestry.

(5) Aurora
I’ve been loving the name Aurora ever since I found out how Marian it can be. Aurie and Rory are both sweet nicknames for it.

(6) Abigail
I originally liked Abigail for this baby because it ties into the biblical-ness of Caleb’s name, but then I found a St. Abigail (her Irish name is Gobnait, which is usually anglicized as Abigail). Abby’s a great nickname!

(7) Amata, Amanda, Amy/Aimee
These names are all related as well—they all mean “beloved,” and can all take Amy as a nickname. Since their Amelia goes by Millie, I think Amy would be okay as a nickname; Amanda could also be Mandy (which is funny because I know a Mary Angeline who goes by Mandy!). Some saints by these names are here and here.

(8) Agnes
Like Alice, Agnes is an old name that’s coming back into fashion. I love the nickname Aggie, and St. Agnes is one of the best.

(9) Antonia
Though this is a feminine form of Anthony (and can take St. Anthony as a patron), there are a bunch of Sts. Antonia. Toni, Tia, and Nia are all doable nicknames (I would stay away from Annie because of the other Ann- names they have).

(10) Augusta
My last A idea is Augusta. I knew an Augusta when I was little—she went by Gussie, and I thought it was the coolest name. The great St. Augustine can be patron, or this St. Augusta.

Now, onto the C names!

(1) Charis (or Carys)
I love love the name Charis! Josh and Mari’s idea of Charity actually gave me the idea, because they’re so similar in spelling, though their meanings are different. Charity stems from the Latin for love, while Charis means grace/favor/gratitude, which is the actual meaning of the “charis” part of Eucharist. I’ve heard of families choosing Charis for their daughters because of the connection to the Eucharist, beautiful! A name that sounds exactly the same but is closer to the meaning of Charity is the Welsh name Carys, which means “love.” Either Charis or Carys could be a really pretty and meaningful middle name.

(2) Cara, Carine/Carina, Caritas
Speaking of names that mean “love,” Cara comes from the same root as Charity and in Italian literally translates as “beloved.” Carine/Carina are elaborations of Cara and might provide the right rhythm for a middle name. If they wanted to be more obviously Catholicky Catholic, Caritas itself (the Latin word Charity comes from) would be a pretty and unusual middle name.

(3) Cora, Corinne
Similar in appearance and sound to Cara and Carine, but different in meaning, Cora and Corinne are technically related to the Greek for “maiden,” which could point back to Our Lady, but a closer connection would be the Latin word “cor,” which means “heart,” and I know of several families that have chosen Cora for their daughters because of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It could also be chosen for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Either way, how beautiful and meaningful! (I should point out that though Corinne can be said the same as Carine, I’ve mostly heard it said kor-INN).

(4) Clementine
Josh and Mari had actually had Clement on their list for when they were expecting Charlie, and Mari wasn’t a huge fan, but I wonder if the feminine and fabulous Clementine would make a difference? It means “merciful” and I was pushing it on a lot of families during the Year of Mercy, haha! But a mercy name is always a good idea, even though the Year of Mercy’s over.

(5) Colette
I only recently learned about St. Colette, and I’ve been loving her! She’s a patron saint of women hoping to conceive, pregnant women, and sick children.

(6) Carmel, Carmela/Carmella, Carmen
These names all point to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and could be really beautiful tributes to Mother Mary, especially if Josh and Mari have a Carmelite sensibility.

(7) Casey
This might be too unisex for their taste (and they might even like to save it for a future boy!), but Casey can also be used for girls, and I’m thinking specifically of Ven. Solanus Casey, to whom my family has a special devotion.

(8) Chloe
Like Abigail, I was interested in Chloe for this baby because it’s a biblical name like Caleb, Daniel, Michael, and Anne. It’s got an unusual spelling and rhythm and could be really perfect as a middle name to the right first name.

(9) Christina, Christine, Christiane
Of course the Christ- names are always a beautiful, meaningful choice for a Catholic baby. If they liked this idea, I’d probably choose the one that went the best with the chosen first name, since each of them has a different rhythm and would pair best with different first names.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What A+C ideas can you come up with for this family?

Baby name consultation: Twin baby miracle girls!

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I have such a fun consultation to share with you all today! Kristin and her husband are expecting twin girls!

Kristin writes,

“After 9 years of marriage, infertility, and countless prayers & tears, my husband and I are finally expecting! Not just expecting, it’s twin girls! They will be here shortly after our 10th anniversary March. God is so good!!!!“

You guys! What a story! 😍😍😍

“Throughout our infertility and this pregnancy, we pray to St. Gerard Majella, St. Elizabeth, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I was convinced I was having a boy, so we thought to name him Elliott Gerard. Now that it’s two girls, we just don’t know what to do.

We don’t want our twins to have matching names, but rather names that go together well. We’d prefer not to have the same initials or rhyming. We both like more traditional names that are less common. Old fashioned names are great.

Our last name is Pelletier (Pell-let-ee-ay) and my husband is half French, half Italian. His first name is Olivier (Olive-ee-ay) so from growing up with his name he has two criteria: shorter names & nothing that rhymes.

We’d like to pull in his heritage with international names, but don’t want anything that is too difficult for American speakers. We considered Amelie, but after mentioning it to a number of people there were a lot of mispronunciations, usually Amelia. It’s somewhat on the table, but simple is best.

Names that work well in both English & French are nice to have, but not a hard requirement. From that we really like the name Alice. I like Alice Elizabeth, but her monogram would be APE so that’s out 🙂

On the Catholic side, we’d love to have a saint for each girl either in her first or middle name. We have lots of saints that have been a part of our prayers, but aren’t sure how to incorporate them [the above named St. Gerard Majella, St. Elizabeth, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help, as well as] St. Andrew and St. Faustina.

We currently love St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Clare of Assisi as such strong women that fiercely followed their faith. We also like St. Francis (although it’s not my favorite name) and St. Clare, representing the strong bond that they shared. St. Cecelia has also been popping up in discussions – she is my grandmother’s namesake … We’re open to nicknames/shortened versions of saints if you know of any!“

As for names and combos they’re considering:

“We’ve been tossing around Alice Frances and Eloise Claire, but they don’t feel ‘perfect’.

Other names we like are Rose, Mae, Nora(h), Claire, Camille, Amelie, Violet, and Felicity.”

There are so many things about all this that I love! Two girls to name! French and Italian names! Saints’ names! Less common+traditional, old fashioned, short versions of saints’ names or nicknames! A great list of ideas!

Alright, so for my own mental organization I first condensed all Kristin and Olivier’s thoughts/criteria thusly:

  • Shorter, simple names (but with meaning) and no rhyming, different initials (and none that spell something like APE), no matching (but want names that go together), old fashioned is great
  • Elliott Gerard was their boy pick (so awesome)
  • French and/or Italian names would be nice (hubs’ heritage), but nothing too difficult (e.g., Amelie)
  • Names that work in both English and French would be nice
  • Current list includes Alice Frances and Eloise Claire as well as Rose, Mae, Nora(h), Claire, Camille, Amelie, Violet, Felicity
  • Saint for either first or middle (St. Andrew, St. Gerard Majella, St. Elizabeth, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Faustina, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Clare of Assisi [and her friendship with St. Francis], St. Cecilia)
  • Open to nicknames/variants of saints’ names

Alright! I also just have to start by saying that I love Amelie! I know not everyone gets it, but I’ve long loved it, and we know a family at church with an Amelie—I love hearing it! I also think that if they end up going with Alice Frances and Eloise Claire—or any of the names on their list, really—I wouldn’t be at all disappointed and I can’t imagine Kristin and her hubs would be either. Such a great list!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. It was really fun to do so for these babies, since Kristin and her hubs’taste is really consistent! I also combed my own mental files for ideas, and based on all that, I came up with these:

(1) Elise
This is the first of several ideas I have regarding variants of saints’ names. Elise is so similar to Alice, but it’s a French short form of Elizabeth, so it gets the St. Elizabeth connection in there, as well as being a short, French name that I think is pretty easy to work with/pronounce. Elise Frances would be a lovely alternative to Alice Frances.

(2) Cate
Like Elise instead of Elizabeth, Cate instead of Catherine could be the answer to naming a baby after St. Catherine of Siena without using the long Catherine.

(2) Louise
I had thought that Eloise was a variant of Louise, but I looked it up and it seems that’s not correct (though Louise is sometimes thought to be related). But I love Louise on its own because it’s (1) French, and (2) a variant of Louis, which could be a nice nod to any of the Sts. Louis, but I was specifically thinking of St. Louis Martin because he’s French! Haha! There are certainly other Sts. Louis, and Bl. Louise de Marillac is a great option as well.

(3) Lucy or Lucie
How sweet is Lucy?! It’s a style match for Alice and Nora, and I posted a birth announcement not too long ago for a little one named Lucie—that spelling, because it’s the French spelling.

(4) Rosalie
This was another name inspired by one of the names on their list (Rose). I think it’s my current favorite Rose name, but for I love it for this family because it’s the French form of Rosalia! It’s a bit longer than Rose, maybe a bit too long for their taste, but it’s so pretty I had to include it.

(5) Sophie
I think Sophie hits so many of their requirements: short, simple, old fashioned, great meaning (wisdom), and Sophie’s the French form of Sophia. There’s also the French saint, Madeleine Sophie Barat, who was known as Sophie (St. Sophie’s Day in France is in her honor) and—so fun!—the Sophie the Giraffe teether was named after that same saint!  Sophie can also be considered Marian since one of Our Lady’s titles is “Seat of Wisdom.”

(6) Grace
Along the same lines as Sophie (short, simple, old fashioned, great meaning) is Grace, which is a style match for Alice, Rose, and Claire. Also, like Sophie, Grace can be a Marian name, after Our Lady of Grace.

(7) Annabel(le)
Speaking of Marian names, I know Annabelle is long, but it was such a great match for them per the BNW and one of my very favorites that I had to suggest it! I’ve recently become aware of the fact that Annabel is considered to be a variant of Amabel, which arose in Scotland in the Middle Ages. Amabel is a variant of Amabilis, which means “lovable” and is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis (“Mother Most Amiable,” where amiable=lovable). What a beautiful and unexpected Marian name! For this family, I thought the Annabelle spelling was best, since it makes it more French.

(8) Juliet(te)
Speaking of great matches for them—Juliet is a grand slam! It’s a style match for Elliott, Claire, Camille, and Felicity (as well as Annabelle, which is how I was able to determine that Annabelle would be great for them). Can you believe it?! I love the name Juliet, and spotlighted it recently to pull out the faith connections. The Juliet spelling can fit into their “short, simple” requirement I think, but the Juliette spelling is more French.

(9) Maylis
This is also based on a name from Kristin’s list: Mae. Maylis is a French name with a pretty straightforward spelling and pronunciation; it’s the name of a town in southern France that behindthename says is possibly derived from “mother” + “lys” (French for lily) and is also sometimes considered a contraction of Marie + lys, both of which point to Our Lady, so beautiful!

(10) Ruby, Pearl
Ruby’s a style match for Rose, Violet, and Alice; Pearl’s a match for Rose and Mae. They’re both short, simple, and old fashioned, and they can both have great faith connections—I spotlighted Ruby here and Pearl here with a follow up here. I like them each on their own, and I *might* even like them as names for twin sisters, but that’s probably too matchy for Kristin and her hubs. No worries—I have a few ideas of how to pair up some of the names I suggested (below)!

So I had a lot of fun trying to come up with name pairs that I thought were great names for twin sisters that fit the criteria and tie in the saints Kristin and her hubs love! I was toying around with middle names, but they were really my secondary concern—I just wanted to give an idea of how I could see the first names pairing up with middle names that include all the criteria.

Elise Majella/Maiella and Rosalie Chiara—I focused a lot on coming up with French names in my suggestions above, since Kristin said they’d really like names that work in both English and French, but I didn’t forget that her husband is also Italian. It could be really fun to do Italian middle names that nod to their saints … Majella is for St. Gerard of course, or they could do Maiella, which was St. Gerard’s actual last name (given that he was Italian; Majella is the Anglicization of it). Chiara is for St. Clare of Assisi—since she too was Italian, her actual name was Chiara (Clare is an Anglicization of it). I love Elise and Rosalie together—they’re both elegant and French; they both point to important saints for this family (St. Elizabeth, and the Rose names always point to Our Lady in my mind); and they could even take the sweet nicknames Ellie and Rose/Rosie. I like the shorter Elise paired with the longer Majella/Maiella and the longer Rosalie paired with the shorter Chiara.

Sophie Majella/Maiella and Grace Perpetua—I like Sophie and Grace together a lot, since they’re both virtue names and can both refer to Our Lady. Majella/Maiella for St. Gerard, and Perpetua can be specifically for Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Clara/Clare and Lucy; Claire and Lucie … Claire Majella and Lucie Frances—I think the Clare names pair well with Lucy. I like the French-ness of the spellings Claire and Lucie, but the other spellings are great too. I also like the idea of Claire’s twin having Frances as a middle name (or even Francesca? To get some Italian in there?).

Elise Majella and Louise Perpetua—this is closest to their Alice and Eloise idea, just sort of with a twist. I might normally think that they’re a little too matchy because of having the same ending spelling-wise, but since they’re said differently (at least the way I say them: eh-LEES and loo-EEZ) I think they’re okay. I’m a big nicknamer and could see Elise and Louise going by Ellie and Lucy, cute!

Cate Cecilia and Lucy Faustina … or Cate Amelie and Lucy Faustine—I know that Catherine is too long for the, but they could totally bestow Cate as a full name (I chose the C spelling to specifically refer to St. Catherine of Siena; they could be even more specific with the first+middle combo Cate Siena … Lucy Majella could be a nice match for that), and I love Cate and Lucy as sisters. So sweet! In my second set there, I changed Faustina to Faustine to match the French Amelie.

Juliet and Annabel; Juliette and Annabelle … maybe Juliet(te) Frances and Annabel(le) Claire?—I know they’re too long, but I just love seeing them written out. 🙂

Lucy and Nora

Nora and Cate

Cate and Rose

Camille and Juliette

Amelie and Maylis

Felicity and Rosalie

Violet and Juliet (too matchy?)

Catherine and Elisabeth (I couldn’t resist! Catherine is the French spelling of the name, and Elisabeth is a French spelling … I know they’re too long for them, but I love seeing them together! Nicknames could be Cate and Ellie … Cate and Lily [Lily is a nickname for Elisabeth/Elizabeth] … Cat and Bess … so many options!)

Another thought that might be helpful in trying to work in as many of their special saints as possible is that St. Gerard was a Redemptorist, and the Redemptorists were instructed by Pope Pius IX to “make [Our Lady of Perpetual Help] known” (the Redemptorists actually just celebrated their 150th anniversary of being given that task) … so I could see a name connected to St. Gerard also sort of being a nod to OL of Perpetual Help and vice versa.

Other ideas that might be helpful for middle names (or even first names) are: Franca and Francesca are both Italian forms of Frances; Cecile, Cecily, and Cicely are all variants of Cecilia; Siena and Assisi could both make interesting middle names that nod specifically to saints that are special to Kristin and her hubs.

Whew! Those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for these sweet little baby girls?

Baby name consultation: Boy name needed for No. 4 in a fun, saintly sibset

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Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! He’s my very favorite Martin Luther. 😉 My favorite quote of his:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Amen!

Ashley and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little green bean! 🌱 (Although they only need help finding a boy name.) This wee one joins big sibs:

Micaela Ashley (“after St. Michael. Originally it was supposed to be Micaela Immaculata but as my husband was literally filling out the birth certificate he changed his mind and begged me to have my name as the middle name, I have regretted losing Immaculata ever since!“)

Dakota Grace (“We both always liked this name, it was a little outside the box, and named after my grandmother.”)

Kolbe James (“We have had a strong devotion to Maximilian Kolbe through our marriage and chose his surname as a first name.”)

What a fun set! I love all the faith connections intermingled with personal taste, great job! I’m also so interested in their change from Immaculata to Ashley as Micaela’s middle name — I’m all sweet on this couple over that! Ashley for being so sensitive to her husband’s preference, and her husband for so much wanting his wife’s name as part of his daughter’s. 💕

Ashley writes,

“We tend to have different tastes in names and we can’t seem to agree on one this time around. We ‘think’ we have our girls name, but can’t seem to find a boys name we both like equally. My husband really likes Irish names, we want a Catholic Saint to be the inspiration for the name also.”

Names they’ve considered so far for boys:

Finn/Finian
Fulton
Ignatius (Nash)
Samuel
Nathaniel
Zeke
Jonathan
Blaise (“This was my favorite boys name but my husband veto’d it because he said a Firefighter can’t have a son named “Blaze” because all the guys at work would make fun of him ☹ “)

And for girls (for inspiration)

Charlotte (Charlie) (“so far #1“)
Avila
Keira
Felicity
Veronica
Zelie
Middle names: Rose, Anne, Quinn, Immaculata

And finally,

“Because I come from a large catholic family I should probably give you all the sibling names and their kids names that we can’t use”

Nicholas
Christina
Angela
Michael
Joseph
Maria
Theresa
Sarah
Christopher
Mark
Rachel
Quint
Colette
Rita
Jude
Joselynn (Josie)

What a great family!! Such wonderful names!!

So first off, I’m so sorry Blaise is off the table! I’d actually find Blaise simply perfect for a firefighter’s son! It sounds fiery AND it’s a saint’s name—perfect! 🔥

I do see the Irish feel Ashley’s hubs likes in Finn/Finian, Fulton, and Keira (and I actually think Fulton’s an amazing brother name for Kolbe in that it’s a surname [it was Fulton Sheen’s mom’s maiden name] and specifically and strongly tied to one particular saint. I did a post recently on Fulton nicknames that might be helpful; be sure to read the comments too, they were awesome!), as well as a biblical feel (Samuel, Nathaniel, Zeke, Jonathan, Veronica), which has a bit of overlap with a country & western feel (Dakota, Nash, Zeke). I used all these feels when trying to come up with new ideas for Ashley and her hubs.

Even still, this was quite a challenging consultation! I love that their taste is so eclectic, but it does make me wonder if any of my ideas are good ones or if they’re totally off the mark. I can’t wait to hear what you all think and what your ideas are for this little one!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Using that research, and my own ideas, I came up with these ideas for Ashley and her hubs:

(1) Cashel
This was half inspired by her husband’s love of Irish names and half inspired by Nash as a nickname for Ignatius. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, “Cashel is offbeat and unusual but I love it so much for its meaning — ‘The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion’ and it’s ‘reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century’ — and for its possible nickname of Cash. Swoon!!!” Cash also has a Johnny Cash feel, which taps into that country & western thing, and Cashel is a place name like Dakota and Avila. All in all, a fun pick!

(2) Ronan or Rohan
St. Ronan is a great Irish saint with a cool name, I love it for this family! A similar name is Rohan (you could say it RO-han or RO-wen), which isn’t a saint’s name but it is an Irish surname, which ties it in with Kolbe and Fulton being surnames, and it can be a fun nod to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (Tolkien’s not a saint, but he was a great Catholic writer) where it’s a place name, which is a nice connection with Dakota’s name, as well as Avila.

(3) Beau
I was interested in the names that were similar in style to Blaise, since Ashley loves Blaise but her husband feels it’s unusable. Beau was one that I thought they might like—it’s got a country-western feel and also sounds sports-y like Bo Jackson. It’s not a saint’s name as far as I can tell, unfortunately, but a great saint middle would make up for that nicely—it’s a short name so it can take a longer middle name, like Beau Ignatius, Beau Nathaniel, or Beau Jonathan.

(4) Xavier
Xavier is also a style match for Blaise, and a saintly surname like Kolbe and Fulton, and it’s also got a great Z sound, like Blaise, Zeke, and Zelie. I also think it goes really well with Micaela and Dakota!

(5) Levi
Levi is biblical, certainly, but it’s also got a distinct country & western feel, and I really like that both of those styles converge in this one really cool name that also has a prominent Z sound.

(6) Isaac
Finally, Isaac, a nice style match for all the biblical names and super saintly as well—I love St. Isaac Jogues. It also has a great Z sound like Blaise, Zeke, and Zelie, and Zac and Ike are both traditional nicknames for it that are really cute.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for the little brother of Micaela, Dakota, and Kolbe?

Baby name consultation: No. 5 tiebreaker’s coming tomorrow and needs a name!

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Kelli and her husband are expecting their fifth baby and third boy! Her induction was originally scheduled for next week (and I planned to post this tomorrow) but she emailed tonight to let me know there’s been a change of plans and the little guy’s arriving tomorrow! They’re still eager for name feedback, so please share any ideas you have!

Baby Boy joins big sibs:

Abby Leigh (“Our first baby and named before my husband, Adam, and I were really religious and definitely not Catholic … we both liked it, and at the time did not like Abigail. We slightly regret now not having used the full version of the name. Our daughter (now 13) wishes we had used the full thing, and so sometimes she pretends like we did and we occasionally refer to her as Abigail to appease her. Leigh was always a name I loved, and the spelling I thought was just beautiful. My husband’s grandmother’s middle name is Lee, named after her mother’s maiden name, so it also just happened to fall in place nicely. We just lucked out that there is a Saint Abigail (biblical and alternate form of St Gobnait) so that her name doesn’t seem too strange with our other kids.”)

William Thomas (“My husband and I have different naming preferences, so every kid has been a bit of a compromise. I refused to use Thomas as a first name because I don’t really care for it too much. However, it is my husband’s middle name, his Dad’s name, his grandfather’s name, and his great grandfather’s name, so I was kind of stuck with it in some way or another. Since I didn’t like Thomas, I claimed full rights to first name choosing and it came down to Aaron or William. I just loved the way William Thomas sounded. Of course, now that we have converted, I am so glad my son has many wonderful saints he is named for by accident. We call him Will.”)

Aaron Matthew (“My husband has always loved this name, and since I picked the prior first name for our older son I gave him Aaron this go round. I liked the name well enough. We were considering conversion to the Catholic church at this point, so wanted biblical or saint names. We had a baby shower where his name was going to be Aaron Josiah and we had told the world this, but when he was born I realized we had completely messed up on the middle name. Took us more than a day to decide on his middle name, and it came down to Samuel or Matthew. My Great Uncle Sammy had just passed away a couple months before he was born, and Aaron’s godfather had a brother named Matthew who had passed away shortly before as well. We ended up going with Matthew because his godfather was not going to be having any more children, and we wanted to honor him and his brother by using the middle name Matthew.”)

Jessica Caeli (“We call her Jessa, and I completely won a battle for this name! I just knew this was supposed to be her name. However, my husband did not care for it, but he did like Jessica ok. A perfect compromise of Jessica for the first name and Jessa as a sweet nickname was doable with some middle name compromise as well. Adam has always wanted to use the name Kaylee for a first name, but I haven’t ever cared for it. I loved the name Caeli (pronounced Chay-lee) after the Regina Caeli, but Adam didn’t like its so we agreed to Caeli but pronounced Kaylee as the middle. We were a bit worried about Caeli being unsual compared to the other kids names, but we figured since it was the middle name we could squeak by and pull it off, especially since the pronunciation was more typical to non-Catholic family and friends. Fortunately it ended up being the perfect name for her and she’s just a doll.”)

Great names, right? A little bit eclectic, a little bit unexpected — I love them!

Kelli writes,

“We know this baby is a boy, but are having a terrible time finding names we like, agree on, or even feel at all “right”. We haven’t had any good ultrasound pictures of the face, which I think for me is throwing me off my game. We usually get an awesome picture of the sweet baby face, but this guy only wants to show us his er… other parts. So definitely a boy, but no cute little pictures of his nose or anything.

We realized that both of our boys happen to have middle names of apostles. We didn’t really do it on purpose, and since we are open to having more kids in the future, feel like our choice of middle name is really key for this baby. If we go with another apostle middle name we feel stuck for any future boys to have apostle middle names as well, but if we switch things up now than the first two can just be played off as coincidence and no big deal.

Adam doesn’t like calling kids by their middle names, so we can’t do a first name with the middle name being the nickname. The first name is the first name and what the kid will be known as, unless there is a shortened version of the first name that can be used, like Will and Jessa. I’ve tried to change his mind on this unsuccessfully.

All of our kids names are fairly traditional sounding, so we feel like we can’t go too far off and be crazy. We would like for it to somehow tie in to a saint name, biblical name, or something faith related for both the first and middle names, but it doesn’t have to be super exact either. It can be a little bit of a stretch. Usually we find names we like and see if there is some way it connects to the faith, rather than the other way around.

I also feel like going a bit nontraditional with Jessa’s middle name may have given us a bit of leeway in what we can do for naming this baby. Unusual first names might be ok, if it has a nice regular sounding nickname we could use (ex. Benedict but calling him Ben, although we don’t like that one).

I don’t like names to be too long. If its a long first name, I prefer a one or two syllable middle name so it doesn’t get too “mouthy”. It needs to be easy to yell across the house or whisper threateningly in public, lol. Shorter first names can pull off longer middle names, but I am hesitant to use a long middle name since we haven’t ever done it before. I would kind of like a first name that could have a one syllable nickname, so Will isn’t the only one who doesn’t have a two syllable first name.

Although we have 2 A names, we would also rather not use the same letters again. We are negotiable on that, but A names are definitely out for first name unless we have a good nickname to use that doesn’t start with A.

My husband wants to make sure the boys all have strong sounding names that are masculine, as he feels this is very important.

Popularity isn’t super important to us if we like the name.

You can see that I like a wider variety of names, and my husband is pretty picky based on the above lists, whereas I have more “criteria” that needs to be met. We have always managed to compromise before, but I guess by number 5 we are about out of ideas for that! I am sorry for all of these restrictions. I feel like we have given you an impossible task.”

(I LOVE impossible name tasks!! I love having lots of parameters to work within and criteria to satisfy, and while I often don’t hit the mark, sometimes I do, and in super-challenging cases any success is that much sweeter. 😁)

Names on their “maybe” list include:

David (“middle name only per husband“)
Philip (“was a top contender, but now we feel meh about it“)
Noah (“always comes up when choosing names, but never feels quite right. Also Adam had a friend in high school who passed away named Noah, so that’s another reason its often on the table. A distant cousin has two kids named Abby and Noah, so I feel using both the names they used, even though we don’t really know them“)
Joseph (“meh“)
Jacob (“Will wants us to use this desperately, but we don’t love it. However, another one of my husband’s friends who passed away was named Jacob, so it is often on our list as well“)
Nicholas
Andrew (“I love it and love the nickname Drew, but Adam only likes it for a middle name, if that“)
Zachary (“another name that always comes up but has never stuck. Husband is pushing for this one, but the nickname “Zach/Zac/Zack” feels a little too harsh for me for this baby“)
Gregory (“middle name only per husband“)

Names they’ve discussed but have crossed off the list for various reasons:

Gideon, Titus, Soren (“we like them but they seem too far off from our other kids names to pull off“)
Martin “Marty”, Colm (Cull-um), Owen, Seamus, Nolan, Reid, Dean, Becket, Killian, Evan (“names I liked but my husband despised“)
Kealan, Kevin, Caleb, Travis, Brian, Patrick, Michael, Robert, Kieran, Luke, Jeffrey, Easton, Hendrix, Eric, Kolbe, Daniel, Stephen (used by close family/friends)

“We also considered Sheen as a middle name because we didn’t like Fulton but I LOVE Fulton Sheen, but my husband thought it was a bit crazy to make a boy sound so shiny.”

Alrighty, so first off—I LOVE their older kiddos’ names!! I have a real soft spot for Jessa and Caeli—Jessa really makes Jessica sparkle, and Caeli is Catholicky Catholic but putting it in the middle spot and using the Kaylee pronunciation makes it so much easier for everyone who’s not into hardcore catacomb-y names. Great job!

I’m also loving the fact that they call their Abby “Abigail” sometimes. I’ve often thought that bestowing a name that’s traditionally been a nickname—like Abby, Maggie, Jack—could legitimately allow the child to claim Abigail/Margaret/John as their own (just like they can claim St. Abigail/St. Margaret/St. John as their own). (I’m glad they only have “slight” regret—Abby Leigh is a beautiful name! And it sounds like it was pretty representative of where they were as a couple at the time, which can be kind of fun to remember.)

I have a few thoughts about the names Kelli and her hubs are considering:

David, Gregory: David’s a great, solid name, and really similar in style to their other kids’ names. A great middle name choice, and great faith associations (the biblical king of course, and also the patron saint of Wales). I also think it’s relatively easy to pair with a variety of first names. Gregory’s another great one—papal and saintly (Pope St. Gregory the Great!) and so handsome. A short first name would pair really well with Gregory as a middle, like Noah Gregory.

Philip: so interesting that it was a top choice and now they’re waning on it! It’s one of my faves too. I know that the possibility of Phil (or Philly for a little guy) turns some people off of Philip, but I think Pip/Pippin, Flip, and Finn are all viable options.

Noah: So interesting that they have relatives with an Abby and a Noah! Our neighbors’ two kids are Abby and Noah as well! They definitely go together. My only hesitation with Noah (though for some reason not so much with any of their other biblical name ideas) is that it’s SO biblical, which leaves William out of the brothers’ name style (and technically out of the whole sibset, since Jessica’s also a biblical name, though I think few people know that, so Jessica doesn’t come across as biblical at all).

Joseph: love it, such a great name and a great saint. But being “meh” says to me, “Keep looking!” Also, it repeats Jessa’s J.

Jacob: funny enough, even though Jacob is just as biblical/Old Testament as Noah, and just as popular secularly as Noah, I just don’t think of it in quite the same way as Noah. This could be weirdness on my part—maybe people would still see William as the odd man out if Jacob was used? It’s so cute that Will loves the name Jacob so much. But, a J name.

Nicholas, Andrew, Zachary: these are such solid, cool-boy names to me (in a good way!). They’re all biblical, but I don’t think most people think of Nicholas and Zachary as biblical, and Andrew’s so classic and has that Brit vibe (via its ultra Scottish connections) that I think it goes really well with William while looping Aaron in via biblical. But Kelli said no more A names, so at least for this baby, I’d probably cross Andrew off the list (or use as a middle, as Kelli said). Nick and Zach/Zac/Zack are so similar in sound (and Jake too, for that matter) that at least from a nickname perspective, I think they’re all pretty equal and great. I do feel like Nicholas feels a bit more … timeless? Classic? While Zachary feels a bit more modern, which is funny since they’re both equally ancient. I looked up their stats on the Social Security web site and was interested to see that Zachary didn’t break into the top 200 until the 70s, while Nicholas has been in the top 200 for as long as the SSA has been keeping stats. However, they both had a peak of popularity in the 90s (Nicholas at #5 in 1999; Zachary at #12 in 1994) and they’re currently still in the top 100 at #62 and #88 (Nicholas and Zachary, respectively). So I’m thinking of Nicholas/Nick and Zachary/Zach as pretty similar options for this family, and both great. But Kelli doesn’t seem thrilled about either one, so let’s keep looking.

Gideon, Titus, Soren: love these names! But I agree that they’re very different from the other kiddos. Maybe as middle names? I personally love using John for a boy the way that Mary’s used for a girl—putting John or Mary in front of any name gives the whole thing a Catholic spin, and both John and Mary can serve as the first part of a double name (where both first and middle names are always used together) or—as Kelli has tried unsuccessfully to convince her husband of—as a “reverse middle name” almost, where the child goes by the middle name. Does that make sense? I mean, anyone can go by their middle name no matter what their first name, but Mary has traditional usage that way (all of my dad’s first cousins who are women, for example, are Mary___, and they all go by their middle names), and so does John in my family. So John Gideon, John Titus, and John Soren all strike me as really really handsome, and they could call him John Gideon as a full name, for example, or just John/Jack, or just Gideon. However, all that said, I do understand if Kelli’s husband simply can’t be swayed to the going-by-one’s-middle-name idea. In which case I still like the idea of John____ and going by the double name or just John/Johnny/Jack. They could even do Jake as a nickname for John—it’s got fairly traditional usage that way, and gets in Will’s love of Jacob without doing Jacob. (But John’s a J name.)

Martin/Marty, Colm, Owen, Seamus, Nolan, Reid, Dean, Becket, Killian, Evan: I love these names! I’m really interested in Kelli’s Irishy sensibility here … I feel like William and Andrew are on the outskirts of it (having good Brit/Scot usage), and I tried to take it into account when coming up with new ideas for them (Owen was actually one of my frontrunners for them until I looked back at this list and realized Owen was already on it!).

I’m dying over Kelli’s husband saying Sheen as a middle “was a bit crazy to make a boy sound so shiny”! Haha! I can see what he means (especially since he has a preference for strong, masculine-sounding names). I also think their method of finding a name they like and backing into a patron saint from there is fine and legit, and a method I’ve used myself quite happily (and I wrote about here).

Okay! So on to my ideas for Kelli’s little boy! As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have already used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. For this consultation, I also used entered all the kids’ names (as a group) on Nymbler to see what its suggestions for a brother for the sibset as a whole would be. Based on all that, and some of my own ideas, these are my suggestions:

(1) Samuel
As soon as I saw that they’d considered Samuel as a middle name for Aaron, after Kelli’s Great Uncle Sammy, I scribbled it down as a first name idea for them. It’s obviously biblical like Abby/Abigail and Aaron, but classic and gentlemanly like William, and it has the awesome nicknames Sam, which is one syllable like Will, or Sammy, which nods even more closely to Kelli’s great uncle, and both Sam and Sammy are great with Jessa. I think it’s a great option for this little guy!

(2) Jared (or Gerard?)
I really tried not to duplicate first initials, but I have two J names (the other’s below) that I had to suggest (besides John, mentioned above). Jared seemed a great fit for this family to me—like Jessica, it too is biblical though I don’t think a lot of people know that, which also makes it a nice fit for Will. Another option, if they like the sound of the name but not the repeated J, is Gerard, and this is a weird suggestion because in American English Jared and Gerard don’t sound alike at all—I’m tapping into Kelli’s love of Irishy names in the sense that in British English and Irish English, Gerard has the stress on the first syllable like Jared (and like Gerald), so they end up sounding very similar. (Bernard is similar—we say ber-NARD, but remember that the character in Four Weddings and a Funeral [set in England] was BER-nerd.) I had an Irish friend ages ago named Gerard, and it sounded exactly like Jared when he said his name; I understand actor Gerard Butler says his name the same way. This idea of course is fraught with issues—the explanations they’d have to constantly give might become a real headache—but for the right family it could make perfect sense. And William, Aaron, and Gerard make a very sophisticated set of brothers!

(3) Garrett
Jared and Gerard made me think of Garrett, which I’m definitely interested in for Kelli and her hubs. It’s got a Celtic feel as well as a surnamey feel (given that it actually got its start as a surname, which was derived, funny enough, from Gerald or Gerard), and as such it reminds me of Nolan, Reid, Dean, and especially Becket from her list. I love the idea of brothers William, Aaron, and Garrett—so handsome!

(4) James
This is the other J name I had to suggest. Jacob made me think of it, since James is the Latin form of Jacob, and as such Jake is possible as a not-unheard-of and understandable (to those who know) nickname for James. (Pairing James with a K middle name, like James Kenneth or James Kolbe, makes Jake make even more sense.) I should also mention that I’m a little hung up on Jake for them because of Jacob being on their list and Will being “desperate” for it, as well as the fact that Jake is a style match for Abby and Drew and similar in sound to Nick and Zach on their list.

(5) Gabriel
Gabriel’s a style match for Abigail and Noah, and Gabe’s a similar friendly+masculine+one-syllable nickname like Will, Nick, Zach, Drew, Sam, and Jake. It’s biblical like Aaron, and Irish actor Gabriel Byrne gives it a shot of green that Kelli might like. It’s also got a little more of an obviously Catholic feel I think than the other kids’ names, which ties it in nicely with Caeli. It’s actually got a sort of similar popularity arc as Nicholas and Zachary—not as steep a rise as Zachary, not as consistent as Nicholas, but otherwise pretty similar, though perhaps a few years behind—it’s currently where Nicholas and Zachary were a few years ago (it was #22 in 2015).

(6) Ethan
Ethan was inspired by Evan on Kelli’s list of names she likes that her hubby doesn’t (sometimes similar-but-different makes all the difference!), as well as the fact that it’s biblical and a style match for Abigail, Noah, Jacob, Zachary, and Owen. It covers a lot of bases!

(7) Brandon
Brandon was listed as a style match for Jessica, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to suggest it. It has an Irishy feel to me, like Colm, Owen, Seamus, Nolan, and Killian from Kelli’s list, because of its similarity to Brendan; it’s also a surname like Nolan, Reid, Dean, and Becket. As a surname, it calls to mind the wonderful Col. Brandon from Sense and Sensibility, which makes me think it’s a fantastic match for William with a Britishy feel.

(8) Ryan
Ryan was another one inspired by Jessica (a style match per the BNW) as well as the Irishy surnamey names Kelli likes. I did a spotlight on it a while back at the request of a reader to find some faith connections for it, and it’s since became a favorite of mine because of what I was able to find. I really like it with the other kids’ names.

(9) Henry
Henry is a style match for William and Joseph per the BNW, and it’s such a sweet yet exclusively masculine name with lots of great saint connections that I had to suggest it. If they wanted a one-syllable nickname like Will, they could do Hank, which is beyond adorable on a little guy!

(10) Miles
My last idea is Miles, for a few different reasons: it’s surnamey like Brandon and Ryan and the similar names Kelli likes; it’s one syllable (ish … depending on how you say it, it can sound like one-and-a-half syllables, which I think makes it a good match for the length of Will and the rest of the kids as well); and it’s got an ah-MAZ-ing Irish connection that I continue to be swoony about: it’s used as the Anglicization of the Old Irish masculine name Maolmhuire, which means, literally, “servant of the Virgin Mary.” A legit Marian name for a boy! I’ve also seen it possibly connected in origin to Michael, which opens up the possibility of St. Michael as a patron.

I also had a few names I considered suggesting and ultimately decided not to for various reasons, but I thought I’d list them here just in case: Isaac, Kenneth, Tobias. Also, Kelli’s comment about Benedict nicknamed Ben made me wonder if they might like to consider Benjamin or Bennett instead? Since she said they don’t care for Benedict, I wasn’t sure enough about Ben- names in general to include them in my official suggestions, but I couldn’t not mention Benjamin or Bennett just in case.

And those are all my ideas for Kelli and her husband! What do you all think? What would you suggest for Abby, Will, Aaron, and Jessa’s little brother? (And prayers for Kelli and the baby during tomorrow’s birth!)

Baby name consultation: Artistic, worldly, saintly names a plus for the third of three brothers

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Carrie and her husband are expecting their third baby — a third boy! This little guy joins big brothers:

Owen Joseph
Julian Elias

I.Love.Those.Names! So sophisticated and handsome!

Carrie writes,

“I love thinking and talking about baby names while my husband absolutely does not, and I desperately need some input! Hubby has actually said that he doesn’t think choosing baby names is that big of a deal, and that names in general aren’t that important (what!!!).”

What!!! 😲

“We named our first son, Owen, after I made a list of my 5 favorite names, gave it to him, and he pointed to one and said “this one.” Our second son was basically named solely by me – Julian was my favorite name by far, and after a while I told my husband that I was going to just start considering the baby to be Julian unless he provided another suggestion. He never did, so Julian it was! The only real name suggestion my husband has given has been along the lines of “what about something like Bob?” Meaning – he thinks most of the names I like are too unusual for him.”

Um. He and my husband sound like brothers separated at birth.

“So like I said, we currently have Owen Joseph and Julian Elias. Owen was actually born on the feast day of a St. Owen, which I did not realize until earlier this year. Owen is also a family name on my husband’s side. His middle name, Joseph, is after my dad and we consider St. Joseph to be his patron saint. I liked the name Julian for several reasons – I like the softer sound of it, and I think it sounds artistic and worldly. We do call him Jules a lot at home. We went back and forth about a family middle name for Julian but in the end nothing sounded right and we went with Elias (in part to give him cool initials [their last name begins with a T] – don’t judge! We were that desperate!) Julian’s birthday is in February which is also the month that St. Julian’s feast day is in. So I kind of like that both boys so far have birthdays in the same month as their saint’s feast day. (But not a requirement!)

… boy names are very challenging, since aside from Julian I had a hard time coming up with names I liked and could actually see us using the last time around. I am not sure how we will be able to name a third boy! When I try to think about boy names I like that are viable options, I come up with blanks. Nothing seems usable for us! I have even tried the Baby Name Wizard trick where I look at our current names or names I like and see if any of the brother names are possibilities, but so far that hasn’t helped me much. So as you can see, I feel that I need some fresh eyes on our boy naming situation.”

Honest to goodness, sometimes fresh eyes are all that are needed! It can be so helpful to just bounce ideas off of someone else.

Names they’ve considered that Carrie likes but aren’t sold on, or have been vetoed by her husband include:

Ames
Ansel
August
Arthur
Conrad
Dominic
Ezra
Felix
Frederick
Harry/Harris
Miles
Solomon

“I have always like the name Blaise and feel connected to St. Blaise as my grandmother’s birthday was on St. Blaise day and I always loved the story behind the blessing of the throats, but not sure if its too “out there” for us. I also have always liked Silas but my husband has said it sounds evil (I think because the villain in the book the Da Vinci code was named Silas).

Middle name possibilities so far are Thomas (my husband’s confirmation name, he just converted to Catholicism at Easter), Henry after my grandfather (but could not use as a first because I have a cousin with that name already), or perhaps Blaise in the middle spot.”

Names that Carrie likes but they can’t use include:

Leo
Theo/Theodore
James
Asher
Leland
“most names ending in T (Elliot) as our last name is very T heavy”
Francis/Frank
Samuel
Ben
Jude (“it can be a nickname for Julian and its also just too close“)
Xavier

Girl names they like, for inspiration:

Isla
Beatrice
Vivian
Ada
Willa

Finally,

“Aside from no names that end with T’s, and including a saint’s name in either first or middle spot, the only other rules I have is no top 20 names and no strong Irish names (I know Irish names are currently very popular) as my family has very strong German roots and it would just feel weird to me. I don’t mind repeating initials, and although I prefer 3 syllables or less I am open to a longer name.”

So first off, I think it’s amazing that Carrie’s successfully named two little boys with little help from her hubby—that would be some moms’ dream come true! But I totally get why it’s frustrating.

Second, I was really interested in trying to fit with the connection with Owen and Julian’s feast days both falling in the month they were born—I kept that in mind as I looked for ideas for this baby (due in early March, so I looked quickly through the feast days on CatholicSaints.info for both February and March).

Carrie and her hubs have a great list of names I think! I think Blaise is an awesome option—Feb feast day, great name, great saint, and Carrie has a connection to him as well! I personally don’t think it’s too out there for them, but of course they need to be comfortable with the name they choose.

As for Silas, if her husband can’t shake the negative association, I wonder what they’d think of Cyrus? It has a totally different feel to me; they could still use the sound-alike nickname Cy; and it’s a saint’s name. Or Cyril? There are several, with feast days Feb. 14 and March 18, 20, and 28.

Even though she said she’s already looked through the Baby Name Wizard, I did so as well, looking up the names she and her husband have used and those they like, as you know it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Based on that, and some ideas of my own, these are my ideas:

(1) Gabriel
I love when I see what seems to be a preference by parents for a certain sound—like, in this case, vowel couplets (Julian, Elias, Blaise, Leo, Theo/Theodore, Xavier). Gabriel barely makes the cut for Carrie’s preference for no top 20 names, being No. 22 in 2015, but otherwise it seems such a good match for them in my opinion. It’s kind of sophisticated and gentlemanly, which I get from Owen and Julian, and it totally fits Carrie’s description of why she likes Julian: “I like the softer sound of it, and I think it sounds artistic and worldly.” One of my favorite name books, Puffy, Xena, Quentin, Uma by Joal Ryan, described Gabriel as “acceptably musical for a boy,” which always stuck with me! Gabe and Gil are both possible nicknames, I like them both! Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows’ feast day is Feb. 27; Gabriel Lalemant is March 17; the Annunciation (not St. Gabriel the Archangel’s feast day but associated with him) is March 25.

(2) Matthias, Tobias, Gideon
Here are some more vowel-couplet names that I thought were slam dunks until I realized that Matthias and Tobias rhyme with Elias, and Gideon has the same ending sound as Julian. I don’t think any of the potential negatives are necessarily deal-breakers though—with Elias being a middle name, I don’t think it’s a huge deal to use a rhyming name for another child’s first name. And Owen and Julian also have the same ending sound, so adding in a third boy with the same ending sound in Gideon could actually be really cool. I knew three brothers growing up named Cam3ron, J0nathan, and G!deon, and I always loved those names together. Tobias Francisco Borras Roman’s feast is Feb. 11.

(3) Pierce, Simon, Henry
Pierce has been on my mind ever since one of you readers left a comment saying she knows someone who named her son Pierce after Mary’s Heart being pierced with a sword. Wow! It’s a form of Peter and I would definitely put it in the “sophisticated and gentlemanly” category, as I would also do with Simon. Kind of bookish and smart, just like Owen and Julian. Ditto for Henry, and St. Henry Morse’s feast day is Feb. 1! There are a bunch of holy Peters with feasts in Feb and March: Peter Cambiano is Feb. 2, Peter Igneus is Feb. 8, Pierre Fremond is Feb. 10, Peter Damian is Feb. 21, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter is Feb. 22. Additionally Simon of Saint Bertin is Feb. 24 and Henry of Austria is March 7.

(4) Beau
I did a consultation for my brother and sister-in-law a year ago, and they were so on my mind when I was working on this for Carrie and her hubs, as they have two boys named Leo and Owen and several of the other names Carrie likes are ones my SIL and I discussed. Beau is one of my SIL’s favorite names for a boy, and I think it has that “soft, artistic” feel Carrie likes (I think so much of Beau Wilkes in Gone With the Wind). So I was delighted to see it’s a style match for Blaise and Xavier!

(5) Hugo, Oscar
Carrie and her hubs have kind of a Germanic contingent on their list—Frederick, Conrad, Felix—all of which made me think of Hugo, which is a name we considered for our youngest. Can’t you just picture a toddler Hugo? Ohmygoodness! So cute! There is the literary connection to be aware of in regards to Julian’s name—Jules Verne and Victor Hugo—but I also think that could be really cool. Hugh of Fosse’s feast is Feb. 10, Hugh dei Lippi-Uguccioni is Feb. 17.

I normally wouldn’t suggest another O name for a family that’s already used an O name, since O is a somewhat distinctive and rarely used letter, but since Carrie specifically said she didn’t mind repeating initials and since I thought Oscar would be awesome, I decided to go for it. I spotlighted it here.

(6) Isaac, Micah
Isaac and Micah kind of remind me of each other—both have a long I and a hard C; they’re short-to-medium in length; they’re both Old Testament. Isaac falls right in that “sophisticated, gentlemanly, bookish” category that I think really fits Carrie’s taste, and is saintly as well (St. Isaac Jogues). Micah is more in the “soft, artistic” category I think, maybe even too much so, as it’s in the top 1000 for girls (#108 for boys, #834 for girls), but it’s a name I love and I’d be thrilled for it to see even more use among boys. Isaac the Patriarch’s feast is March 25.

(7) Kolbe
Finally, I was thinking how Carrie said her family has strong German roots, and I always always think of St. Nicholas Owen when I see the name Owen, so I had in mind German-ish surnames and Kolbe immediately came to mind. Owen, Julian, and Kolbe strike me as quite a cool set of brothers!

And those are my idea for this family! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for Owen and Julian’s little brother?

Baby name consultation: No. 5 green bean 🌱 — solid, saintly, no nicknames

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day/Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!

Vanessa and her husband are hoping for baby No. 5! Vanessa writes,

“My husband David & I have a unique situation in that we’ve adopted our 4 children. We’re on “the list” again and there’s no telling when (or if!) our next little one might arrive. We could receive a phone call next week, in 3 months, in 2 years or not at all (you get the picture!)…Also, we have no idea if we’d be adopting another boy or another girl next time as we are not able to specify a preference.”

A new little one will join big sibs:

Nicholas Benedict (“his birthmom chose his first name Nicholas but we changed his middle name to Benedict. We LOVED the name Nicholas but had never considered it as a first name – when he was already named Nicholas, we immediately loved it! (As it turns out, he inherited much generosity from his namesake, St. Nicholas!) We received the call about our son when Pope Benedict was in the US for his historic visit in 2008. We decided while watching the news coverage to pray to St Benedict for his intercession and at that point decided if it worked out, we would change his middle name to Benedict. Of course, the rest is history!“)

John Paul (“we gave him this name after St Pope John Paul. We had always loved and admired the beloved Pope and we wanted our son to have a wonderful saint and holy Pope to look up to. Of course, John is very loving, just like the beloved Pope was.”)

Mark Thomas (“we gave him this name after St Mark and St Thomas More. We chose Mark because we met his birthmom on the feast day of St Mark (April 25). We have always loved and admired the fortitude and perseverance of St Thomas More and we loved the idea of using this name. Ironically, Mark’s birthday is the birthday of St Pope John Paul and he came home to us on July 11, the feast day of St Benedict! Clearly, he was born to be our child – God knew he would be in our family!!“)

Mary Catherine (“we gave her this name after Our Lady and also after St Catherine Laboure. We have always loved the miraculous medal and we loved the name Catherine. Mary was born on the sixth anniversary of the day Nicholas came home to us! (It was even a Thursday, just like in 2008!) Also, she came home to us on 5/19/2014, the day after Mark’s 2nd birthday.”)

What wonderful names! And the name stories! I totally had goosebumps reading all the fun and amazing details!

Vanessa and David have several naming rules/considerations:

1. We don’t really like nicknames for our children. With the exception of Nicholas, our other children’s names can’t really be shortened. This was intentional. We also call Nicholas by his full name as often as possible. We hope he’ll always be “Nicholas.”
2. We definitely want our children to have saints or biblical names so they know WHO they were named after and who they can learn about to look up to and admire.
3. We haven’t ever really considered any names that are trendy or too unique or too far “out there.”
4. We love to consider saints’ feast days for any special or noteworthy days around the birth, placement, birthparent meetings, etc. Since we have no idea when or if a child may come to us, this happens along the way if a match happens.
5. For a boy, we want the name to be a “strong” name – nothing too trendy or weak/feminine sounding. Also, nothing that could pass as a girl name and vice versa for a girl. (No unisex names!)

Some boy names they’ve considered include:

Andrew (“we don’t really love “Andy” or “Drew” so we have shied away from using this name, although it’s still a possibility“)
David (“this is a strong contender if next child is a boy. He would be named after his dad and luckily, there’s a St David! We could use this as a middle name or a first name“)
Christopher (“perhaps for a middle name, but this name doesn’t really work as a first name with our last name (since it starts with “S”)“)
Dominic (“David LOVES this name (and I do too) BUT I’ve always thought it was too close to “Nicholas.” I have always thought this could not be used because of our Nicholas. We love that St Dominic received the rosary from Our Lady“)
Anthony (“We love this name but we do NOT like “Tony.”“)
Joseph (“David loves this name (St Joseph) but see below (nephews). For me, I would think perhaps a middle name, if anything“)

“We have 4 nephews: James Michael, Michael Charles, Joseph Brian, Jack David. While my husband David disagrees, I feel we should NOT use any of the first names as a first name for our child. He would strongly consider Michael and Joseph but I would prefer these for a middle name, if at all. After all, these nephews are HIS brother’s children, so they would then have the same first AND last name.”

And names they’ve considered for girls include:

Veronica (“my ABSOLUTE favorite girl name – Mary was almost Veronica, but we felt strongly we wanted to name our daughter after Our Lady, and I didn’t want to “waste” Veronica on a middle name, just in case we ever had another daughter! We love how Veronica wiped the face of Jesus in the Stations of the Cross – what compassion! What a beautiful image (pun intended!)“)
Monica (“I love this name – LOVE St Monica, mother of St Augustine“)
Anna (“I have always loved this name. Love how Anna is the woman with Simeon when the baby Jesus is presented in the temple“)
Therese (“We LOVE St Therese of Lisieux but NOT a fan of “Terry” – also the “s” or “z” sound at the end of any name isn’t great with our last name since it begins with “S.” I think this one is out although it could be a middle name“)

“My mother and mother in law both have the middle name “Ann(e).”
My MIL’s name is Ruth and we had a reading from Ruth in our wedding (our favorite verse!). It’s even engraved in my engagement band {“Ruth 1:16-17”}. For these reasons, I could see using Ruth as a middle name.

Recently, especially after reading your post from Lindsay at My Child I Love You, I’ve been thinking Clairvaux or Zelie would be a good name for a girl, although they both go against our past idea that we don’t want anything too unique. While these are definite Catholic references/saints, I think they might be too “out there” for my husband. If I ever won this one, I’d be surprised! Although Zelie could be a fun middle name?“

I loved working on this! Regarding the names Vanessa and David have on their list of considerations, first I have to say (which you all already know) that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard the names the parents have already used and those they like as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. So I had to laugh when I was looking up the names on this family’s list — they’re all style matches for each other! They have very consistent taste!

So I love all their boy ideas. I do think Andrew and Anthony could be “just Andrew/Anthony” if they stuck with it, like they do with Nicholas. David also — I know a couple little Davids, and they all go by just David, never Dave/Davy, etc. In fact, I think these days people are much less likely to automatically nickname a child who’s been introduced as a formal name. So all that works in their favor!

As far as Christopher — yes, I can see why they’d prefer it to be in the middle spot because of having an S last name, but I also don’t think it’s the worst thing ever.

Re: Dominic being too similar to Nicholas — on the one hand, I can see what Vanessa means, especially with Nic(k) being common enough nicknames for both. But, on the other hand, Veronica and Monica both have the “nic” within them, and Nicky is a common enough nickname for Veronica, so I don’t see any reason for Dominic to be dropped from the list if Veronica and/or Monica stays on it. However, that said, I suspect that Nicholas, Dominic, and Veronica/Monica might be too much “nic” for one family, and since Veronica is Vanessa’s favorite girl name, maybe Dominic should bow out. But then, maybe they won’t have another girl? Gah! It’s a hard one to figure out! I am sure, though, that Veronica and Monica are too rhymey for sisters.

Of the girl names on their list, I think that (besides Veronica), Anna/Anne is one of their best options, since Anne can’t be shortened and I don’t think Annas really ever get shortened either. Both are gorgeous names and really fit their style (according to the BNW). I love Ruth too, and it would be unexpected as a middle name, which I love.

I totally get their feelings on Therese, like Christopher, and though I think Tess is more likely than Terry these days, that doesn’t solve the problem of running into the S last name. It would definitely make a great middle name for them though, beautiful! I’m loving the idea of Anna Therese or Veronica Therese.

And Clairvaux and Zelie! I’m so surprised by them both! They’re both great, and I could see them both as a middle name as well. Anna Clairvaux … Veronica Zelie … they totally work!

Okay! So I came up with a bunch more ideas for Vanessa and David, and while I leaned heavily on the BNW for ideas of names that they might like, I also paid a lot of attention to names that don’t nickname easily:

Girl
(1) Clare/Claire
I was going to suggest Clare/Claire anyway, because of its non-nickname-ability, and when I read that Vanessa likes Clairvaux I thought aha! It totally fits the style of their other kids!

(2) Lucy
Lucy is just one of the sweetest names, and isn’t very nicknameable — I love it for this family!

(3) Rose
This is such a sweet one-syllable name — Marian and traditional with a little vintage feel!

(4) Helen(a)
I’ve been seeing Helen and Helena getting a good amount of love lately, and I don’t think most people would think to nickname a Helen (though Nell can be used if one wanted to use a nickname for Helen; Helena can shorten to Lena or I think Nell could work there too, but the one Helena I know in real life has always only been Helena). Dwija from the blog House Unseen, Life Unscripted named her youngest Helen Margaret, so cute!

(5) Hildi
I think lots more people would name their daughters after St. Hildegard of Bingen if her first name wasn’t so clunky! But I do know one little girl who is named after her and goes by Hildi and I just die over how sweet it is! I would totally do *just Hildi*, and I’m loving the idea of Hildi Ruth — I kind of love how antique that combo sounds!

(6) Sara(h)
Sarah was actually a huge style match for this family according to the BNW and since it doesn’t really reduce down I thought it definitely deserved a mention. There’s a St. Sara of Antioch (feast day April 20), and Sarah the Matriarch of course.

(7) Natalie
Natalie and Natalia both did quite well for Vanessa and David in my research as well! I thought Natalie was more their speed than Natalia, and though it can nickname to Nat, all the Natalies I know go by the full Natalie. I also love its meaning — it literally refers to Christmas Day (from the Latin natale domini — “the birth of the Lord”).

(8) Julia
I thought Julia was another name that would be a good fit for them style-wise and also because the Julias I know all go by the full Julia, never Julie/Jules. A lovely, regal name!

Boy
(1) Jude
I actually don’t think that Jude is their speed — it has a bit of a hipster feel to me, which I love, but I think their taste skews more classic (not that Jude isn’t a classic — you know what I mean!). But being one syllable, I thought it deserved a mention!

(2) Blaise
As with Jude, I’m not sure they’ll love Blaise, but it’s one syllable and super saintly, so maybe!

(3) Stephen
I was actually inspired by David to suggest Stephen for Vanessa and David — it has a similar feel to me as their other kiddos — classic, handsome, saintly — and I know two Davids who have brothers named Stephen! And they all go by the full Stephen, not Steve/Stevie.

(4) George
I think George might be my favorite idea for this family! Between St. George and Pope Francis (born Jorge [Spanish for George]), and with two other boys being named after recent Popes, it’s a great pick for a little Catholic boy!

(5) Henry
I think Henry is just one of the sweetest names for a little boy! There are so many great Sts. Henry to choose from, and no obvious nickname! (Hank, yes, but not terribly obvious just from hearing Henry.)

(6) Adam
I feel like this suggestion seems a little out of left field, but when I saw Adam as a style match for Christopher I thought they might like it! It hasn’t got any nicknames, and there are a bunch of holy Adams (which I was surprised to discover!).

(7) Robert
Robert is a pretty big style match for this family, and I’ve been loving it recently — it’s so solid and handsome, and I love hearing it in Downton Abbey. 😁 It’s probably in the same category as Stephen and Nicholas — Vanessa and David would have to actively make sure that no one shortens it. St. Robert Bellarmine’s great!

(8) Peter
Like Robert, Peter did really well for them in my research; like Robert, they’d have to make sure no one shortens it to Pete/Petey. But otherwise I love it for them!

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Nicholas, John, Mark, and Mary?

Baby name consultation: No. 6 baby/No. 5 boy with some serious rules!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday!! I think the joy of heaven must be similar to the joy of children on Christmas morning. 💕💕💕

And happy feast of St. Stephen! A perfect tie-in with one of my ideas for today’s family. 😉

Michelle and her husband are expecting their sixth baby and fifth boy in January! This little guy joins:

Henrik Gaetano (“Henrik after the Scandinavian Saint, Gaetano after his great grandfather“)
Philip Llewellyn (“St. Philip the Apostle, Llewellyn after his great grandfather“)
Martin Sven (“St. Martin de Porres, Sven – great grandfather“)
Dennis Robert (“St. Denis, Robert – great grandfather“)
Brigit Catherine (“St. Birgitta of Sweden, St Catherine of Siena“)

“We have lost two children and named them according to their days of their delivery so we also have Mary Sophia (after Our Lady of Wisdom and St Thomas Aquinas) and Vincent Marie (St Vincent Ferrer and Our Lady).“

Such great names! All classic and saintly, but unexpected too, I love them! And all those Dominican saints! 👌

Michelle writes,

“We are out of great grandfathers for middle names but are leaning towards Dominic or Guzman as possibilities (Dominican year of jubilee).

My favorite right now is Victor, for ‘Christus Victor’ but hubby isn’t thrilled. His top runner right now is Walter but I’m not feeling it and his connection is only that he likes the name.

Our rules have been two syllables for the first name, a strong Patron Saint and Catholic story, not top 100 in popularity, no repeat first initials so names that start with H,P,M,D,B are out. We have gravitated toward more Scandinavian/Germanic sounding names, though Dennis doesn’t quite fit with that. There has also been a six letter trend, but hubby is willing to forgo that trend as long as it is two syllables! Deo Gratias!

I’d love to hear your ideas, if you get a chance!“

This was so fun to work on! You know I love naming rules — the more the merrier! I love a good name challenge. 😁

First though, a few thoughts about their current ideas: I love Victor. I even wrote an article about it! And I’ve been hearing Walter here and there both secularly (my sister-in-law’s a huge fan!) and religiously (Servant of God Walter Ciszek, amazing story). They both fit Michelle’s criteria, I think either one would be great for her little guy!

As for other ideas, I looked up all the names Michelle and her hubs already used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as you all know it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity; I then cross-checked my results against the Social Security info for name popularity to be sure they were out of the top 100; and I also used the NameFinder with their ideal parameters (no H, P, M, D, B; 6 letters; 2 syllables). Based on all that, these are my ideas for this family:

(1) Stephen
I noticed how Michelle singled Dennis out a little in terms of not really fitting into the Scandinavian/Germanic-sounding names of her other children (even though his name definitely fits with his sibs in terms of popularity arc), so I tried to give a little extra attention to the names that were particular similar to his. Stephen was one and I love it for them! Stephen Dominic is really handsome! (And today’s St. Stephen’s feast day! Woo!) (Did any of you catch that Stephen’s not six letters though? D’oh! I didn’t realize until way after the fact! But I’m keeping it on here because I love it. ☺ )

(2) Gregor
Gregory was another name that was listed as similar to Dennis, but it has the wrong number of letters and syllables. But Gregor is the German form, and it fits perfectly! Gregor Dominic is great, and I don’t mind Gregor Guzman either.

(3) Edward or Edmund
Edward is a style match for Henry (no entry for Henrik) and Walter, and is a great, handsome name. But I thought maybe Edmund would be more their speed? Edward was No. 158 in 2015, but Edmund hasn’t been in the top 1000 since 1997, and the most popular it ever got was No. 130 in 1914. It derives from Old English elements (and St. Edmund Campion was English), but it has use elsewhere—there’s a German-Czech philosopher named Edmund Husserl for example, and Bl. Edmund Bojanowski was Polish — so there’s good evidence that it fits in well with the other kids’ names.

(4) Albert
I’m love love loving Albert for Michelle’s little boy, for the amazing Dominican St. Albert the Great! Albert Dominic would be amazing; I like Albert Guzman too; and if they were willing to be “Dominican” rather than St. Dominic specifically, they could do Albert Magnus! Magnus is Latin for “great” AND a Scandinavian name!

(5) Colman
This is neither Germanic nor Scandinavian—it’s the name of an Irish saint (which fits nicely with Brigit)—but I always (weirdly) think of Irishy names as having a similar feel to Scandinavian names (that Viking influence!), so it seems like it would fit for this family! I also took a picture when I was in Ireland of a sign on a wall that said, “Colman Rasmussen”—I took it because my husband is half Norwegian and his mom’s maiden name was Rasmussen—but it seems to reinforce my thought that an Irish name might be close enough to Scandinavian to appeal to Michelle and her hubs. (Yes, I’m a little nutty.)

(6) Gerald or Gerard
These are both Germanic names, and if I had to choose, I might favor Gerard because of St. Gerard Majella, but there are a bunch of holy Geralds as well.

(7) Casper
My last idea is Casper—a name I love and wish it would get more play! I love that it’s the name of one of the Three Wise Men (aka Jasper or Gaspar, depending on where you look—they’re all variants of the same name, with Casper being the Scandinavian form), and since Michelle’s due in January this might be particularly perfect, since the Three Kings’ feast is Jan. 6.

And those are my ideas for Michelle and her hubby! What do you all think? What would you suggest for the little brother of Henrik, Philip, Martin, Dennis, and Brigit?

Baby name consultation: Danish + Irish inspiration for Baby No. 2

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Lindsay and her husband are expecting their second baby, a little green bean 🌱 (=gender unknown)! This wee babe joins big brother:

William Thomas

Solid, handsome, there’s nothing wrong with a name like William Thomas!

About his name, Lindsay writes,

“So many people in my family have the name William, my brother, cousins and uncles on both sides, my dad is a Bill from Wilber like his dad. I always knew I wanted a William of my own. When I met my husband, he was introduced as Nolan…come to find out his first name is William and just goes by his middle name! His dad was William. his mom’s dad, some uncles and a nephew too! We chose Thomas after his brother in law who raised him after his parents passed when he was a young. And also St. Thomas More who I’ve always been drawn to.”

Again, perfection. 👌

About this new baby, Lindsay writes,

“We just found out we are pregnant with our second! We didn’t know our son’s gender until he was born. We went in with two full names per gender and wanted to meet our child first before settling on a name. The other boy’s name that we didn’t use is still a huge contender should this baby be a boy. So I’ll start with our two boy name options.

Here’s the other boy name that we didn’t use the first time around:

Thatcher Pio (If we hadn’t chosen William Thomas for our first son he would have been Thomas Thatcher and go by the middle name…so that is why Thatcher is still in the mix but trying to find another middle name since we’ve used the name Thomas)

We love Padre Pio in our family 🙂 and we want to name a son after him. But I’m not convinced this flows. What do you think? Thatcher is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name and I just love it. So English and solid but also I’ve never heard it as a first name.

Thatcher is a first contender for me but my husband still wants to go in with two names for each gender. We both love Theodore! I know it means “gift of God” so that’s wonderful but I’m not sure about middle name because I do want a name from my side in there. Guess I’ll have to figure that one out! I know there is a St. Theodore but I don’t know any info.

For girls…

The two names that were our contenders the first time around are still tip top. But a fun thing has happened that makes it hard to decide which! Here they are:

Stellamaris Anne
I’ve always loved Stella and then I heard Stella Maris and just love it to give a nod to our Blessed Mother. I would make it the full first name so I can have one middle name. We’d mainly call her Stella. Oh and is there a specific pronunciation for Maris? I always went with Mare-is as in the sound of Mary. But then on the Fountains of Carrots podcast I heard it as Mar-is. Does it matter? Anne: My sister’s middle name is Anne and I’d just love to acknowledge her and my Mother in law’s middle name is Ann and she always had a love for St. Anne. She died when my husband was young so I never met her but his nine siblings gave me a St. Anne medal at our wedding. I was on day 5 of a St. Anne novena praying that we could conceive (we had trouble getting pregnant the first time) when I found out I was pregnant this time around. So needless to say I really want this child to have Anne in her name should she be a girl! Oh and I love Anne of Green Gables … a literary nod that I like hehe. I would say the entire name is my personal front runner but the other option means a lot to my husband and it has grown on me. But using Anne with this other first name option gets tricky. I’ll move on to explain.

Eleanor Francis (Frances)
To begin, my dad’s middle name is Francis. Is it weird to spell it that way for a girl? I thought I read somewhere that both spellings used to be interchangeable for genders. Maybe I made this up haha. Anyway, I also looked up St. Frances and she is so wonderful … what an amazing patron saint for a young girl! Now onto the first name … Eleanor. Eleanor is my husband’s grandmother’s name. It took me a while to really love it but I do now. I love the classic, timelessness of it. I like all these nicknames (Lenny [don’t want it to turn into Lynn], Nell, Nellie) but am still hesitant about what we would use … maybe it would help once we know our girl. I like the name as is but we are a nickname type of family so I would kind of like to have an idea so it doesn’t turn into something we don’t want. And I’m not sure my husband is sold on a nickname. For particular reasons we don’t want any type of El nickname or Nora.

The dilemma is that I do not want to use Anne with Eleanor because I would probably still want to use Francis as a middle name and that doesn’t work in my opinion with Stellamaris. So basically first name/middle name combos are solid as they are.

Hopefully I’ll have more girls and here is the rest of the running list basically in order to give you a sense of our style:

Zellie
Imogen (don’t think it really has any religious/catholic tie though)
Liesel
Willa (although haven’t decided if I can really have a William and a Willa haha)
(I’ve thrown around the idea of making Zellie a front runner this time around to fix my Anne middle name problem)

We also like Louis for a boy and Benjamin but they would not be front runners right now. My husband likes Henry and Oliver. I like both but they are way down the list and I’m not sure I’d ever really want to use Oliver.

Some ideas for future middle names based on family names and Saints are:

Katherine, Virginia, Avila, Goretti

Boys middle names are harder for me.

Oh and I’ve tried to find cool Danish names because I’m Danish so if any neat ones pop up in your mind I’d love to hear them and my husband is Irish. I’ve always love Irish culture and we went there on our honeymoon 🙂 “

I’m such a HUGE fan of hearing all the details! I know some of you who I’ve done consultations for apologize to me for giving me lots of details, but I say the more the merrier!

Alrighty, so diving right in: I love Thatcher Pio! I absolutely think they go together well, great combo!

Theodore’s also great, and while I obviously don’t know what names Lindsay has on her side of the family, just trying to think of middle names that come to mind quickly as going well with it, I love the idea of Theodore John — a nice short middle following a longer first. Most families have a John somewhere! I also love that there’s St. John of Avila, which can tie into the Avila she listed as a possible future middle. Or if she wanted to tie in her husband’s Irish, perhaps Theodore Sean? Or Jens or Hans, both Danish forms of John? Or Theodore Bent, where Bent is a Danish form of Benedict? I actually really like the idea of using a Danish name in the middle, because then it automatically becomes a name from Lindsay’s side, just by virtue of its Danish-ness, and also because it balances out Pio a bit. William Thomas and Thatcher Pio, super handsome as they each are on their own and very Britishy (except Pio), are nevertheless quite different at first glance — William Thomas is all super traditional and no surprise, while both Thatcher and Pio are unusual and surprising. So if they did something like Theodore Jens or Theodore Bent for this baby, it would make a really nice bridge between William Thomas and Thatcher Pio. Does that make sense?

Some other short Danish names that I thought could pair nicely with Theodore include:

— Bernt (Bernard)
— Carl (Charles)
— Claus (Nicholas)
— Elias (Elijah)
— Frans (Francis)
— Klemens (Clement)
— Poul (Paul)

There are a whole bunch of other options here, including pronunciations.

Since we’re talking about Danish names, these are the three ideas I had for Danish names that would make good first names for boys in my opinion:

(1) Matthias
I love how (1) biblical, (2) Catholic (since Matthias was chosen to take Judas’ spot by the rest … perhaps they could be thought of as the first Church Council? 🙂 ), and (3) Scandinavian Matthias is! Such a great name, and I saw too that Mads is the Danish diminutive for it, cute!

(2) Oscar
I’m a huge fan of Oscar — I did a spotlight on it here, and wish it would get more play!

(3) Sander
Alexander is a name I feel like I should love — it’s totally my style *on paper,* according to the Baby Name Wizard (which, as you all know, lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity) — but I’ve never been able to love it. But Sander, which is a Danish diminutive of it, I do love! I think it’s so cool and unexpected, but familiar at the same time.

I also love Louis, Benjamin, Henry, and Oliver, and used them all as inspiration when coming up with new ideas for this family.

Re: their girl ideas, Stellamaris Anne and Eleanor Frances/Francis are both so lovely!

I love putting Stella and Maris together in one first name so they could have one middle name, perfect! Regarding Lindsay’s pronunciation question, I’ve always said MARE-is, like she does, and looking it up quickly on behindthename they list two pronunciations as equal — I believe their MER-is is the same as our MARE-is, and their MAR-is is like Haley’s pronunciation. So I would say either is fine — you get to choose your favorite!

The Anne connections are all amazing!! I can totally see why it’s important to Lindsay to use Anne in her first daughter’s name! So let’s move on to Eleanor for a minute, and I’ll offer some Anne ideas then too.

Re: Francis for a girl — Frances is currently the female variant and Francis the male, but in the old days there was a lot of interchange! So I wouldn’t be surprised if they used to be used for both boys and girls. That said, Brooke Shields named her daughter Rowan Francis, and if I remember correctly she used the Francis spelling specifically because she was honoring a male Francis (maybe her dad?). Especially as a middle name, there’s no harm in choosing whichever spelling one wants! It’s also good to note that Frances and Francis are the *same* name, so Frances in honor of Lindsay’s dad should be totally fine and understandable and obvious. But it’s also very modern and current to use boy names for girls (like how James is getting a lot of play among celeb baby girls, mostly as a middle, but then Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively used it as a first). So I think whichever way they decide to go is great!

That said … I might think that the Francis spelling, being a bit more unusual for a girl, would be more in line with Thatcher Pio than William Thomas, and might therefore make a nice bridge between Lindsay’s oldest and her subsequent children.

Also, in doing research for her somehow I came across Nonie as a nickname for Eleanor! Cuuuute!! I debated whether I thought it was too similar to the unusable Nora, and thought I’d let them decide.

So it seems like, if I’m understanding correctly, that Eleanor Anne would technically be the “best” option — the first name Lindsay’s husband loves and the middle name that she thinks is so perfect and meaningful for a first girl. But as Lindsay pointed out, Stellamaris Frances/is doesn’t have such a great flow. My one suggestion is to consider Maristella instead — it’s the same name as Stellamaris, and can take Stella as a nickname, and Maristella Frances/is sounds a lot better than Stellamaris Frances/is. I posted a birth announcement for a Maristella not too long ago, such a beautiful name! I’ve also thought Maristelle would be a gorgeous variant (like Maris Estelle, which is a French-y Maris Stella), and I think it could still lead to Stella as a nickname (I’ve never actually seen Maristelle though).

Lindsay’s other girl names are so fun! I get a definite Brit vibe from Imogen, and I too love it! And while there’s no *officially* holy Imogen that I could find (i.e., Servant of God/venerable/blessed/saint), a quick google search did yield a Mother Imogen Ryan who was Mother Superior of a Sacred Heart convent and had dealings with Dorothy Day, and wrote a book for children under the name Mary Imogen Ryan. I love the idea of Mary Imogen — Mary+[anything] automatically makes a name Catholicky Catholic I think! And loads of Mary+’s go by their middle names!.

I love Zellie, and Zellie Anne is lovely! Liesel is beautiful too, and Willa! I love that Lindsay included it so I could use it for inspiration, but William and Willa would be really bold!

As far as Danish girls’ names, these were some I quite liked for them from the list of female Danish names provided at behindthename:

(1) Anika, Annelise
Anika is a Danish diminutive of Anna/Anne — I’m guessing Lindsay would still prefer Anne, being that Anne is her sister’s middle name and Ann was her mother-in-law’s middle name, but Anika’s a sweet way to get an uncommon Anne name. Annelise is another great Anne name, and is actually the Danish form of Anneliese, which is Anna and Liese (from Elisabeth, so similar to Liesel on their list!) put together.

(2) Britt or Brit(t)a
These are short forms of Birgitta, which is related to Bridget. I like them both, very cool! Kind of Danish and Irish at the same time!

(3) Hildegard
I know! This is such a big clunky name! But St. Hildegard of Bingen is awesome, and I just die over the nickname Hildy/Hildi, so sweet! (I would totally also do just Hildy or Hildi as a given name too, though neither were included in the list of Danish names.)

(4) Milla
I wonder what Lindsay and her hubs would think of Milla instead of Willa? I think sibs William and Milla would be totally fine! I did a spotlight on Ludmila last year, for St. Ludmila, who was a holy grandmother — I’ve often thought that she would be a nice and unusual way to honor a grandmother in a grandchild’s name, and I think Mil(l)a’s the most current way to do so.

I had some other ideas too, based on research in the Baby Name Wizard, using the names Lindsay likes, as well as my own mental files:

Girl
(1) Clara or Klara
Clara’s a style match for Theo (I looked up both Theo and Theodore, as I thought both gave great ideas), Stella (no entry for Stellamaris), and Louis! It also totally rocks as a sister to Eleanor in my opinion. The spelling Klara is Danish, which could be perfect for them!

(2) Lucy
Lucy is also a match for Theo and Stella, and also Henry! It’s such a sweet name and also fits in really well with Eleanor.

(3) Eva or Evelyn
Yes, Eva was also a match for Theo and Stella! It reminded me of Evelyn, which I thought they might also like — it has that Brit feel to it, to me, probably because of (male) author Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited, great Catholic themes).

(4) Gemma
Gemma! I love love love it for this family! It was only listed as a match for Willa, which is great enough, but it’s also got lots of use in the UK, which fits with Eleanor and Imogen, and it’s super saintly in the same vein as Zellie. So great!

(5) Beatrice or Beatrix
Again, a nice English feel, and quite a good style match for them otherwise, being similar to Theodore, Eleanor (Beatrice), and Imogen (Beatrix).

(6) Verity
I thought some of Lindsay’s more offbeat ideas — Thatcher, Zellie, Imogen, Liesel, Willa — were more indicative of her taste than some of the others, and I relied heavily on their style matches when finding names I thought she might like. Verity’s a match for Imogen, and I would also put it in the Zellie category in the sense of Catholicky Catholic names. (And I love the character of Verity on Poldark!)

(7) Violet
Violet was another great style match for them, similar to Stella, Eleanor, and Oliver. It can also be a Marian name!

Boy
(1) Charles
I couldn’t not suggest Charles to this family after seeing it listed as a style match for William, Eleanor, Louis, Henry, and Stella (Charlie) — wow! It’s a great name!

(2) Everett
Everett was listed as a match for both Theodore and Eleanor, which is great enough, but I also really felt like it had a Thatcher feel to it. Everett’s derived from Everard, and there are several holy men by that name!

(3) Felix
Felix is a match for Theo and Imogen, and was included in the list of Danish names! I’ve also seen it used/considered by families who also use/consider Zellie.

(4) Garett/Gareth
Gareth is a match for Imogen and Gemma, and it reminded me of a comment that was recently left on the blog about a family who used Garrett for a son in honor of St. Margaret. I thought that was so brilliant! I quite like Garrett — it has an Irishy feel to me, and I think it could easily hold its own with Eleanor/Imogen/Oliver-type names; behindthename also says it’s likely derived from Gerard or Gerald, which provides good patron saints. If they prefer Gareth however, Margarethe is the Danish form of Margaret, and perfect patron for a Gareth! (I almost suggested a variant of Margaret to them — lots of great options that totally fit their style! — but then I thought it was a bit much with brother Thatcher.)

**Speaking of Margaret Thatcher, I’m going to interrupt myself for a minute — Lindsay specifically asked,

“I do have one more big question about Thatcher. Many of the Irish people loath Margaret Thatcher … am I right? I love Ireland and hope to go there with family in the future … and I don’t want my son, Thatcher, to be looked down upon by the friendly Irish because of his name. Think I’m looking too far into this and thinking people would be more judgmental than they actually would be?“

Do any of you have a good sense of how Thatcher would be received in Ireland? **

(5) Simon
Simon is a match for Willa and Oliver, and I also love it with William and Thatcher!

(6) Sebastian
Sebastian actually didn’t show up as a style match for anyone, but I can see it working really well with William, Thatcher, Eleanor, Imogen (that English feel) as well as Stellamaris and Zellie (Catholicky Catholic).

(7) Bennett
Finally, I love Bennett for this family — it’s a match for Willa, but it’s also got a surnamey feel like Thatcher; it’s got that Austen vibe like Eleanor; and it’s a medieval variant of Benedict!

Whew! Those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for a little brother or sister to William Thomas, given all the info here? What are your thoughts about first name Thatcher from an Irish perspective?