Baby name consultant

Baby name consultation: Biblical and/or first-millennium Saint’s name needed

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

This past February Pope Francis and Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia met in Cuba, a meeting which was called “the first in history.” Though Kirill doesn’t speak for the whole of the Eastern Orthodox Church (being that the Eastern Orthodox Church is a group of self-governing churches in communion [including the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church], though without a single head — different than the Roman Catholic set-up with the pope as head), he’s certainly an important figure in Eastern Orthodoxy, and, movingly, in Francis and Kirill’s Joint Declaration they said,

“It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian faith who encounter one another “to speak face to face” (2 Jn 12), from heart to heart … With grace–filled gratitude for the gift of mutual understanding manifested during our meeting, let us with hope turn to the Most Holy Mother of God, invoking her with the words of this ancient prayer: “We seek refuge under the protection of your mercy, Holy Mother of God”. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession, inspire fraternity in all those who venerate her …“

When today’s mama — who’s Eastern Orthodox — emailed me for a consultation, I felt a similar joy and gratitude and “heart to heart” connection, as I do with all of you who love the names of our faith! ❤

This was a new kind of challenge for me, as I’m most confident with Roman Catholic saints and naming practices, both of which are sometimes somewhat different in the Eastern Orthodox church. Fortunately the mama, Arielle, was eager to help, explaining:

“We are Eastern Orthodox, and our naming conventions are a bit different. These are not hard and fast rules, but in general, a child is given the first name of a saint, and this name is very liturgically important – they are ceremonially named on the eighth day of life, they are baptized with that name, the priest gives them communion by name each week, they are married with that name, etc. If for some reason they are NOT given a saint’s name (some people give their child a family name or just a name they have always liked), they still receive a saint’s name at baptism for all those liturgical uses, so in practice they have two names (or their middle name is their saint’s name). Which works for some, but we like to avoid that and give all of our children their saint’s name as their first name. Children do not choose a confirmation saint (they are confirmed at baptism), so this is the only saint’s name they get, unless they are ordained or tonsured.

It also is conventionally the saint’s actual name – not a place related to it (like Avila would be). Marian title names are a possibility (like Despina, Panagiotis). Translations of the name are fine (John/Johan/Ioannis/Evan/Ivan or Mary/Miriam/Maria/Mariam for instance), as are names related to major feasts – Evangelia/Evangeline would be named for the Annunciation, for instance, or Theophania would be named for Theophany (Epiphany in the West).”

It’s also really helpful that we share all the saints canonized before 1054, including Biblical saints, so:

“Many names are shared (like Catherine would be for Catherine of Alexandria, instead of Catherine of Siena) but others, like Claire are not, without a real stretch (like Claire for Photini – similar meaning).”

It was easy enough to focus on those shared names, and fun to be challenged in a new way!

Arielle and her husband aren’t currently expecting, but they’re planning ahead for the possibility of Baby #5 (as she said, “I also really wanted to ask you about #4, but she was born before I got to it!“). Their kiddos’ names are:

James Benedict (“James is named for his grandfathers and for St. James the Brother of the Lord (Iakovos). Benedict is for St. Benedict of Nursia. I like the idea of including names from among the ‘Western saints’ (Benedict, Ambrose, Augustine, Brigid, Genevieve, etc.) as a nod to the fact that while we are of the Eastern Church, we are of Western heritage.”)

Miriam Anna (“Miriam Anna is named for the Theotokos (Blessed Mother) and the grandmother of Christ, who we always call St. Anna.”)

Sophia Catherine (“Sophia Catherine is named for St. Sophia of Thrace, the Mother of Orphans, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Both are a nod to my husband, who studied ancient Greek and Roman history and philosophy. [Sophia = wisdom, St. Catherine studied Greek rhetoric and philosophy]. He also stayed at St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai, and we have both been to the top of Mt. Sinai where her body was taken by angels.”)

Elisabeth Eleni (“Elisabeth Eleni is for St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess of Russia, a nun martyred by the Bolsheviks. Eleni is a common Greek form of Helen, the Finder of the True Cross. I used the “s” spelling both because I just think it is beautiful and elegant, and because our last name is very German and I wanted to use the nickname Elsa (which we do). I’m not sure I love that I mixed languages here.”)

I just love all these names! I love that they’re obviously faithy, and I love their really elegant feel. I also love how Arielle said they “like the idea of including names from among the “Western saints” (Benedict, Ambrose, Augustine, Brigid, Genevieve, etc.) as a nod to the fact that while we are of the Eastern Church, we are of Western heritage.”

A few other considerations:

“I love names that are Scandinavian or German forms of saints’ names, but am rather conservative when it comes to names that seem too ‘weird’ or ‘harsh’ for English-speaking ears. I would love more ideas here. I also love saints’ names from the British Isles (my heritage), especially Irish names, many of which are pre-1054 saints.

Probably no more ‘J’ names, as our last name starts with ‘J’ and one is enough. Possibly for a middle name (I like Joseph and Jude). I like that no one has the same first initial yet, but that’s not a deal-breaker. I love names that start with ‘E.’“

Names they’re considering for a girl include:

Lydia (“current front runner. I love the musical sound of the name, and love that when we shorten the names of the girls it fits right in (Miri, Sophie, Elsie, Lydie!) Downside – we know a lot about our other childrens’ saints, and not a lot is known about St. Lydia. It also doesn’t mean much linguistically – just “from Lydia.” Not sure about a middle name here – Lydia Grace? Lydia Mirabel/Mirabelle? Lydia Genevieve? We love St. Genevieve, and it is the name of my great-great-grandmother. But I’m not sure that suits the musicality of the name“)

Emmelia (“one of my all time favorite saints, St. Emmelia the mother of five saints. I had to do some linguistic research for this one (I mean *ahem* have my husband do it). She is clearly a Greek-speaking saint, and so the common explanation that it is from the same root as Emily didn’t make sense. Turns out it is from a Greek word for “melodious.” I love Emmelia Rose together. Only downside is that it is so close to the common Emily, and might get pronounced like Amelia. Which is a lovely name, but different.”)

Brigid
Theodora
Anysia
Seraphina
Tamsin
Zoë
Naomi
Matea

And for boys:

“We have a hard time agreeing on boys’ names. Husband chose James really on his own (I wanted Benedict as a first name) and now he really wants a Thomas, so Thomas Ambrose has been on the list. I like that it goes well with James Benedict (Apostle + Western saint). I like Brendan Thomas better. We would like to include Matthew in a boy’s name at some point, for a dear friend who died.”

Others:

Brendan
Matthias
Sebastian
Evan
Martin
Basil
Cyprian
Gabriel
Silas
Felix
Elias
Ciaran

Names that they  like, but probably won’t use include:

Annelise (“love, but already have an Anna and Elisabeth, so seems repetitive“)

Madeleine (“Also love, especially as it goes with the French spelling of Elisabeth, but so very common. We have several little friends named Magdalene (called Maggie), so that version is out“)

Mirabelle/Mirabel (“maybe for a middle, but way to close to Miriam for a first“)

Lucia (“loved, but then a niece got it!“)

Nina

Finally,

“What do you think? Is this too far outside your expertise? I LOVE your site and would love to hear what you think! I feel like I’ve had the same list of names since I was a teenager and have a hard time thinking outside the box for others.

One very specific thing I could still use help with is a Scandinavian- or German-sounding name that could be a sub for Lydia. I do love Lydia. But I feel like there might be a name I’m not thinking of that goes well with sister Elsa and has that sweet musical sound and Scandi feeling. Annelise fits that bill for me, but just doesn’t go with Elisabeth/Elsa because of being the same base name!“

Whew! All so interesting, right?! Okay, so first, some thoughts on Arielle and her hubs’ current ideas:

Lydia’s one of my favorite names! It’s true that its meaning is not terribly inspiring, but I’ve always loved that Lydia was a seller of purple cloth—it’s not often that a little girl has her very own color! I like how Lydia Grace and Lydia Mirabel(le) sound together, and funny enough I kind of agree about Lydia Genevieve—they’re two gorgeous names, but they don’t sound totally right together … From their girl list, I love how Lydia Magdalene and Lydia Madeleine sound. And Lydie’s one of my favorite favorite nicknames, love love love! It is true that something like Lydia Madeleine/Magdalene technically means “from Lydia + from Magdalene” but I have never really focused on the meanings of names, because they don’t tell the whole story (although I do admit that more recently, a great meaning can sway me to like a name I might not otherwise like). Lydia to me doesn’t mean “from Lydia,” it means “St. Paul’s first European convert, the lady in the Bible who sold purple cloth.” You know? Lydia Madeleine would say to me “gorgeous New Testament name (with her own color!) plus a feminine French middle that has connections to some great, holy women.” I think of names like Francis (“Frenchman”) and Cecilia (“blind”) and Blaise (“lisping”) and even Mary (whose meaning is debated, but I usually see “bitter” and some think maybe also “rebellious”) and those meanings are definitely not what people think of when they hear the names, you know? (Arielle’s email was actually one of the inspirations behind my piece at CatholicMom on name meanings!)

It’s also kind of cool that Lydia and Magdalene are two female biblical names that describe where the women were from — it’s kind of apt to pair them together! And place names are all the rage anyway, so Lydia and Magdalene/Madeleine are way ahead of the curve — place names used before any of the Dakotas or Brooklyns or Parises. 🙂

But, all that said, they could play with the meaning of Lydia in terms of connecting to the middle for a meaningful phrase … like Bebinn/Bebhinn/Bevin (and even sometimes anglicized as Vivian!) is apparently Irish for “fair lady,” so something like Lydia Bebhinn could mean “fair lady from Lydia” altogether, which nods directly to Lydia in the bible both by using her name and describing her? Or Lydia Madonna, where Madonna means “my lady” in Italian (and has the awesome Marian significance. But then, Madonna. I do think it works as a middle name though!). Or Lydia Matrona, where Matrona means “lady”in late Latin and was the name of some early saints! (Matryona in Russian, pretty!)

As for some other names that make me think of a Scandi Lydia because of their sound, I wonder what Arielle and her hubs would think of: Linnea, Livia, Tilda, Mila, Lovisa/Louisa? St. Matilda of Saxony and St. Louis of Cordoba make the cut date-wise … Linnea’s not a saint’s name and Livia (St. Agostina Petrantoni) is post 1054, but maybe they’d like them enough to use them as non-saint names? Mila’s a great one I think — I did a spotlight on Ludmila, who died before the year 1000, a great saint, and I think Mila’s a great way to honor her and not use the full name.

Re: Emmelia: I’ve never seen this name! It is beautiful! Emmelia Rose is lovely! Arielle’s right though—it will get heard as Amelia and seen as Emily. Maybe it would be best as a middle name? Brigid Emmelia and Tamsin Emmelia both strike me as lovely combos.

Brigid, Theodora, Anysia, Seraphina, Tamsin, Zoë, Naomi, and Matea are all gorgeous! I do think though that Seraphina is too close to Sophia in sound—do the rest of you agree? I love Seraphina though—maybe as a middle? With a short first name? Like Zoë Seraphina maybe? I’d never seen Anysia before—pretty name! Tamsin is one I myself considered, after a relative named Thomas– it’s so pretty and unexpected! Matea I looooove!! Brigid is beautiful, but strikes me as so different from their other kids’ names … Theodora and Naomi would fit in nicely I think.

I also love all those on their girl list that they love but won’t/can’t use, and I’m glad Arielle included them—they gave me a fuller idea of their taste, and I used them in trying to determine new ideas for them.

Thomas Ambrose is an amazing combo. Really really handsome, and would fit in really well with the other kids.

Matthias, Sebastian, Basil, Cyprian, Gabriel, Silas, Felix, Elias: These all really feel like Arielle’s kids’ names and her faith tradition to me. Love them all.

Brendan, Evan, Ciaran: These are like Brigid to me—I love them (you all know how I love the Irish/Celtic names!), but they seem sort of out of place as first names for this family to me. They’d make cool middle names though! (And really, who cares what I think … if they named a boy Ciaran, then all of a sudden it *would* fit in with their family, of course.)

Martin seems to me to be a really great bridge name—it’s not quite Matthias/Basil/Cyprian, but it seems closer to their style than Brendan/Evan/Ciaran. Martin’s great!

Okay! So what I did was I looked up the names they’ve used (firsts and middles) and those they like (even if they can’t/won’t use them) in my trusty Baby Name Wizard, as it lists, for each name, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. My goal was to compile a list of names that I thought Arielle and her hubs would like. Then I whittled that list down to names that are pre-1054 saints. So hopefully all these ideas are acceptable faith-wise, even if they don’t really do it for them taste-wise (though I think they’ll at least think, “Ok, these are definitely heading in the right direction”):

Girls
(1) Natalia
I get all swoony over Natalia, I love love love it. Just gorgeous! There are two Sts. Natalia, the one I’m familiar with (died 4th century, wife of St. Adrian), and one that died in the 9th century—she was half-Moorish and a convert to Christianity, she’d be a powerful intercessor for today’s troubles.

(2) Felicity
I hesitated to include Felicity, because she’s so obvious to me that Arielle must have considered the name and purposely decided against it, especially since they have Felix on their boy list, but I just had to list it just in case. Such a beautiful name and a beautiful saint!

(3) Lilia or Liliya
This may be flirting with the rules, or breaking them altogether, because there’s no St. Lily as far as I can tell—my inspiration was Our Lady, and lilies are associated with her, but is that too distant a connection? I love the variant Lilia, it’s so beautiful, and then I saw the Russian/Ukrainian spelling Liliya, and I love that too.

(4) Aurelia
Aurelia is so pretty and feminine, and St. Aurelia Petronilla was cured by St. Peter himself, so that’s pretty cool!

(5) Philippa
Philippa could either be a nod to any of the Sts. Philip, or it could be for St. Philippa who was crucified around the year 220. It also has the awesome nickname Pippa! Philippa/Pippa is a nice nod to Arielle’s English heritage.

(6) Adelaide
The German form is Adelheid, but I was thinking that even with Arielle’s love of German names the part of her that doesn’t want a name that’s too harsh for English ears would prefer Adelaide. It’s so pretty!

(7) Phoebe
What about Phoebe? It’s pretty and quirky and biblical, I kind of like it for this family!

Boys
(1) Clement
My two favorites inspirations for Clement for this family are Pope St. Clement I, who was the fourth pope, and St. Clement of Ireland, who had strong ties to France (I believe he died in Paris in the 9th century).

(2) Leo
Pope St. Leo the Great!! I love the name Leo, a great name for a little boy..

(3) Linus
Of course, Pope St. Linus, the immediate successor to St. Peter. A really cool name!

(4) Casper/Caspar/Gaspar
This is a nod to Arielle’s love of German/Scandi names, and also one of the Three Wise Men! These are all legit variants of the same name (as is Jasper, but they don’t want another J name), and they’re each so cool in their own way.

(5) Tobias
Another German/Scandi name, and biblical, and a 4th century martyr. Such a cool name, I love it.

(6) Samuel
I love all the names I’ve listed up until now, but since their other boy is James, I could understand if Arielle and her hubs think they’re a bit too exotic for first names. But what about Samuel? There’s the biblical patriarch, with his awesome story, and there’s a 4th century martyr. I love the name Samuel, but what really makes it, in my opinion, is the nickname Sam. So. Great.

(7) Edmund
Finally, Edmund. Like Samuel, I love Edmund as a brother to James, and it’s an E name, which Arielle said she’s drawn to! St. Edmund of East Anglia (aka St. Edmund the Martyr) was born in Germany but beheaded in England in the 9th century, so it’s kind of a cool way to bring in both her German and English sensibilities.

And those are all my ideas for Arielle and her husband! What do you all think? Is anything here helpful or inspiring? I kept checking and rechecking Arielle’s email as I was working on it to be sure I hadn’t missed a rule, but there’s a good chance I did, inadvertently, so I apologize in advance if some of these aren’t quite right!

Baby name consultant: Lots of rules for Boy No. 3!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Happy Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady!! What a wonderful feast day!! Mother Mary for the win!! 😀 ❤ 💐🎉

Today’s consultation is for Amy and her husband’s third born baby — a third boy! This little guy will join big sibs:

Gavin Theodore
Ethan Robert
Auden (with Jesus)

I love all of these names! They all have such a nice feel of really going together, and Amy and her hubs would really like to continue that theme for this little boy. She writes,

“Both first names were chosen simply because we loved them. My rule for first names is that they need to be unique in our family. I love to honor family with names, but I prefer for the first name to be uniquely theirs, at least within our family. Both middle names are for family (Theodore for DH’s grandfather, Robert for my Dad, grandfather, DH’s grandfather — a heavy hitter!) but also have a saint connection.

We have also named our baby in heaven Auden. It means “old friend” and I loved that. When we meet again, we will for sure be as old friends. Also, we felt it could be either gender although I typically like more feminine names for girls.

For this little boy — we are in trouble! I joke with family that he won’t have a name until the day he goes home, but I’m honestly not sure I am joking! We do know that the middle name will be Michael for DH’s father, and also because what a great patron. What little boy wouldn’t love to be named after St Michael!

DH loves Nicholas for this baby, but that is a great grandfather’s name, so a no-go for me. I also don’t love the way Nick sounds with our last name with begins with K. I really want to stick to a 2 syllable name that ends in N because that’s just the way my brain works! Strange, I know! Some that I have suggested that DH has vetoed: Colin, Rowan, Quinn. I also love Luke, but again, the K last name deters me.

So to recap:

2 syllable, 5 letter, ends in N. (Not a challenge at all, right!?!) Middle name to be Michael.”

I really enjoyed working on this for Amy — her taste in names is so cool! They’re all familiar but not terribly common, which is always so refreshing. I also really love that she and her hubs have “rules”—I find challenges like that so fun!

First, some thoughts about their current ideas—I was bummed to see Amy’s Mister vetoed Colin! That seems like the perfect name for them since he wants Nicholas and Colin is a variant of it, and 5 letters/2 syllables/ending in -n like Amy wants.

Re: Rowan, great name!, but it’s currently pretty unisex and the only Rowan I know is a little girl. This is what the stats currently look like:

rowan-boyrowan-girl

So if Amy and her hubs decide to go with Rowan, it is still ahead for boys, and maybe they’ll be part of the pendulum swinging back toward the boys?

Otherwise, I wondered what they’d think of Ronan? It’s a saint’s name and fits the rules, and is so similar to Rowan but is a boy’s name rather than a unisex name. There’s also the Irish surname Rohan, which can be said the same as Rowen and is exclusively male as far as I know (helped by the fact that it’s also an Indian male name, and there’s also the cool tidbit that it’s a Lord of the Rings name which, I mean, come on. So cool) (in the case of LOTR it’s pronounced RO-han, with the H voiced, like “hand” without the “d,” rather than RO-en/RO-wen, like Rowan).

The other ideas they had for boys were good for me to know too, as they provided good inspiration for coming up with new ideas.

So you all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard all the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I tried to find all the two-syllable five-letter ends-in-n names that I could find that I thought fit Amy and her husband’s Celtic-y style, but I also included a couple that broke one or another of the rules:

(1) Eamon
This is the Irish for Edmund, said AY-men. This was on my list for a long time, I love it! Danielle Bean has an Eamon.

(2) Dylan
Dylan’s such a fun name — it entered the top 1000 in 1966 (thank you Bob Dylan, who took his inspiration for this stage name from poet Dylan Thomas) and went from #115 in 1989 to #28 in 1992 (pretty sure it was the airing of Beverly Hills 90210 in 1990 that caused that jump) — but this classic Welsh name has stayed in the 20s and 30s ever since and is popular all over the world. It’s a great option for this family!

(3) Tobin
Tobin’s from an English surname, which came from the biblical name Tobias, so it’s kind of like a combo of Gavin’s and Ethan’s styles — I love that kind of thing!

(4) Rylan
There’s not much to know about Rylan as far as I can tell from my research, but it has an Irishy sound and I have a cousin named Rylan (twin of Sean) who’s really cool and smart, so it has good associations for me.

(5) Owen
Owen is my first rule breaker—it’s four letters instead of five. But if they’re going to break a rule, Owen’s a great one to do it with, because it fits so well their style otherwise: it’s listed as a style match for Gavin and Ethan both! It was actually the first name I thought of as I was reading Amy’s email, and when I saw that Michael would be the middle name I had to laugh because my newest nephew is Owen Michael! Awesome name.

(6) Conor or Colum
Some more rule-breakers here! I always think of Conor as similar to Colin, so maybe Amy’s hubs won’t like it, but it’s such a handsome name. And Colum’s even closer to Colin sound-wise, but is a variant of Columba — as in the awesome Irish saint — and it means “dove” so I think it could also be considered a Holy Spirit name!

(7) Lucas
Finally, Lucas, only because Amy said she really likes Luke but d0esn’t like how it runs into her K- last name. Lucas avoids that, and also gives them a five-letter two-syllable name.

And those are all my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What five-letter two-syllable ends-in-n name(s) would you suggest for the little brother of Gavin and Ethan?

Baby name consultant: Kolbe’s little brother

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Happy feast of St. Dominic!! 🙌🐕🐾🙏 It’s a special one too, because this year is the Dominicans’ 800th annivesary of its founding!!

(Off topic but on topic, that link brings you to an interview about this Jubilee Year with Fr. Cassian Derbes, OP. Cassian!)

Being a lay Dominican, today is always a special day for me, and I’m feeling celebratory 🎉🎉🎉 so not only do I have this consultation for you today (I LOVE the Monday consultation posts!), but I have a special treat for you all tomorrow, which is also the feast of St. Edith Stein AND my No. 2’s tenth birthday! I can’t wait for you to see it! What a great couple of days!

But first! Tori and her husband are expecting heir second baby, a second boy! She writes,

“Our oldest is Kolbe Daniel. Daniel is my husband’s name and we both really love St. Maximilian. We were considering naming him Eli Augustine which we still like. Other names that were thrown around were:

Lucas
Xavier

And if he was a girl we were thinking Stellamaris.

For this baby we are really liking Blaise … not sure about middle names and that’s the only name we’ve seriously talked about. If he was a girl we were thinking Azelie.”

Well I just love this family’s style — I’m a huge fan of all these names!

I so much enjoyed working on this not only because I love their taste in names but also because it’s pretty fun that they have, in a sense, a pretty clean slate with only Kolbe’s name and a few names they like to use as inspiration.

I was interested to note that Xavier, Blaise, and Azelie all share a prominent Z sound, but I couldn’t think of others that I thought Tori and her hubs might like– I’d be interested in any ideas you all had for Z-sound boy names that would fit with Kolbe.

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they 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, but it’s not always helpful for those who love Catholicky Catholic names as this family does—Kolbe, Azelie, and Stellamaris aren’t included in the book, for example. But never fear—I was able to come up with quite a few ideas for based on the names that *are* in the BNW (Eli, Lucas, Xavier, Blaise, Stella) as well as my own ideas.

So! All that said, I did also want to just say that starting with a saintly surname (Kolbe) presents a somewhat of an interesting situation in that most of the names that I would say are most similar to Kolbe’s style are other saintly surnames (I did a post on them a while ago), but if Tori and her hubs choose another saintly surname for their second baby, will they feel like they’ve cornered themselves into a particular style?

I spent some time thinking about that and decided that I think going with another name that seems obviously surnamey—like Vianney or Bosco—for their second baby might very well create that boxed-in feeling. For some reason, it feels different to me than if they named their first two babies with names beginning with K—in general, I would say that a theme hasn’t been created until three or more babies are so named, but the last-name-as-first-name thing is tripping me up!

I decided, though, that I think Xavier is the kind of surname that would be totally fine to use for their second baby because of the fact that it’s been used as a first name for so long that a lot of people (especially non-Catholics) don’t know it started as a surname.

I do think that if they have a bunch of kids, there’s no problem at all with having some with saintly surname names and some with regular first names as long as they’re all interspersed, does that makes sense? Eli and Lucas are both great options that would help mix it up (I’d also love it if they wanted to move Augustine from the middle spot to the first name spot. Or August? Or Ambrose? Ooh — Ambrose has a prominent Z sound! At least the way I say it … maybe that would appeal? I love the nickname ideas Sam, Bram, and Brody).

Of course if Tori and her hubs hate all of what I’m saying, then I hope they know I expect them to completely disregard it! My only hope is to be a help, not to add stress! In the end, giving your children names you love is a great gift.

Okay! So these are my other ideas for this little guy:

(1) Fulton
As with Xavier, I feel like Fulton would be a fine choice for Kolbe’s little brother, since it started as a last name but most people know it as Fulton Sheen’s first name.

(2) John Paul, JohnPaul, Johnpaul, John-Paul
John Paul (or however they’d want to spell it) is such a great match for Kolbe in my opinion! It’s obviously faithy and thought it’s two names together, they’re short names so the whole thing is only two syllables, which seems the length that Tori and her hubs are drawn to.

(3) Bennett
I almost listed Benedict, but Benedict doesn’t seem quite right to me for this family—a bit clunkier maybe than I think they might like—so Bennett seems a great option. It’s a medieval diminutive of Benedict, and it’s got a surname feel (and of course some usage that way), as well as the awesome nickname Ben.

(4) Leo
Leo is an awesome little package of a name—masculine, traditional, and saintly (Pope St. Leo the Great!).

(5) Gabriel
Gabriel’s a style match for both Lucas and Xavier, and I consider it to be a Marian name as well (for the Annunciation). It’s one of my favorite names for boys—full of faith significance, and the friendly nickname Gabe is great (I’ve also seen Gil, which I looove).

(6) Jude
Finally, Jude, for our beloved St. Jude Thaddeus. Awesome name, awesome patron. I did a spotlight on it here.

What do you all think of these ideas? What other name(s) would you suggest for Kolbe’s little brother?

Baby name consultant: Baby No. 11 (girl) (no repeating initials!)

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

Martha and her husband are expecting their eleventh (!) baby — their fourth girl! This Little Miss joins big sibs:

David Zachary
Caleb Daniel
Jesse Robert
Ethan Wyatt
Kathryn Cecilia
Aaron Mathias
Tobias Xavier
Bridget Darling
Phoebe Noelle
Levi Thaddeus

I looooove these names, each so great! You can see that the boys all have biblical first names, though the girls don’t follow suit. I really love sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe — such great sister names, so chic!

Martha writes,

“All first names must be saints … Middle names do not have to be saints though. No first name can start with the same letter as our other children. None of the children can be named after anyone we know, family or otherwise. We don’t want a name that is very common, but nothing way out there. We prefer traditional spellings … Dh loves Maewyn or Willow. I don’t think Maewyn fits as a saint name and am not keen on naming my girl after a tree … Our last baby was called “Poor Little No Name” until just weeks before he was born, so I hope you can help us avoid last minute naming stress this time.

We have some names we both like, but for some reason they just aren’t feeling like her to us.

We both like Sophia and Isabel or Isadora, but not as first names because they have become so popular lately.  Also, we do not like potential nicknames of Izzy or Dora.
My husband is suddenly leaning towards using variants of either my first name or middle name, Martha Lee.  I have no idea why.  I’ve never liked either myself.  But we were both sorta okay with the “lee” sounds in Leah or Lily (as a middle). And Iliana, which is not a saint.

The husband is still pitching hard for Maewyn Willow or Xena Isabella. (XI = 11) I am not even slightly fond of either.

I like Helen or Zelie Sophia, he does not like Helen at all and doesn’t like Zelie because he likes a name with clear pronunciation and thinks people will be confused about whether it is ZEL-ee or Zay-lee.  He also quibbles that if I dislike naming our girl after a tree, it makes no sense to be okay with naming her first name after a flowery bush. Got me on that I suppose. lol

I was telling the husband the other day that I like Seraphina but it is a hard one to find a middle name for!  He likes Danae, but I think that sounds harsh and too close to deny.  I like Roux, but dh says he isn’t naming her after sauce starter.”

Did you chuckle as much as I did when reading Martha’s dilemma? She and her Mister sound like quite the funny pair!

This was a lot of fun to work on—big families with lots of naming rules/restrictions are seriously so fun for me!

So first off, regarding Zelie, yes, its pronunciation isn’t set—they can choose their own and as long as they’re firm and consistent I don’t think it (or any name with various pronunciations) is an issue. (I wrote about Zelie’s pronunciation here and here.) I also wanted to point out that Lindsay’s daughter at My Child I Love You who’s named after St. Zelie has the spelling Zellie, which makes their desired pronunciation really obvious — maybe that spelling would be a good idea for this family?

And good news! (Maybe?) Iliana *can* be considered a saint’s name! I don’t know how exact it has to be for Martha and her hubs (some people are okay with variants of saints’ names and some aren’t), but my trusty go-to source for name meanings (behindthename.com) says Iliana is a variant of Elias (which is a variant of Elijah), and the spelling Ileana may be a variant of Helen. Cool right?!

Maewyn is interesting to me as a first name as well—I’d never heard of it so I looked it up and learned that it was St. Patrick’s birth name!! Wow! It does strike me as more feminine for our modern sensibilities—it has a really pretty sound, and I keep seeing the “Mae,” which on its own is generally considered a variant of Mary (which I love—Marian names are my favorite!).

And Xena Isabella for the XIth baby?? Pretty genius!! 😀 I looked it up and discovered it’s a variant of Xenia, which I actually do quite like, and she’s revered as a saint in the Eastern Church, but as far as I can tell she’s not recognized in ours? BUT I did a little more digging and discovered St. Xantippa, who *is* one of our saints—feast day Sept. 23 with St. Polyxena (Xena could work for Polyxena, no?)—both first-century Spanish martyrs. So they definitely have some options if they  want to use an X name! If they used such a long name as Xantippa though, I might suggest going shorter than Isabelle for the middle? Maybe Ivy or Iris?

Regarding Helen, I wonder what they’d think of Nell or Nellie? Maybe Martha’s husband would like them better than Helen? They’re traditional nicknames for Helen, so St. Helen can still be patron; they’re also style matches (according to the Baby Name Wizard which lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity) for Mae, which is one of the names I looked up for inspiration (since Maewyn wasn’t listed).
Regarding Willow, it’s important to note that this is only a middle name contender, and though I really loved the idea of changing it to Willa for a first name, as a nod to any of the Sts. William, William variants are on the no-go list.

And Seraphina! It was a later addition to Martha’s list, and one I’d written down for them before I’d known they were considering it! Woo! I love it, such a gorgeous name! For a middle name, Ruth has a similar sound to Roux and loses the cooking element (haha! 😂 ). I love Ruth in the Bible. There’s also Rue, like the awesome + tragic character in the Hunger Games and/or the Golden Girls’ Rue McClanahan (whichever they prefer!). (Rue was an actual given name for McClanahan—her given middle name, not a nickname for another name.)

I really like the rhythm of Martha’s husband’s middle name idea of Danae with Seraphina, and tried to think of others that a similar rhythm (two syllables with stress on the second) to appeal to him (and hopefully Martha might like them too):

  • Seraphina Mairead (Mairead is the Irish for Margaret, rhymes with parade)
  • Seraphina Therese
  • Seraphina Corinne
  • Seraphina Pilar (a sneaky Marian name!)
  • Seraphina Renee
  • Seraphina Celeste

And other unusual one-syllable names like Martha’s Roux might be:

  • Seraphina Wren
  • Seraphina Lark
  • Seraphina Vale
  • Seraphina Paige
  • Seraphina Tru(e)
  • Seraphina Viv
  • Seraphina Liv
  • Seraphina Greer

Regarding the idea of using a variant of Martha’s name, I was intrigued by connecting to it somehow. There really aren’t any variants of the name itself other than Marta, which is sweet and I do like it, but if they didn’t like that I thought of some others that might do the trick. Like Margaret, which has the same first three letters of her name. Maite has the same first two letters as Martha and  the same total number of letters—it’s got French and Spanish usage and is a contraction of Maria Teresa so it’s used both as a nickname and a given name (I’ve heard it said MY-tay).

Okay! So those are my comments on the names they’re considering, and I have new ideas for Martha and her hubs as well. As I mentioned, I used the Baby Name Wizard and relied heavily on its suggestions of names similar in style/feel/popularity to the names they’ve used and like, but I also added in some ideas of my own:

(1) Susanna(h)
I love that Susanna(h) is biblical, like the boys’ names; I love that if it’s spelled Susanna it loses a little of the biblical feel and fits in really well with the older girls’ names. Zuzu is a Susanna nickname I’ve been crushing on lately, and Anna, Annie, and Susie are all possibilities, as well as the full Susanna just on its own. St. Susanna’s also an early saint, and the American Catholic Church in Rome is St. Susanna’s.

(2) Faith or Hope or Mercy
Faith is a style match for Levi, and as soon as I saw it I loved it as an idea for this little girl. It does repeat the sound of Phoebe’s name but not the initial … I also know a little Faith Immaculata and I just die over her name, soooo gorgeous.

Hope’s a match for Leah, and I think it’s a really sweet name that, like Faith, can take a nice long middle name (lots of fun possibilities there!). And Mercy has been on my radar for months because of the Jubilee Year of Mercy—if they didn’t like Mercy as a first name, I love it as a middle for them.

(3) Nora
I love love love Nora—it’s a traditional nickname for both Honora and Eleanor, and there’s a Venerable Honora Nagle, and Eleanor has often been taken as a variant of Helen, but there are some quibbles about that, so it can also refer to Bl. Archangela Girlani whose birth name was Eleanor.

(4) Zoe
I recently discovered that St. Catherine of Laboure’s birth name was Zoe, and I’m really loving it! Especially since Martha and her hubs have been discussing names that begin with the end of the alphabet (Willow, Xena, Zelie), they might be interested in this Z name, which is also a style match for Phoebe.

(5) Inessa, Ines, Inez
At a certain point I just started going through the alphabet and trying to come up with names for the letters that haven’t used yet, and when I got to I, I thought of this family who has a daughter named Inessa, which is a form of Agnes. So pretty right?! Ines and Inez are more familiar variants — I’m interested to hear feedback on them because I can’t tell if they’re revival ready or still a bit too old?

(6) Genevieve
Genevieve is such a long gorgeous name, and has a similar feel to Seraphina, I love it and its nickname options Evie and Vivi and Neve, beautiful!

(7) Rosalie or Rosaleen
Rosalie is fast becoming one of my favorite names, and I love it as a sister to Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. And I was thinking about Rosaleen the other night and how it has such a similar sound to Rosalie, but Irish-ed up. Very sweet name!

(8) Rowan
I suspect Rowan is too unisex for this family, but it’s another nature name (like Willow) with a Celtic feel and a [male] saint’s name (like Maewyn), and it begins with the as yet unused letter R.

(9) Verity
I’ve totally been digging Verity recently — I love that it means “truth,” and is definitely one of the more underused virtue-esque names. So pretty!

(10) Zara
Having Z for an initial is so cool, and Zara has a really sophisticated feel to me (like Brit royal Zara Phillips Tindall) — I can see it being awesome with sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. At first I wasn’t going to include it because I didn’t think there was a saint associated with it, but I loved the idea of it so much that I did some digging and discovered that it’s a diminutive of Zaharina, which is the Bulgarian feminine form of Zechariah. Wow! Zechariah makes me think of St. Elizabeth and the Joyful Mystery of the Visitation, which is all kinds of wonderful to me.

(11) Zephyrine
My last idea (eleven ideas for the eleventh baby! 😄 ) is a little out there, but there’s a Pope St. Zephyrinus, and Zephyrine is a French feminine variant of the name (I just read that a sister of French Kings Louis XVI and XVII and Charles X was Marie Zephyrine, so named because she was born on the feast of Pope St. Zephyrinus). It’s long and lovely and elegant and saintly, and — fun fact! — I had a great-great Aunt Zepherine (I think that was how she spelled her name) and she went by Zee. So. Cool. (My only hesitation for this family is — are the endings of Kathryn and Zephyrine too similar? )

And those are all my ideas for this sweet little Baby Eleven! What do you all think? What would you suggest?

Baby name consultant: No. 5 after four girls

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Laura of the blog B is for Bissonnette and her husband Chris are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱after four girls! Big sisters’ names are:

Kayla Cecilia
Elise Marianna (“we pronounce it Mari (rhymes with starry)- Anna (rhymes with sauna)”)
Ava Chantal
Sophie Rose

Beautiful, right?? So feminine and pretty, each one! (Laura actually blogged about the thought process behind the selection of each name—be sure to check it out!

Laura writes,

“We love names that are not quite classic and not at all crazy.  We tend toward shorter names since our last name Bissonnette (Bih-Suh-Net) is quite long already, but we aren’t married to the idea that they MUST all be short, per se.  Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.  We love a Saint name to be somewhere in the name though it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the first name. As you can see, we have rather inadvertently chosen  first names that are quite popular at this time.  This wasn’t done on purpose, but we have a hard time agreeing on girl names that we both like so we just go with what we can both agree on now instead of worrying about popularity and whether they’ll end up with 15 friends who share their name….”

(I just have to insert here that one of my original suggestions for Laura, which I was feeling really good about, was Colette. Totally forgetting, of course, that she’d explicitly said, “Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.” Gah!)

As for boys,

“My husband’s family has a tradition that the first born son in the family uses his first name as a middle name for his first son, and my husband is the first boy in his family, so his first name, Christopher would be our son’s middle name if we have a boy … Damian/Damien is a name we’ve had on our maybe list for boys for a while. And I’m not sure if it gives you a help just style-wise, but I like the sounds of names like Aiden and Liam (we just don’t do the Irish thing) … Names that fall into that general style of sound (not the language origin) might be names we’d go for.”

Additionally,

“[W]e sort of went with a bit more French (which didn’t really start until our 2nd child, but has been a theme with either the first or middle names of the other 3 girls…) but we also aren’t married to the “theme”, we are very much a couple who just read through baby name books/lists over and over until something hits us just right, which makes us difficult, I know. I’m currently reading tons of St. Therese, so that name as a middle is a huge consideration, but again, we aren’t married to anything at all as of yet. That’s the closest that I’m “in love” with at the moment is that as a middle.  We are still struggling with much for a first that we just LOVE.

… we generally start with Saint names, come up with a list that we like and then categorize them in First, Middle, or Either.”

Saints they love/have particular devotions to include:

Therese
Katharine Drexel/St. Catherine of Siena
Kateri
Faustina
Gemma Galgani
Chiara
Agnes
Felicity
The Blessed Mother

Joseph
Francis de Sales/St. Francis of Assisi
John Paul II
Maximilian Kolbe
Josemaria Escriva
Damien of Molokai
John Mary Vianney
Dominic
Pier Giorgio Frassati
Sebastian
John Bosco

Names that they can’t use for first names because of being part of a big family with lots of nieces and nephews:

Fiona
Siobhan
Liam
Seamus
Kellen
Finian
Sorcha
Eilish
Declan
Grace
Gianna
James
Sarah
Lily
Benjamin
Dominic
Lucy
Logan
Christiana
Xavier
Emiliana
Roisin
Therese
Paul

(What a family! Some ah-mazing names in there!)

Also these have been nixed by the Mister:

Rosalie
Edith
Rita
Names with a similar “old lady” feel are probably going to be vetoed by him as well, including my initial suggestions of Margo and Greta 😦

Okay everyone! Let’s rub our hands together and jump right in!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation 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 style/feel/popularity. Patterns often emerge and it becomes clear what kinds of names the parents tend towards, but I was initially having a hard time pinning down exactly what Laura and Chris’ style was because there wasn’t any real overlap in the few names listed for each entry. Then I started noticing that their girls’ names (firsts and middles) came from the same four lists of names in the book (in the back the author lists all the names according to style): Bell Tones (“freshness with a clean, light touch”—e.g., Kayla), Antique Charm, French, and German/Dutch. Once I figured that out, so many names jumped out at me as ones I thought they’d like! I have a lot of suggestions for each gender, as I found it hard to narrow it down further:

Girls
(1) Chloe or Zoe
Chloe was the name that jumped out at me at first, being biblical and with good French usage. I did consider it may seem too rhymey following right after Sophie? I said the names all together as a set and that was my first thought. But otherwise I like it a lot for this family. And I kept wanting to cross Zoe off the list—Chloe kept seeming like a better fit—but each time I went to delete it I stopped. Something about that zippy Z that’s just really fun, and it’s meaning of “life” is such a great one. It was also the birth name of St. Catherine Laboure, and I’ve heard of a family using Zoe as a nickname for their little Catherine because of St. Catherine Laboure!

(2) Siena
Siena’s for St. Catherine of Siena of course, and it’s really sweet as a first name. I even know of a little one who would have been Siena Catherine if he’d been a girl, which I thought was a neat twist.

(3) Kateri
I loved seeing both St. Catherine of Siena and St. Kateri on Laura’s list of saints because one of my favorite things about Kateri’s name is that Kateri is the Mohawk version of Catherine—she took the name Kateri at her baptism for St. Catherine of Siena specifically! So I kind of think of Kateri as a dual honor name, and I love that it can take the traditional Kat/Kate/Katie nicknames of Catherine.

(4) Corinne
I initially wanted to suggest Cora but, as Laura pointed out to me, it rhymes with her own name, which could be a little weird. Corinne is a great alternative though, a beautiful but not over-the-top French name.

(5) Haley or Halle
There are a trillion ways to spell Haley (like Hayley Mills the actress, or my relatives Haleigh and Hailey, or actress Hailee Steinfeld or ……..!), but no matter which one, it immediately hit me as a name Laura and Chris might like. But then I wondered if it was too similar in sound to Kayla? Depending on how they say it, maybe … especially if they really emphasize the first part as “Hay” … if they said it more like “Hail” maybe it’s okay … but that thought process made me think of Halle, like Halle Berry, which bypasses the potential rhymes-with-Kayla while still having a lot of Haley’s appeal. I posted ideas for NFL quarterback Philip Rivers a while ago, and his wife responded to it and explained how they chose each of their kids’ names, and their oldest is Halle, which is a name they loved, but when she was at Mass once when she was pregnant and realized “Hallelujah” contains “Halle” within it, she took it as a sign. I love that!

(6) Lena or Mina or Mila
Lena is one of those names that can be a nickname for some great names like Magdalena and Helena, but it can also stand on its own as a variant of them, so a little Lena could have St. Mary Magdalene or St. Helena as a patron. Mina is similar in sound, but is connected more to Wilhelmina, which would be a great way to honor a William, if Laura and Chris have one in their family. I could also see it possibly being a nickname for Magdalena, so they could still choose that saint as patron if they wanted. And I discussed Mila recently as the best way to honor St. Ludmila, who was a great lady.

Pronunciation-wise,  I say Lena as LEE-nah, but I’ve also seen LAY-nuh. Mina is MEE-nah, and Mila can be either MEE-lah or MY-lah or even MILL-lah I think. My son had a MEE-lah in his class this year. How about the rest of you? How do you say these names?

(7) Gemma
St. Gemma’s on their list of favorite saints, and I love love love the name Gemma. So it definitely had to be listed here as one of my suggestions! It leans more Italian (in origin and usage) or British (in usage) rather than French, but it’s a short, sweet, saintly ends-in-a name that fits in well with the big girls I think.

(8) Zelie
St. Zelie’s not on their saint list, but it’s French and sweet-and-spunky like the big girls’ names and is connected to St. Therese—a great option!

(9) Vianney
I’ve suggested the girls’ names from the blog My Child I Love You so many times, as I think they’re just so inspired, and Vianney is one of them. I think most people think of naming a boy after St. John Vianney, but Vianney is so pretty on a girl. (I was going to suggest another of their girl names — Clairvaux — but decided not to. Maybe I should have?)

(10) Ruby
I spotlighted Ruby a while back, and I came up with a lot of great faith connections for it. It’s such a sweet name, and I love it on its own or as a nickname (check out that spotlight post for ideas!).

(11) Tessa
Finally Tessa, a name I went back and forth on suggesting, and here now at the last minute, as I’m putting together this post for today, I’m just doing it. I’m not sure why I hesitated, because I love it with the older girls’ names. Though Therese is on their can’t-use list for first names, I’ve seen Tessa chosen specifically for Sts. Therese or Teresa, and I thought Tessa was different enough that it might be okay. Therese as a middle name would be out, but I quite like the idea of Tessa Catherine, Tessa Claire (for Chiara), Tessa Frances (for Francis), and Tessa Vianney.

Other girl names that didn’t make my final cut, but that I think still might be ones they’d like, include: Nora, Mia, Cassie, Isabel(le).

Boys
(1) Blaise
Blaise tops my list of suggestions for Laura and Chris—it’s super saintly and French, and I’ve always loved that it evokes image of speed and superheroes with its “blaze” pronunciation—great name for a little guy!

(2) Jude
Jude is short and light like the big girls’ names, but definitely heavy hitting—who doesn’t like St. Jude??

(3) Oliver
Though Oliver has a really Irish/British Isles feel to me, Olivier, which of course is just one letter difference, is all French, and in my weird way of thinking, it made Oliver seem like a really good fit for this family.

(4) Cam (Campion?)
I’m kind of swoony over my recent discovery that Cambridge was named after the River Cam—Cam! I really love Cam for a boy! This revelation totally makes it doable as a first name on its own, without being a nickname! I really really like that idea, but I know it’s even better if it’s connected to a saint, and St. Edmund Campion is a great way to get there.

(5) Cole (Nicholas, Colman, Kolbe)
Cole is one of my favorite nicknames for a boy. Certainly it can stand on its own as a first name, but I love it as a nickname for Nicholas (so many great Sts. Nicholas! You know my fave is St. Nicholas Owen!), or Colman (an Irish saint; I feel like Colman is kind of unexpected but feels familiar, a nice combo), or even Kole for Kolbe (and St. Max is on Laura and Chris’ list of favorite saints).

(6) Bosco
St. John Bosco’s on the saint list, and I loved when Grace Patton named her youngest Bosco (and my love for it grows every time I see his sweet little face on her blog/Instagram).

(7) Milo or Miles
Milo is described on behindthename.com as an Old Germanic form of Miles, whose origin doesn’t seem to be clear, but I’ve seen it connected to Michael (and I think Milo or Miles could totally work as a nickname for Michael) and the Latin miles, which means “soldier.” A fun tidbit is that Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (from their saint list)’s middle name was Michelangelo, so Milo/Miles could be a nod to him in that way.

At first I thought Milo was more Laura and Chris’ speed than Miles, being that Milo has that Germanic edge, but the recent brouhaha surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos’ permanent suspension from Twitter made me wonder if Milo is going to be a name to avoid for a while (what are your thoughts on this?). Miles is great, and can be considered a legit Marian name for a boy as both Miles and Milo are used as anglicizations of the Old Irish Maolmhuire, which means “devotee of Mary.”

(8) Bram or Abram
These might be totally out there for Laura and Chris, but Bram’s been one of my favorite names for a long time. It’s an English and Dutch short form of Abraham, and my husband and I have also talked about using it as a nickname for Ambrose. I say it to rhyme with “gram,” and I’ve heard it said that way; it can also be said like “brahm,” which I believe is how Bram Stoker said it.

Abram never used to be on my radar at all, but when I was at the doctor’s office recently I heard a mom calling her son Abram, and he was this adorable little guy with blond curls and I immediately loved the name.

(9) Grady, Brady
Both of these were listed as similar to the Bissonnette style in the BNW and while they skew more Irish than anything else (and are the last names of two of the Irish martyrs), I thought I’d include them because I think they’re both really handsome and go well with the girls’ names.

(10) George (or just Geo?) or Jerome
These are 100% inspired by Laura and Chris’ devotion to Pier Giorgio Frassati. I’ve read that he never went by Pier, only by Pier Giorgio or Giorgio (or Georg when he was writing in German), and since Giorgio/Georg is George, I thought that could work. I especially love love love the nickname Geo! So cool! It might even be able to stand on its own as a given name? Or is that too weird? Geordie (Jordy)’s another option that I really like, it’s a traditional nickname for George. And Pier Giorgio took Girolamo as his religious name when he became a Third Order Dominican, which is the Italian for Jerome, so that’s an option too.

As with the girls, there were some boy names that were swirling around the right area for me that didn’t end up making my final cut, but I wanted to mention them just in case: Adrian, Henry, Keegan, Kian, Rylan, Tobias.

A fun last-minute question Laura added was that she’s “especially interested in nicknames/variations of Joseph, Sebastian, Damien, Francis, and John Bosco.” You all know nicknames are my jam!! My ideas for these are:

  • Joseph: according to behindthename.com, Jozo (Croatian), Pepe (Spanish), Sepp/Seppel (German), and Zef (Dutch) are all short forms or diminutives of Joseph. I’m especially intrigued by Sepp, Seppel, and Zef (I think Zef is my favorite!)
  • Sebastian: not to mention Grace Patton’s amazing name style twice in one post, but another of her sons is Sebastian and he goes by Bash. I know he’s not the only one, but he’s the first Sebastian I’d ever heard of going by Bash and I was immediately besotted. Such a great nickname for a little boy! There’s also Seb/Sebby, Bax (especially for Sebastian Xavier, for example), and Baz. I’ve even seen Ian used as a nickname for it!
  • Damien: I’ve had Damien on my own list for a long time, and my nickname idea for it has been Denny, and I’ve felt pretty clever about it. 🙂 Using that same thought process, I think Danny would be great for the Damian spelling.
  • Francis: I’ve suggested Finn a bunch of times as a nickname for Francis—I love that it allows for a super-saintly given name and an on-trend (and Star Wars!) nickname. Frank/Frankie is traditional, of course (and Frankie for a little guy is so cute!), and I’ve also known guys who went by Fran and the Italian Cici/Cic (“Chee-chee”/”Cheech”). Some non-English options that are cute include Chico (Portuguese), Franz (German), and Pancho or Paco (both Spanish)
  • John Bosco: Certainly Bosco, as I’d mentioned (I might have seen Grace’s Bosco referred to as “Boss”? Sooooo cute!), and all the John nicknames (Jack, Jake, Johnny), and even Don for Don Bosco. There are loads of John variants of course, if they’d prefer to go that direction (Evan, Hans, Ian, Ivan, Sean, Shane, etc.). I also just discovered that his middle name was Melchiorre—the Italian for Melchior, which is the name traditionally given to one of the three Wise Men, how cool!

Whew! Those are all my ideas for the little brother or sister of Kayla, Elise, Ava, and Sophie! What would you suggest? What other nickname ideas do you have for the saints Laura was asking about? How do you say Lena, Mina, and Mila?

Baby name consultant: Boy and girl names needed for Baby No. 4

sanctanomina Baby name consultant

Kate and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown)! 🌱😄

Their older kiddos are:

Nicholas Augustine
Dominic Gregory (nicked Dommie)
Magdalen Philippa (“I love Philippa, but [hubs] did not like it as a first name“)

Faaaabulous names, right?? I love how heavy hitting each one is — serious saintliness going on with each one! I also love how they’re all similar length — longish first names, longish middle names.

Kate writes,

“[Regarding Dominic’s name] I basically had my heart set on this name … In order to reach a compromise on this name, I had to promise my husband that if there is another Thomas/Tomas would be somewhere in the name … As you can see, we have a bit of a 3-syllable pattern … I am at a loss for names for this baby. I really love our kids’ names and nothing is sticking out for me.”

Names her husband likes that she doesn’t care for include:

Ambrose
Nathaniel
Amanda
Jennifer
Isidora

Name that Kate likes (but is alliterative with their last name, so she’s not sure about it):

Rita

Names that they can’t use for one reason or another:

Gabriel/la
Isabella
Christopher
Emily
Joseph
Jacob
Theresa

Okay, before I get to my ideas/suggestions, I just want to say that since they have a Dominic nicked Dommie, I’d be careful of using T(h)omas as a first name (unless they don’t mind brothers Dommie and Tommy) (I love the nickname Dommie btw, so cute!). I do love T(h)omas as a middle name for them, very handsome and goes with so many names!

Re: Rita R___, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Some people really like alliteration, and it’s certainly memorable, while others worry that it sounds too comic bookish, but in both instances I think it’s the parents that worry — I don’t think others would bat an eyelash at it. I really wanted to suggest to Margaret with Rita as a nickname, since Rita is originally a diminutive of Margaret/Margarita, but I think Margaret and Magdalen are too similar.

Okay! So I came up with a few ideas for each gender, using my trusty 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) and my own mental files:

Girl
(1) Zita
Zita was originally inspired by the fact that Kate likes Rita but isn’t sure about the alliteration of Rita R___ (I scribbled it down for her when I was first reading her email), and then I discovered that it’s a style match for Philippa! Zita rhymes with Rita but has the spunky Z for an initial. I’ve long been familiar with St. Zita of Lucca, who’s a great patron for a little girl, but I’ve more recently learned about Servant of God, Empress Zita, who was an amazing lady! She was recent enough that there are photos of her (I posted one on IG not too long ago), and her husband is Bl. Karl, Emperor. So cool!

(2) Caroline
Caroline is a style match for Nicholas, and I love it for this family. It can call to mind loads of saints (my favorite is St. John Paul II; I also love St. Charles Borromeo and Bl. Karl above; others here), and it’s got all sorts of feminine sophistication.

(3) Gemma
I was really interested by how Kate said she loves Philippa (I do too) but her hubs wouldn’t go for it for a first name (mine wouldn’t either), so I paid a lot of attention to the names that were listed as similar to it (Philippa’s not actually included in the BNW so I went to Nymbler — you plug in up to six names and it offers boy and girl names that are similar; it’s by the same lady who wrote the BNW). Gemma was one of them, and I think it’s a great option for this family — St. Gemma Galgani is a beautiful saint!

(4) Veronica
Veronica is a style match for Nicholas, Magdalen, and Philippa — how great is that?! I love that it’s got biblical ties like Magdalen, and is similarly long and feminine, such a gorgeous name.

(5) Seraphina or Serafina et al.
Isidora on Kate’s hubby’s list struck me as so different from the other names he likes, and when I looked it up I discovered Isadora is listed as a match for Magdalen! Another match they share is Seraphina/Serafina, which is a personal favorite of mine. It refers to the angels, so it can be an angelic name (which is great) or I think it can also be considered a Marian name (after Our Lady Queen of the Angels).

I have “et al.” after Serafina because there are a few names that are really similar in style to Magdalen and Seraph/fina that Kate and her hubs might like … I chose Seraph/fina because it was explicitly listed as also similar to Isidora (and I love finding names both husband and wife can agree on), but these are also names I think they might like: Christiana, Evangeline, Genevieve, Vivienne, Philomena.

Boy
(1) Matthew, Matthias, or Mat(t)eo
Matthew is a style match for Nicholas and Jennifer, and Matthias is a match for Magdalen and Philippa, so I love the idea of a Matthew name for them. Mat(t)eo’s another great one.

(2) Benjamin
Benjamin! Such a great name! It’s a match for Nicholas, Nathaniel, Philippa, and Matthew, and it’s biblical like Magdalen, I loooove Benjamin! And can you beat the amazing nickname Ben?

(3) Sebastian
Sebastian is totally the style of Augustine, Dominic, Gregory, and Magdalen — super heavy hitting, ultra Catholicky Catholic. It’s got great nickname options (Seb/Sebby, Bash, Baz) and every boy I know loves the image of him with the arrows sticking out of him! Haha! He’s also the patron saint of athletes, and my athlete brothers love him for that.

(4) C(h)ristian
I love the name Christian — I love how explicit it is, but also how normal at the same time … Christian’s also always struck me as a cool guy name, in a good way! I love the Spanish spelling Cristian as well. I personally think of it as different enough from Christopher that even though Christopher is on the “no list” I wouldn’t consider C(h)ristian off limits, but I’d understand if Kate disagrees.

(5) Alexander
Finally, the big daddy of them all: Alexander. It’s saintly and papal, and a style match for Nicholas, Dominic, Gregory, Thomas and Tomas both, Nathaniel, Benjamin, Matthew and Matthias both, Christian, Sebastian, Magdalen, Caroline, Veronica, Seraphina, Evangeline, Genevieve … wow. Wow! It has some great nickname options too: Alex, Xander, Sander, among others. A great name!

And those are all my ideas for Kate and her husband! What do you all think? What would you suggest for a little brother or sister to Nicholas, Dominic, and Magdalen? I think Kate and her hubs might be particularly interested in more three-syllable names, as I didn’t focus on that as much.

Baby name consultant: Benedict Arnold or Robert E. Lee?

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Naming nitty gritty ,

This week’s consultation is a bit different, in that the mama who wrote to me had specific questions about two names she and her husband are considering for their son. She writes,

“My husband and I are down to two names for our second boy but see potential issues with both. The first is Benedict Joseph for Pope Benedict. The second is Robert Edward for my paternal grandfather and my father in law. We worry that because we live in the Washington DC area, both names could cause issues because of Benedict Arnold and Robert E. Lee. Obviously Robert Edward wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t for our last name that sounds similar to Lee.

Are we just being crazy? I should probably mention that my husband, my father in law, and I all obtained degrees in Political Science with varying emphases on American history and law.”

Interesting questions, right?

Objectively, I love both names — saintly, handsome, really great. Regarding the Benedict Arnold conundrum — I don’t know! I know some might make the connection and have a problem with it, but in my world Benedict Cumberbatch and Pope Benedict are the two overriding associations.

Regarding Robert E. Lee, I would never think of Robert E. Lee if I were to hear of Robert LastNameThatSoundsSimilarToLee (no mention of middle initial). But maybe I would if I heard Robert E. LastName? Even so, that association wouldn’t bother me one bit, since Robert E. Lee is so far away from any potential baby name inspiration on my part. But in this mama’s world of American history and law and her geographic location? It’s a great question! I really wanted to post this dilemma in order to get feedback from all of you!

Another thought I’m having is Bennett instead of Benedict — Bennett is a medieval form of Benedict, so they would be able to honor the man in a less politically charged way and still use the nickname Ben. Or Robert Benedict, which is so handsome, and I think solves all their problems above and below.

I do have some other thoughts though, that the mama didn’t ask for but I feel is my duty as a name consultant to point out! So sorry in advance! I loooove Pope Benedict so much and I love to see babies named after him! But I find that middle names for Benedict are kind of hard, as the initials can be problematic and I do feel like I have to point them out to parents, just so they know what they’re getting into. BJ and BF have sexual connotations; BM has toilet associations; and BO has body odor associations (though I had a friend BJ in high school and I don’t remember anyone teasing him about his name, so if they don’t mind it and just own it, it could be just fine. I definitely want to hear all your thoughts on this issue as well!). BR however is a great combo — maybe Benedict Robert could work instead? Or Benedict Edward?

So, to recap, my two heartiest suggestions are Benedict Robert/Edward and Robert Benedict. 🙂 Robert B. LastName is especially great to me — they get our Pope Emeritus in there without any Benedict Arnold associations, they retain a family connection with Robert (and I’ve seen Ned as a nickname for Benedict, and it’s also a traditional nickname for Edward, so maaayyyybeee they could spin it that Benedict is for Ratzinger AND Grandpa Edward? I know that’s a big stretch), and there would be no Robert E. Lee issues.

Or use Joseph to honor Benedict instead, in either the first or middle spots? Robert Joseph? Joseph Robert?

What advice do you all have for this family?

Baby name consultant: Baby #6 needs a heavy duty Catholicky Catholic name

sanctanomina Baby name consultant ,

By the time this posts, my family and I will be on the road for the beginning of six days of travel and vacation! I’ll have very limited internet access until we get back Sunday (read: I have to drive into town and park in the library parking lot to get internet access, and I can tell you already I likely won’t be doing that at all), which means that any comments left on the blog by someone who has never commented before, or who hasn’t commented in a while, will be held up in “needs-approval mode” until I’m back online next week. Otherwise, enjoy this week’s consultation post, and the rest of this first week of July!

Cara and her husband are expecting their sixth baby! Their older kiddos’ names are:

Blaise Gerard (“Blaise after my husbands confirmation saint and St. Gerard“)
Ambrose Lawrence (“After St. Ambrose and Lawrence my husband’s father“)
Benedict Augustine Joseph (“After St. Benedict and the Pope, had to stick another name in there to avoid the BJ initials“)
Caecilia Majella (“My confirmation saint and St. Gerard“)
Anastasia Lucia (“Husband loved the name and it was in the canon, Lucia after the Fatima visionary“)

I just love them, each one. And Caecilia! I love that spelling!

Cara writes,

“We are having our sixth child and can not agree on a boys name. We like names that directly correspond to Saints. In the past we have always had all of our names picked out in advance, but this is throwing us for a loop.

For a girl we would like to stick with the women listed in the mass as the first name. We realized we already had three of the eight already, so why not keep it going. We both like Agnes. If born on a Marian feast day we would switch to Rosemary. I had wanted Rosaria in the past because one of the girls was born on the feast of the Rosary. I don’t want to use the variant because I associate it with the daughter but we both like Rosemary. I love the nickname Rosie. Other than that nickname I do not care for nicknames.”

Agnes and Rosemary are both great names, no quibbles from me at all!

For boys,

“We will be using Boethius as a middle name. I love the consolation of Philosphy; it is my favorite book. I can not bring myself to use it as a first name. My husband would have to no problem with that.”

(Boethius! Love love love! Remember that this little lady‘s name was going to be Robert Boethius if she’d been a boy? I’m totally digging it!)

Names Cara and her husband are considering include:

Jude (“husband thinks it is plain“)
Gregory (“fits so well with Caecila and Ambrose, husband prefers it to Jude but still thinks it plain“)
Giles (“a holy helper with St. Blaise“)
Hugh (“of Cluny, a Benedictine“)

Names that they can’t use for various reasons:

Sebastian
Gabriel
Francis
Bonaventure
Athanasius

Further,

“We both like very old Catholic names. Compared to him I like ‘plain’ names but he likes very old ‘exotic’ Catholic names. For him too few saints get all of the names. I like the names to be at least vaguely recognizable and usable. I do not like surnames as first names either.”

I had so much fun with this consultation! Cara and her hubs have used so many fantastic names for their older kiddos that it presented a real challenge (which I love!) finding names that were similar in feel while fitting their rules (yes to women listed in the Mass, no to the names on the list of names they can’t use).

And lest you all think I’m an expert on Catholic names, I actually had to ask Cara who the eighth woman is in the Canon of Mass is! I thought I only knew of seven women listed in the Mass — Felicity/Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and Anastasia—but she reminded me that Our Lady is one of them. Of course! Whew!

I love that they’re using that theme for girls! I would definitely recommend using only one of those names per girl going forward (if they were to be so blessed)—Anastasia Lucia is a gorgeous combo, but using two for one girl reduces the number of girls they could name with that theme!

I love Agnes, so sweet. Rosemary is great too! So if they used Rosemary as the first name I assume they’d use one of the Mass women for a middle? Or would Rosemary count as Mary-from-the-Mass? I love the sound of Rosemary Agatha, Rosemary Perpetua, and Rosemary Felicitas (especially if they don’t like those names enough to use in the first name spot). I’d love to know what they’re thinking of as a middle name for Agnes too! Agnes Rosemary sounds lovely, but if they wanted to save Rosemary for a possible future girl, I could see them liking something like Agnes Regina, Agnes Philomena, Agnes Aurelia, or Agnes Laetitia.

On to the boys! First off, I LOVE Boethius!! I couldn’t use it as a first name either, but ever since I did the consultation for that family I mentioned above, I’ve thought it was a pretty fab, bold, Catholic name.

Jude and Gregory are both names that I see with some frequency (esp Jude) in the families that email me and those I know in real life, so I can see why Cara’s husband feels like they’re plain (though I’m with her — they’re great names!). Giles and Hugh are definitely not plain (Giles! Wow!), and really gave me a good sense of the direction they’re going in. I love Cara’s reasoning behind Gregory too — I admit I don’t know enough about saints connected to music in the Church other than Gregory and Caecilia (I didn’t know that Ambrose had a connection!), but maybe some of my suggestions below will hit the right notes (haha! 🎵🎵🎵) and have connections I don’t even realize.

I’m glad they included theirlist of names they can’t use because Sebastian, Bonaventure, and Athanasius are quite likely names I would have suggested to them!

Okay! I came up with about a million ideas for this family, haha! Each one was so amazing to me that I couldn’t whittle it down any more than this:

(1) Anselm
One of the first things I did was look up the Benedictine saints (Cara has a Benedictine devotion/spirituality), both to see if any of the names I’d thought of for them were on it, and to find any new ideas. Anselm was one that jumped out at me right away—a doctor of the Church AND Benedictine?? Score!!

(2) Dunstan
I know next to nothing about St. Dunstan other that he was Benedictine, but I’d actually spotlighted his name over a year ago because the book I read it in said it was “used mainly by Roman Catholics,” which is exactly the kind of name I like!

(3) Clement
I think Clement might be my very favorite for Cara and her hubs of all my suggestions here—it pairs well with Boethius; it means “merciful,” which is perfect for this Year of Mercy; it’s Catholicky Catholic and a touch “exotic” because it’s so rare (hasn’t been in the top 1000 since 1969), but familiar enough, with easy spelling and pronunciation.

(4) Cosmas
Cosmas is definitely offbeat but also super Catholic and saintly. Cosmas Boethius is like, wow.

(5) Basil
You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and 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. Basil was a style match for Giles, Hugh, and Ambrose, which I thought was pretty great.  There are lots of great Sts. Basil to choose from!

(6) Linus
I’m seeing Linus more and more on little Catholic boys, and I like it! It’s got impeccable credentials too, as the name of the second Pope (who was also mentioned in the New Testament) and he’s in the Canon of the Mass.

(7) Matthias
Speaking of New Testament names, I’ve long loved Matthias and think of it as a very Catholic name since it could be argued that the decision to replace Judas Iscariot with Matthias was the result of the very first Church council. 🙂 It’s a style match for Benedict and Ambrose and other names that I think are swirling around this family’s taste even though they don’t seem like appropriate suggestions, like Dominic (because of not being Benedictine).

(8) Leander
One name that was a style match for Matthias, Benedict, Dominic, and Ambrose that *did* seem like a good suggestion was Leander. St. Leander’s a pretty awesome saint, and I love that his name feels familiar—kind of like a mashup of Leo and Alexander—while still being really rare.

(9) Thaddeus
Cara’s husband thinks Jude is “too plain,” but I wonder what he’d think of Thaddeus? It was another name that was part of that Matthias/Benedict/Dominic/Ambrose/Leander group, and it’s one of my very favorites. There’s St. Jude Thaddeus of course, but I love named for Bl. Thaddeus Moriarty, OP, an Irish martyr (and a Dominican, uh oh).

(10) Ignatius
Finally, Ignatius. My only hesitation with Ignatius is that Ignatius Boethius is a mouthful, but otherwise it’s a name I love, and it certainly fits their criteria of “very old Catholic names.” Interestingly, I found a St. Eneco in the list of Benedictine saints, which I assume is a variant of Eneko, which is a Basque name that in Spanish became Iñigo, which was St. Ignatius of Loyola’s given name (he took Ignatius in honor of St. Ignatius of Antioch) and while I don’t believe Enec/ko and Ignatius are actually etymologically related, they’re often sort of considered to be so because of St. Ignatius. Cool namey tidbit! Also, while celebrity babies aren’t a great barometer for Catholic naming, in this case I do think it’s good to point out that actress Cate Blanchett has a son named Ignatius—I think it makes the name seem a little more doable.

And those are all my ideas for this family! Whew! I thought I might also point out this post, which might be helpful to them. What do you all think? What boy name(s) would you suggest for this family?

Baby name consultant: biblical or Irishy for a little boy!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Our trip to St. Anne’s Shrine yesterday was just about as pilgrimage-y as pilgrimages go — lots of grace coming to you all!! 😀 I’ll write more about it tomorrow, and I have more pictures to share beyond the ones I posted to Instagram yesterday.

I’m delighted to have this consultation to post today, on my second blogiversary (!!), because of what this mama wrote about her daughter’s sweet name, Riley Ann:

“Our daughter (22 months) is Riley Ann — we loved the meaning of “courageous” of Riley … and Ann for both our Mother’s middle names and of course a personal favorite, St. Anne. We liked that Riley is Irish (both have a bit of Irish in our heritage and love our shared alma mater Notre Dame but don’t want to go overboard with the strong Irish names).”

Woo! St. Anne for the win!! ❤

So this mama and her husband are expecting their second baby, a boy! She writes,

“Don’t want them to be too popular but are less inclined to go totally unique with boys names (tried for a few weeks to get my husband on board with Joachim but failed when I couldn’t even decide how I preferred to pronounce it).”

(What’s that?? JOACHIM?? Ahhh!! 😀 And I consider that another hello from St. Anne!)

“Steering away from S and C names that cause a super slur with our last name … And as I’ve been thinking about all the names we’ve used/like, it seems as though we most frequently go for two syllables a lot! I like a good nickname and 2 syllables is not a set criteria … but more often we tend to just shorten to the first syllable of any name and that works for me. “Ry” for Riley … Or, better yet we find a totally different word and call them that 🙂 So, I guess I do actually like a name to be the name and am less inclined to have dueling formal vs nickname thing if that makes sense.”

(That’s a really good articulation: “am less inclined to have dueling formal vs. nickname thing.”)

For reference, they love the name Leah for a girl, and names on their current list for this little boy include:

Evan Thomas (“love the meaning and has been at top of our list for the longest … would love to hear any saintly connections you can make to Evan“)

Thomas John (or Michael or Charles) (“My wonderful father’s name is Thomas and I love its traditional/Catholic roots without being overused. John, Michael and Charles are all possible family names that seem to pair well. Thomas Aquinas and the sentimental value of the name are pushing it forward but as a standalone name, we aren’t in love with it.“)

Joshua Thomas (“A recent addition to our list of biblical, traditional names that we love. But I honestly haven’t done my research and don’t know a ton about the Catholic roots of this name.”)

Jude Thomas (“The most recent name that caught our eye — as long as we distinguish it as representative of Judas the apostle as opposed to Judas Iscariot, right?!?“)

Robert (“We considered Robert (family name) with the idea to call him “Bo” but we really don’t love Robert, mostly just think the nickname Bo is super cute.”)

“We’ve been really into “J” names lately if you can throw some of those into the mix (Jude, Jonah, Joshua and such).”

Okay! First my thoughts about the names on their list:

Regarding saintly connections to Evan — Evan is a Welsh form of John, so any of the Sts. John can serve as patron. Evan Thomas is a great combo, and seems to me to hit that sweet spot of being Celtic but not going overboard with it. I also like that it’s biblical (John) like Leah, and Celtic like Riley—a nice bridge name!

Thomas John/Michael/Charles is a great name. No quibbles at all. Though if they’d like to jazz it up a little, they might consider pairing it with a more unusual middle name. Maybe a family surname? Or Thomas Joachim, to go back to Joachim?

Joshua Thomas is a great name too. As for its Catholic roots—it’s Jesus’ name! Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua (Yeshua), which is Aramaic. Amazing right?! I wrote more about Jesus names, including Joshua, here.

Jude Thomas is also amazing, love love love. It’s so funny this mama should point out the Judas the apostle vs. Judas Iscariot bit! I wrote a little bit last summer about how, to me, even though Judah, Jude, and Judas are all variants of the same name, they all have very different feels: Judah is almost exclusively Jewish; Judas is not okay to use; and Jude is ultra Catholic (or maybe Jude Law). I also spotlighted Jude a few months ago (be sure to check out the comments too!). I just skimmed it again and was reminded that it can be used as a nickname for Julian—I wouldn’t have thought of Julian as the kind of name this couple likes, but it does start with a J!

Robert nicked Bo is such a cute idea and made me laugh because my brother and sister-in-law were considering something similar! I posted a consultation for them in November, with lots of possible ways of getting to the nickname Bo. It is super cute!

Re: their question about J names, one I really like is St. Isaac’s last name Jogues. That’s probably too unique though? Jasper, Jacob, and Joseph are favorites, and Jack totally seems like this family’s style—a little Irish without being too much so, and it’s a variant of John so, like Evan, it could take any of the Sts. John. But it would also knock Evan out of consideration for the future. I have some more J- ideas below that I think are more their speed.

Okay! So you all know I almost always start with the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did so here for this couple. Between its suggestions and my own mental files these are my ideas for them:

(1) Colin or Cole
I think Colin’s my biggest suggestion here—it’s Irishy but not too much so, and its English usage stems from its use as a medieval diminutive of Nicholas. So any of the Sts. Nicholas would be good for a Colin! Cole was listed as a style match for Jude, and it also can be related to Nicholas. I prefer the KAHL-in pronunciation for Colin, rather than COLE-in (like Colin Powell), but even with the KAHL-in pronunciation I think Cole could still work as a nickname for Colin if they wanted.

(2) Owen
Owen has the same feeling to me as Evan and Colin—Irishy but not overly so, and I’ve been over-the-moon about St. Nicholas Owen recently—great patron for a little guy! Also, my brother and sister-in-law who were heavily considering Bo ending up naming their son Owen!

(3) Joel, Jared, Jonathan, Justin
It’s funny, I originally had Seth as my third idea for this couple, as it was listed as a style match for both Leah and Evan, which I thought was pretty great, but then I remembered that they preferred not to have an S- name and that they’ve been loving J- names, and Joel is a match for Leah and Seth so it was the perfect swap-in. I love what the BNW says about it: “Joel’s not flashy. It has been steadily popular for many years, but not in the top 100. It’s biblical, but unlike the Isaiahs and Ezekiels of the world, Joel doesn’t shout the fact from the rooftops. It’s quiet and warm, and you’ll never tire of it.”

Jared was listed as a style match for Joel, and I love that too! It’s two syllables and it begins with a J … it’s not Irish but it is biblical!

Jonathan is another John-type name in that it would probably knock out Evan for the future (though it’s not actually related to John, weird right?), and it’s got a heavier biblical feel.

I’ll be interested to see what they think of Justin! I know a lot of people feel like it’s still a bit too 70s/80s, a bit too much of a “dad name,” but St. Justin Martyr is just such a cool guy (and I actually love that combo, “Justin Martyr”—is it too much? 😀 ), and I feel like the name Justin is cool guy name. He may be a dad in a lot of people’s minds, but he’s a cool dad. Haha!

(4) Caleb
Finally, Caleb. I had it on my list for this family, and then I took if off, but at the last minute made the decision to put it back on again. I just love the name Caleb, it’s so sweet and biblical and it can take the amazing nickname Cal, which I just love. It’s also two syllables.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for Riley’s little brother?

Baby name consultant: “Cute, pretty, creative, professional” name needed for a little Southern Belle

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

I hope all the dads in your lives had a great Father’s Day yesterday!! We had a great day here — got a lot of house cleaning done, which is seriously one of my hubs’ favorite things. 🙂 Also some good food and lots.of.golf. Also that basketball game. St. Joseph, you who understand husbands and dads so well, please pray for all the Sancta Nomina dads!

Today’s consultation is for Lily and her husband, who are expecting their first baby — a little Miss!

Lily writes,

“I am expecting our first child and I am due in July … being from the south I love monograms and this little girl needs a name so I can start monogramming!

My Name is Lily Irene, and I love love love my name. I had a hard time dropping Irene when I got married and moving in my maiden name of Kelley. I want my child’s name to have a similar feel to mine, but my Husband has very different naming taste than me. However one thing we have agreed on is her middle name will be Twiggs after my father. I would like to call her Twiggs, and I am slowly working on that with my husband. His fear is she will be made fun of at school, and come home crying. But with today’s different names I doubt that will happen. I am open to moving Twiggs to her first name if we can come up with a more feminine name to accompany it.”

I was intrigued right away when I read about Twiggs and — to go back to the Southern names post of the other day — it immediately felt like a Southern name to me. Am I right? A family surnamey name for a girl?

Names that Lily loves but her husband hates (her words!) include:

Emmeline
Lucille
Adelaide (Lily’s favorite)
Mae
Annalee

Her husband’s favorites include:

Anna
Emily
Emma
Charlotte

And names they can’t use for various reasons:

Charlotte
Caroline
Carolyn
Gracie
Birdie (“love this name”)
Catherine

Alrighty, regarding Twiggs, and it sounds to me like Lily’s husband would really feel more comfortable with it in the middle rather than as a first name. It’s really pretty great of him to even agree to it in the middle! He makes a fair point of worrying that she’ll be teased for it, but Lily also make a good point that with today’s different names it’s less likely to happen than it used to. I also thought I should point out that there’s that singer FKA Twigs — I don’t think she’s hugely popular? But she’s currently dating (or engaged to?) Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame, so there’s that. (Her birth name is Tahliah.)

If Lily and her hubs decide to keep Twiggs in the middle spot, I could definitely see Lily calling her Twiggs whenever she wants to, as parents do — all sorts of fun nicknames that are mostly used at home/with family. So if they were to ask my opinion, I’d say the middle spot is the best place for Twiggs, no matter whether they end up calling her that or not. And I think it would be great and fine for Lily to call her that! But with a different first name her husband would have a name to call his little girl that he feels most comfortable with, and she’d have her “normal” name for school, etc. Does that make sense?

I also feel like, since Lily’s husband’s already agreeing to Twiggs, which sounds like he’s not 100% thrilled about, it might be nice to weight the first name choice a little closer to his taste. Which I don’t think should be very hard, because they’re really close on a few names! Lily’s Emmeline and Mr.’s Emily and Emma are so close! Emily Twiggs and Emma Twiggs are both lovely combinations, and balance out the unusualness (and masculinity, since it’s Lily’s dad’s name) of Twiggs nicely. If Mr. could get on board with Emmeline, Emma and even Emily could be nicknames for it that he could call her if he wanted. I’m actually laughing at the idea of Emmeline Twiggs who goes by Emma with her dad and Twiggs with her mom and Emmeline at school — hilarious! And awesome!

Similarly, his Anna and Lily’s Annalee are really close as well. Mr.’s middle name is Lee, and if Lily thought of adding the Lee as a nod to her husband, because of his middle name, it’s such a lovely gesture! I could see it also being a nod to Lily as well, since Lily ends in the “Lee” sound as well. Anna Twiggs and Annalee Twiggs (called Anna by her dad) are both great.

It seems that though Mr. likes Charlotte, it’s not a possibility because of other considerations, but I’m glad Lily listed it as a name he likes, because it gives me a better sense of his taste in names, which was helpful in coming up with new ideas for them.

On Lily’s list, I was interested to see Mae, and while it’s sweet as it is, I wondered if her husband would be more interested in it if it was a bit longer? Mabel and Maybelle came up in my research, and I thought they might fit the bill. Mabel can be a Marian name in that it originally comes from the Latin amabilis, which means “lovable,” and is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis (Mother Most Amiable/Lovable). Maybelle is similar in sound to Mabel, and can also be Marian, but in a different way — Mae and May are sometimes considered nicknames/diminutives of Mary, and the month of May is Mary’s month, so Maybelle is a sweet nod to Mary. “Belle” means “beautiful,” which is just lovely for a little girl. When Lily said she wants her daughter’s “second name to be a happy joyful name,” I felt like Maybelle kind of fits that.

I was also interested to see that Lily said she loves the name Birdie, and also that she listed Gracie as a name they can’t use, which makes me think she might like to use it if it wasn’t off limits. So based on Birdie and Gracie, I came up with a list of similar names — sweet, girly, and nicknamey:

  • Sadie
  • Daisy
  • Bess/Bessie
  • Nellie
  • Mamie (which is a traditional nickname for Mary, so also a Marian name)
  • Katie
  • Sophie (a full name in its own right, but it felt similar to these other nicknamey names)
  • Rosie
  • Molly (started as a nickname for Mary, so also a Marian name)
  • Ivy (ditto to Sophie)

All of these could be a really sweet, feminine first name before the middle name Twiggs. But, there’s also something to be said for preceding a name like Twiggs with a more formal first name, just so she’d have options (and Sophie, Lucy, Molly, and Ivy from the list above would fit that also), so I’ve come up with a few here that Lily and her husband might like:

(1) Josephine
You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard the names parents like as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. It can be uncannily accurate! And I especially like finding names that are listed as similar to more than one of the names Mom and Dad like, *especially* if it’s a name similar to a name both Mom AND Dad like. Josephine is such a name! It was listed as a style match for Adelaide, Charlotte, Caroline, and Catherine. Wow! St. Joseph is an awesome patron saint for a little one, and the nickname Josie is so darling—I would absolutely have included in the list above if I didn’t already have Josephine on the list to recommend.

(2) Lucy
Similar to Josie, I would have included Lucy in the nicknamey-type names above if I wasn’t planning to include it down here. It’s actually a style match for Emma, and since they have Lucille on their list already, I wonder if they’d be willing to go with Lucy instead. Lucy’s such a sweet name, and Lucy Twiggs is pretty adorable.

(3) A double name
My comment about Lucy Twiggs being pretty adorable made me think that maybe a really feminine first name plus Twiggs with the intention of using them together might also be a nice compromise for Lily and her hubs. I think Emma Twiggs and Lucy Twiggs are well suited for that, as are several of the nicknamey names above (my favorites for them include Sophie Twiggs and Molly Twiggs). Sara(h) is also great for that—Sarah Twiggs or Sara Twiggs—and Sarah was a style match for Anna and Emily, so I think there’s a good chance Lily’s husband will like it. Mary is also always great for a double name, and Mary Twiggs sounds like a lovely Southern belle to me.

(4) Leah
Leah is solely out of my own thoughts, based entirely on Lily’s husband’s middle name and the “lee” sound at the end of Lily. Leah would be a nice subtle nod to both of them, while also being very feminine and biblical, and it flows really nicely with Twiggs.

In an added twist, Lily’s initial response to my thoughts was that she loves Lucy, but her husband wasn’t sold, and she wrote again saying,

“I finally got out of him some characteristics he wants in a name and his criteria are: Cute, Pretty, Creative and Professional. He says Lily fits those characteristics, but I don’t want her to be Lily Twiggs or Lillan Twiggs. He doesn’t like it that people have to ask him do you prefer [a traditional nickname for his given name] or [his given name] so he wants the name to also just be what she would be called (does that make sense) … when you have a free moment can you see if you can come up with Cute, Pretty, Creative and a Professional name.

Oh and No “S” names because the monogram looks awfully close to a not so nice four letter word!“

As it happened, I did have a free moment, and spent a little time trying to come up with “Cute, Pretty, Creative, and Professional” names. A tough task! When I think of “Professional” names for women, I tend to think of names like Margaret, Katherine, Elizabeth, Victoria, Deborah — longer names with weight and history and, honestly, nothing too creative about them. If someone told me they wanted a name with Lily’s husband’s criteria, I’d probably suggest something like Elizabeth with a funkier nickname for everyday use, like Libby, or maybe Deborah nicknamed Dorah. But Mr. wants her given name to be the name she goes by all the time, so nothing longer with a short and spunky nickname. Gah! So hard!

From their original lists, I really think Anna, Emmeline, and Adelaide fit this criteria. I think those three names could be seen as cute, pretty, creative, and professional. Of course, this is all very subjective as well, so what I think fits those criteria might not be at all what someone else thinks of as cute, pretty, creative, and professional. You know?

Regarding Lucy, I think I can see what Lily’s husband means. Lucy has a long history of use across cultures and ethnicities, so it should work as pretty and professional, but the –y ending can come across as nicknamey (even though it’s not), and that is really what I think kills it for her hubs’ criteria, because cute and professional just do not go together, generally. But if they were to change it to Lucia, that might work better? It loses the cutesy/nicknamey feel that Lucy’s –y ending can project, and it feels a bit more sophisticated, but it’s still pretty and I think it could come across as creative (unlike Lucille from Lily’s original list, which I think feels a little more staid). If Lily wanted to continue trying to win over her husband, however, the women listed here might help; I think Lucy Liu particularly comes across as a very strong woman.

Here are some other names I thought could work for “cute, pretty, creative, and professional” — I basically just went through one of my name books and wrote down any name that struck me as having the right feel, so it’s very very subjective! I like each of these paired with Twiggs:

(1) Cora
This is probably my #1 suggestion for them. It reminds me a lot of Lucy in length and sweetness, but it’s also got sort of an Old World, “Great Lady” feel to it.

(2) Margo
Actually, Margo might be tied for #1 for me — this Margaret variant is a bit cuter and funkier — definitely has more of a creative feel to me than Margaret — but I could also see it on a Supreme Court Judge.

(3) Livia
Wait! I love Livia too. Okay, that makes three names tied for #1 in my opinion! Livia is really similar to Olivia in sound and appearance, but it’s actually a totally different name — an old Roman name, the name of the wife of one of the Roman emperors (Augustus). It’s also got a separate use as a personification of the River Liffey in Dublin — it’s been used in Irish literature as the name of a woman who represents the River and Mother Ireland.

(4) Lydia
Lydia’s a biblical name, the name of a women who sold purple cloth and was converted by St. Paul. I’ve always loved that a little Lydia can have purple as her very own color!

(5) Maren
Maren is on the more creative end I think, and maybe not as cute, but I actually do think it’s creative and professional at the same time.

(6) Cecily
Even though it ends in a –y, I think Cecily’s longer length makes it not cutesy/nicknamey. It’s a sweet name, but I could also see it on a Supreme Court Judge.

(7) Corinna
Corinna is lovely and feminine, but also kind of weighty and sophisticated, a beautiful name.

(8) Junia or Julia
Junia might be a bit too out there? But it’s a biblical name, which automatically gives it gravitas, and it’s unexpected and pretty rare, which I think often comes across as creative. (Read about a real-life Junia here.)

Julia is so similar to Junia, but more familiar. It’s absolutely a name that gives a woman respect and it’s a really pretty name at the same time.

(9) Laurel
In the family of Laura names, I think Laura feels the most old-fashioned, and Lauren feels modern and youthful (which can come across as not professional). But I think maybe Laurel has the right feel — creative but sophisticated.

(10) Claudia
Finally, Claudia. It was actually the first name I thought of for Lily and her hubs as creative and professional! I don’t think it’s as cute or pretty as some of the others, but it’s a substantial name and pretty uncommon. Like Livia, it’s an old Roman name.

Whew! There’s a lot here to think about! What suggestions do you all have for Lily and her husband for their little Southern Belle, based on all this?