Happy New Year’s Eve!! Happy day before the feast of Mary, Mother of God!! 🎉🎉🎉
I woke up this morning to the news that Pope Benedict died early today — on the last day of 2022, during the octave of Christmas, on the eve of a major Marian feast day, on a day when the whole world commemorates the end of a discrete amount of time and anticipates what comes next — this all seems a perfect day for his time here on earth to come to an end! As the Vatican News article Farewell to Benedict XVI: ‘Humble worker in vineyard of the Lord’ put it, “Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has returned to the Father’s House.” Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May in rest in peace. Amen.
As far as my own year in review:
I love doing these posts — I’ve done one every year since I started the blog! You can check them all out here:
- Year in review: 2021 (new blessings)
- Year in review: 2020 (better than expected)
- Year in review: 2019 (scrabbling back)
- Year in review: 2018 (the Year of Big News)
- Year in review: 2017 (blessed beyond measure)
- Year in review: 2016 (more of the wonderful same)
- Year in review: 2015 (confetti and champagne!)
I read through them again and again not infrequently — what a gift Sancta Nomina has been for me, and it seems like it’s been so for many of you! As far as 2022 went:
- Theresa kept the blog going! I posted 19 consultations that she had done, and I know she did private ones as well. One of the public ones was for twins, which is always fun, and one had me chuckling all over again when I reread it yesterday — she was tasked with finding names that ideally represented the parents’ love of punk rock, Doctor Who, and Catholicism! I love that so much! It’s *SO* Sancta Nomina!!
- Speaking of Theresa and her keeping the blog going, she was also interviewed for the Catholic News Agency article How to honor Our Lady in your baby’s name for the feast of the Holy Name of Mary by Edie Heipel, which posted on the actual feast (September 12, 2022) — she did an amazing job!! She represented Sancta Nomina so well!!
- For myself, I took on five consultations last January, and then officially resumed accepting consultations requests in October. Between Theresa and me, all your Catholic baby naming needs are covered!
- I had the great honor of posting 17 birth announcements for the wonderfully named Benedict Jozef, Is@@c Cill!@n, Pia Maris, Lawrence David Joseph, Retta Joy, Annunziata Lucille, Eloise Josephine, Agnes Marie-Josephine, Paschal Joseph, Isabel Martha, Margaret Lily, Mirren Therese and Brigid Evelyn (those twins mentioned above!), Clement Kolbe, W1ll@ R0s3, Louis Sebastian, Clement Joshua Samuel, and Pia Susan. Two Clements! Two Pias! All of these names are so swoony!!
- I posted a Fun Friday Question: “Unmistakably Catholic,” except … not?
- I did a Sibling Project post: Fulton
- I posted a request for characters in stories written by Catholic authors who go through a name change during the story (the characters, not the authors): Name changes in Catholic literature?
- I did a post on nicknames for Bonaventure
As I included in my Year In Review post last year, one of the things I felt was a failure of mine during 2021 was that I wasn’t able to make my annual St. Anne pilgrimage to thank her for her patronage and intercession. But then, I had the immense blessing of being able to post this on Instagram last January:


Can you believe it?? So amazing!! Then, in April of this year I posted this:



I mean, really. St. Anne has always kept us close! She loves us so much. 💗💗💗
Finally, a Big Thing that happened was that I achieved my 2 millionth hit at the beginning of December!
As I’m posting this, I’m currently at 2,013,494. Amazing. Thank you all for visiting!!
And that’s Sancta Nomina’s 2022! You can continue to find me on Instagram (especially) and Facebook (occasionally) and not at all on Twitter (though my account still exists and my posts still automatically post there) nor Pinterest (also still exists, though I’ve given it up entirely), as well as here on the blog. And my book continues to be one of the greatest things I’ve ever done! I’m endlessly thrilled that I have a book of Marian names to my credit, and I use it *all the time*! In fact, my copy is falling apart — I must get a new one!!
I thank you all, as always, for making this little space of the internet the sweet, cozy, wholesome, fun place it is! Many many prayers and blessings to you all in the New Year!!
Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation from either Theresa or myself here.
For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!