Naming nitty gritty

Mystery solved

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Yesterday I told you that my son thinks Zachary and Daniel are “weird” names, and I was determined to discover what names he would classify as normal. My guesses were either super trendy or super crazy-saintly.

I was wrong on both counts: He said he would consider “normal” names to be Jack, Matthew, John, Mark, and Steve — a mix of family members and boys in his class at school. (Notice: no girl names. That’s what happens when there are seven males in a house and only one female, who’s *just* Mom.)

“Weird” names

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My ten-year-old and I were chatting on the couch last night while my husband watched basketball (I think? Was there basketball on last night? It was some sports game). Someone on TV said “Zachary” and my son said, “Zachary? THAT’s a weird name.”* Given that he’d said the same about Daniel not too long ago, I suspect he’s either a victim of (on the one end) the names that are very popular/trendy right now (the Aidan-Jayden-Braden Generation, by which I mean nothing negative about those names — just that they’re all the rage right now), or (on the other end) a household in which his mother really really likes to talk about names that don’t tend to fit into the current secular trends. So does he think a not-weird name is Jayden? Or one of my very favorites, which he and I have discussed before: Joachim? I didn’t think to ask him, but I intend to this evening, and will be sure to report back. 🙂

At the same time, I was telling my parents recently that names like Alice, Agnes, and Harriet are starting to come back, and they were both flabbergasted. I’ve also considered that in fifty-plus years, there will be grandmothers named Brittany and Ashby and Wyatt (thanks Kutchers) and grandfathers named Caden and Logan and Saint (thanks Wentzes), which always blows my mind a little. Also how much weirder Grandmas Brittany, Ashby, and Wyatt sound to me than Grandpas Caden, Logan, and Saint. Why is it men age so much better????

How about your kids or other little ones you spend time with? Have you ever seen them wrinkle their noses at particular names? Do you have a sense of which names they think are “weird” and which are “normal”? How about those of you who have/know little girls — what have they named their babies? (I hear a lot of Luke Skywalker around here, and the stuffed animals have names like Bandaids, D2, and Biscuit. So I don’t have any great insights.)

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* In other generation-gap news, during that same TV sports thing that was on, a commercial had “I want to be like Mike” as its soundtrack. “Who’s Mike?” said my eight-year-old.

Double names on paper

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I wrote recently about mash-up names and feminine first names with a masculine middle and this is related but yet a different angle — how does one deal, on paper, with having double names? By which I mean, if you were going to give your child two names that he or she would always go by, how would you decide to spell it and why?

I mean, I know a MaryAnn and a Mary Beth, a Roseanne and a RoseAnn, even an Elisa Beth; I’ve seen Marykate and Mary Kate, Marylee and Marilee. Maybe the daddy of them all for us kind of namers are the little boys honoring JP2 — I’ve seen JohnPaul and John Paul and John-Paul and Johnpaul. It all kind of makes me a little crazy because I love the idea of double names and could totally come up with some pretty fab combos, but (and maybe this is writer/editor me) how names look on paper — either written out on top of a school paper or signed on a check or filled out on a form — matters to me. I just want to know how am I *supposed* to do it?

Mary Beth, on paper, could result in a person getting called just “Mary” (perhaps assuming the “Beth” is a middle). (Actually, this happens even when hearing it out loud too, so …)

MaryAnn will forever confound people who, like me, want to get it right. (I do now with the MaryAnn I know, but it took a while.)

John-Paul’s hyphen is meant to keep the elements together, but may end up being more of a headache — do forms even take hyphens? Does it come across as overly stuffy or too particular, especially for a boy?

I know a little Marie-Therese, which I just love, but if I were her mother and I’d carefully selected such a beautiful name for her, I think I’d really hate people assuming they can shorten it to just “Marie.” Or maybe little Marie-Therese would shorten it herself when she got older, not because she wanted to but because she was tired of the hassle?

And how would you write your initials, if you had a hyphenated name? Would Marie-Therese McMahon be M-TM? Or MM? Are two names connected by a hyphen considered two names (hence initials M-T) or just one big one (initial M only)?

These are the questions that keep me up at night. 😉 Or at least, they knock out certain name contenders for me, because I just can’t come to a peace about how to write them. I really wanted John Paul (I think that spelling?) for one of our boys, but my husband’s a convert and he thought it might be a bit much for his mom to handle (especially since the boy I particularly wanted to name John Paul was born only a couple months after my husband became Catholic) — now I think, maybe I dodged a bullet? Would I have always been unsettled about whichever spelling of John Paul we decided on? Would he have finally succumbed to being called just John? (Nothing wrong with John! Just … it wouldn’t have been his name.)

This is when it’s somewhat burdensome to always be considering every aspect and angle of naming. This crazy mind of mine, it’s a blessing and a burden. :p

Please tell me, how do you handle names like these? Or what have you seen others do?

Names for a Christmas baby

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Melchior — the third Wise Man

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

And there are meaning names, like:

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

Noel or Noelle — means “Christmas” in French

Stella — means “star” in Latin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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