Quick-witted ten-year-old

March 6, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized

I’ve had two recent posts about my oldest, and here’s yet another, because it made me laugh and it has to do with names:

That same night that he said Zachary was a “weird” name, I was working on a spreadsheet of ideas for a mom who recently emailed me hoping for suggestions for her baby-on-the-way. My son actually expressed some interest, so I was telling him her other kids’ names, and what kind of names she was looking for. He grabbed my Baby Name Wizard book and started looking through it, looking up names, and offering suggestions. I was impressed! Several were ones I’d already written down as possible suggestions.

That seemed to annoy him a little though, that he wasn’t coming up with anything I hadn’t already thought of. “Oh,” I teased him, “You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me at baby names!”

“Don’t worry Mom,” he said. “That’s not my dream.”

Tweetlely dee

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized Twitter @SanctaNomina

My sister, who knows everything about this kind of stuff, says, “It’s all about social media.” So I’m trying out Twitter — follow me @SanctaNomina!

That old Hollywood feel I keep talking about

February 20, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized Catholic baby names, Mary

Over on the Baby Name Wizard blog, there’s a great article this week called Glamorous Baby Names Inspired by Old Hollywood. There are some goooorgeous names on that list, including Clara and Rita, both of which have been part of discussions here lately (here and here). I’m surprised that Stella isn’t on the list, not because I can think of a Hollywood Stella, just because it always has that feel to me. Ava makes the list, of course, and reminds me of a little girl I know named Ava Marie, named so because it sounds like Ave Maria. How pretty is that? And what a lovely idea!

Can you think of other names that you’d include on an Old Hollywood list?

Facebook fix

February 7, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized

I set up a Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and had quite a few of you friend me (thank you!!), but I realized I’d set up the wrong kind (a personal page rather than a community page). I set up a new one — http://www.facebook.com/sanctanomina — which I’ll be transitioning to completely soon and deleting the old one. But I don’t want to lose any of you! So if you missed my message on FB about the new page, please head on over to the new page and like! And tell all your friends and family too!

Thank you all for your patience with me! I’m so delighted to have found so many people who love talking about the beautiful names of our faith like I do, what a fun little community we have here. 🙂 ❤

Facebook FYI

January 17, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized

Just to let you know, Sancta Nomina’s on Facebook — friend me! (“Sancta Nomina”)

Continuing gratitude

January 16, 2015 sanctanomina Uncategorized

I just want to thank you all again — I have been so loving the emails I’ve been receiving asking for suggestions for baby names, the comments you’ve been leaving here that add so much to whatever I’ve come up with on my own, and just having people to discuss the beautiful names of our faith with. What a fun community to have tapped into! Please keep it coming — you’re all an inspiration to me!

Names for a Christmas baby

December 18, 2014December 19, 2015 sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Uncategorized Christmas names

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?

Saintly names

August 22, 2014August 25, 2014 sanctanomina Birth announcement, Personal stories, Uncategorized Dave Grohl, Pete Wentz, Sonny Corleone

I just read the birth announcements of Saint Lazslo (born August 20), son of Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, and Ophelia Saint (born August 1), daughter of Foo Fighters rocker Dave Grohl.

I was struck by the use of “Saint” in both names (and especially as a first name) — I’ve never known that word to be used as a given name in English (and I admit I’m a little surprised to see it being used by celebrities who, as far as I know, have not been loud and proud about any religious affiliation. Never mind that “Saint” is a pretty Catholic term — I have heard non-Catholic Christians refer to all of faithful Christendom as saints, but at least in my experience it’s generally more heavily weighted toward Catholic). However, there are common names in other languages that translate as “Saint” or “holy” (which is what “saint” means):

The Italian names Santa (female), and Santo (male) and Santino (male) (does Santino ring a bell? Perhaps with the nickname Sonny? Maybe with the last name Corleone?)

Santos (male), Spanish for “saints”

Eren (male), which means “saint, holy person” in Turkish

Toussaint (male), French for “all saints”

Naomhan (with an accent over the second “a”) (male), said to be derived from the Irish “naomh,” which means “saint” (Nevan is an anglicization common in Ireland, and Niven in Scotland)

There’s also a whole bunch of names that mean “Saint So-and-so,” including:

Malcolm (male, follower of St. Columba)

Malone (male, descendant of a follower of St. John)

Seymour (male, St. Maurus)

Sinclair (male, St. Clair)

Santiago (male, St. James)

Telmo (male, St. Elmo)

Do you know any other names that have “saint” in the meaning? Do you know anyone in real life with any of these names?

Famous Catholics: Campos-Duffy

August 10, 2014August 23, 2014 sanctanomina Birth announcement, Famous Catholics, Personal stories, Uncategorized Campos-Duffy

Ok, so I don’t know a whole heckuva lot about Rachel Campos-Duffy and her husband Sean. I do know:
— They met on MTV’s Road Rules All Stars in 1998
— Sean’s a congressman (Wisconsin’s seventh district)
— He’s one of eleven children
— They gave their children super duper Catholic names: