You might have wondered about this bit in “Guest Post: Ana on Baby Naming” linked to in one of my previous posts:

“… one day my wanna-be theologian husband came home and told me that the Pope had written some beautiful letter on the importance of Catholics using names of great saints in the Church when naming their children …”

I believe Ana was referring to an oft-misrepresented homily by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in which he said:

“It is not by chance, in fact, that every baptized person acquires the character of the Son, starting from their Christian name, an indisputable sign that the Holy Spirit brings man to be born again from the womb of the Church. Blessed Antonio Rosmini says that ‘the baptized person undergoes a secret but most powerful operation by which he is raised up to the supernatural order, he is placed in communication with God.'”

My favorite take on the misrepresentations is by the Baby Name Wizard herself: Pope Benedict on Baby Names: A global game of telephone. And Pope Benedict isn’t the only pope in recent memory to have had an impact on naming discussions — Pope Francis caused quite a stir when he chose Francis as his papal name, the first pope to have ever done so, and since then has taken the baby name world by storm. Some examples:

Pope Francis inspires baby names

Naming the Pope

The 2013 Name of the Year

Papal Baby Names: Possibilities beyond Pius and Innocent

The Pope Francis Effect: ‘Francesco’ now Italy’s most popular baby name

What do you think of Francis or Frances or any of the other variations of the name for boys or girls? What about Benedict and John Paul? Or how about their birth names: Karol (Charles, Carl) (JPII), Josef (Joseph) (BXVI), or Jorge (George) (PF)?

Rose is a Marian name — it can refer to Our Lady of the Rosary for one, or Our Lady of Guadalupe with the roses that fell from St. Juan Diego’s tilma; she also often appeared with roses on her feet, as at Lourdes and Knock (there’s a beautiful song about Our Lady of Knock that calls her the “Golden Rose, Queen of Ireland”). It’s also saintly — there’s also St. Rose of Lima, and the roses associated with the intercession of St. Therese.

When parents seek to honor someone — a relative or saint or other respected person — in the naming of their child, it’s not unusual to look for different variations of the name.  Aunt Marguerite might have a little namesake named Margaret, or Uncle John who always went by Jack might have a little namesake bestowed with just Jack or maybe Jackson. “Catherine Marie” might have a nicer flow to it in the opinions of the parents than “Catherine Mary,” and so Grandmother Mary is honored with “Marie.” Grandpa Stephen might have a little Stephanie named after him. Flow, the preferences of the modern-day ear, and gender differences are some of the reasons parents may veer away from the actual name they’re inspired by and replace it with a variant.

I was thinking of Rose yesterday because my boys were playing the Wii game Super Mario Galaxy and they said the Star Mother (I think?) was named Rosalina. I’d never heard that variation before, and I admit — I liked it. Some of my other favorites are Rosa, Rosalie (despite the Twilight connotation), and Roisin (with an accent over the ‘o’ and the second ‘i’ — I don’t know how to do that here — can anyone tell me?), which is my very favorite — it’s the diminutive of the Irish for Rose, Rois (accent over ‘o’). I also love Rosey/Rosie — one of the sweetest nicknames in my opinion.

What are your favorite Rose names? Do you have examples in your own life and family when a child was given a name in honor of someone but with a change like those mentioned above?

My nine-year-old son told me yesterday that “Daniel” is a “kind of a strange name” because “not many people use that name.”

The statement seemed to me a perfect example of the current naming landscape, where “Daniel” is a “strange name” and “Jayden” made the top ten for 2013 (incidentally, so did Daniel, but that’s the thing about names — you only know what you hear. There are pockets where certain names are popular and pockets where those same names are unheard of. Unless you’re a name enthusiast who regularly checks out sites like The Baby Name Wizard and Nameberry and Swistle, all you know is what you hear around you. For a lot of people — most people? — the pool of names one hears is somewhat limited).

Such a landscape is an interesting one for the modern day Catholic parent. Names like Mary and John, mainstays of Catholic families in the past, have slid out of fashion (#121 and #27 in 2013, respectively); choosing such names now might come across as plain, old-fashioned, or contrary/nonconforming, none of which are bad associations unless the parent doing the naming considers them to be so. Such parents might be more interested in the kinds of names contained in the “Saints” section of the 3rd edition (book) of The Baby Name Wizard, introduced thus:

“Names like Francis and Mary, borne by over 50 saints each, are the bedrock of the Roman Catholic naming tradition. Yet you can explore the farther reaches of name style while still inspiring your children with role models for a spiritual life. The selective list below focuses on less common names, exploring the quirkier corners of 2000 years of religious history.” (p. 446)

So where do you fall, as a Catholic parent? Do you love Mary, Joseph, Francis, and Theresa? Do you prefer Xavier, Elodie, Chiara, and Ivo? Or do you see all the names as belonging to one big family and feel somewhat free to mix and match? Share your stories with me, I love to read them all.