I know I said I’d be off the blog — and I am! But birth announcements are too celebratory not to post!
I did a private consultation for a mama a while ago, and she’s let me know her baby has arrived — a little girl named … Adelaide Elizabeth!!
She writes,
“I just wanted to update you that our baby was born on the 14th … Her name is Adelaide Elizabeth. Adelaide we settled on early, and the middle name Elizabeth was not one of my first ideas and isn’t as strong a family name as her older two siblings (with their parents’ first names as middle) but I did have a great-grandmother Elizabeth and it’s been a middle name for various family members on both sides. I’m undecided as Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, or Elizabeth Seton as a patron…so maybe both?
She’s a darling baby and we’re so thrilled!“
How wonderful!! I LOVE the name Adelaide! And of course Elizabeth, I mean, come on. What a great combo. Her big sibs are:
Penelope Theresa
Leo Elliot
Love love love. A little offbeat but totally classic at the same time. Beautiful job, Mom and Dad!
Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Adelaide!!
My March column at CatholicMom.com posted last Wednesday, and I’m only now getting a chance to let you all know! As you’ll read, it was inspired by the fact that search terms having to do with nicknames for Victor bring people to my blog more than any other search term, except for those specifically looking for the blog (e.g., “sancta nomina blog”). I still find that pretty amazing!
With that, I’m signing off until next week, when I’ll post the Monday consultation as usual (for one of our most regular readers! So exciting!). I’ll remember you all in my prayers over the next few somber and celebratory days, and I hope you all have a very blessed Holy Week and a wonderfully Happy Easter!! ❤ ❤ ❤
Shelby and Mary-Agnes both offered some ideas, and I’ve spent the last couple weeks jotting down some more as I thought of them — there are a good few!
Girls
Cruz — cruz is Spanish for “cross” and refers to the Cross of the Crucifixion; used for boys and girls
Dolores — Spanish for “sorrows,” traditionally used for Our Lady of Sorrows (María de los Dolores) and here could refer to both her and to the Sorrowful Mysteries, or to the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) — the name for the path in Jerusalem Jesus walked on his way to the Crucifixion
Magdalen(e/a), Maddelana, Madeleine/Madeline — Mary Magdalene was at the foot of the Cross
Maricruz — a Spanish contraction of María and Cruz
Mary — Our Lady was at the foot of the Cross
Olivia, Olive — for the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (an olive grove); the nickname Via for Olivia would bring in an added nod to the Via Dolorosa (see Dolores above)
Pilar — a Spanish girl’s name meaning “pillar,” which can be a nod to the Scourging at the Pillar (it’s a Marian name referring to the unrelated title María del Pilar — Our Lady of the Pillar, from a Spanish apparition)
Regina — meaning “queen” (or perhaps “royalty” would be the better sense here) because of the Crowning with Thorns
Ruby — “red,” for Jesus’ Blood poured out for us in His Passion and Death
Scarlett — same as Ruby
Veronica — she wiped Jesus’ Face during the Carrying of the Cross
Boys
Cruz — cruz is Spanish for “cross” and refers to the Cross of the Crucifixion; used for boys and girls
Cyrene — Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry His Cross
Dismas — the name traditionally given to the repentant thief crucified next to Jesus
John — John the Beloved Disciple was at the foot of the Cross with Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene
Oliver — see Olivia/Olive above
Rex, Regis — meaning “king” because of the Crowing with Thorns; see Regina above
Simon — see Cyrene above
Tristan — often considered to mean “sad” because of its similarity to Latin tristis (sad)
What others can you add to this list?
+ For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. +
“Woodrow Ignatius Floyd was born on October 23, 2015.
Oddly enough we did not know St Ignatius of Loyola was also born on Oct 23, but divine providence proves itself once again. We had no middle name for him as I felt like God and the saints would point in the right direction on his birthday. I had really thought I would have him on Oct 22 (his due date was the 31), because it’s the feast of St Pope John Paul II, to whom I have a strong devotion. But even though my water broke on the 22, and it seems St Ignatius wanted him for his own. 🙂 … Woodrow was a name my husband brought up and was a front runner while we were still deciding. We will not be using a nickname, though “Row” or “W” would be what we would use.
Both my husband and I love history, as I think I said before, so we were really drawn to names with historical reference or legend, etc. “
I’m really excited because one of the names I’d suggested had been Fitzwilliam (after Mr. Darcy), and Woodrow is so similar because it’s a last name used as a first name by a famous man (one fictional, one real). I even wrote, “I was trying to think of names that will always be somewhat unique/unpopular, no matter the changing tide of societal taste, and I thought surnames are one of those that may tend to fit that category.” So I feel like I was circling the right area! And I LOVE Woodrow with Ignatius — so heavy hitting! So faithy! So perfectly fitting what Emily and her husband were looking for! The story of how Ignatius is came to be his name is so.fantastic.
Congratulations to the proud Mom and Dad and big sibs Gwenevere Marie, Avalene Ruth, and Gideon Elias, and happy birthday Baby Woodrow!!
“We didn’t put much emphasis on for having a saintly base to his name. We think our names get a passing grade as long as there is just one saint that can be connected. I have all the hope in the world that there will be a St. Ryan someday even with my ordinary mothering especially after reading this the other day. There happens to be a St. Donald, but it is kind of a downer because there is almost nothing known about him. I do wish we had a specific intercessor picked out to call upon for Ryan. Maybe Kate could do a spotlight on Ryan? Hint, hint.”
I totally picked up the hint (:) ) and thought it would be the perfect name to spotlight not only at the end of Irish week (because it’s Irish, just in case you weren’t sure), but also as we go into Holy Week, since I’m totally thinking that the best faithy connection for Ryan is Jesus Himself.
Ryan is said by behindthename and babynamesofireland (which only has an entry for Ryanne, “a female form of Ryan,” but not Ryan. Weird) to come from from ri (=king) and the diminutive –in, in essence meaning “little king,” which is, to me, all that tiny Babe in the manger. How cool. I might then consider it a possible Christmas name as well. I’m totally loving this idea!
Further digging shows there may indeed be a St. Ryan, under the name St. Rhian, and he is a mysterious (but so intriguing!) fellow. There’s a Welsh town called Llanrhian, where “llan” means “place of” (according to my Welsh expert friend Clare from Name News [a treasure trove of name info] — check out her comments about Welsh names and pronunciations on my post here, so cool!), and “There are lots of place names that are Llan + saint’s name, e.g. Llanfair (Mair = Mary), Llanbedr (Pedr = Peter).” so Llanrhian is named after someone named Rhian, and despite the fact that behindthename says Rhian is a Welsh female name meaning “maiden,” this site says about St. Rhian,
“Little is known of this saint, or of any other dedications to him. A few suggestions have been made:
The name may originally have been Rian, Rayn or Ryan, as early documents spelt it this way, and he could have been one of St David’s followers.
He could have been Rein, or Rhun, son of Brechan Brycheiniog, whose children have churches dedicated to them in various parts of Pembrokeshire
He could have been Reanus, Abbot of the 7th century
The name could have been descriptive – rian was an old Irish word for a trackway and Llanrhian might refer to the church on the trackway
It would recall some local chieftain who had embraced the Christian faith (rhi = king, an = little)
The Welsh word for maiden is rhiain, so the dedication might be to the Virgin Mary.”
(What’s that? A possible connection to Mother Mary?? ((heart eyes!!)) ) You can read more about Llanrhian and its founder/saint in this great document, and he even has a feast day (March 8).
So I’d say, if Katrina, or anyone else, wants a known patron for Ryan, I’d look to Jesus, and how awesome is that. But if a saint with the actual name is desired, St. Rhian’s the best we got, and not a terrible option at all.
What do you think of Ryan as a Jesus name? Do you have any other ideas for a patron saint for Ryan? Thanks to Katrina for the shout out and request!
I have been SO excited to showcase today’s mama and her beautiful family and wonderfully named children, and offer some ideas for her baby #7 – who’s also her sixth boy! Welcome Colleen of Martin Family Moments!
Colleen’s definitely a kindred spirit, her blog posts always make me feel like I’m chatting with my own best friends, especially the ones from college. In fact, she attended Franciscan University of Steubenville, which had been my #1 choice for a long time in high school until I decided I didn’t want to be that far from my family, especially my sisters, who were tiny when I started college. I was just musing today that if I’d gone to FUS, I would have known Colleen! She graduated a year behind me and I bet we would have been friends, not only for her personality that shines through in her writing, but also because she finds scapulars hanging out of boys’ shirts to be attractive (I thought I was the only one! My husband calls it “Catholic catnip” 😀 ). And she loves JP2. And she’s from the Northeast, so we totally would have bonded over being so far from home. And, the reason I scheduled her post for today, the fact that she loves Ireland and her Irishness (her name’s Colleen. I mean, come on) (I know she’ll love that all of my boys wore green to school today, with the cutest being my 4yo who’s wearing a shirt that says, “I drink me milk by the pint” and my almost-2yo who’s wearing a white t-shirt that has a green-tie-with-white-shamrocks printed on it 😀 ). Also, and I’m not even joking, one of my actual best friends from college—one of the ones that I think of every time I read Colleen’s posts because they’re just so familiar, just the way my friends and I are with each other—was honest-to-goodness hounding me to do a consultation for Colleen. So that settles it: Colleen would have been one of our best friends.
She’s got amazing taste in names too, which puts her right up there at the top of the list. 🙂 Check them out:
John-Paul
Andrew Pauric
Eamon Philip
Margaret Rosemary (Maggie)
Alexander Blaise (Xander)
Declan Kolbe
I mean, she totally had me at John-Paul. And one of the first boys I met when I was studying abroad in Ireland was John Paul. I also loved discovering, when reading the how&whys behind her naming, that Pauric was not actually the name of the uncle her Andrew Pauric was named after, but rather Padraig, and the Pauric spelling reveals one of the acceptable pronunciations of the name. So many Irishy things we’re learning today!
So when I was discussing with Colleen her and her hubs’ naming requirements and restrictions a few weeks ago, she said,
“I want really Irish names, but my husband likes saintly traditional names. I usually win out 🙂 we should know gender in two weeks, so you can just focus on one set of names. Current favorites are Elena Mae (husband approved) and Rowan Asher (husband unapproved)“
And then after they found out their new baby is a boy she gave me these additional difficulties,
“1) Not using our nephews or nieces names, which include – Maura, Gavin, Liam, Maeve, Rory, (Joseph) Finn, Joanna, Thomas, Lenora, Miriam, Josephine, Nadia, John, Caitlin, Brogan, PJ, Clare, Megan, Bridget, Katherine, Ryan, Grace, Lillian, Abigail, William.
2) My husband can almost always associate a name with a student he’s taught and that totally influences his opinion. He’s been teaching for 13 years, so he has quite a list! But there’s no way you would know any of these, so go with the flow 🙂
Our last name is Martin, so nothing like Martin or Martina. And the initials probably shouldn’t be DAM or HAM or anything that could be embarrassing! I love girl nicknames that are cute, ending in -ie or -y…we love the nicknames Annie, Lainey (which would be Elena’s), Ally.
Oh! And we can’t reuse any of the names we were going to use for our past babies, which include – Brendan, Kayleigh, Emily, and Felicity.”
And then when I looked back on the naming post I linked to above and also this one, I discovered some more names that are on the no-go list:
Dean
Sean
Brian
Robert
Patrick
Jacob
As well as these names that they really like but can’t use for various reasons:
Maximilian
Benedict
Christian
Jonathan
Casey
Cory
Taylor
And names that Colleen likes:
Brennan
Kieran
Kane (Colleen’s mom’s maiden name)
Nolan
Niamh
Non-saint names — “because how are we going to ever create new saint names unless we name our kids non-saint names?“
And names that Phil likes:
Emily
Evelyn
Saints’ names
And also:
Re: the difficulties with others’ butchering of Eamon: “I think that might be the last time we use a mostly unrecognized Irish name again.”
And finally, the most recent update:
“Since we’ve found out it’s a boy, we’ve been leaning towards names with a strong “n” sound…after realizing that we have a JohN-Paul, ANdrew, EamoN, XaNder, and DeclaN.
Top contenders are Bennet(t), Evan, Rowan/Ronan.
I would still love a cute nickname for whatever name he has (like Benny for Bennett) and I have been so good at trying to keep an open mind until I read your post 🙂 “
Okay! Whew! I think I got everything in there and I’m pretty sure none of my ideas violates any of the rules but there’s certainly a chance I missed something so if Colleen reads any of my ideas and thinks, “She’s terrible at this, I *told* her such-and-such wouldn’t work!” I probably won’t be too surprise.
I do need to point out though that Colleen related a story of having decided on Casey for one of her older boys, only to have both her and her husband meet girls named Casey, which crossed the name off the boy list (she says, “I’d rather give a unisex name to a girl than a boy“), so I know she’ll want to know that Rowan is actually included in the Androgynous list in the Baby Name Wizard, and that the one I’m most familiar with (not knowing any in real life) is Brooke Shields’ daughter Rowan. So I’m definitely in the Ronan camp for Baby Martin.
Speaking of the Baby Name Wizard, I just want to remind you all, as I’m sure you already remember, that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents used and like because the BNW lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that match in terms of style/feel/popularity. It’s such a useful tool, even for only pointing me in the right direction, you know? So when I say “such-and-such is a style match for such-and-such,” you know I’m referring to my trusty BNW.
And now, without any further ado (I’m really good at “further ado” and I often have to cut myself off!), here are my ideas/suggestions:
(1) Biblical: Benjamin
John, Paul, Andrew, Philip, and Alexander are all biblical names, so methinks they might be open to considering some others. Benjamin is a style match for both Andrew and Alexander, and it’s kind of like the Benedict they don’t feel they can use (because “we already have one son named after a Pope”) and the Bennett they’re considering AND it has the “strong ‘n'” sound all their other boys have. Also the awesome nickname possibility of Ben(ny).
(2) Irish: Cormac, Cashel, Owen, Connor, Miles
Ooh I have so many ideas for this category! Cormac is the first — saintly and Irish, and with the fabulous nickname Mac.
Cashel is offbeat and unusual but I love it so much for its meaning — “The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion” and it’s “reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century” — and for its possible nickname of Cash. Swoon!!!
Owen has the strong N and not only is it Irish but it can have the awesome patron saint of one of my very favorites, St. Nicholas Owen. (No good nickname options though.)
Connor is totally one of those “cute boy” names, in my opinion — handsome and Irish and so cool. And it’s got the N’s! Nicknames are harder for Connor — there’s the old-school Connie, like Connie Mack, but I don’t know too many parents these days who would be okay with that.
And Miles — I have to suggest Miles!!! The old Irish name Maolmhuire (“devotee of Mary”) is anglicized as Miles or Myles. A Marian boy’s name is so to die for!! Being only one syllable (or you could make it two, depending on your dialect) it doesn’t need a nickname, but Milo’s a cute option (even though it doesn’t make it any shorter).
(3) Biblical+Irish: Daniel, Gabriel
Finally, two names really stuck out at me as being particularly Irish while still being biblical. The first is Daniel. You canNOT get more Irish than Danny Boy. Oh Danny Boy! With N’s!
Can any Irish girl listen to that song and NOT decide then and there to name her boy Danny?!
The second is Gabriel, which is certainly not as Irish as Daniel, but is used enough — actor Gabriel Byrne is a great example, as is super duper famous longtime Irish TV personality Gay Byrne (whose given name is Gabriel Mary Byrne. I just die. ❤ I wrote about the Irish Gabriels here).
And Kane is my hearty suggestion for a middle name for almost all of these — it’s a family name and it sounds ah-MAZ-ing to me with all of my ideas, even the ones that start with a K sound. Love love love.
And those are my ideas for Colleen and Phil! What do you all think? What other names would you suggest for a wee lad whose big sibs are John-Paul, Andrew, Eamon, Maggie, Xander, and Declan?
I’m really excited to be speaking tonight at a dinner for Irish Catholic women on the usage of the name of Mary by the Irish in Ireland and America — I’ll be sharing a little history, a little language, and some really cool names (like my fave Miles that I’m always pushing on all of you!), and the comments you all left on this post were tremendously helpful! Go raibh maith agat! (“Thank you” in Irish!)
One of my college roommates sent me this article, which I thought was pretty great: Irish Names: Here are 17 unusual ones to give your baby by Nameberry cofounder Pamela Redmond Satran. Some of my personal faves are on there, like Emer (one of the co-founders of the student pro-life group at the university I attended in Ireland was Emer, so I have all good feelings for the name) and Nuala and Senan, and I’ve been crushing on recently on Fia/Fiadh. (Kind of reminds me of Fiat … hmmm …)
“Enda Dunn. It’s an Irish name that means “Mom and Dad are really, really tired.” 🙂 “
Finally, I think you’ll probably all enjoy this article: Staunchly defending second-hand blarney. It’s an Irish Times piece from 2001, when I was the New York Rose in the Rose of Tralee Festival in Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and while it doesn’t paint the greatest picture of the Festival (the author was definitely snarky before snarky was even a word), it says quite nice things about me. 🙂 I was doing some paperwork this morning and came across it and it made me laugh out loud. 😀 (I’ve actually tried to figure out who the author was, so I can thank him — he says some of the nicest things about me anyone’s ever said. Am I just missing his name? Can anyone help me out?)
If you’re finding all this greeny green tiresome already, I apologize, because I’m kind of a handful about all this. 😀 But if you love all things Irish as I do, be sure to look back over my old posts tagged “Irish names” and I ‘ll even repost this video, because I love it:
Yes, if you’ve been following my recent posts about Dwija and her baby, you’ll likely recognize the name in the title of this post: Dwija’s baby girl was born via emergency c-section on Sunday! I would have posted the news when I read it, except I read it as I was on my way into a meeting at church Sunday evening, and I got home too late, and then yesterday was consultation day and I really try to keep the whole day devoted to the family in the post to maximize their exposure. I’m sorry to be so late with this!
That link above is to the birth story, and I’m still amazed at the fact that she was born on 3/13 and weighed 3lbs 13 oz. The best news: she’s “very healthy and happy and safe.”
Also be sure to check out Dwija’s Instagram feed, as there are lots of sweet pictures of that teeny tiny girl! St. Helena, St. Margaret, St. Roderick (on whose feast day she was born), pray for this baby and her mama and her whole family.
Congratulations to the whole Borobia Family, and happy birthday Baby Helen!!
It’s Irish week! Woo!! No better way than to kick it off with a consultation for a mama named Maureen! 😀
Maureen and her husband Adam are expecting their second baby — their second girl! Big sister is:
Eleanor Maureen
Such a beautiful combo — elegant and sweet.
Maureen writes,
“We are expecting baby girl #2 in May, little sister to Eleanor Maureen! Eleanor was a name I have loved since grade school and think Eleanor Roosevelt and St. Helen are great women for our first daughter to look up to. Both of our parents gave their first names to their children as middle names, so Maureen was the obvious choice for a middle for the first girl and if we are ever blessed with a boy his middle name will be Adam (my husband). However, for girl #2 I think I want to give her a different middle name although my husband would be fine with another _____ Maureen.
We both would prefer a more uncommon name, but not so uncommon that people will always look at her askance when she tells them her name and we want the most traditional/common spelling for any name to minimize people spelling her name incorrectly.
The name also must be classic to fit with Eleanor (sometime goes by Ellie, but rarely). So we can’t have an Eleanor and a Mindy, for example. I’d prefer her name to not start with E. We’d also like some Marian connection in her name, either first or middle. We have predominately German and Irish heritage in our families, but aren’t limited to choosing names from those cultures.
I love the name Margaret, but we have close friends with a Margaret (Maggie) and my husband is adamant that we can’t be “name thieves”, even if we choose a different nickname or just call her Margaret. I like Isabel, Susanna, and Genevieve for their elegance, strength, femininity, and style fit with Eleanor, but my husband doesn’t like those particular names. He likes Hannah, as do I, but it doesn’t seem to have the same classic elegance that Eleanor does.
I’m not big on nicknames and will likely call her whatever her first name happens to be, so the actual name has to work for me, but if there is a nice nickname to go with the perfect name it would make the grandparents happy. Not a requirement though, as they’ll be happy with a new grandbaby!
Do you have any suggestions for us? I know we are being difficult. 🙂 “
Of course, they’re not being difficult at all! I love hearing all the rules and requirements/restrictions — it’s real-life naming, baby! 😀
I loved that Maureen characterized Eleanor as having “classic elegance” — perfect description! I also liked all of the names Maureen’s interested in: Isabel, Susanna, Genevieve — all favorites of mine, all beautiful. I agree that they fit well with Eleanor. I can see what she means about Hannah too, though I do love it. Such a sweet name.
So as you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like in the Baby Name Wizard, which has the amazing feature of listing, for each entry, boy and girl names that match the entry in terms of style/feel/popularity. I then look for names that have overlap — that are listed as similar to more than one of the names they like — and go from there, looking for saintly connections, etc. Based on all that, my ideas for this Wee Lady are:
(1) Lillian or Violet
I thought of Lillian right away when I read Maureen’s email, even before doing any research, though I was delighted to see in the BNW that it’s a pretty good match for their taste. Behindthename.com says Lillian is probably originally a diminutive of Elizabeth (Lily is a traditional nickname for Elizabeth), but it can also be considered a form of Lily. Lilies are associated with Mary, so I consider Lily and its variants to be Marian. The full Lillian I think is quite a good match for Eleanor, and the nickname Lily is available to the grandparents if desired. But maybe Ellie and Lily are too similar in sound?
Violet struck me as having a similar feel to Lillian (they both have that English feel, and both flower names), and it was listed as a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve. And it can also be considered Marian! (See the link in the Lillian paragraph for more info.) I love that Maggie Smith’s character is Violet on Downton Abbey — that’s exactly the feel I get from it. Vi is a fun nickname too.
(2) Catherine or Caroline
I was originally going to just suggest Catherine, which is a gorgeous name (and not just because it’s mine! Ha!) (though I spell mine with a K) and I would describe it has having a classic elegance — like Kate Middleton, whose given name is Catherine. I have friends who have a little Catherine, and they call her Catherine exclusively (she’s not even two yet and it totally works), but certainly Cate, Catie, etc. are possibilities for nicknames. St. Catherine of Siena is a great patron. I was thinking of Marian names that would go nicely in the middle, and I thought Catherine Mary has a really nice regal sound to it, and Mary’s kind of unexpected in the middle (as opposed to the more familiar middle Marie) which made me think of …
… Caroline, because I’d posted a birth announcement for one of the blog readers not too long ago who had named her daughter Caroline Mary, and I was so struck by the simple elegance of the combo — it made me think that Caroline would be quite nice as a sister to Eleanor as well. I’ve seen a lot of people using Caroline in honor of St. John Paul II (his birth name was Karol, the Polish version of Charles, of which Caroline is a feminine variant). Carrie’s a sweet nickname, or Caro, or Callie, or Carly.
(3) Beatrice or Beatrix
I’m guessing that if Maureen and Adam like these names, that Beatrice would be more their style, but Beatrix with that spunky X can’t be ignored, so I’m including them both. It’s not a name I usually think of, but Beatrice, like Violet, was listed as a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve, and I as soon as I saw it I thought it would be a great idea for Eleanor’s sister. It’s got a pretty great meaning too—behindthename says, “Probably from Viatrix, a feminine form of the Late Latin name Viator which meant “voyager, traveller”. It was a common name amongst early Christians, and the spelling was altered by association with Latin beatus “blessed.”” Isn’t that cool? Bea is one of the sweetest, spunkiest nicknames too, in my opinion.
(4) Josephine
Josephine was yet another name that was a style match for both Eleanor and Genevieve! So of course I had to include it. Despite it being French, it has a really English feel to me, and it’s literary (Jo March!), and St. Joseph is such a wonderful patron. It’s got great nickname potential too: Jo, Josie, Fina, and I’ve even seen Sophie, which I thought was pretty inspired.
(5) Abigail
Abigail is a style match for both Isabel and Hannah, and I liked that one was a name Maureen likes and one was a name Adam likes, so it seems like a nice compromise. The full Abigail is quite sophisticated I think, and reminds me of Abigail Van Buren, like the Eleanor Roosevelt connection for Eleanor, and Abby is a sweet nickname.
(6) Clara
Finally, Clara. Clara is sweet and simple, but elegant because of it. It’s a style match for Eleanor, which is so fun, and St. Clare of Assisi is such a great patron, as is Bl. Chiara Luce Badano (Chiara is the Italian for Clare/Clara). The one downfall is that it doesn’t have any nickname options, but it’s a pretty small package, so I wouldn’t consider that a deal breaker (but maybe Maureen and Adam do?).
As for other Marian ideas, some of my favorites, which I think work quite well for firsts or middles, are: Maria, Rose, Rosemary or even Rosary, Grace, Mercy (nice for this Year of Mercy!), and Immaculata or Immaculee.
And those are my ideas for Eleanor’s little sister! What do you all think? What would you suggest as a good match with Big Sis and/or a good Marian name?
Sancta Nomina 