Spotlight on: Philomena

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This was yet another reader request, and I’m really glad for it, because Philomena’s kind of a funny duck.

On the one hand, there aren’t a whole lot of names that are exclusively Catholic. I mean, I claim lots of names as ours, for impeccable Catholicky Catholic reasons, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world agrees. But when it comes to Philomena, I think the whole world *does* agree: it’s Catholic. Catholicky Catholic. Oozing Catholic cachet. Do you agree?

The funny part is, though St. Philomena is the source of our love and devotion for this most Catholic of names, she’s no longer on the liturgical calendar, having been removed in 1961 at the directive of Pope Paul VI because of lack of historical evidence.

Is this news to any of you? Because it was to me when I first found out from the mama of this consultation a year ago. Up until I then, I was blissfully ignorant, and from what I can tell, much (most?) of the Catholic world is as well.

So this is the story, according to this site: In 1802 a tomb was discovered with an inscription that could say “Pax Tecum Filumena” if the words were reorganized, and inside was the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl and a vial of her dried blood. Then:

philomena

I don’t think “since the 1960’s, she has been almost forgotten” is totally accurate, both because I know there are people still bestowing her name on their children, and because of the laity perhaps not being totally clear on what exactly the Church was saying.

From what I can tell, the Church isn’t saying she’s not a saint. This article made a good argument (though based on research that the author doesn’t link to so I can’t verify):

“Now, a question that must be addressed in this essay is what the Sacred Congregation of Rites said in regard to Saint Philomena. They removed the feast of Saint Philomena from the calendar based on the lack of historical evidence for her existence. It is very important to note at this point that the Congregation of Rites did not have any ecclesiastical power of any kind. It was only a “liturgical directive”. This directive however left many people confused, and rightfully so. In fact, it left bishops concerned too. Bishop Sebastião Fernandes of Mysore, India, whose cathedral was consecrated in Philomena’s honor, sent a letter to Pope Paul VI in 1964. This correspondence was sent to Mugnano by Bishop Fernandes as follows:

“What must I do for the people in my diocese who are greatly troubled by the decree of the Sacred Congregation regarding St. Philomena?” Paul VI responded, “Do not let it disturb you and do not disturb your people; let devotion to St. Philomena continue as before” (proseguiva come prima)[vi].

These words should be a comfort to those who have faith in the intercession of Saint Philomena, and reinforce the notion that devotion to her has never been officially abolished or suppressed.”

I love what now Bl. Paul VI’s response was! I also love this from that same site:

“We have the bones of a young girl, we have a grave that shows the marks of martyrdom, and we have more approved miracles coming from the intercession of this saint than most canonized saints of our times. What does it matter if her original name was Philomena or not? Does it matter whether or not we have no historical documents to prove her existence? No! We have papal approval, and we have miracles. The only way to deny the existence of Saint Philomena is to deny that the miracles which catapulted her to public veneration just 35 years after her buiral discovery in Rome. I assure you, venerating Saint Philomena will be most providential for your soul, for she is powerful with God. Saint Philomena, pray for us! For the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, Amen.”

I like how he says, “What does it matter if her original name was Philomena or not?” I’ve often had the same thought about Sts. Joachim and Anne — we get their names from the Protoevangelium of James, which is not canonical, so there’s a chance those aren’t the names of Mary’s parents, but so what? If they’re not, we have no others to put in their place, and Mary DID have parents, so why not remember them as Joachim and Anne? When we think of their names, we’re thinking of them, you know? This site gives some more really good info, including:

“[To St. Pio] St. Philomena was the “Princess of Heaven”. After the liturgical reform of 1961, Father Pio used to imperatively reply to whoever dared to doubt the existence of the Saint: “for the love of God! It might well be that her name is not Philomena, but this Saint has performed many miracles and it is not the name that did them.” This is the wisest reply: who wants to understand, will understand!“

Speaking of whether Philomena was actually the girl’s name or not, the name itself has a beautiful meaning. The site I just cited says, “The name Philomena (fee-lo-MAY-nah) is of Latin origin. The inscription on the original loculus tiles, is Filumena. The word filia is Latin for daughter. The word, lumena, is Latin for, light, lamp, lantern; light of day; the eye; clearness; understanding,” while Behind the Name says, “From Greek φιλος (philos) “friend, lover” and μενος (menos) “mind, purpose, strength, courage” … [Filumena] may have in fact been a representation of the Greek word φιλομηνη (philomene) meaning “loved”.” So whichever of those is correct, they’re all beautiful meanings for a little girl and easily full of faith significance if you so desire.

St. Philomena certainly has a history of love in the Church, by Popes and Saints even, and with the name having the Catholic cachet it has, I still think it’s definitely a beautiful name for a Catholic family to consider. Do you agree?

There are the spellings Philomena (English, German, Greek) and Filomena (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch), and I myself go back and forth as to which spelling I prefer. There are also loads of nickname options, which I’ve mentioned before: Fia, Fila, Fina, Finn, Finna, Lola, Mena, Minnie, Pia, Pim, Pina, and Pippa. Each one so darling!

I’d love to know you what you all know about St. Philomena! Especially if you have any further light to shine on the subject from sources that aren’t critical of various Popes and the Church (I found too many of those when I was doing this research).

And tell me also your thoughts on the name — would you/have you considered Ph/Filomena for a daughter? Which spelling do you prefer? Do you know any Philomenas? Do they like their name? Do they go by a nickname?

Choosing the fabric for the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction (it’s namey!)

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When Theresa and I teamed up for the Zelie & Co. Charity Auction, one of the first things she asked me to do is take a look through her fabric options and let me know if I thought any of them struck me as particularly “Gianna.” What a fun task! I’ve always loved when, for example, shoes have names — I’ve always wondered who gets to decide the names, and how do they do so? And what a fun job that would be! I worked in advertising before I had my boys, and there were a couple of times we were asked to give some time to naming a product — I LOVED those projects. (Are you surprised? 😀 )

So anyway, this was the image of St. Gianna I had in mind when I was looking through fabric swatches:

st_gianna

So I was thinking lighter colors — pinky maybe, or light blue — and Theresa was thinking “classy and feminine,” and one of the fabrics that hit me just right way was the one that she said she was initially drawn to as well! She said it “seems beautiful, classy, understated, and something about the blue chevrons reminds me of the Italian Alps,” which I 100% agree with. She’s paired it with a blush-y pink, and the whole effect is, in my mind, so much the picture of St. Gianna above. The mountains in the background, the blue and pink flowers on her dress … total home run. Be sure to check out the sneak peek she’s given of the fabrics!

Birth announcement: Josie Rosalyn!

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A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know her baby girl has arrived and has been given the lovely name … Josie Rosalyn!

She writes,

“We welcomed another daughter on November 10 and named her Josie Rosalyn!  Josie to honor my grandfather whose middle name was Joseph and Rosalyn to honor my grandmother whose middle name was Rose.  Thank you so much for helping us name our daughter!  Your suggestion of Rosalie inspired Rosalyn for a middle name when my husband decided Josie was his favorite first name.  I will be sure to save your suggestions to hopefully use again in a few years 😉 “

What a wonderful and meaningful choice! I think you’ll be extra impressed when you read her other children’s names:

Aidan James
Maren Patricia
Sadie Elizabeth

Do you see the pattern? They all have five-letter two-syllable first names! And each such a great choice! Nice job Mom and Dad!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Josie!!

josie_rosalyn

Josie Rosalyn

Zelie & Co. Charity Auction!

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Have you all heard of Zelie and Co.?* It’s a group of independent Catholic Artisans who have teamed up to offer some exclusive sets at great discounts through their Instagram flash sales — it’s a great group to follow on IG if you don’t already!

So this lovely lady, Theresa from Happy Nest Home Goods (she makes beeeaaauuuuutiful things! Check out her etsy shop; she’s also on Instagram), who is one of the immensely talented Zelie & Co. Artisans (and who’s also the mama behind this nickname consultation post from May!), has asked me to partner with her for an exciting upcoming Zelie & Co. event: a 100% fundraiser for some awesome Catholic charities as a way to kick off Lent.

ZelieCharityAuction Logo

Can you guess how honored and humbled and totally thrilled I am to be asked to participate in something so wonderful??!!!

This is how it’s going to go:

Theresa is busy making an exclusive set of items valued at at least $100 retail, and I’m contributing a gift certificate for one of my NamePrint Printables ($25 value), all of which will go up for auction as a set on Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wednesday, Tuesday Feb. 9) — that’s next Tuesday y’all! Can you believe Lent’s almost here??

You’ll be able to bid on the items from the time they post at 9:00am Central Time (10:00am Eastern, which is my time) until midnight Central Time that same day; the bids will increase by $5 increments, and of course the highest bidder will win the set. Bids will be taken on the Zelie & Co. Instagram page only.

Best of all, 100% of the money will go to the charity of my choice!

Yes! I get to choose the charity! Gianna of Albany, which is my local affiliate of the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility™, is founded on the premise that each person is a precious and unique gift from God. It is committed to delivering excellent health care through medical and lifestyle interventions that are consistent with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services (ERD), including NaProTECHNOLOGY™ (Natural Procreative Technology), a revolutionary women’s health science that respects the dignity of women by working cooperatively with their natural cycles.

Gianna of Albany’s Dr. Jan Patterson has been a huge help and support to me as a Natural Family Planning instructor, and has been a Godsend to women/families I personally know who are/were struggling with infertility and other fertility-related issues; we are so blessed to have her. I really want whatever we raise to support her efforts, so Theresa and I have decided to give the money to PerpetuaLife Care, Inc., which is a 501C3 dedicated to supporting Gianna of Albany. Fittingly, only after I told Theresa of my chosen charity did she share with me that she and her husband had suffered from infertility for the first several years of their marriage and it was thanks to a great NaPro doctor (and, of course, Our Lord!) that they were blessed with their sweet baby boy. So it’s just a perfect fit all around. I am so excited to help mamas and babies and families in this way!

So I’m going to be posting about this a few times over the next week, here on the blog and all my social medias (Twitter and Facebook, and especially Instagram, where all the action will be happening) — including sneak peeks of Theresa’s beautiful items! Please spread the word as much as you can, and I hope you all can participate! As an extra incentive, I’ll also give a customized NamePrint Printable to the second- and third-highest bidders. 🙂

The quick deets:

And please join us in asking St. Zelie and St. Therese for their intercession for the success of this event, for all of the participants, and the charities and the people they serve!

—————————————-
* Of course I had to include the namey bit about Zelie & Co. — I just love this:
“We have chosen St. Zelie as our namesake because we think she gets us 😉 St. Zelie was an exquisitely talented lacemaker! And she used her talent and keen intellect to create a very successful business. She built something that was a blessing to her family and at the same time raised Saints! That’s what we all aspire to do!”

Birth announcement: Reuben Dominic!

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Our wonderful, loyal reader eclare, also known as Emma in real life, has had her fifth baby—her fifth boy!!

She writes,

“We have good news to share! Our baby was born this past week!

Reuben Dominic T________
Born January 14th, 9:51 pm
8 lbs 10 oz, 21.75 in. long
Our 5th son, and our 3rd birth at St Isidore Acres 

We have always loved the name Reuben, and nearly used it previously for middle names, but each time decided to save it for a first name. This pregnancy we discovered that it fittingly means, “Behold, a Son!” (As if we were surprised to produce a 5th male heir, ha!)

Dominic means “Blessed by the Lord,” so Reuben Dominic’s name altogether means, “Behold, a Son Who is Blessed by the Lord.”

Another amazing name connection that we discovered during Reuben’s pregnancy, is that my namesake Great-Great Grandma Emma had a son Reuben. So we are the 2nd Emma-Reuben mother-son pair in the family tree! And I just got an email from my genealogist aunt who discovered at least 3 Reubens in my mom’s family tree 200 yrs ago… so it’s actually on both sides of my family– so cool.”

Soooo wonderful!!!! If all that wasn’t amazing enough, she and I emailed a bit more and she shared this as well:

“First of all, I am still so excited about our mini-consultation that determined that I could use Ione to honor my grandma Joan… except we had a boy!

Secondly, we go back and forth about considering the Patriarchs to be patron saints, so we are always happy to discover a canonized/beatified person who also bears the name (St Abel the Abbot, for our Abel, and now Blessed Reuben of Jesus, for Reuben).
The discovery of Blssd Reuben was doubly interesting, because he was martyred with another priest, Blessed Arthur (not Blessed Arthur Bell of England, our Arthur’s patron, but another one)! A cool link between our youngest two sons.

Thirdly, for some reason this middle name was the hardest for me. Suddenly the two-syllable accent-on-the-first pair sounded all wrong, despite choosing that pattern for all our other sons. For example, Reuben Michael just sounded wrong. I wanted something more the pattern of Reuben Alexander (except I don’t even like Alexander, and the initials would be unpleasant). I was willing to live with the two-syllable pair if the middle was something more unusual, like Reuben Oscar… but that had the unpleasant initials problem as well. So Reuben Dominic was really an answered prayer!

Finally, perhaps the most nerdy connection I am excited about: his two patrons have back-to-back feast days! St Dominic on August 8, Blssd Reuben on Aug 9. (And then my own birthday on Aug 10– 8-10, which was also his birth weight– followed by my patroness, St Clare, on 8-11). Connections, connections!”

But wait, there’s more!

“I’ve always loved the nickname Ben, but have never liked Benjamin. When I first heard of Bennett/Ben I swooned… but then it was very clear that we were supposed to use it as [one of the older boys’] middle name. So I gave up on ever having a Ben… until it occurred to us that Ben could be a nn for Reuben! Only half our boys use nicknames, so not sure if we will use it, but it’s nice to have the option.

The other thing is that we were calling our naming theme “old German farmer” until #4, which sort of still fits, but also gives us a 2nd category “British gent” (#3 and #4). Also, the boys each have a family name and/or part of their godfather’s name, plus their patron is a martyr. But Reuben actually fits in every one of these categories!”

And finally, two things which I’m so delighted by:

“You are the one who convinced me that a blondie can wear the name Dominic … and of course he comes out with dark hair!” and, as Emma wrote in a comment on my Ruby spotlight the day I posted it, “Kate, you and the Holy Spirit did it again: a post on Ruby/Reuben on the very day we named our son Reuben. Amazing!“

I know you’re all loving this info like I did when I first read it! So I know you’re all dying to know the big brothers’ names, and I’m so excited Emma agreed to share them with you all—I’ve loved them ever since she told me about them! (Alt characters used for privacy.)

M@rk 1sidore
Ab3l Benne++
$imon-Pe+er C1ement
Ar+hur 3dmund

Amazing, right? Such great taste!!

Congratulations to Emma and Donal and their four big boys, and happy birthday Baby Reuben!!

reuben_dominic

Reuben Dominic

Baby name consultant: Name for a little Austrian lady

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I have really loved connecting with parents from all over the world over our shared interest in names of our faith, so I’m excited to post today’s consultation, from Sabrina in Austria! She and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little girl, though when she first wrote to me they hadn’t yet found out the gender (hence the references to boy names they’d considered, which I’ve left in for inspiration).

This baby will join older siblings:

Parsifal Hubertus
Aurelia

Which I just love! Sabrina writes,

“Our first son is called Parsifal – the germanized version of Perceval. As you might have guessed, we weren’t really practising [our faith] back then, so the second name is Hubertus, however we don’t have a huge culture of using middle names here though. Our daughter is called Aurelia. As you see, the names are quite uncommon, so we need one that fits in with them as well, Peter or Paul just won’t do it 😉 For a boy, we already considered Vito. I sort of like the name and concerning the degree of rareness it would fit, but I was told it would not fit to the style of the two others. There’s also still the consideration of calling him Richard, after my husband’s grandfather, however this would not quite fit in with the rareness.

For a girl, I’d absolutely adore Vivien (or any variation thereof), but my husband doesn’t like it too much. Genevieve would be great and going along with Parsifal well, but it is a tad too un-German to pronounce. My husband likes Agatha, but I think it’s the epitome of an old lady’s name. I’d also like Seraphina if it wasn’t too close to my own name. Also, it would be nice to avoid the too common ones, you can find a current list of them here.

I browsed the lines of our monarchy’s ancestry after reading about our princess, and while the men had all sorts of beautiful names (the more common ones being Franz, Josef, Karl and such), nearly everyone of the women was named Maria, Anna or Theresia. Isn’t that weird?

What we also considered – it would be a bold move and a break with our principle to not use genuine double names, but I really like the idea and my husband does too – was Stella Maris. Stella is a known name here, pretty uncommon but not unheard of, and it would be such a beautiful attribution to the Holy Virgin.

… around here, we can’t just go on and name our kids however we want (like that “Saint” post you posted), the magistrate decides whether it is actually a name and will approve of it. A friend of mine wanted to name her daughter Amalaswintha, after a gothic princess, but they declined and so they had to choose Amalia. Also they nearly declined even our Parsifal, however, they found one or two bearing that name in Germany. 🙂 “

I had fun working on this! I always love delving into names that are more unusual. That said, however, I only know what’s considered unusual for Americans, so I apologized in advance to Sabrina if some of my suggestions were too popular for her, or were names that Austrians would consider unattractive. I was fascinated by the lists of the most popular names she linked to—names like Maximilian, Tobias, Felix, Elias, Fabian, Sebastian, Florian, Valentina, and Magdalena are all the kinds of names I normally would have suggested to a parent with children named Parsifal and Aurelia. I love learning about differences between countries and cultures, and names provide such a fun way to do so!

Okay, these are my thoughts about their ideas:
— Vivian: I love it too! Vivian and Vivienne have been fairly popular here recently, along with other V-heavy names like Evelyn/Evelina, Evangeline, and Genevieve (see below). Vivian derives, as far as I can tell, from Latin vivus meaning “alive,” and Vito, which they’d considered for a boy, is from vitus meaning “life,” so that’s an extra connection Sabrina and her husband might appreciate. Or maybe they’d consider Vita? I quite like Vita! I think it would work really well as a sister to Parsifal and Aurelia.

— Genevieve: A gorgeous name! It’s a recent favorite among several of the Catholic families I know, and a name that’s often loved by those who also like Vivian/Vivienne! A name that’s similar in appearance and length and is more uncommon (at least here) is Guinevere. There’s a St. Winifred of Wales who’s also known as St. Guinevere.

— Agatha: Here, too, Agatha is firmly still an old lady name, though I do think it’s going to coming back into a certain popularity, on the heels of new revivals Alice and Agnes. I do think the nickname Aggie is cute!

— Seraphina: Yes, I love Seraphina too. It’s similar in style to Genevieve and Vivienne — Sabrina has very consistent (and lovely!) taste! But I can see that it might be bothersome to have mom Sabrina and daughter Seraphina.

Those are my thoughts on their current ideas, and of course I came up with some other ones for them as well. As you all know, I always rely pretty heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book when doing a consultation, and its list of “Exotic Traditional” names seemed just the right style for Sabrina and her husband. Using that list, and some other ideas, I have these suggestions:

(1) Veronica or Veronika
I think Veronica/Veronika would fit in nicely with Parsifal and Aurelia! I love that it’s long and sophisticated; it’s got that great V like Genevieve and Vivian; and it’s a great Catholic name!

(2) Anastasia
Sadly, this gorgeous name has been ruined for American Catholic parents for a while, because of the novel series Fifty Shades of Grey. But if it doesn’t have that association in Austria, I would love to see it used! Anastasia is so pretty and saintly, with the amazing meaning of “resurrection,” which is so great for a baby born near Easter. I don’t know if it would bother Sabrina and her hubs to have two A names, but I think Aurelia and Anastasia are different enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.

(3) Philomena or Filomena
Philomena/Filomena is uncommon and exclusively Catholic here (even though it seems St. Philomena is no longer a Saint; the meaning of the name is beautiful anyway. I’ll be doing a spotlight on it soon — stay tuned!), and I love that I think all of these nickname options could work: Fia, Fila, Fina, Finn, Finna, Lola, Mena, Minnie, Pia, Pim, Pina, and Pippa.

(4) Eleanor, Eleanora, Leonora, Lenora
One of my favorite features of the Baby Name Wizard book is that it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity (in America). I looked up all the names that Sabrina and her husband have used and like, and looked for any names that were similar to more than one of their favorite names, and Eleanor and variants were a big hit for them! Lenora was listed as similar to Percy (the entry most similar to Parsifal/Perceval); Eleanor is similar to Genevieve and Vivian; Eleanora is similar to Aurelia; and Leonora is similar to Agatha. To me, that’s pretty overwhelming evidence that they might like one of these names! Are they rare enough for Austria?

(5) Raphaela
Raphaela is a style match for Seraphina, and I really like that it refers to St. Raphael, who is one of the archangels, and Seraphina refers to the seraphim. Nice connection! Beautiful name.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest to Sabrina and her husband for Parsifal and Aurelia’s little sister? If any of you have knowledge of naming trends in Austria, I’d love to hear what you think of the suggestions here!

 

Spotlight on: Joan

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One of you recently requested a spotlight on Joan and I’d been thinking about it and looking up bits and pieces here and there and then I read this on the DMNES blog:

“Joan: Many people may not realize that this is in fact a Biblical name, the name of a woman healed by Jesus and who later accompanied him as a disciple. She was later venerated as a saint, but it was the use of this name by many medieval queens, in addition to the “Maid of Orleans”, Joan of Arc, that helped the name maintain its place as one of the most popular women’s names throughout history.” (emphasis mine)

And knew it was time for the spotlight. 🙂

So Joan is a feminine form of John, which is a great way to start — any of the Sts. John could be honored with a little Joan. But there are loads of amazing Joans (in various forms — I’ll get to that in a minute) that are great patrons for a little girl.

First off, the biblical Joan mentioned above is, I believe, the woman whose name is usually given as Joanna; she’s mentioned briefly in Luke 8:3 as one of the women who accompanied Jesus as He “went on through cities and villages, preaching bringing the good news of the kingdom of God” (Lk 8:1):

“And the Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” (Lk 8:1-3)

The footnote in my Bible (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Second Edition RSV) is particularly awesome regarding those verses (Lk 8:1-3):

“Jesus’ urgent mission left no time for him and the disciples to settle into a trade. Several women thus accompanied them to offer provisions and financial assistance. This challenged Jewish custom, which discouraged men from associating with women in public (Jn 4:27).”

(That reference to Jn 4:27 is this: “Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman …”) (The woman was the Samaritan woman; interesting that they marveled that He was talking with a woman, rather than with a Samaritan.)

Then of course there’s St. Joan of Arc — a totally awesome warrior woman! She’s also known as Jean/Jeanne/Jehanne.  A personal favorite of mine is the mother of St. Dominic, known variously as Bl. Joan/Jane/Joanna/Juana of Aza. There are a whole bunch of others (lots of Sts. John included in that list as well).

Speaking of variants, these are all listed in the DMNES entry on Joan — they all had medieval use (I’m not listing all the variants — there are tons! But these were either my favorites or the ones I was most surprised by):

Genne, Genet
Ione
Jana
Jane, Jayn, Jayne, Jeyne, Jaen, Jaine
Janet
Janne
Jean, Jeanne, Geane
Jehanne, Jehenne, Jehanette
Jenna
Jenne
Joana, Joanna, Johanna
Joane, Jone
Johanetta
Jonet
Juana, Juanita
Vana
Vannella
Zoana, Zoanna

Awesome list, right? So many great ways to honor a Joan! Re: Ione, I’d recently come across this book, which lists several places in literature (like Shakespeare) where Ione was used interchangeably with Joan (read the bottom of p. 156 and top of p. 157 — the link takes you right to it).

As for Joan itself, I’ve always thought the nickname Joanie is sweet, and Jo/Joey could also work; I’ve also seen Nonie. In this case, of course, the nicknames would be more affectionate or spunky rather than true diminutives or need for something shorter — you can’t get much shorter than the one-syllable Joan! There are a million nicknames for its variants too (Jane et al.), but I won’t get into them here.

What do you all think of Joan? Would you consider it for your daughter, or have you? Do you prefer one of its variants? Do you know any Joans (big or little), and if so, what do they think of their name? Do they go by nicknames?

Birth announcement: Edmund Terence Emmanuel!

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It’s a two-birth-announcement day!! Wooo!! 😀

A mama I did a private consultation for not too long ago let me know her baby boy has arrived, and she and her husband gave him the incredible name … Edmund Terence Emmanuel!

She writes,

“I’ve been meaning to write and tell you about our finally born and named little Christmas present!

Edmund Terence Emmanuel was born on December 27 – a week late!

We didn’t finally agree on our boy name until Christmas Day, so I guess it was good he was so late.  And I honestly thought he was a girl, so I didn’t think we would be using the boy name!

So, here are the details on his name:

Edmund has practically always been on my boy name list, since I began to love St. Edmund Campion when I read Evelyn Waugh’s biography back in middle school.

Since my husband finally agreed to Edmund, I let him pick whatever he wanted for a middle name, and he ended up with the uncommon name Terence, since it had been used in his family.

Then we both felt that since our son Peter’s full name is so long it would make sense to give another boy at least one more name, plus you know I really wanted that Christmas connection.  Emmanuel was not really being considered before, but it just fit in perfectly, and it gives Edmund the same number of syllables in his full name as Peter has.  And of course, it’s about as Christmas-y a name as you can get!

And you might have noticed that we now have an Edmund and a Peter!  More people than I expected have noticed the Narnia connection!  And we now have two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve too. 😉

In the end, his name was a compromise, but it continues to grow on me as I fall in love with my sweet baby boy.  I call him Edmund, but my husband and kids have been saying Eddie a lot, which is sweet too.”

How amazingly handsome is that name?? I LOVE Emmanuel for a Christmas baby, and I LOVE the Narnia connection! Two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve! 😀 And St. Edmund Campion. I mean, really. So great.

I also love (LOVE) how she says, “his name was a compromise, but it continues to grow on me as I fall in love with my sweet baby boy.” I’ve experienced that myself, and I’m sure you have too — it gives good hope that whatever name your give your sweet wee one will likely quickly become a favorite, even if it started as a compromise.

Little Edmund joins big sibs:

Grace Elizabeth
Helen Ann
Michael Eugene Gerard Peter, Jr. (“This mouthful of a name is the same as my husband; he very much wanted a junior. But my husband goes by Michael, and our son goes by Peter“)

Such wonderful names! I also love how they worked with Dad’s desire for a junior, but Dad and Son go by different names. I also love that new baby Edmund’s name matches his big brother’s in number of syllables — Master Class naming!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Edmund!!

Edmund Terence Emmanuel and his big sisters and brother

Birth announcement: Kyteria Quinn!

sanctanomina Birth announcement ,

I posted a consultation for Shannon from Organic Mama’s Shop back in March, and I’ve actually referred to it quite a bit in my own research for other families as it was the first time I’d heard about Ven. Edel Quinn, and the info I found about her and her name that I put in Shannon’s post has been so helpful for me and for others.

I recently connected with Shannon, and she told me that her baby was born April 11, and they named her … Kyteria Quinn!

Shannon writes,

“My husband googled ‘bad ass Saint’ and found St. Quiteria! (Cool story, truly bad ass!) We went with the more ancient spelling of the name so that there wouldn’t be 2 Qs 😉 “

How cool is that?? I’m particularly impressed because Katrina and Kateri were both on their list, and Kyteria is pretty similar in appearance and sound, but totally different and unique at the same time. Also, once again, thanks to Shannon and her baby naming, I’ve learned about a new holy lady: St. Quiteria.

Congratulations to Shannon and her husband Zach and older sibs Trinity, Isabelle, Veronica, Gabriel, and Seraphina, and happy birthday Baby Kyteria!!

kyteria_quinn

Kyteria Quinn

Camp Patton is back!

sanctanomina Personal stories

I know from the number of clicks over to Grace Patton’s blog from old posts on mine over the past few months that many of you were as devastated as I was when she stopped blogging. But good news! She’s back! If you’ve been missing the Camp, or if you have yet to be introduced to it, hop on over! She’s a mama with some insanely well-named kiddos!