Happy Monday! There are a bunch of holy people celebrated today — some that jumped out at me are two popes (Pope St. Adrian III and Bl. Pope Eugene III), St. Morwenna, and St. Sunniva of Bergen.

Please remember that as of July 2 (as I wrote in the post that day), I’m suspending consultations indefinitely due to various things going on in my life (all good!). I will continue to post consultations I’ve already done for those families who want public posts, and I have some birth announcements and other things to post this summer as well; I also always keep you all in my prayers! 🩷🩷🩷

Today’s consultation is for Annelise and her husband, who are expecting their third baby very soon! This little one is a green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱 and joins big sibs:

Mariana Catharine (“She is named after both my mother and great grandmother – both Catharina Maria – with her own unique twist on the family tradition. Mariana also catches my husbands paternal grandmother Mary and mine and my MIL’s middle name, Marie. I love that her name is not only three of my favorite saints, Mary, Anne and Catherine, but also so deeply rooted in our family and Austrian heritage on my mom’s side. She chose her own nickname – Mari. Which suits her perfectly! If she had been a boy, she would have been James William“)

Henry James (“While I was pregnant with him, he came to me in a dream and told me his name. When I woke up, I very excitedly told my husband I met our baby and not only is it a boy but he told me his name. Every fiber of my being knew we had to go with this name for him. When he was finally born, holding him was surreal because he was absolutely the same baby as in my dream. His name carries a lot of family significance on my husband’s side. My husband is named after his grandfather Hale James [“Jim”], who was named after his father James Hale. My husband loves that our Henry has the same initials [HJB] as his grandfather, who passed not long before Henry was born. While Henry the 8th gives the name some bad PR, there are a few wonderful Saint Henry’s we love! And James goes without saying. We love the nickname Hank and our Henry really brings it to life. He is all things boy, tough and wild! If he had been a girl, he would have been Lillian Alexandra“)

Mariana Catharine and Henry James are such attractive combos and I love that they have faith and family significance. Mari and Hank are such sweet sibling names!

Annelise writes,

“For this baby, I’ve been feeling my heart connect to only one name – Maddalena. Which is both wonderful and challenging. I love that this name, like Mariana, has so much familiarity to it and yet is very unique. It sounds both new and old at the same time. It’s a beautiful connection to Mary Magdalene, who’s feast day is in July, and is full of nickname potential! The cons are that my husband isn’t a big fan. His worries are that it is too long, too easily misspelled and worries if it is too similar to Mariana. He would prefer the more common, Madeline. 

When it comes to boy names, we love the idea of using my husband’s middle name as the middle name. Christopher is also my husband’s father’s middle name. Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree on a first name we both like that works well with Christopher. So we aren’t fully committed to this idea.

Stylistically, I am drawn to romantic, lyrical names for girls and regal, traditional names for boys. I care very little about how popular a name is and actually prefer, especially for girls, more unique names with strength, beauty and nickname options. I love when a name has deep religious significance, family and personal ties. My own name is Annelise Marie. I grew up with a unique name and nickname (Lissi) and loved it. I love that it calls to Saints Anne, Elizabeth and Mary. My own name has that unique but sounds familiar feel that Mariana and Maddalena have. 

My husband, however, is drawn to names that sound very familiar and aren’t too exotic. He would happily choose from the 25 most popular names in the US, while I read those as a list of names to avoid, particularly for girls! lol He is on board with using first and middle saint names.” 

Some names that Annelise likes include:

• Diana
• Louisa/Louise
• Cecilia
• Elisa 
• George
• Owen
• Otto
• Michael
• Charles 

Some names her husband likes include:

• Cecilia
• Charlotte
• Delaney
• Mackenzie
• Michaela 
• John/Jack
• Charles 

Some family names that might be nice to include are:

• George
• William
• John
• Michael
• Quinn (could be for boy or girl)

Saints they love include:

• St. Padre Pio
• St. Anne
• St. Mary Magdalene
• St. Clare
• St. Teresa
• St. Azelie 

Some additional considerations:

“Mary has always been my guiding force. I feel profoundly called by her and close to her. Some of her titles I love are Our lady of the Mystical Rose, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Heaven, Queen of All Saints. 

Hard no list: While we both love Charles, we simply can’t do it with our last name.

[Annelise’s grandfather recently passed.] His passing was expected … but has not come easily. He was an extraordinary man and so well loved by his family. 

I think it would be wonderful to honor him somehow in naming this baby.” His full name included Floyd, Eldo, and Quinn.

Additionally, Annelise shared a portion of her family tree with me, which I had such fun looking through — so many great names on there!

I also really loved hearing the names Annelise and her husband would have given each of their older kiddos if they’d been the opposite sex — James William and Lillian Alexandra give a good sense of their style. I know some people consider the names their children would have been named to be off limits going forward — I’m assuming that’s how they feel?

As for the names they’re considering, I’d love to offer my thoughts in case they’re helpful:

• Maddalena: This is, indeed, a gorgeous name! I like how Annelise characterized it as “both new and old at the same time,” and I love that St. Mary Magdalene’s feast is in the month she’s due. I would love to help figure out a name in her honor that Annelise and her hubby both like! I’m interested that he thinks it’s too similar to Mariana — I’m sorry to say that I had a similar thought when I first read it, especially because the “r” in Mariana would sound more like a “d” for Spanish speakers, which is something I think of because we have a large population of Spanish speakers where I live. But that may not be their situation, which would certainly make Maddalena less problematic from that perspective. If we put aside for just a second the fact that Annelise has “been feeling [her] heart connect to only” Maddalena as a first name (which is definitely an important consideration!), some possible solutions or compromises between you and your husband could be:

1. Maddalena as a middle name: Moving Maddalena to the middle spot could make Annelise’s hubby feel more okay with them using this form that she prefers. If they did so, they could use a first name that they both agree upon and really just leave Maddalena as the seldom-seen middle name, or they could incorporate Maddalena into the everyday call name. For this family, my favorite idea would be Mary Maddalena. It’s an old but traditional practice in several Catholic cultures (Irish, French, Spanish, Italian) for every daughter in a family to have a form of Mary as their first name, even if they exclusively go by their middles. Considering that Mariana already has a Marian first name, they could consider Mary Maddalena as their second baby’s given name (first + middle), and call her by a nickname of Maddalena. If you used Lena, there’s no issue at all with Mariana and Maddalena being similar — Mari and Lena are great together! You could also do something Rose Maddalena and do a mashup nickname from the first + middle like Romy or Reina.
2. A different form: Maddalena and Madeline are sort of the two ends of the spectrum regarding the names to honor this Saint. I wonder if something more in the middle would be agreeable to them both? I’m thinking Magdalene (or Magdalen, Magdalyn) — it’s not as familiar as Madeline but not as potentially problematic as Maddalena (especially in terms of not being as similar to Mariana). It also has more of a surname feel, like Delaney and Mackenzie on Annelise’s husband’s list. Another option is Magali, which I don’t see often — I knew a woman with this name a long time ago, it’s the Occitan (French) form.

• Cecilia: Because Annelise and her husband have pretty different lists except for Cecilia, which they both share, Cecilia is definitely high on my list for them! I love it as a sister to Mariana and I love it on its own, but I also love the idea of something like Mary Cecilia as mentioned above.

• Louisa/Louise: Both lovely names, but they made me think of two other names that I would think of as a closer match for this family: Lucia for a girl and Louis for a boy. I wonder what they would think of those?

• Diana: I find this one surprising! But when I consider that Annelise prefers “regal” names for boys, Diana makes sense. I don’t love that it has the same ending as Mariana though.

• Elisa: This is one of my favorites for this family because of its connection to Annelise’s name! I love that Mariana has “ana” like her Anne, and using Elisa for her second daughter would give both her girls a nice connection to her. Because she likes “romantic and lyrical” names for girls, including the very Italian Maddalena, I wonder what she would think of the Italian form of Elizabeth, Elisabetta? Elisa could still be the nickname.

• Charlotte: Even though Annelise don’t have this on her personal list, Charlotte is a style match for Louisa, and since they both like Charles but can’t use it, maybe Charlotte is a good compromise?

• Delaney, Mackenzie: These names Annelise’s husband likes are definitely different from the ones she likes, but they gave me an idea for some that might be good compromises — I’ve included those ideas in my list of “official” suggestions below.

• Michaela: I’m interested by Michaela — it can have a Delaney/Mackenzie feel (as in McKayla), but in the spelling Michaela it has a more traditional feel. I’ve actually always loved it and had it on my own list.

• Christopher as middle name: I love their tentative plan of using Annelise’s hubby’s middle name for the baby if they have a boy! It’s so meaningful that it’s also her father-in-law’s middle name. Since she said they haven’t been able to agree on a first name they both like that works well with Christopher, I wondered what they’d think of considering Hale as a middle name? It’s a middle name that would clearly be for Annelise’s husband’s side of the family, and it has a totally different sound and rhythm from Christopher, which might mean that it would work well with names that wouldn’t work well with Christopher.

• George: This definitely fits into the “regal, traditional” feel Annelise prefers for boys. Georgie is such a fun nickname, and I also love Geo and Geordie.

• Owen: I loved seeing Owen three times in Annelise’s family tree! I’m not sure what I think about it for a first name for them, though … it has a different feel from George and Charles, for example … I have always loved St. Nicholas Owen — I could see loving them using it in that way (as a middle name for Nicholas, as a direct nod to that Saint, while also looping in their family name), or as a middle in general.

• Otto: Otto is very cool, but this helps me articulate a thought I’ve been trying to formulate: the mix of ethnicities they have represented in their name lists is unexpected, especially given their very English surname. Even though Mariana is listed in Behind the Name as Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Czech, Bulgarian, and Ancient Roman, I think it, and similar names like Juliana, have been used enough that they don’t come across as obviously ethnic. Maddalena, however, is clearly Italian, and if then if they add in Owen, which has a more Irish feel, and especially Otto, which has a very German feel, people who pay attention to names might take notice. I know Annelise has German and Austrian ancestry, so Otto totally makes sense for them! I guess I’m feeling like Otto calls names like Maddalena into question more, which I’m not sure they want to do. Or maybe it doesn’t matter to them! And it doesn’t have to necessarily! (** ETA: Annelise subsequently shared with me that she had a very international upbringing, which has definitely informed her taste in names. So cool! **)

• Michael: Michael on Annelise’s list and Michaela on her husband’s is interesting … Michael is certainly solid, handsome, and saintly for a boy!

• Charles: I’m so bummed that they both love Charles but they can’t use it! I wonder if the variants Carlo (like for Bl. Carlo Acutis — soon to be St. Carlo!) or Karol (St. JP2’s birth name) appeal to them?

• John/Jack: John with the nickname Jack seems like a perfect name for this family. John has the “regal, traditional” feel that Annelise prefers, and Jack feels like her husband’s style. John is probably my top choice for this family of the names Annelise and her hubby are considering! It also has the amazing quality of going well with all kinds of middle names — it can serve to “normalize” the more out-there middle names, too, in the same way that I’ve always thought Mary as a first name does for girl names. When I was looking through Annelise’s family tree and saw a relative named John George, I immediately loved John George as a combo for them! But I also love John Christopher! And John Pio! And John Charles! I think John Christopher nicknamed Jack is what I would recommend — it seems like a name that hits all the right notes (family, faith, and a name that both Annelise and her husband are likely to like).

• William: I really love names that work to honor both sides of the family!

• Quinn: I love Quinn as a possible middle name! I’m not as much of a fan of it for a first name for them — if they were doing all Owen-type names, then yes, definitely Quinn! But with Maddalena and Otto in the mix as well, I would prefer Quinn in the middle. George O’Quinn, John O’Quinn, William Quinn, and I love Mary Quinn for a girl (sounds like Mary, Queen)! This is a nice, easy way to honor both Annelise’s mom and her grandfather.

Speaking of, I want to spend a minute talking about Annelise’s grandfather specifically and her family tree more generally — I have so many ideas to share! First off: her beloved grandpa. I had so much fun thinking about his name! I looked it up to see if the meanings of any of his names might be helpful, and Behind the Name says Floyd is a variant of Lloyd, which means “grey.” Grey! What a cool name! I think it could work for a boy (for a first or middle) or a girl (probably more as a middle — the new Hunger Games book/movie has Lucy Gray Baird as one of the main characters, and she goes by the double Lucy Gray, so I wouldn’t do that that combo [though I love it!], but Maddalena Grey is a very intriguing combo!) But only if Annelise was sure to feel like her grandpa was represented in a meaningful way if Grey was used somehow!

Then, Eldo: I’m so intrigued by Eldo! It’s kind of a mystery name! It’s not in Behind the Name’s database (I consider Behind the Name to be the most trustworthy in terms of name meaning, origin, etc.) so I had to venture out into sites of questionable reputation and found that it could be of Aramaic origin via South India meaning “birth of Christ” (source, source) (would be cool if Annelise or her hubby had any ties to India in their family!), or it could be of Spanish/Galician/Portuguese origin meaning “happy, joyful” (source). Both of those meanings are amazing! They inspired some of my suggestions below. Also, Christopher could nod to Eldo if they accept the “birth of Christ” meaning!

Then, further in Annelise’s family tree, I found some really lovely names and combos, some of which also inspired some ideas below. It was cool to see Cecilia — a name they both love, and it’s also a family name! Regina is a middle name for one of her ancestors, which means “queen” and has a long, impeccable tradition of being used for Catholic girls in honor of Our Lady. It could be used in honor of Queen of Heaven and Queen of All Saints, as Annelise noted she loves those titles. Other variants include the Spanish Reina (RAY-na) and the French Reine (REN). Could be cool for a middle name! Ooooh and I’m just thinking, they could use Reina as a mashup-type nickname for Rose/Rosa Maddalena, which would get Mystical Rose, St. Mary Magdalene, and any of Our Lady’s titles as Queen in one name! Gah! I’m loving that idea!

Speaking of Marian titles, Annelise said that some of her titles that she most likes are Mystical Rose, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Heaven, and Queen of All Saints. I wonder if she would ever consider Rosa Mystica as a first + middle combo? Any of the Rose names could honor that title (Rose, Rosa, Rosemary, Rosalie), and could also honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, too. They’re considering John for a boy, which could also nod to Our Lady of Guadalupe because of St. Juan Diego (Juan is the Spanish form of John). And I already mentioned some ways of working in “queen” (Regina, Reina, Reine), but the “of heaven” part could be fun to play with: Regina Caeli is “Queen of Heaven” in Latin, with Caeli said like CHAY-lee — I’ve seen some families name daughters Caeli (first name) in honor of this title. Celeste means “heavenly,” so that could work too: Regina Celeste, Reina Celeste, Celeste Regina. Annelise and her hubby both like Cecilia, and the very similar Celia, which can work as a nickname for Cecilia but is also its own name with separate etymology, means “heaven” — maybe that? Celia Regina, or mixing it up to something like Celia Rose or Celia Rosemary, could be lovely and meaningful from a Marian perspective.

Okay! On to new ideas! As noted, I was inspired by Annelise’s family tree, and I also did my usual research, looking up Mariana as well as the names they’re considering in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I really tried to harness a “romantic, lyrical” feel for girl names and a “regal, traditional” feel for boy names. Based on all that, these are my ideas:

Girl

(1) Elena

This idea was inspired by a couple things. I didn’t think of it until I saw Annelise’s ancestor Helen Regina in her family tree, and thought that was such a beautiful combo! Helen didn’t seem quite right for this family, though, nor Helena or Helene, but the variant Elena seems perfect! Then I realized that Elena has the same sound as the end of Maddalena, so maybe Elena could be a good compromise between A. and her husband! (They lose the St. Mary Magdalene connection, but they could make up for it with a variant of Mary somewhere: Maria Elena, Mary Elena, Elena Marie, etc.) If they like the idea of mirroring the full Helen Regina combo, Elena Regina and Elena Reine would both do nicely.

(2) Natalia, Natalina, Noel(le)

This was originally inspired by the possible meaning of Eldo being “birth of Christ,” since the Natalie and Noel names literally refer to Christmas Day. Then I saw Natalia in the BNW as a style match for Mariana! Like Mariana, Natalia is very pan-European, having usage in lots of different countries and languages. I couldn’t help but notice that a specific Italian variant is Natalina, which nearly rhymes with Maddalena (depending how you say the “lena” part), but might provide enough differentiation from Mariana that Annelise’s husband would be okay with it? Then of course Noel and Noelle. They could certainly consider them for the first name spot, but I feel like they’d be a more natural fit for them in the middle spot.

(3) Matilda

Annelise has an ancestor named Mary Matilda, which I loved right away! Matilda is also a style match for Louisa on her list! It’s a little clunkier than Mariana and Maddalena, but a beautiful name nonetheless with some sweet nickname options.

(4) Stella(maris)

Estella is a match for Louisa, which didn’t feel quite right to me for this family, but made me think Stella might be perfect. Then I found that Henry, Jack, and Charlie are all style matches for Stella! While I love the trimmer Stella, I wondered what they’d think of the fuller Stellamaris? It refers to Our Lady’s title Star of the Sea, and is also seen as Maristella, which I would have suggested in a heartbeat if it wasn’t so similar to Mariana! I also have a friend who named her daughter Stella Marissa as a nod to Our Lady, Stellamaris.

(5) Saintly surname-type names

Because of the surname-y Delaney and Mackenzie on Annelise’s husband’s list, I wanted to try to think of names that might be similar, but with saintly significance and hopefully a “romantic, lyrical” feel. Avila came immediately to mind — it’s not technically a surname, but serves a similar role in St. Teresa of Avila’s name. Another is Salette, from Our Lady of La Salette — I did a consultation for a family considering Salette (dropping the “La”) and I thought it was brilliant and so pretty. Bessette is another, from St. Andre Bessette, and has the added feature of looking like a French diminutive of Elizabeth. Annelise and her hubby might also like to look through the girls’ names in this family — there’s a definite saintly surname feel in a few of them, like Vianney, Clairvaux, and Lourdes, and all of them done in an ultra-feminine way. (That link goes to the original post I did on them; here [this baby had some scary health issues at birth, in case any of you can’t handle reading that kind of stuff right now!], here, here are birth announcements for subsequent babies. Amazing namers!)

Boy

(1) Edmund

As soon as I saw Edmund in the list of names similar to Louisa I knew I had to include it on the list! It has that regal, traditional feel I think Annelise is looking for, with lots of nicknames options: Ed, Eddie, Ted, Teddy, Ned. St. Edmund Campion is great! Edmund Christopher is very handsome to me.

(2) Arthur

Arthur is a style match for Louise, and again, once I saw it I was like yes! What is more regal and traditional (especially from an English perspective) than Arthur?? I thought they might particularly like a nickname I’ve been seeing for Arthur: Bear, because of Arthur’s possible and mostly accepted meaning of “bear.” (I love the nickname Bear so much that I tried to convince my husband of Benedict Gerard with the nickname Bear for our youngest!) There are several Blesseds with that name. I think this is a name that wouldn’t pair well with Christopher — do you all agree? Arthur Christopher has repeated ending sounds, but some people quite like that. If these parents like Arthur but not Christopher with it, maybe they would consider Arthur Grey? Or, I also really like Hale from Hubby’s family — Arthur Hale is handsome too!

(3) Felix

This was originally inspired by Eldo’s possible meaning of “happy, joyful,” but then I was excited to see that it’s a match for Otto and Eliza (similar to Elisa). I’ve been seeing some little Felixes here and there, it’s a cool name!

(4) Alexander

I did a quick general search online for “regal” names for boys, just to see if anything jumped out, and Alexander was on the list, which reminded me that Alexandra was going to be Henry’s middle name if he’d been a girl, and I wondered if they’d be interested to switching it to a boy’s name? Alexander is saintly and papal and has some cool nickname options in addition to the familiar Alex like Xander, Zander, and Sander. Sandy is a traditional nickname that isn’t used much anymore, but my boys have a friend named Sandy whose given name is Alexander and I love hearing it.

(5) Bates, Hart

These last two are taken from Annelise’s family tree, both names that I think are so cool and could work as either first or middle names. Bates is the first: I’ve always loved that Bates is a medieval diminutive of Bartholomew, giving it impeccable faith credentials in an unexpected way.

The other is Hart: I worked with a doctor a long time ago in a previous career whose son was named Hart — his wife’s maiden name. I loved that! A hart is a male deer (stag), and the “ard” part of names like Gerard and Bernard are actually the Old German element “hart” which means “brave, hardy,” both of which gives it a really masculine spin. I also love that it sounds like “heart,” which gives it an affectionate feel. There’s also this birth announcement I did for parents who named their son Gerhardt and call him Hart. Love, love, love!

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little sister or brother of Mariana and Henry?

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For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!