Biblical names

Celebrity guest: Katheryn, expert on naming and adoption

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Last month I told you that I’d received a request to write about names for adopted children, and so many of you gave great feedback with your experiences — I intended to put it all together along with some of my own research into a post or article (and I still might), but then one of you wonderful readers — Katheryn from the blog Bucket and Roon and Etsy shop Juniper Plum (gooorgeous icons and other beautiful things for children!) — emailed me because she has extensive experience with adoption: two of her sisters and her four children all came to her family through adoption (both international [sisters] and domestic [children]).

I already followed Katheryn on Instagram because her kiddos’ ah-MAZ-ing names had caught my attention (and also their general cuteness and amazing style! 😍), and so I was absolutely thrilled to hear more about their naming, and that of her sisters as well. I know you’ll love what she has to say!

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Kate: You said you have open adoptions with all your kids. In your experience, what role does the birth mom/birth parents play in the naming of the child?

Katheryn: Generally, in domestic infant adoptions, the birth parents choose a name to go on the original birth certificate at the hospital. This is the child’s legal name until the adoption is finalized, usually at around six months of age. When the adoption is finalized, the adoptive parents are issued a new birth certificate with them listed as the child’s parents, and it is at this time that the child’s name is also legally changed to the name they have chosen. Sometimes birth parents will chose a name that is special to them, sometimes they love the name the adoptive parents have chosen so will write that name on the original birth certificate from the beginning, or sometimes they might decline to write a name at all.

Kate: Relatedly (and maybe this is answered in the first question), do you consider the birth mom/birth parents when choosing a name for your children? For example, giving the birth mom’s first name as your daughter’s middle?

Katheryn: It often means a lot to the birth parents if you try to include them in the naming somehow. I’ve heard of several adoption stories where both the parents and birth parents had picked the same name separately on their own! Some parents will offer to let them chose the middle name, or some will share a list of the names they are deciding between and let the birth parents have the final pick. Sometimes parents choose to honor their child’s birth heritage in other ways, either by naming them after a birth parent, using a name in the birth family tree, or using an initial that is the same as the birth mother’s.

Kate: Have any of your children been older when you adopted them, having already been given a name that they’ve become attached to? If so, how do you handle naming?

Katheryn: All of our children were adopted at birth, so we haven’t dealt with this, but while most families who adopt older children will choose a brand new first name, others will keep the name they have, choose a variant of that name, or choose a name that is close in sound to their birth name to help with this.

Kate: In terms of international adoption, as you said you have twin sisters who were adopted from another country, what considerations did your parents give to their cultural heritage, if any?

Katheryn: My twin sisters were adopted from Vietnam at 9 months old. My parents chose to honor their birth heritage by giving them middle names with the same meaning as the meaning of their birth names.  My sisters’ birth names meant “river” and “rose” in Vietnamese. So my parents chose the names Camille Sabrina Pia and Zellie Rose Pia for them. With international adoptions, a lot of the time parents will get very little information about their child’s background, and sometimes all the child really has of their birth history is their name.

My twin sisters are only ten — I am the eldest of 12. My parents had ten bio kids before they adopted the twins after I was married. But at the time we hadn’t met anyone else named Zellie. My parents spelled it that way to help with pronunciation issues. It’s wonderful how it seems to be booming in Catholic circles now though!

Kate: If you don’t mind sharing, I’d love to know the stories behind the naming of each of your children—both how/why you chose their names, and also what role the birth moms/parents played, if any.

Katheryn: Our oldest is Verity Majella Judea Hawthorne. Her first name is a combo name “Verity Majella,” like “Mary Elizabeth,” but we call her Verity most of the time. We fell in love with Verity because of its meaning, “truth.” Majella is after St. Gerard Majella, patron saint of mothers, to whom I grew to have a special devotion through all my years of praying for a baby. Judea is after my deceased Grandma Judy. Verity was due on her birthday and when my Grandpa found out he asked if we would consider naming Verity after her. I also loved the biblical symbolism of Judea. Hawthorne is her connection to her birth history. She was born in Missouri, and the state flower there is the White Hawthorn Blossom. She is also named after the remarkable Rose Hawthorne, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Our second daughter is Gethsemane Juniper Anne. Gethsemane has been the name dearest to my heart since I was a girl. Back when I thought I might have a vocation, I hoped I would be able to pick it as my religious name someday. I love it because it is the name of the garden that Jesus would retreat to, a place where He would seek solace and peace- we tell our Gethsemane that it is the name of His favorite garden. I also think of it as a symbol for the beauty of choosing God’s will over our own, since it is there when in His agony Jesus prayed, “not my will, but Thine be done.” Gethsemane also means “peace,” so she is also named after Mary, Queen of Peace. Juniper is after St. Junipero Serra (my husband and I both grew up around the Missions and were married at Carmel Mission) and also Servant of God Brother Juniper, known as “the renowned jester of the Lord.” When we were matched with her birth mother, we agreed on naming her together. She wanted to choose a middle name, so she picked Anne, because it was a family name on her side and it just so happened to be a family name on my side as well.

Then came our Bosco, whose full name is Bosco Willis Yard. I was so sure that we would have another girl that we hadn’t talked about a boy name, but Bosco had been both my husband’s and my favorite boy name for many years. Can there be a better patron for a little boy than St. John Bosco? Willis Yard is the name traditionally given to the first born son on my father’s side of the family, so we knew we wanted that somewhere in his name. Bosco’s birth parents wanted his naming left completely up to us, but Will is a family name on his birth father’s side as well.

Our latest blessing is Hyacinth Clemency Veil. With our three previous adoptions we had short adoption waits, ranging from 6 weeks to 4 months. For Hyacinth we waited almost three years. Some days, the only thing that kept me believing that we were doing God’s will and that He really did call us to adopt again was her name written on my heart. Even before we adopted Bosco, one day out of the blue, God spoke the name Hyacinth to me. It had never been on any of our name lists, but just like that it was tattooed on my heart and I just knew that our next daughter was to be named Hyacinth. She is named after St. Hyacinth of Poland. Clemency is after the Divine Mercy. I am passionate about the Divine Mercy devotion, and knew I wanted to name our next child after it in some way. Hyacinth was already born when her birth mom contacted our agency, and just guess whose feast she was born on — St. Faustina’s. Her birth mother originally wanted a closed adoption, but we are forever grateful that she changed her mind and met us at the hospital. When we asked if she wanted to chose a name with us she declined, but one of the few things she shared about herself with us was that she loves the color purple. When we told her that the meaning of the name Hyacinth is “purple,” the biggest grin broke out on her face. Before that, one of the only things I didn’t like about the name Hyacinth was its meaning, since purple seemed like such a lame meaning, but it ended up being just perfect. Veil is after the Holy Protection of Our Lady, since Mary’s veil is known as a symbol of her motherly protection and care. We felt like our whole adoption process and journey to Hyacinth was wrapped in Mary’s veil of love and protection and wanted to honor her in our daughter’s name. Traditionally the image of Mary, Mother of Mercy is one of Mary shown with her veil spread out over her children. We thought that was a very special connection between Clemency and Veil!

Wasn’t this all just so beautiful? There was so much love and respect and prayer that went into each name choice! I hope you all learned as much as I did about the naming of children who come into families through adoption — thank you so much to Katheryn for sharing her experiences!

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♥♥♥♥ Gethsemane Juniper Anne, Bosco Willis Yard, and Verity Majella Judea Hawthorne holding Hyacinth Clemency Veil ♥♥♥♥

Baby name consultant: Classic + modern for little green bean

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Amanda and her husband are expecting their third baby any day now — a little green bean (=gender unknown)! 🌱 She writes,

“The whole baby name discussion is a difficult one to have with my husband because we had a girls name we both loved and were sure we were going to use it…since before we were married.  But when our oldest, a girl, was born, it just didn’t work for us.  And, it’s now not even on our list…I don’t think we’d ever use it.  [The name we originally loved but most likely will never use: Annika.] So, he thinks it’s useless to talk names before a baby is born.  I think we should at least discuss it and have it narrowed down to a few names per gender to make naming easier at birth.  But we really struggle on agreeing on boys names, and I think suggestions for girls and boys names would be great!“

This wee babe will join big sibs:

Olivia Rita (“We had a list of 10 girls and 10 boys names, but were really planning on using Annika for a girl, and our list of boys names were not really either of our favourites.  We had both gone through our baby name book, and chosend our favourites, and then kept the ones on both our lists…which weren’t really either favourites.  When she was born, we looked at her and said, “Not Annika…” After sleeping on it, I was thinking Olivia.  He then spoke and said, “How about Olivia?”  That was it.  It was on our list … Rita was my husband’s maternal grandmother’s name.“)

Zachary Claude (Zach) (“We kind of had the same lists going as the first time, never really spoke about names, but both agreed early on that we liked Zachary.  And it stuck.  But we call him Zach more than anything … Claude was my paternal grandfather’s name“)

Great names, right? Classic and modern at the same time, love them!

They have a few guidelines they’d prefer to stick to:

  • nothing TOO crazy/modern
  • we like traditional
  • something that is relative to the faith/Biblical/Saint name (though last night, after I mentioned Jonah, Isaac, Benjamin, he said, “Nothing too biblical”)
  • middle names are after grandparents/great grandparents
  • traditional spelling
  • can be pronounced in French (My family is French, and my mother in law is also)

Further,

“… we think this baby’s middle name should come from my husband’s side. We’re considering Margaret for a girl’s middle name (though I kind of want to keep it for a future first name). That was his paternal grandmother’s name. His mom’s name is Laurel. His Dad’s name is Rob, and his paternal grandfather’s name was Howard.

Girl’s name we’re considering: Elizabeth Margaret (I love it, but kind of feel it’s a big name for a baby…lots of weight to the name)
 
Other Girls names we like:
– Charlotte (though with the Princess Charlotte, I’m not sure I want to name my baby that)
– Lucy (I love this name, but my husband thinks it’s too popular…)
– Dominique (My husband doesn’t like Dominic for a boy…but I do)
Also, we both like Luke/Lucas for a boy, but with our last name [beginning with Lu-], I won’t name our son that…I don’t want a boy nicknamed ‘Little LuLu.’  Plus, my sister in law just named her son Lucas … Also, we were talking about maybe Patrick Howard for a boy. My husband likes Ethan, and I really don’t.

So first off, I was so interested by their Annika story! How funny that a name that was so sure completely dropped off their list! I love the name they used instead—Olivia is lovely, and Rita’s an unexpected middle name, perfect. How awesome too that Amanda was thinking Olivia before her husband even suggested it! Wow! And Zachary/Zach is great too!

Regarding names they’re considering for this baby, I’m going to make a strong case for them to either consider Margaret for a first name now, or save it for possible future use. It’s a controversial topic—I wrote about it here — so if they decide to use it now anyway I totally understand! But it really seems like they love it, and I can see what they mean about Elizabeth Margaret having a lot of weight—Elizabeth and Margaret are both heavy hitters! (Although my brand new niece has a similar name, and it’s so lovely on her.) I love both Elizabeth and Margaret, I think they both make fantastic first names. If they decided to continue with honoring Amanda’s husband’s paternal grandmother in the middle spot, maybe a shorter version of Margaret, like Margo? Elizabeth Margo feels a little less weighty. Or Elizabeth Greta? Or Elizabeth Megan? The only potential problem with these ideas is that I would think they still knock out Margaret as a future first name. But maybe not? I do know of some families who don’t mind reusing middle names as first names for subsequent children.

Charlotte is a fantastic name, and having the same name as the beautiful little princess doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me at all! Charlotte is quite popular currently (and it was so before the princess was born)—it came in at #9 in the newly released name stats for 2015—but let’s talk about popularity for a minute because they have an Olivia, which has been in the top ten since 2001 and was #2 for the last two years, and they love #9 Charlotte, and they’re strongly considering Elizabeth (#13), but Mister thinks Lucy is too popular? It’s currently at #55—much less popular than their other ideas for girls! Maybe they live in a Lucy pocket? I don’t think popularity is a bad thing anyway—it’s often because a name is a really fantastic name that it becomes popular. So I wouldn’t let the popularity of Charlotte or Elizabeth or Lucy deter them! (For reference, Annika’s #572, pretty rare, and Dominique’s #906! I love Dominique—I’m surprised that Amanda’s hubs is really okay with it!)

As for boys, Dominic’s one of my favorite names, so I’m sorry Mister isn’t into it—it’s actually a fairly good fit for their style, especially Olivia. Ethan made me laugh—it’s an exact match for their style! You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity—Ethan is listed as a match for both Olivia, Zachary, and Luke! But if they don’t like it, then they don’t like it, I get it. I also quite like Patrick Howard, very handsome!

Okay, so based on my research in the Baby Name Wizard and my own mental files, these are my ideas for this family:

Girls

(1) Sophia

Sophia’s a style match for both Olivia and Dominic, and Sofia is a match for Annika, so I really liked that it’s a name that sort of bridges all their styles! It is very popular—right behind Olivia at #3—but it’s a gorgeous name and full of faith meaning (Sophia means “wisdom,” and is the name of a saint). They might also like to consider the French version Sophie, which is much less popular at #104.

(2) Abigail or Hannah

Both Abigail and Hannah were pretty equal matches with Olivia, Zachary, Elizabeth, and Luke, so I thought I’d put them in the same suggestion here. They’re both Old Testament names, but they’re so well used that I think their biblical-ness is not as obvious (not like Isaac, for example). Abigail’s #7 and Hannah’s #28, so they’re right in the zone of names Amanda and her hubs tend to like. I like them both for them! The nickname Abby’s awesome, and Hannah is so soft and sweet. Hannah Laurel is striking me as a really pretty combo with a nice flow.

(3) Emily/Emilie

Emily is a style match for Patrick and Ethan, which I thought was pretty good as far as being a style bridge. It also reminds me of Elizabeth with its E and L, and I thought Emily Margaret has a lighter feel than Elizabeth Margaret. It also reminds me of the French Amelie, which made me wonder if they’d like the spelling Emilie? So pretty! Today’s the feast of St. Emilie de Rodat.

(4) Madeline/Madeleine

Madeline was another name that was a match for both Olivia and Dominic, and I like that it has the French influence—there are the Madeline books, which are set in Paris, and the French spelling Madeleine is the same as St. Madeleine Sophie Barat (known as St. Sophie). (The teething toy Sophie the Giraffe is named after her!)

(5) Chloe

Chloe is another of those biblical names that doesn’t hit you in the face with its biblicalness (St. Paul spent time in Chloe’s home as reported in 1 Corinthians), and it’s a style match for Zachary, Olivia, and Ethan. I think it’s such a fun and spunky name, and pairs well with longer middle names like Margaret.

Boys

(1) Timothy

Timothy is my favorite idea for this family! It’s biblical, and not only a style match for Zachary and Ethan, but also for Patrick! Timmy’s adorable for a little guy and Tim’s solid and handsome for a man, but I’ve also been digging the nickname Ty for Timothy lately, so cool!

(2) Nicholas

Nicholas is very much in keeping with the style of Olivia, Zachary, Elizabeth, Patrick, and Ethan—a great fit! It’s got great nickname options too, from Nick and Nicky to Cole.

(3) Alexander

Nicholas and Alexander basically have the same style profile—Alexander’s another great match for Amanda and her hubs. Alex is a great, traditional nickname, and I’m hearing Xander every now and then as well, which I quite like.

(4) Noah

Noah’s been the #1 name for the last three years, which isn’t surprising, since it’s such a great name. It’s a style match for Olivia, Zachary, and Ethan, and is equal parts serious Old Testament patriarch and modern cute boy.

(5) Owen

Owen’s a little bit of a departure from the basically biblical style I feel like they prefer for boys, but it’s closer to their idea of Patrick and was actually listed as a style match for Olivia, Charlotte, and Ethan! I love the name Owen.

And those are all my idea for the little brother or sister for Olivia and Zach! What do you all think! What name(s) would you suggest?

I’m not currently accepting any new consultation requests, but past consultations and birth announcements may give you just the inspiration you need! 

Baby name consultant: Eighth baby (boy) — no repeating initials please!

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Happy Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary!! One of my very very very very favorite feast days ever!! 💞💞💞

Lara and her husband are expecting their eighth baby, and fourth boy! Their older kiddos came in a girl-boy-girl-boy pattern, and they’re delighted that this wee babe is continuing the trend, joining:

Grace Anna (“named after her great, great g-ma and her birth mother“)

Anders Evans (“my husband’s middle Swedish name, and Bill Evans, jazz pianist, my husband’s favorite“)

Ella Katherine (“loved the classic name Ella and Katherine is my middle name“)

Ian Louis (“he surprised us and arrived early at 29 weeks and such is Ian, meaning “God is gracious” and my dad’s first name, Louis“)

Margaret Carolynn (“After watching A Man For All Seasons, my husband was moved by Thomas More’s relationship with his daughter Margaret. Also, we’ve always loved the nickname Maggie. Carolynn is a combo of my mother’s middle name, Carolyn and my mil’s middle name Lynn“)

Nathaniel Joseph (“He was our most challenging name to decide. Nathan was too common for me and Joseph was a favorite of my husband’s. Nate was also a great nickname“)

Mary Virginia (“After seeing Mary of Nazareth we were convinced to be classic Catholic and have a Mary in our family. Also, my grandmother’s name was Mary Virginia. She passed when I was 4, but my memories of her are strong and lovely“)

I love all these names! They’re such great, meaningful names, and a little bit unexpected as a set I think, which is so fun.

Lara writes,

“We don’t want to use another M name and would like to have each child with a different initial. Names we cannot use are Ryan, Collin, Blake, Brayden, William, John, Erik, Gibson, all nephews’ names. Close family friends, have Gabriel, Jude, Becket, Blaise, Luke and Max.”

I know Lara was worried that their “rules” were too restrictive, but as I always say — the more the merrier! I love a good challenge!

First off, one of the things that I noticed right away is that Anders has a Scandinavian name and Ian has a Celtic name, so one of my goals was to find a name or names that sort of bridges those two styles, and a couple of my ideas below fit that. Otherwise, I looked up all the names Lara and her hubs have already used in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity.

So! All that said, I came up with a few ideas for Lara’s littlest guy, some of which fit her rules and one that doesn’t but maybe might work anyway:

(1) Henry
Henry is far and away my favorite idea for this baby. It’s got a British feel, which I think Ian fits into nicely, and it’s a style match for Grace and Margaret, but my favorite aspect of it is that one of the Sts. Henry was sent to evangelize Scandinavia! I spotlighted the name here.

(2) Oliver or Oscar
I think of Oliver as an Irish/British name with a similar feel as Ian (and there’s the great St. Oliver Plunket), but it’s theorized that its roots are actually Germanic or Old Norse, so I think it can have that dual feel that I was looking for.

Another idea I had along these same lines is Oscar. Oscar was the name of Finn MacCool’s grandson in Irish legend and there’s the Irish poet Oscar Wilde, but it’s also quite popular in the Scandinavian countries. Bl. Oscar Romero was beatified last year, and I spotlighted the name here.

(3) August
Here’s my rule breaker! August was listed as a style match for Grace, Anders, and Virginia, and Augie and Gus are both great nickname possibilities, and Gus especially would make the fact that August repeats Anders’ initial maybe not as big of a deal.

(4) Theodore
Theodore’s a style match for Anders, Virginia, Louis, and the August I just suggested above. I love Theodore for this family! He could be Theo or Teddy, or the full Theodore. So handsome!

(5) Finn
Finn is another name that’s a great “bridge” name — on one hand, it’s an Old Norse meaning “person from Finland,” but I think — and certainly correct me if I’m wrong — that these days it’s just considered a general Scandinavian name? Rather than particularly tied to Finland specifically? And on the other hand, it has separate origins as an Irish name! (Finn MacCool, as I mentioned earlier.) It’s fairly popular currently for several reasons, the most recent of which is the character of Finn in the new Star Wars, but my favorite way to use it is as a nickname for Francis — I think it’s such a cool and kicky way to make a little Francis feel a little more current.

(7) Samuel
Samuel is a style match for Grace, Ella, Nathaniel, and Henry, so cool! I love Samuel, and the nickname Sam/Sammy is so hard to beat.

(8) Charles
Finally, Charles, a style match for Louis, Joseph, Margaret, Mary, and Virginia. I know some people have used Charles as a nod to St. John Paul II (his birth name was Karol, the Polish version of Charles), and I’ve recently learned about the amazing Bl. Karl of Austria. There are lots more Sts. Charles too, like St. Charles Borromeo. Great name! Charlie’s one of those great, friendly nicknames, and Cal’s also a possibility, as well as these other interesting ideas.

And those are all my ideas for Lara and her husband! What do you all think? What would you suggest for their little boy?

Baby name consultant: Song-themed boy name needed

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Happy Labor Day everyone!! And happy feast day of our new St. Teresa of Calcutta!! 😍😍😍 (I also discovered her religious name was actually Mary Teresa, and she was named for St. Therese!)

Ella and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱! They have a really fun theme going that they’d like to continue with, which is where their dilemma comes in. Ella writes,

“I’m in need of baby name help! We didn’t really mean to name our kids after songs, but after the first two we had to keep going. Naming our third, a boy, was hard, but I love his name and it did come from a song. Now we’re having number four and can’t think of a boy name. We hope to be surprised, so we need a name for both genders. We have a girl name picked out … I’m not due till October, but I’ve never been this far without names. I’m even considering having the song part in the middle name.”

I LOVE themey naming! It’s so fun to come up with ideas that can fit in! Their other children are:

Daniel Thomas (“Oh Danny Boy,” also named after our dads and older brothers)
Layla Beverly (“Layla,” her middle name is my grandma’s name)
Carson Michael (“Runaway Car,” middle name after St. Michael the Archangel because my husband is a cop)

Such great names, right?? And very cool way the way they worked family names in with the song theme as well! I will say that I don’t think it’s so obvious to everyone else that their kids are named after songs—I know “Danny Boy” and “Layla,” but they’re such different kinds of music that I wouldn’t automatically think, “Huh. They’re doing a song theme.” And Carson coming from “Runaway Car” is kind of a stretch—a cool one for sure! But I kind of feel like if they  wanted to break the song theme, the only ones who will really know are Ella and her husband and anyone else they’ve  talked about this with.

All that said, there are a million songs with boys’ names in the titles! I perused this site for inspiration, and I also looked Daniel, Layla, and Carson up in the Baby Name Wizard book, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. So I really just tried to figure out what boys’ names I thought Ella and her hubs would like, and then see if there were any songs with that name in the title. I also looked at song titles and added names to the list of possibilities when I came across ones I thought they’d like. (I should also add that while I love music and know a lot of songs, I’m really bad at knowing artists, and a lot of the songs on this site were totally unfamiliar to me, so I haven’t screened any of them for objectionable lyrics or artists that might be horrifying, etc.)

So! All that said, these are my ideas for this wee babe if a boy (in alphabetical order, not in order of favorites):

(1) Adam
Adam’s biblical like Daniel, but I think holds up really well with Layla and Carson too. There are several songs I found with Adam in the title, including “Adam Raised a Cain” (Bruce Springsteen), “Adam’s Apple” (Aerosmith), and “Adam’s Song” (blink-182).

(2) Xander (Alexander)
I feel like the nickname Xander is more this family’s speed, and it can stand on its own as a given name if they prefer, but Alexander would be the patron saint and the patron song. 😄 “Alexander and His Clarinet” (Irving Berlin); “Alexander the Great” (Iron Maiden).

(3) Benjamin or Bennett
Ben was my inspiration here—I think Ben is easily a brother to Daniel, Layla, and Carson, and there’s “Ben’s Song” by Sarah MacLachlin. The biblical Benjamin’s a match for Daniel, while I feel like Bennett might be closer to the style of Layla and Carson (and it’s a medieval variant of Benedict, so they get their saint there too!). Either one’s great!

(4) Elias
Elias was actually listed in the BNW as a style match for Layla! It’s a variant of Elijah, so there’s the biblical connection, and Eli’s a great nickname. “Elias” (Dispatch).

(5) Evan
Evan was listed as a style match in the BNW for both Layla and Carson, so I was excited to find “Ballad of Tim Evans” by Ewan MacColl. Evan is a form of John, so any of the Sts. John can be patron.

(6) Jack
Jack is such a sturdy, studly name. It’s perfect as Daniel’s brother, and totally holds its own with Layla and Carson. It can work as a nickname for John, or it can stand on its own as a given name. Either way, John would be the patron, and there are the songs “Book of John” (Tim McGraw); “Captain Jack” (Billy Joel); “Hit the Road Jack” (Ray Charles).

(7) James or Dean
I like both James and Dean for them! “James Dean” (Eagles).

(8) Jesse
“Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield was actually the first song that came to mind when I first read Ella’s “dilemma.” I would definitely use the spelling Jesse, and I love it—it’s got the Old Testament vibe and a cowboy vibe as well, really cool.

(9) Joshua
I love Joshua—it’s biblical, and traditional but current, and Josh is a great nickname. “Song for Josh” (Frank Turner).

(6) Jude
I actually can’t decide if I think Ella and her hubs will like Jude or not. “Hey Jude” by the Beatles is the song reference, and St. Jude Thaddeus is the saint. I do think this name evokes thoughts of the song to many people, especially secularly, so if they really like the song theme, Jude’s a good one to pick.

(7) Sean or Flynn
As with James and Dean, I actually like both the first and last names of the title guy! Sean is a variant of John, so they can pick a St. John as patron; Flynn is kind of fun and Irishy and fits in well with their other kids in my opinion. “Sean Flynn” (The Clash).

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What boys names would you suggest that fit in with Daniel, Layla, and Carson’s song-themed names?

Baby name consultation: Biblical and/or first-millennium Saint’s name needed

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This past February Pope Francis and Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia met in Cuba, a meeting which was called “the first in history.” Though Kirill doesn’t speak for the whole of the Eastern Orthodox Church (being that the Eastern Orthodox Church is a group of self-governing churches in communion [including the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church], though without a single head — different than the Roman Catholic set-up with the pope as head), he’s certainly an important figure in Eastern Orthodoxy, and, movingly, in Francis and Kirill’s Joint Declaration they said,

“It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian faith who encounter one another “to speak face to face” (2 Jn 12), from heart to heart … With grace–filled gratitude for the gift of mutual understanding manifested during our meeting, let us with hope turn to the Most Holy Mother of God, invoking her with the words of this ancient prayer: “We seek refuge under the protection of your mercy, Holy Mother of God”. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession, inspire fraternity in all those who venerate her …“

When today’s mama — who’s Eastern Orthodox — emailed me for a consultation, I felt a similar joy and gratitude and “heart to heart” connection, as I do with all of you who love the names of our faith! ❤

This was a new kind of challenge for me, as I’m most confident with Roman Catholic saints and naming practices, both of which are sometimes somewhat different in the Eastern Orthodox church. Fortunately the mama, Arielle, was eager to help, explaining:

“We are Eastern Orthodox, and our naming conventions are a bit different. These are not hard and fast rules, but in general, a child is given the first name of a saint, and this name is very liturgically important – they are ceremonially named on the eighth day of life, they are baptized with that name, the priest gives them communion by name each week, they are married with that name, etc. If for some reason they are NOT given a saint’s name (some people give their child a family name or just a name they have always liked), they still receive a saint’s name at baptism for all those liturgical uses, so in practice they have two names (or their middle name is their saint’s name). Which works for some, but we like to avoid that and give all of our children their saint’s name as their first name. Children do not choose a confirmation saint (they are confirmed at baptism), so this is the only saint’s name they get, unless they are ordained or tonsured.

It also is conventionally the saint’s actual name – not a place related to it (like Avila would be). Marian title names are a possibility (like Despina, Panagiotis). Translations of the name are fine (John/Johan/Ioannis/Evan/Ivan or Mary/Miriam/Maria/Mariam for instance), as are names related to major feasts – Evangelia/Evangeline would be named for the Annunciation, for instance, or Theophania would be named for Theophany (Epiphany in the West).”

It’s also really helpful that we share all the saints canonized before 1054, including Biblical saints, so:

“Many names are shared (like Catherine would be for Catherine of Alexandria, instead of Catherine of Siena) but others, like Claire are not, without a real stretch (like Claire for Photini – similar meaning).”

It was easy enough to focus on those shared names, and fun to be challenged in a new way!

Arielle and her husband aren’t currently expecting, but they’re planning ahead for the possibility of Baby #5 (as she said, “I also really wanted to ask you about #4, but she was born before I got to it!“). Their kiddos’ names are:

James Benedict (“James is named for his grandfathers and for St. James the Brother of the Lord (Iakovos). Benedict is for St. Benedict of Nursia. I like the idea of including names from among the ‘Western saints’ (Benedict, Ambrose, Augustine, Brigid, Genevieve, etc.) as a nod to the fact that while we are of the Eastern Church, we are of Western heritage.”)

Miriam Anna (“Miriam Anna is named for the Theotokos (Blessed Mother) and the grandmother of Christ, who we always call St. Anna.”)

Sophia Catherine (“Sophia Catherine is named for St. Sophia of Thrace, the Mother of Orphans, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Both are a nod to my husband, who studied ancient Greek and Roman history and philosophy. [Sophia = wisdom, St. Catherine studied Greek rhetoric and philosophy]. He also stayed at St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai, and we have both been to the top of Mt. Sinai where her body was taken by angels.”)

Elisabeth Eleni (“Elisabeth Eleni is for St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess of Russia, a nun martyred by the Bolsheviks. Eleni is a common Greek form of Helen, the Finder of the True Cross. I used the “s” spelling both because I just think it is beautiful and elegant, and because our last name is very German and I wanted to use the nickname Elsa (which we do). I’m not sure I love that I mixed languages here.”)

I just love all these names! I love that they’re obviously faithy, and I love their really elegant feel. I also love how Arielle said they “like the idea of including names from among the “Western saints” (Benedict, Ambrose, Augustine, Brigid, Genevieve, etc.) as a nod to the fact that while we are of the Eastern Church, we are of Western heritage.”

A few other considerations:

“I love names that are Scandinavian or German forms of saints’ names, but am rather conservative when it comes to names that seem too ‘weird’ or ‘harsh’ for English-speaking ears. I would love more ideas here. I also love saints’ names from the British Isles (my heritage), especially Irish names, many of which are pre-1054 saints.

Probably no more ‘J’ names, as our last name starts with ‘J’ and one is enough. Possibly for a middle name (I like Joseph and Jude). I like that no one has the same first initial yet, but that’s not a deal-breaker. I love names that start with ‘E.’“

Names they’re considering for a girl include:

Lydia (“current front runner. I love the musical sound of the name, and love that when we shorten the names of the girls it fits right in (Miri, Sophie, Elsie, Lydie!) Downside – we know a lot about our other childrens’ saints, and not a lot is known about St. Lydia. It also doesn’t mean much linguistically – just “from Lydia.” Not sure about a middle name here – Lydia Grace? Lydia Mirabel/Mirabelle? Lydia Genevieve? We love St. Genevieve, and it is the name of my great-great-grandmother. But I’m not sure that suits the musicality of the name“)

Emmelia (“one of my all time favorite saints, St. Emmelia the mother of five saints. I had to do some linguistic research for this one (I mean *ahem* have my husband do it). She is clearly a Greek-speaking saint, and so the common explanation that it is from the same root as Emily didn’t make sense. Turns out it is from a Greek word for “melodious.” I love Emmelia Rose together. Only downside is that it is so close to the common Emily, and might get pronounced like Amelia. Which is a lovely name, but different.”)

Brigid
Theodora
Anysia
Seraphina
Tamsin
Zoë
Naomi
Matea

And for boys:

“We have a hard time agreeing on boys’ names. Husband chose James really on his own (I wanted Benedict as a first name) and now he really wants a Thomas, so Thomas Ambrose has been on the list. I like that it goes well with James Benedict (Apostle + Western saint). I like Brendan Thomas better. We would like to include Matthew in a boy’s name at some point, for a dear friend who died.”

Others:

Brendan
Matthias
Sebastian
Evan
Martin
Basil
Cyprian
Gabriel
Silas
Felix
Elias
Ciaran

Names that they  like, but probably won’t use include:

Annelise (“love, but already have an Anna and Elisabeth, so seems repetitive“)

Madeleine (“Also love, especially as it goes with the French spelling of Elisabeth, but so very common. We have several little friends named Magdalene (called Maggie), so that version is out“)

Mirabelle/Mirabel (“maybe for a middle, but way to close to Miriam for a first“)

Lucia (“loved, but then a niece got it!“)

Nina

Finally,

“What do you think? Is this too far outside your expertise? I LOVE your site and would love to hear what you think! I feel like I’ve had the same list of names since I was a teenager and have a hard time thinking outside the box for others.

One very specific thing I could still use help with is a Scandinavian- or German-sounding name that could be a sub for Lydia. I do love Lydia. But I feel like there might be a name I’m not thinking of that goes well with sister Elsa and has that sweet musical sound and Scandi feeling. Annelise fits that bill for me, but just doesn’t go with Elisabeth/Elsa because of being the same base name!“

Whew! All so interesting, right?! Okay, so first, some thoughts on Arielle and her hubs’ current ideas:

Lydia’s one of my favorite names! It’s true that its meaning is not terribly inspiring, but I’ve always loved that Lydia was a seller of purple cloth—it’s not often that a little girl has her very own color! I like how Lydia Grace and Lydia Mirabel(le) sound together, and funny enough I kind of agree about Lydia Genevieve—they’re two gorgeous names, but they don’t sound totally right together … From their girl list, I love how Lydia Magdalene and Lydia Madeleine sound. And Lydie’s one of my favorite favorite nicknames, love love love! It is true that something like Lydia Madeleine/Magdalene technically means “from Lydia + from Magdalene” but I have never really focused on the meanings of names, because they don’t tell the whole story (although I do admit that more recently, a great meaning can sway me to like a name I might not otherwise like). Lydia to me doesn’t mean “from Lydia,” it means “St. Paul’s first European convert, the lady in the Bible who sold purple cloth.” You know? Lydia Madeleine would say to me “gorgeous New Testament name (with her own color!) plus a feminine French middle that has connections to some great, holy women.” I think of names like Francis (“Frenchman”) and Cecilia (“blind”) and Blaise (“lisping”) and even Mary (whose meaning is debated, but I usually see “bitter” and some think maybe also “rebellious”) and those meanings are definitely not what people think of when they hear the names, you know? (Arielle’s email was actually one of the inspirations behind my piece at CatholicMom on name meanings!)

It’s also kind of cool that Lydia and Magdalene are two female biblical names that describe where the women were from — it’s kind of apt to pair them together! And place names are all the rage anyway, so Lydia and Magdalene/Madeleine are way ahead of the curve — place names used before any of the Dakotas or Brooklyns or Parises. 🙂

But, all that said, they could play with the meaning of Lydia in terms of connecting to the middle for a meaningful phrase … like Bebinn/Bebhinn/Bevin (and even sometimes anglicized as Vivian!) is apparently Irish for “fair lady,” so something like Lydia Bebhinn could mean “fair lady from Lydia” altogether, which nods directly to Lydia in the bible both by using her name and describing her? Or Lydia Madonna, where Madonna means “my lady” in Italian (and has the awesome Marian significance. But then, Madonna. I do think it works as a middle name though!). Or Lydia Matrona, where Matrona means “lady”in late Latin and was the name of some early saints! (Matryona in Russian, pretty!)

As for some other names that make me think of a Scandi Lydia because of their sound, I wonder what Arielle and her hubs would think of: Linnea, Livia, Tilda, Mila, Lovisa/Louisa? St. Matilda of Saxony and St. Louis of Cordoba make the cut date-wise … Linnea’s not a saint’s name and Livia (St. Agostina Petrantoni) is post 1054, but maybe they’d like them enough to use them as non-saint names? Mila’s a great one I think — I did a spotlight on Ludmila, who died before the year 1000, a great saint, and I think Mila’s a great way to honor her and not use the full name.

Re: Emmelia: I’ve never seen this name! It is beautiful! Emmelia Rose is lovely! Arielle’s right though—it will get heard as Amelia and seen as Emily. Maybe it would be best as a middle name? Brigid Emmelia and Tamsin Emmelia both strike me as lovely combos.

Brigid, Theodora, Anysia, Seraphina, Tamsin, Zoë, Naomi, and Matea are all gorgeous! I do think though that Seraphina is too close to Sophia in sound—do the rest of you agree? I love Seraphina though—maybe as a middle? With a short first name? Like Zoë Seraphina maybe? I’d never seen Anysia before—pretty name! Tamsin is one I myself considered, after a relative named Thomas– it’s so pretty and unexpected! Matea I looooove!! Brigid is beautiful, but strikes me as so different from their other kids’ names … Theodora and Naomi would fit in nicely I think.

I also love all those on their girl list that they love but won’t/can’t use, and I’m glad Arielle included them—they gave me a fuller idea of their taste, and I used them in trying to determine new ideas for them.

Thomas Ambrose is an amazing combo. Really really handsome, and would fit in really well with the other kids.

Matthias, Sebastian, Basil, Cyprian, Gabriel, Silas, Felix, Elias: These all really feel like Arielle’s kids’ names and her faith tradition to me. Love them all.

Brendan, Evan, Ciaran: These are like Brigid to me—I love them (you all know how I love the Irish/Celtic names!), but they seem sort of out of place as first names for this family to me. They’d make cool middle names though! (And really, who cares what I think … if they named a boy Ciaran, then all of a sudden it *would* fit in with their family, of course.)

Martin seems to me to be a really great bridge name—it’s not quite Matthias/Basil/Cyprian, but it seems closer to their style than Brendan/Evan/Ciaran. Martin’s great!

Okay! So what I did was I looked up the names they’ve used (firsts and middles) and those they like (even if they can’t/won’t use them) in my trusty Baby Name Wizard, as it lists, for each name, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. My goal was to compile a list of names that I thought Arielle and her hubs would like. Then I whittled that list down to names that are pre-1054 saints. So hopefully all these ideas are acceptable faith-wise, even if they don’t really do it for them taste-wise (though I think they’ll at least think, “Ok, these are definitely heading in the right direction”):

Girls
(1) Natalia
I get all swoony over Natalia, I love love love it. Just gorgeous! There are two Sts. Natalia, the one I’m familiar with (died 4th century, wife of St. Adrian), and one that died in the 9th century—she was half-Moorish and a convert to Christianity, she’d be a powerful intercessor for today’s troubles.

(2) Felicity
I hesitated to include Felicity, because she’s so obvious to me that Arielle must have considered the name and purposely decided against it, especially since they have Felix on their boy list, but I just had to list it just in case. Such a beautiful name and a beautiful saint!

(3) Lilia or Liliya
This may be flirting with the rules, or breaking them altogether, because there’s no St. Lily as far as I can tell—my inspiration was Our Lady, and lilies are associated with her, but is that too distant a connection? I love the variant Lilia, it’s so beautiful, and then I saw the Russian/Ukrainian spelling Liliya, and I love that too.

(4) Aurelia
Aurelia is so pretty and feminine, and St. Aurelia Petronilla was cured by St. Peter himself, so that’s pretty cool!

(5) Philippa
Philippa could either be a nod to any of the Sts. Philip, or it could be for St. Philippa who was crucified around the year 220. It also has the awesome nickname Pippa! Philippa/Pippa is a nice nod to Arielle’s English heritage.

(6) Adelaide
The German form is Adelheid, but I was thinking that even with Arielle’s love of German names the part of her that doesn’t want a name that’s too harsh for English ears would prefer Adelaide. It’s so pretty!

(7) Phoebe
What about Phoebe? It’s pretty and quirky and biblical, I kind of like it for this family!

Boys
(1) Clement
My two favorites inspirations for Clement for this family are Pope St. Clement I, who was the fourth pope, and St. Clement of Ireland, who had strong ties to France (I believe he died in Paris in the 9th century).

(2) Leo
Pope St. Leo the Great!! I love the name Leo, a great name for a little boy..

(3) Linus
Of course, Pope St. Linus, the immediate successor to St. Peter. A really cool name!

(4) Casper/Caspar/Gaspar
This is a nod to Arielle’s love of German/Scandi names, and also one of the Three Wise Men! These are all legit variants of the same name (as is Jasper, but they don’t want another J name), and they’re each so cool in their own way.

(5) Tobias
Another German/Scandi name, and biblical, and a 4th century martyr. Such a cool name, I love it.

(6) Samuel
I love all the names I’ve listed up until now, but since their other boy is James, I could understand if Arielle and her hubs think they’re a bit too exotic for first names. But what about Samuel? There’s the biblical patriarch, with his awesome story, and there’s a 4th century martyr. I love the name Samuel, but what really makes it, in my opinion, is the nickname Sam. So. Great.

(7) Edmund
Finally, Edmund. Like Samuel, I love Edmund as a brother to James, and it’s an E name, which Arielle said she’s drawn to! St. Edmund of East Anglia (aka St. Edmund the Martyr) was born in Germany but beheaded in England in the 9th century, so it’s kind of a cool way to bring in both her German and English sensibilities.

And those are all my ideas for Arielle and her husband! What do you all think? Is anything here helpful or inspiring? I kept checking and rechecking Arielle’s email as I was working on it to be sure I hadn’t missed a rule, but there’s a good chance I did, inadvertently, so I apologize in advance if some of these aren’t quite right!

Baby name consultant: Lots of rules for Boy No. 3!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Happy Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady!! What a wonderful feast day!! Mother Mary for the win!! 😀 ❤ 💐🎉

Today’s consultation is for Amy and her husband’s third born baby — a third boy! This little guy will join big sibs:

Gavin Theodore
Ethan Robert
Auden (with Jesus)

I love all of these names! They all have such a nice feel of really going together, and Amy and her hubs would really like to continue that theme for this little boy. She writes,

“Both first names were chosen simply because we loved them. My rule for first names is that they need to be unique in our family. I love to honor family with names, but I prefer for the first name to be uniquely theirs, at least within our family. Both middle names are for family (Theodore for DH’s grandfather, Robert for my Dad, grandfather, DH’s grandfather — a heavy hitter!) but also have a saint connection.

We have also named our baby in heaven Auden. It means “old friend” and I loved that. When we meet again, we will for sure be as old friends. Also, we felt it could be either gender although I typically like more feminine names for girls.

For this little boy — we are in trouble! I joke with family that he won’t have a name until the day he goes home, but I’m honestly not sure I am joking! We do know that the middle name will be Michael for DH’s father, and also because what a great patron. What little boy wouldn’t love to be named after St Michael!

DH loves Nicholas for this baby, but that is a great grandfather’s name, so a no-go for me. I also don’t love the way Nick sounds with our last name with begins with K. I really want to stick to a 2 syllable name that ends in N because that’s just the way my brain works! Strange, I know! Some that I have suggested that DH has vetoed: Colin, Rowan, Quinn. I also love Luke, but again, the K last name deters me.

So to recap:

2 syllable, 5 letter, ends in N. (Not a challenge at all, right!?!) Middle name to be Michael.”

I really enjoyed working on this for Amy — her taste in names is so cool! They’re all familiar but not terribly common, which is always so refreshing. I also really love that she and her hubs have “rules”—I find challenges like that so fun!

First, some thoughts about their current ideas—I was bummed to see Amy’s Mister vetoed Colin! That seems like the perfect name for them since he wants Nicholas and Colin is a variant of it, and 5 letters/2 syllables/ending in -n like Amy wants.

Re: Rowan, great name!, but it’s currently pretty unisex and the only Rowan I know is a little girl. This is what the stats currently look like:

rowan-boyrowan-girl

So if Amy and her hubs decide to go with Rowan, it is still ahead for boys, and maybe they’ll be part of the pendulum swinging back toward the boys?

Otherwise, I wondered what they’d think of Ronan? It’s a saint’s name and fits the rules, and is so similar to Rowan but is a boy’s name rather than a unisex name. There’s also the Irish surname Rohan, which can be said the same as Rowen and is exclusively male as far as I know (helped by the fact that it’s also an Indian male name, and there’s also the cool tidbit that it’s a Lord of the Rings name which, I mean, come on. So cool) (in the case of LOTR it’s pronounced RO-han, with the H voiced, like “hand” without the “d,” rather than RO-en/RO-wen, like Rowan).

The other ideas they had for boys were good for me to know too, as they provided good inspiration for coming up with new ideas.

So you all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard all the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I tried to find all the two-syllable five-letter ends-in-n names that I could find that I thought fit Amy and her husband’s Celtic-y style, but I also included a couple that broke one or another of the rules:

(1) Eamon
This is the Irish for Edmund, said AY-men. This was on my list for a long time, I love it! Danielle Bean has an Eamon.

(2) Dylan
Dylan’s such a fun name — it entered the top 1000 in 1966 (thank you Bob Dylan, who took his inspiration for this stage name from poet Dylan Thomas) and went from #115 in 1989 to #28 in 1992 (pretty sure it was the airing of Beverly Hills 90210 in 1990 that caused that jump) — but this classic Welsh name has stayed in the 20s and 30s ever since and is popular all over the world. It’s a great option for this family!

(3) Tobin
Tobin’s from an English surname, which came from the biblical name Tobias, so it’s kind of like a combo of Gavin’s and Ethan’s styles — I love that kind of thing!

(4) Rylan
There’s not much to know about Rylan as far as I can tell from my research, but it has an Irishy sound and I have a cousin named Rylan (twin of Sean) who’s really cool and smart, so it has good associations for me.

(5) Owen
Owen is my first rule breaker—it’s four letters instead of five. But if they’re going to break a rule, Owen’s a great one to do it with, because it fits so well their style otherwise: it’s listed as a style match for Gavin and Ethan both! It was actually the first name I thought of as I was reading Amy’s email, and when I saw that Michael would be the middle name I had to laugh because my newest nephew is Owen Michael! Awesome name.

(6) Conor or Colum
Some more rule-breakers here! I always think of Conor as similar to Colin, so maybe Amy’s hubs won’t like it, but it’s such a handsome name. And Colum’s even closer to Colin sound-wise, but is a variant of Columba — as in the awesome Irish saint — and it means “dove” so I think it could also be considered a Holy Spirit name!

(7) Lucas
Finally, Lucas, only because Amy said she really likes Luke but d0esn’t like how it runs into her K- last name. Lucas avoids that, and also gives them a five-letter two-syllable name.

And those are all my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What five-letter two-syllable ends-in-n name(s) would you suggest for the little brother of Gavin and Ethan?

Celebrity guest: Lindsay from My Child I Love You

sanctanomina Personal stories, Real-life naming , , , , , ,

Happy feast of St. Edith Stein, aka St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross! The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist posted about her today on FB, and I thought this bit from their post was so beautiful:

“Teresa died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of fifty-one … Out of the unspeakable human suffering caused by the Nazis in western Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s, there blossomed the beautiful life of dedication, consecration, prayer, fasting, and penance of Saint Teresa. Even though her life was snuffed out by the satanic evil of genocide, her memory stands as a light undimmed in the midst of evil, darkness, and suffering.”

Evil will. not. win.

It’s also my second boy’s tenth birthday! He’s so excited about his birthday — he’s only been waiting for it for the last eleven months and three weeks — so we’re in full-on celebration mode here! 🎉🎈🎆 So it’s just the perfect day for this post, which I’m so excited about. First, an introduction:

Lindsay blogs at My Child I Love You about life with her husband and their beautiful children. Many many times my the-world-is-getting-me-down moments have been soothed by the sweetness and simplicity of her posts and photos, and I followed with desperate prayerfulness her youngest born baby’s pre-birth omphalocele diagnosis (here and here) and post-birth struggles (here and here), and Lindsay’s beloved mother’s battle with cancer (and her doctors-say-it’s-not-but-for-her-and-her-family-it-is miraculous healing!) and a recent (but not only) miscarriage.

Lindsay’s faith shines through every post and photo and word I’ve ever seen come from her, and it does so in another way as well: her children’s names. Oh her children’s names!! I admit they’re what caught my attention in the first place, when I first happened upon her blog when her No. 7 was a baby, and I eagerly awaited the revelation of the names of Nos. 8 and 9. I’ve learned from her so much more of what’s possible in bestowing names of our faith. I love how eclectic and outside-the-box her children’s names are while still being firmly and explicitly rooted in our faith, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I were to try to come up with ideas for her for her Baby No. 10 because, yes, she’s expecting a new little one this winter!! How wonderful!!

Despite the fact that I don’t know her in real life, I really craved a good name conversation with Lindsay, and so I was delighted when she agreed to do a guest post about “names” — just that! — I didn’t even want to narrow it down any further than that, because I wanted to hear everything! But of course a question-and-answer format is easier, so I asked all the questions I could think of, and she graciously and patiently answered each one. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did!

💐💐💐

boever_family-2016

Kate: Where do you look for name inspiration? (I don’t want to confuse the question and I’d love your gut-reaction answer, but this also might help: Do you draw exclusively from saints to whom you already have a devotion, or do you sometimes happen upon a name you like and then seek to cultivate a devotion to that saint?)

Lindsay: I look everywhere for name inspiration. Of course, saints are my surest go-to, but I also enjoy researching countries that have Catholic beginnings, Catholic places of worship, towns that the great and maybe hidden saints came from as to honor that wonderful place this saintly person walked in. It is wonderful to explain the origins of the name Clairvaux or Lourdes. I love how our faith infiltrates every piece of God’s wonderful land. California couldn’t scream CATHOLIC loud enough. San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino. We could go on an on. San Antonio, Texas. St. Augustine, Florida. St. Louis, Missouri. I love that God leaves His handprint everywhere.

Europe is separate story all by itself. The vastness of Catholicism is overwhelming to me when I think of Europe and its historical beauty. There are so many stories to be told. I love dissecting the French towns to discover their origins and what wonderful person once lived there.

I also love the “little” spiritual guys. I love their massive stories that God has not yet revealed in their fullness to the world quite yet because his timing is ALWAYS perfect and each story is destined for a specific point in history. I think of St. Thomas More. The grandness of his story didn’t surface until 500 years after his death. His virtue was actually forgotten for centuries. God wasn’t ready for him yet!

I love the stories of Titus Brandsma, Emil Kapaun, Frank Quinn, Marthe Robin, Luisa Piccaretta, Bl. Matt Talbot, Fr. Gereon Goldmann and Bl. Andre Bessette. The stories of these holy and brave men and women who lived their lives for Christ motivate me to constantly focus on why we were even created.

I take their names and take them apart like a scientist. I look up French versions of their names. I look up different nationalities and check to see how they pronounce certain names. I read about the towns they come from and how those towns or cities were established. This is where Catholicism is often discovered in the deepest crevices of our lives.

Biographies have always been my favorite genre of literature. I read about their devotions and try to fit that into the name. For example, Matt Talbot had a huge devotion to Our Lady. I was trying to work that into Lourdes’ name. He also loved St. Louis de Montfort. At one point, her name was going to be Talbotts Marie-Monfort. We went a different direction due to a small stirring of events, but I still love it. It fit everyone in the name we wanted to honor. St. Louis de Montfort’s 30-day consecration played a very pivotal role in John and I’s relationship. At one point, we were discerning if God was calling us not to the married vocation, but to the religious life. We prayed the consecration with open hearts and on one of the final days, a priest friend, Fr. John Heisler, visited unexpectedly and pointed us to marriage after much discussion. We promised to pray a Hail Mary for him everyday the rest of my life.

Kate: I’d love to hear your name story for each of your children, if you don’t mind sharing!

Lindsay: Here is the name story of each of our children:

Each of our children have some version of the name Mary in their name.

1. Dominic Savio Joseph Mary George Boever
Topping the charts of my favorite saints is St. John Bosco. He is the patron of our homeschool. As I child, I was so touched by his love of children and his desire that each child know they were wanted. I read anything I could find on him. One of his holiest students was St. Dominic Savio. We didn’t even hesitate to name our first son after this saintly little boy. He had such God-given wisdom at such a young age. Ironically, our Dominic is so much like his patron. St. Dominic Savio’s story has made an impression upon our Dominic’s soul. My mother described our Dominic so perfectly, “It is as if God has taken a hold of his soul.” Our sons have a a version of Mary and the name Joseph in their middle name. Dominic chose George as his Confirmation name.

2. Lillie Maria Goretti John Paul Boever
It is always funny to me how names come and go. Our girl name when I was pregnant with Dominic was Vianney. We had offered our marriage for an increase in priestly vocations and being that St. John Vianney is the patron of priests, we wanted to honor him in this way. PLUS, St. John Vianney is also one of my very favorite stories. He modeled the motto “Do small things well” so perfectly in the little town of Ars. He is a model for all those who think that their little hidden lives are not enough. During my pregnancy with Lillie, John mentioned the name of Lillie. I had carried 14 white lilies in my wedding bouquet to honor St. Maria Goretti and her willingness to die for the virtue of purity and chastity. For those not familiar with St. Maria Goretti’s story, she was stabbed 14 times by young Alessandro Serenelli who wanted her to do impure acts. What a wonderful patron for a young woman. She chose St. John Paul II for her Confirmation name.

*We lost our 3rd child Benedict Joseph Labre Mary Boever to miscarriage at 8 weeks.

4. Rose Marie-Therese Boever
John loved the name Rose. St. Therese is known for her love of roses. So going along with the theme of lilies corresponding with St. Maria Goretti, we gave Rose her name with the same intention. Rose was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen and with the sweetest temperament to match. As she has gotten older, Rose has developed such fondness for St. Rose of Lima. She is going to pick Ven. Solanus Casey for her Confirmation name.

*We lost our 5th child Margaret Mary Alacoque Boever to miscarriage at 6 weeks.

6. Zellie Marie-Guerin Boever
(pronounced Zellie like jelly with a Z)
We were slowly leaning into a French naming trend. We joked that the girls would love being known as their father’s beautiful bouquet as we had a Lillie, Rose, and now Zellie.

(St. Zelie Guerin’s real name is Azelie or Azalia after the flower azalea.) I read a few books about then Bl. Zelie Martin and admired her tender mothering ways. It is really cute as our Zellie LOVES her name.

*We lost our 7th child Francis Mary Xavier to miscarriage at 6 weeks.

8. Vianney Jean-Marie Boever
(pronounced Vee-on-ee)
Vianney has such an amazing story name to me. Like I mentioned above, we loved the name Vianney with our first pregnancy and then it faded to the background. During my pregnancy with her, God had not shown us a girl name. We had actually forgotten all about the name Vianney. I was driving home from bible study and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I called John, “If we have a girl, her name should be Vianney.” He couldn’t have agreed more. We didn’t know she was a girl until delivery, but I knew she was going to be a girl because her name was written on my heart. At her baptism, Monsignor Nemec asked us if we knew that Pope Benedict had just declared this coming year “The Year of Priests and St. John Vianney.” NO! We had no idea. He was a bit confused and asked again if we had any idea. We had no idea and it was so interesting to us that her name was revealed to us at that specific time for that year. I love her story so much.

9. Clairvaux Marie-Frances Boever
(pronounced Clare-vough: like hairbow)
We have mutual friends who have a daughter named Clairvaux. Keeping with my love of French sounding names, I knew we would have a Clairvaux. My uncle is a monk at the Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. We lived in Oklahoma for four years while John was in medical school. We visited the monastery often and one monk stood out to me. His name was Fr. Francis Defeydo. Before entering the monastery in France, he was an accomplished and decorated French navy pilot. His parents were very upset with his decision to give his life to Christ. He was so handsome and given so many worldly gifts, yet he gave it all up for Christ. He had such a humble way about him that really intrigued us.

The year our Clairvaux was born, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died a very holy death. My mother and I visited his grave a couple months before Clairvaux was born so we knew we wanted to honor his heroic life in our new baby’s name. Hence, the Frances in her name.

10. Damaris Catherine-Mary Boever
(pronounced Duh-Mare-iss)
We were stumped with naming Damaris. She was nameless until the last few hours of our stay in the hospital. She was such a beautiful baby and we couldn’t find a name to match the face we were staring into. My mother’s name is Damaris which means “of Mary” and John’s mother’s name is Catherine. The name Damaris is mentioned by St. Paul in Acts and there is also a St. Damaris of Athens. After debating several names, her name came to us to honor all three of our mothers.

11. Kapaun Joseph Mary Boever
(pronounced K-pen)
We are still getting over the thrill of having another little boy. We love our girls so much and after six in a row, we pretty much knew we were going to have girls from here on out! When I heard the words, “It’s a BOY”, they might have well said, “It’s a unicorn!” What??? Let me see this mythical creature I heard of named “boys” yet have not seen for many years. It was so fun. I had read about Fr. Emil Kapaun during his pregnancy. His heroism and devotion to others had me at hello. I admired how he spent his hidden days in the camp scurrying from tent to tent tending to the wounded while HE HIMSELF was wounded. The prisoners were given one rice patty a day. They were starving. One day, four men were fighting over a rice patty and Fr. Kapaun stepped in and said, “Here! Have mine! I don’t want it.” Then, proceeded to cut his small rice patty into fourths. The men were taken aback by his humbleness. Although he is well-known for his selfless ways, he was fearless in his defense of the faith. He was such a meek and mild fellow, but if the guards mocked Our Lord, he called them out every time often taking terrible punishments for doing so. We loved him. I mentioned to John that if we would ever have another boy, we should name him Kapaun. Also, Fr. Emil Kapaun’s confirmation name is Joseph so that fit perfectly with putting Mary and Joseph in our son’s name. There is a shrine in Pilsen, Kansas to Fr. Emil Kapaun. We have not been, but someday we will take our Kapaun there to show him that wonderful man who loved Christ so much.

12. Lourdes Marie-Talbot Boever
(pronounced Loo-ahrds, not Loor-dees like the Spanish pronunciation)
Lourdes has a very long story. You can read about her story HERE. To sum up her name, she was going to be named many things during her pregnancy. About a month before delivery, the doctors decided to induce on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes due to her health concerns. My mom texted me later that week and said, “Lindsay, I know her name. Lourdes Marie-Talbot Boever. She is supposed to tell the world about Our Lady of Lourdes.” I called John and he, too, was convinced of her name.

Fast forward a few weeks, I was visiting my grandmother and she was casually telling me about her visit to Ireland several years back. We were discussing back and forth about Matt Talbot and his Irish ways and devotions. She loves Matt Talbot and I mentioned he was my confirmation name. My grandmother told me about finding his shrine in Ireland by mistake and it was at this one church, “Ummm, let me see. Our Lady of Lourdes. Matt had a huge devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes.” NO WAY!!! I had no idea. I screeched, “That is what we are naming this baby!! ” How did God do that? He tied everything together so perfectly.

The date she was being induced. The saint we had been praying to and HIS favorite devotion. All into one name! Crazy to us!

13. We lost our 13th child to miscarriage in early 2016. We have not named this baby yet. We are still waiting to discover the name.

14. I am due December 5th with our 14th child. We have a smashing boy’s name that we love. We have narrowed the girl’s name down to three possibilities.

Kate: What role does John play in naming our children? Do you each come up with ideas, or is it more like you suggest names and he says yes or no?

Lindsay: John and I share the exact same naming desires. He loves the deep meanings as much as I do. He loves the heroism of the saints like Fr. Emil Kapaun. I am probably the Sherlock Holmes and he is the Watson. I am constantly looking, reading, investigating, and telling him about someone new I read about. I would be lost without his Captain Obvious skills in pointing out the nicknames that might arise if certain names are given to our children. (i.e. Ben Boever [bend over] — probably shouldn’t name a child Ben. Although, we did name the baby we miscarried Benedict)

Kate: Do you take nicknames into account when you’re choosing first names? Like, maybe you like a nickname and back-fit into a first name from there (you like Beth so you choose Elizabeth)? Or you hate the nickname Sam so you cross off Samuel/Samson/Samantha from your list of considerations? Or do you just choose names you love and don’t mind the nicknames that arise naturally?

Lindsay: Nothing is off limits. Like I mentioned above, I feel like a scientist to the degree that I take apart names and dissect them like no other. I love discovering the deeper meaning and origins to each particular name all the way back to Greek and Latin roots. I love discovering who which saints had devotions to. I love knowing the saints’ confirmation name, their parents’ names, where they were born, which parish they attended, which convent or monastery they were apart of, which symbols are associated with them. I love discovering what they loved and honoring them in that way.

We have a terrible case of the nicknames. Our poor children. I don’t know how to break the habit. Everyone has so many nicknames that it really should bring into question why we spend so much time giving them their legal name. I love it though!

Kate: What are some of your ideas that you never got to use? Or that you’d love to see others use that might not be quite right for you?

Lindsay: My sister, Kristin, is married to man that immigrated from the Ukraine when he was 8-years-old. There are 16 children in his family. Their culture, families, and food are so fascinating. I LOVE all their names, but they certainly have a Russian tone. We aren’t Russian so they just don’t quite work. A few that stick out are Reuvum, Edict, Slavic, and Milana. I love so many Russian names, but they just don’t fit our Irish/German/French heritage.

I also love the idea of Irish names with their unique spellings and pronunciations.

Kate: I think I remember that you’re from a big family, is that right? And your husband as well? So you probably have a bunch of nieces and nephews—what do you think about cousins sharing names? Or even the children of a close circle of friends?

Lindsay: Yes! I am the second of ten children. John is the second of eight children. God has given our children many cousins on both sides which is so very wonderful. John’s parents have 40 grandchildren so far and my parents have 31 grandchildren so far. We both have siblings that are newly married and several unmarried. We look forward to each new birth like it is the first. There is no greater joy than baby days in our families. It truly is wonderful and celebrated each time.

Amongst our families, everybody is so wonderful about sharing names and actually, I think most would deem it an honor if someone used the name that you have already used. Ironically, we don’t have any doubles yet. I love the names everyone has chosen and some that stick out are Scholastica, Athanasius, Magnus, Avila, Abraham, Rome, Edith, and Marian. Although, I love all the names our siblings have picked out. Everyone is so thoughtful and intentional with their names.

Now amongst our friends, it is a different story in regards to repeating names. We live in Lincoln, Nebraska and Catholicism is certainly alive and well in this wonderful place. There are many repeats and it certainly seems that everyone just knows that LIFE is certainly in abundance in our parishes so names are going to be repeated. It truly is a wonderful problem to have. I love gatherings especially when there are 7 Georges present, 5 Peters and 3 Marias.

Kate: You told me you’ve helped some of your friends with their baby naming—would you mind sharing some of your favorite final results?

Lindsay: Oh Yes! I think my close friends know my love for beautiful names. I had a few friends ask what names I had discovered during their pregnancies.

1. My friend Kristi has five children. She loves traditional and family rooted names. With their 4th child (baby girl), they were stuck on what to name her. I woke up one morning, called her and said, “Her name should be Evelyn.” Kristi immediately went, “YES! That’s it!” Come to find out, it was a family name and worked out so perfect.

2. My friend Leah was pregnant with their 4th child. They had three boys and asked what baby girl names I had been cooking up. They specifically wanted a biblical name. They liked unique, yet shorter names. I suggested, “Lael.” She immediately said, “YES! That’s it.” ‘Lael’ means ‘one who belongs to God.’

3. My friend Emily and I were sitting one afternoon watching our girls during ballet practice. We were both due about the same time with our 8th babies. I was due a few weeks before her. We were talking names and mentioned they were stuck on what to name their baby boy. I said, “Here! Name him this! I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote ‘Campion’ for St. Edmund Campion.” I told her if we had a boy, which we probably won’t, but if we do, we will name him either Kapaun or Campion. She loved it and said her husband was just reading about St. Edmund Campion. Well, I DID have a boy and we named him Kapaun. When Kapaun was born, she texted me and asked if she could really use the name Campion. OF COURSE!!! Do it! So now we have Kapaun Boever and Campion Villa a few weeks apart. She told me she kept that piece of paper I wrote his name on and put it in his baby box. I love that story!

Wasn’t that just the most wonderful interview?! Aren’t you just as a-swoon with Lindsay’s naming sensibilities as I am? So very many thanks to Lindsay for giving us a peek inside the Boever Family Naming Process, and please all remember to pray for her and her baby and family!

💐💐💐

Baby name consultant: Kolbe’s little brother

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Happy feast of St. Dominic!! 🙌🐕🐾🙏 It’s a special one too, because this year is the Dominicans’ 800th annivesary of its founding!!

(Off topic but on topic, that link brings you to an interview about this Jubilee Year with Fr. Cassian Derbes, OP. Cassian!)

Being a lay Dominican, today is always a special day for me, and I’m feeling celebratory 🎉🎉🎉 so not only do I have this consultation for you today (I LOVE the Monday consultation posts!), but I have a special treat for you all tomorrow, which is also the feast of St. Edith Stein AND my No. 2’s tenth birthday! I can’t wait for you to see it! What a great couple of days!

But first! Tori and her husband are expecting heir second baby, a second boy! She writes,

“Our oldest is Kolbe Daniel. Daniel is my husband’s name and we both really love St. Maximilian. We were considering naming him Eli Augustine which we still like. Other names that were thrown around were:

Lucas
Xavier

And if he was a girl we were thinking Stellamaris.

For this baby we are really liking Blaise … not sure about middle names and that’s the only name we’ve seriously talked about. If he was a girl we were thinking Azelie.”

Well I just love this family’s style — I’m a huge fan of all these names!

I so much enjoyed working on this not only because I love their taste in names but also because it’s pretty fun that they have, in a sense, a pretty clean slate with only Kolbe’s name and a few names they like to use as inspiration.

I was interested to note that Xavier, Blaise, and Azelie all share a prominent Z sound, but I couldn’t think of others that I thought Tori and her hubs might like– I’d be interested in any ideas you all had for Z-sound boy names that would fit with Kolbe.

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, but it’s not always helpful for those who love Catholicky Catholic names as this family does—Kolbe, Azelie, and Stellamaris aren’t included in the book, for example. But never fear—I was able to come up with quite a few ideas for based on the names that *are* in the BNW (Eli, Lucas, Xavier, Blaise, Stella) as well as my own ideas.

So! All that said, I did also want to just say that starting with a saintly surname (Kolbe) presents a somewhat of an interesting situation in that most of the names that I would say are most similar to Kolbe’s style are other saintly surnames (I did a post on them a while ago), but if Tori and her hubs choose another saintly surname for their second baby, will they feel like they’ve cornered themselves into a particular style?

I spent some time thinking about that and decided that I think going with another name that seems obviously surnamey—like Vianney or Bosco—for their second baby might very well create that boxed-in feeling. For some reason, it feels different to me than if they named their first two babies with names beginning with K—in general, I would say that a theme hasn’t been created until three or more babies are so named, but the last-name-as-first-name thing is tripping me up!

I decided, though, that I think Xavier is the kind of surname that would be totally fine to use for their second baby because of the fact that it’s been used as a first name for so long that a lot of people (especially non-Catholics) don’t know it started as a surname.

I do think that if they have a bunch of kids, there’s no problem at all with having some with saintly surname names and some with regular first names as long as they’re all interspersed, does that makes sense? Eli and Lucas are both great options that would help mix it up (I’d also love it if they wanted to move Augustine from the middle spot to the first name spot. Or August? Or Ambrose? Ooh — Ambrose has a prominent Z sound! At least the way I say it … maybe that would appeal? I love the nickname ideas Sam, Bram, and Brody).

Of course if Tori and her hubs hate all of what I’m saying, then I hope they know I expect them to completely disregard it! My only hope is to be a help, not to add stress! In the end, giving your children names you love is a great gift.

Okay! So these are my other ideas for this little guy:

(1) Fulton
As with Xavier, I feel like Fulton would be a fine choice for Kolbe’s little brother, since it started as a last name but most people know it as Fulton Sheen’s first name.

(2) John Paul, JohnPaul, Johnpaul, John-Paul
John Paul (or however they’d want to spell it) is such a great match for Kolbe in my opinion! It’s obviously faithy and thought it’s two names together, they’re short names so the whole thing is only two syllables, which seems the length that Tori and her hubs are drawn to.

(3) Bennett
I almost listed Benedict, but Benedict doesn’t seem quite right to me for this family—a bit clunkier maybe than I think they might like—so Bennett seems a great option. It’s a medieval diminutive of Benedict, and it’s got a surname feel (and of course some usage that way), as well as the awesome nickname Ben.

(4) Leo
Leo is an awesome little package of a name—masculine, traditional, and saintly (Pope St. Leo the Great!).

(5) Gabriel
Gabriel’s a style match for both Lucas and Xavier, and I consider it to be a Marian name as well (for the Annunciation). It’s one of my favorite names for boys—full of faith significance, and the friendly nickname Gabe is great (I’ve also seen Gil, which I looove).

(6) Jude
Finally, Jude, for our beloved St. Jude Thaddeus. Awesome name, awesome patron. I did a spotlight on it here.

What do you all think of these ideas? What other name(s) would you suggest for Kolbe’s little brother?

Baby name consultant: Baby No. 11 (girl) (no repeating initials!)

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Martha and her husband are expecting their eleventh (!) baby — their fourth girl! This Little Miss joins big sibs:

David Zachary
Caleb Daniel
Jesse Robert
Ethan Wyatt
Kathryn Cecilia
Aaron Mathias
Tobias Xavier
Bridget Darling
Phoebe Noelle
Levi Thaddeus

I looooove these names, each so great! You can see that the boys all have biblical first names, though the girls don’t follow suit. I really love sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe — such great sister names, so chic!

Martha writes,

“All first names must be saints … Middle names do not have to be saints though. No first name can start with the same letter as our other children. None of the children can be named after anyone we know, family or otherwise. We don’t want a name that is very common, but nothing way out there. We prefer traditional spellings … Dh loves Maewyn or Willow. I don’t think Maewyn fits as a saint name and am not keen on naming my girl after a tree … Our last baby was called “Poor Little No Name” until just weeks before he was born, so I hope you can help us avoid last minute naming stress this time.

We have some names we both like, but for some reason they just aren’t feeling like her to us.

We both like Sophia and Isabel or Isadora, but not as first names because they have become so popular lately.  Also, we do not like potential nicknames of Izzy or Dora.
My husband is suddenly leaning towards using variants of either my first name or middle name, Martha Lee.  I have no idea why.  I’ve never liked either myself.  But we were both sorta okay with the “lee” sounds in Leah or Lily (as a middle). And Iliana, which is not a saint.

The husband is still pitching hard for Maewyn Willow or Xena Isabella. (XI = 11) I am not even slightly fond of either.

I like Helen or Zelie Sophia, he does not like Helen at all and doesn’t like Zelie because he likes a name with clear pronunciation and thinks people will be confused about whether it is ZEL-ee or Zay-lee.  He also quibbles that if I dislike naming our girl after a tree, it makes no sense to be okay with naming her first name after a flowery bush. Got me on that I suppose. lol

I was telling the husband the other day that I like Seraphina but it is a hard one to find a middle name for!  He likes Danae, but I think that sounds harsh and too close to deny.  I like Roux, but dh says he isn’t naming her after sauce starter.”

Did you chuckle as much as I did when reading Martha’s dilemma? She and her Mister sound like quite the funny pair!

This was a lot of fun to work on—big families with lots of naming rules/restrictions are seriously so fun for me!

So first off, regarding Zelie, yes, its pronunciation isn’t set—they can choose their own and as long as they’re firm and consistent I don’t think it (or any name with various pronunciations) is an issue. (I wrote about Zelie’s pronunciation here and here.) I also wanted to point out that Lindsay’s daughter at My Child I Love You who’s named after St. Zelie has the spelling Zellie, which makes their desired pronunciation really obvious — maybe that spelling would be a good idea for this family?

And good news! (Maybe?) Iliana *can* be considered a saint’s name! I don’t know how exact it has to be for Martha and her hubs (some people are okay with variants of saints’ names and some aren’t), but my trusty go-to source for name meanings (behindthename.com) says Iliana is a variant of Elias (which is a variant of Elijah), and the spelling Ileana may be a variant of Helen. Cool right?!

Maewyn is interesting to me as a first name as well—I’d never heard of it so I looked it up and learned that it was St. Patrick’s birth name!! Wow! It does strike me as more feminine for our modern sensibilities—it has a really pretty sound, and I keep seeing the “Mae,” which on its own is generally considered a variant of Mary (which I love—Marian names are my favorite!).

And Xena Isabella for the XIth baby?? Pretty genius!! 😀 I looked it up and discovered it’s a variant of Xenia, which I actually do quite like, and she’s revered as a saint in the Eastern Church, but as far as I can tell she’s not recognized in ours? BUT I did a little more digging and discovered St. Xantippa, who *is* one of our saints—feast day Sept. 23 with St. Polyxena (Xena could work for Polyxena, no?)—both first-century Spanish martyrs. So they definitely have some options if they  want to use an X name! If they used such a long name as Xantippa though, I might suggest going shorter than Isabelle for the middle? Maybe Ivy or Iris?

Regarding Helen, I wonder what they’d think of Nell or Nellie? Maybe Martha’s husband would like them better than Helen? They’re traditional nicknames for Helen, so St. Helen can still be patron; they’re also style matches (according to the Baby Name Wizard which lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity) for Mae, which is one of the names I looked up for inspiration (since Maewyn wasn’t listed).
Regarding Willow, it’s important to note that this is only a middle name contender, and though I really loved the idea of changing it to Willa for a first name, as a nod to any of the Sts. William, William variants are on the no-go list.

And Seraphina! It was a later addition to Martha’s list, and one I’d written down for them before I’d known they were considering it! Woo! I love it, such a gorgeous name! For a middle name, Ruth has a similar sound to Roux and loses the cooking element (haha! 😂 ). I love Ruth in the Bible. There’s also Rue, like the awesome + tragic character in the Hunger Games and/or the Golden Girls’ Rue McClanahan (whichever they prefer!). (Rue was an actual given name for McClanahan—her given middle name, not a nickname for another name.)

I really like the rhythm of Martha’s husband’s middle name idea of Danae with Seraphina, and tried to think of others that a similar rhythm (two syllables with stress on the second) to appeal to him (and hopefully Martha might like them too):

  • Seraphina Mairead (Mairead is the Irish for Margaret, rhymes with parade)
  • Seraphina Therese
  • Seraphina Corinne
  • Seraphina Pilar (a sneaky Marian name!)
  • Seraphina Renee
  • Seraphina Celeste

And other unusual one-syllable names like Martha’s Roux might be:

  • Seraphina Wren
  • Seraphina Lark
  • Seraphina Vale
  • Seraphina Paige
  • Seraphina Tru(e)
  • Seraphina Viv
  • Seraphina Liv
  • Seraphina Greer

Regarding the idea of using a variant of Martha’s name, I was intrigued by connecting to it somehow. There really aren’t any variants of the name itself other than Marta, which is sweet and I do like it, but if they didn’t like that I thought of some others that might do the trick. Like Margaret, which has the same first three letters of her name. Maite has the same first two letters as Martha and  the same total number of letters—it’s got French and Spanish usage and is a contraction of Maria Teresa so it’s used both as a nickname and a given name (I’ve heard it said MY-tay).

Okay! So those are my comments on the names they’re considering, and I have new ideas for Martha and her hubs as well. As I mentioned, I used the Baby Name Wizard and relied heavily on its suggestions of names similar in style/feel/popularity to the names they’ve used and like, but I also added in some ideas of my own:

(1) Susanna(h)
I love that Susanna(h) is biblical, like the boys’ names; I love that if it’s spelled Susanna it loses a little of the biblical feel and fits in really well with the older girls’ names. Zuzu is a Susanna nickname I’ve been crushing on lately, and Anna, Annie, and Susie are all possibilities, as well as the full Susanna just on its own. St. Susanna’s also an early saint, and the American Catholic Church in Rome is St. Susanna’s.

(2) Faith or Hope or Mercy
Faith is a style match for Levi, and as soon as I saw it I loved it as an idea for this little girl. It does repeat the sound of Phoebe’s name but not the initial … I also know a little Faith Immaculata and I just die over her name, soooo gorgeous.

Hope’s a match for Leah, and I think it’s a really sweet name that, like Faith, can take a nice long middle name (lots of fun possibilities there!). And Mercy has been on my radar for months because of the Jubilee Year of Mercy—if they didn’t like Mercy as a first name, I love it as a middle for them.

(3) Nora
I love love love Nora—it’s a traditional nickname for both Honora and Eleanor, and there’s a Venerable Honora Nagle, and Eleanor has often been taken as a variant of Helen, but there are some quibbles about that, so it can also refer to Bl. Archangela Girlani whose birth name was Eleanor.

(4) Zoe
I recently discovered that St. Catherine of Laboure’s birth name was Zoe, and I’m really loving it! Especially since Martha and her hubs have been discussing names that begin with the end of the alphabet (Willow, Xena, Zelie), they might be interested in this Z name, which is also a style match for Phoebe.

(5) Inessa, Ines, Inez
At a certain point I just started going through the alphabet and trying to come up with names for the letters that haven’t used yet, and when I got to I, I thought of this family who has a daughter named Inessa, which is a form of Agnes. So pretty right?! Ines and Inez are more familiar variants — I’m interested to hear feedback on them because I can’t tell if they’re revival ready or still a bit too old?

(6) Genevieve
Genevieve is such a long gorgeous name, and has a similar feel to Seraphina, I love it and its nickname options Evie and Vivi and Neve, beautiful!

(7) Rosalie or Rosaleen
Rosalie is fast becoming one of my favorite names, and I love it as a sister to Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. And I was thinking about Rosaleen the other night and how it has such a similar sound to Rosalie, but Irish-ed up. Very sweet name!

(8) Rowan
I suspect Rowan is too unisex for this family, but it’s another nature name (like Willow) with a Celtic feel and a [male] saint’s name (like Maewyn), and it begins with the as yet unused letter R.

(9) Verity
I’ve totally been digging Verity recently — I love that it means “truth,” and is definitely one of the more underused virtue-esque names. So pretty!

(10) Zara
Having Z for an initial is so cool, and Zara has a really sophisticated feel to me (like Brit royal Zara Phillips Tindall) — I can see it being awesome with sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. At first I wasn’t going to include it because I didn’t think there was a saint associated with it, but I loved the idea of it so much that I did some digging and discovered that it’s a diminutive of Zaharina, which is the Bulgarian feminine form of Zechariah. Wow! Zechariah makes me think of St. Elizabeth and the Joyful Mystery of the Visitation, which is all kinds of wonderful to me.

(11) Zephyrine
My last idea (eleven ideas for the eleventh baby! 😄 ) is a little out there, but there’s a Pope St. Zephyrinus, and Zephyrine is a French feminine variant of the name (I just read that a sister of French Kings Louis XVI and XVII and Charles X was Marie Zephyrine, so named because she was born on the feast of Pope St. Zephyrinus). It’s long and lovely and elegant and saintly, and — fun fact! — I had a great-great Aunt Zepherine (I think that was how she spelled her name) and she went by Zee. So. Cool. (My only hesitation for this family is — are the endings of Kathryn and Zephyrine too similar? )

And those are all my ideas for this sweet little Baby Eleven! What do you all think? What would you suggest?

Birth announcement: Joel Edward Scott!

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A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know her little guy has arrived and been given the handsome and meaningful name … Joel Edward Scott!

She writes,

“We were so sure that boy name would be Joseph Samuel Scott, and then he was born and wouldn’t you know that he looked us in the eyes and was a Joel Edward Scott. He missed the feast day of St. Joel (I JUST found out – wasn’t even tracking feast day!) by 2 hours. (TWO HOURS!) but as my mom pointed out, God is rocking the boat for this little one, so all we must do is trust! [The mama later added: ‘And I just received clarification from my friend who told me about the feast day that it’s the 13th (I’m sitting here in the hospital stuck on the 14th but it’s the 15th) and she said it’s not the first thing you find when you Google but it’s the French name day for St. Joel.’]

I’m printing out your baby name consultation for his keepsake box, because I want baby Joel to know how much love and thought and consideration went into his name. Thank you for all your thoughtfulness! I have loved reading and re-reading your consultation!“

Guys! How COOL is is that little Joel was given the name of a saint practically on his feast day — all unbeknownst to his parents?! SO great! I LOVE that kind of thing! And isn’t Joel Edward Scott such a handsome combo?

Little Joel joins his big sibs:

Liam Byron
Logan Kurt
Pio Julian (with Jesus)
Amelie Maria Margarete

Just a wonderfully wonderful family of names!

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

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Joel Edward Scott