Biblical names

Baby name consultant: Baby boy due on St. JP2’s feast day

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Julia and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a boy! Their other children are:

Adam Henry IV
Clare Therese
Frances Gianna (Gianna because, like St. Gianna, Julia’s a pediatrian and mother)

I just love their names — solid and classic and with great faith significance.

Julia writes,

“My husband and I do not have any particular names in mind, unlike with our first three children … [We] have a trend of using family names as well as saint names. I’m not married to the idea of using another family name, though we are traditional like that and I’d be happy to do so again. I’d like to explore some “less traditional” names … my husband loves very “Catholic” names. He has thrown out several names such as Augustine, Boniface, Maximillian, Blaise, etc. I’m not sure I like such bold names, but MAYBE if it had a satisfactory coordinating nickname … I do love some of the suggestions you’ve made of using a more formal name with a good nickname (such as Miles for Maximilian) … I’m open to suggestions!!“

Names they’ve considered include:

George (Julia’s mother-in-law’s father’s name)
A name that starts with “E” (“because this baby is the fourth child born during a fall month, which somewhat mirrors my mother in law who is a fourth child born during a fall month. Her name is “Ellen Kathleen”“)
A name that honors JPII (either his name or legacy) because of being due on his feast day

Alrighty, first off, some thoughts about their current ideas:

George is a great option because it’s Julia’s mother-in-law’s dad’s name (I’m a big fan of family names!), and it’s getting some good Catholic-family name-love recently — I love that Pope Francis’ original first name was George (in the form of the Spanish Jorge). So that’s a great option!

I like their idea of using an E name in honor of Julia’s mom-in-law. I had a few ideas along this line: You all know that I usually start a consultation by looking through the Baby Name Wizard book for inspiration – it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that match the entry in regards to style/feel/popularity. Two that jumped out at me were Eric and Ethan, both are similar to Adam in different ways – Eric and Adam have a similar popularity trajectory, and Ethan and Adam are both biblical. Julia also said she’d like to explore some “less traditional names,” which I took to mean “less common,” and I thought both Ephraim and Edmund fit that description. Or what about Eli or Elijah or Elias? All of these names are saints’ names.

As for honoring JP2, it’s such a wonderful idea, and I can think of a few different ways to do so. There’s John Paul of course, or Charles/Carl/Karol (for his pre-papal name Karol). In the comments for the consultation I did for Jenny Uebbing from the blog Mama Needs Coffee, Margaret suggested JP2’s childhood nickname Lolek as a possible nickname for Luke, which I think is adorable – and Luke is a style match for Clare! They might also consider the Peter names, which of course would be a nod to JP2 being Pope: Peter or Pierce or Piers. Actually, when I was first reading Julia’s email and saw that she was open to “less traditional” names and that she’d like to honor JP2, I immediately scribbled down Pierce. I can see it being a great first or middle name … Eric Pierce, for example. Or Charles Pierce (first name and middle name for JP2!). JP2’s given middle name was Joseph, so that’s another possibility (also BXVI’s pre-papal name, so it could be a double whammy name!). Or maybe spelling it the way he did (the Polish way): Józef. That could be really great in the middle spot.

OR – this is a cool find – I googled JP to see how he spelled Joseph, and came across his brother’s name: Edmund! One of the E names I suggested above! Wikipedia has this lovely bit about Edmund: “[JP] was close to his brother Edmund, nicknamed Mundek, who was 13 years his senior. Edmund’s work as a physician eventually led to his death from scarlet fever, a loss that affected Wojtyła deeply.” I know Julia already nodded to her profession as a physician with Frances’ middle name Gianna, but the fact that JP’s beloved brother was a physician is an extra-nice connection for her. Also, if they were to consider the combo Edmund Karol, not only would it be a double nod to JP2, but would also give the initials E.K. – just like Julia’s mom-in-law! Actually, Karol would be a great middle for any of the E names I suggested: Eric Karol, Ethan Karol, Ephraim Karol, Eli Karol, Elijah Karol, Elias Karol, all of which would be a fun connection to her MIL.

As for Julia’s husband’s love of really “Catholic” names, my personal taste runs toward the same kind of names (or, as I like to call them, “Catholicky Catholic” names), so I’ve considered most of the biggies for my own boys, and I’m allllll about friendly, accessible nicknames for everyday use, so these are some of the ideas I’ve had:

  • Augustine nicked Gus (my fave) or Augie. Or even Austin, as Austin is an old variant of Augustine
  • Boniface nicked Bo, or even Ben. I’ve seen “Bonnie” too, but I feel like that’s best left to teammates to come up with in the dugout as an affectionate slugger name than for parents to start out that way. Bonaventure is similar
  • Maximilian is one of my faves, and certainly there’s Max, but also Mac and Miles
  • Blaise is good as is, right? I always love that it sounds like blaze=fast, fire, really macho things
  • Ignatius nicked Nate or Natey or Nash. There’s also Iggy, which is really cute
  • Joachim nicked Jake is one I’ve tried to convince my hubs of for years!
  • Cajetan is another I’ve run by my hubs … he’s like, “Um, no.” Haha! Caj is a cool kicky nick
  • Ambrose nicked Sam or Bram. We’ve seriously considered this one ourselves
  • Polycarp could easily be Paul (Pol) in everyday life
  • Xavier nicked Xavey or Xave
  • Benedict nicked Ben or Bede or Buddy or Ned
  • John Paul nicked Jack, Johnny, JP
  • Ooh maybe Justin? For St. Justin Martyr? He’s a Church Father, a big deal — but a great, “normal” name to today’s ears

I feel like where Julia and her husband intersect might be names like Austin and Justin and John Paul, or some of my suggestions below — all super saintly and Catholicky Catholic, but not as hit-you-in-the-face as some of the others. I actually blogged about when Mom and Dad have different name styles, and used that post to write a longer article for CatholicMom.com.

So those are my thoughts/comments on the ideas Julia and her husband already had, but I can always come up with more. 🙂 I always shoot for three, and was able to do so here:

(1) Benjamin (or Jonathan) (or Nathan)
When looking up multiple names in the BNW, I’m always on the lookout for crossover names, names that are similar to more than one of the originals. Benjamin is similar to both Adam and Clare, so I had to include it! I love the name Benjamin – one of my brothers is Benjamin – and Ben is one of the best nicknames in my opinion. Jonathan was only listed as similar to Adam, but my other brother is Jonathan, so Benjamin and Jonathan have always had a similar feel to me. If they paired Jonathan with a P middle name (Jonathan Pierce? Jonathan Paul?), they’d have JP initials, which is a nice connection to JP2. And Jonathan made me think of Nathan, which, when I plugged in all their kids’ names and George, showed up as a style match on yet another of my naming tools, Nymbler.

(2) Louis
Louis is a style match for both Frances and George, and St. John Paul II’s devotion to Mary and his papal motto has been attributed to St. Louis de Montfort:

“… Pope John Paul II gleaned his devotion to Mary largely through the writings of one saint: Louis de Montfort … as he matured in his faith, he singles out one overwhelming influence which changed his life: “At one point I began to question my devotion to Mary, believing that, if it became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ. At that time, I was greatly helped by a book by Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort” … Blessed Pope John Paul II thought so highly about the writing of St. Louis De Montfort, that he spoke about the saint on many occasions. In addition, on December 8, 2003, he wrote a special letter on the occasion of the 160th Anniversary of De Montfort’s publication. In this letter he wrote: “I myself, in the years of my youth, found reading this book a great help.”

The book was such a great influence that when he was elected Pope in 1978, he chose his motto from words written by St. Louis De Montfort.

“As is well known, (in) my episcopal coat of arms … the motto Totus tuus is inspired by the teaching of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. These two words express total belonging to Jesus through Mary: “Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt.” (“I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours.”) … “This Saint’s teaching has had a profound influence on the Marian devotion of many of the faithful and on my own life.””

(3) Oliver
Clare and Pierce both remind me of Oliver, which I think might fit Julia’s “less traditional” idea — not that Oliver isn’t a traditional name, but traditionally it hasn’t been as popular as it is now. In addition, as one of you readers pointed out to me, St. Oliver Plunkett wrote about Divine Mercy, and of course, JP2 is known as the Mercy Pope because of his devotion to and writings on Divine Mercy. He also canonized St. Faustina and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday.

Whew! Those are all my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What names would you suggest as a brother to Adam, Clare, and Frances?

Birth announcement: Jude Becket!

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Holy days are celebration days, and Sundays are no exception — I will absolutely break my no-blogging-on-Sunday rule for a birth announcement!

I did a private consultation for Jenna and her husband a couple of months ago, and she just let me know her baby boy has arrived! She writes,

“Well he is here, he came 3 wks early but is doing great! And we ended up going with Jude Becket 🙂 “

Jude Becket!! I love it!! He joins his amazingly named big sibs:

Miriam Goretti
Joseph Kolbe
Gianna Elizabeth

I guess I’m wondering if they’re a Catholic family? Haha! 😉 Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Jude!!

jude_becket

Jude Becket

Jesus’ genealogy

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I went to my oldest’s school Mass yesterday, and the priest started his homily by suggesting that having to listen to all the names of Jesus’ ancestors, as listed in the reading for yesterday’s Feast of the Birth of Our Lady, was not anyone’s favorite thing to do.

Clearly this blog is not the place for him. 😛

Of course I had hung on every word of that reading, loving the listing of names, and the priest went on to give a pretty amazing homily about the significance of the fact that Jesus’ ancestors were a mix of, as he put it, “saints and scoundrels,” which Matthew likely felt important to include to show that there’s hope for all of us.

It made me think, too, of how many of us love to look through our own family trees for names that we might like to consider for our own children — “it’s a family name” makes any name okay, no matter how popular/unpopular/weird/unusual/difficult to say or spell, etc. So it’s kind of cool to think of doing the same with Jesus’ family names — a nod to Him in the naming of your baby.

These are the names as listed in that reading:

Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Judah
Perez (whose mother was Tamar)
Hezron
Ram
Amminadab
Nahshon
Salmon
Boaz (whose mother was Rahab)
Obed (whose mother was Ruth)
Jesse the father of David the king.

David
Solomon
Rehoboam
Abijah
Asaph
Jehoshaphat
Joram
Uzziah
Jotham
Ahaz
Hezekiah
Manasseh
Amos
Josiah

Jechoniah
Shealtiel
Zerubbabel
Abiud
Eliakim
Azor
Zadok
Achim
Eliud
Eleazar
Matthan
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

There are definitely some cool possibilities in there for boys:

Abraham
Isaac
Jacob (TWO of Jesus’ ancestors, how great for all the Jakes!)
Judah
Ram
Boaz (love love love love! I think it’s juuuust a little too far for us, but only just — such a cool name)
Obed
Jesse
David
Solomon
Joram
Jotham
Amos
Josiah
Achim
Eleazar
Matthan (I’m digging this one — kind of like Matthew/Matthias, but different)
Joseph

And a couple girl names too:

Tamar
Ruth
Mary

Incidentally, since we know Mary leads us to Jesus, it’s kind of cool to think that naming a little girl Mary in light of this reading is really a nod to Jesus name-wise. I never thought of it that way before. ❤

What names would you consider from this list? Would you ever consider a name like Uzziah or Zerubbabel? What do you think of the idea of using one of the ancestors’ names as an honor name for Jesus?

Birth announcement: Olivia Rose!

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Can it be? THREE birth announcements in two days?? YES!!!

Jennie, whose consultation I posted last month, has given birth to her baby girl, and her beautiful name is … Olivia Rose!

Jennie writes,

“Just wanted to let you know our newest addition arrived last Friday morning. Miss Olivia Rose has been a perfect addition to our family and we are all thrilled.

Her name (and we hope her disposition will follow suit) means peace and beauty. Thank you for your suggestion of the name Olivia. It wasn’t on our original list of names, but we both ultimately fell in love with it and we think it fits in perfectly with our other children’s names.

One of your readers noted the connection of the name Olivia with Our Lady of the Olives. I had never heard of that particular Marian devotion before, and I am so grateful she pointed it out. Once I read about it, I was sold on the name Olivia.

We chose Rose as her middle name in honor of Our Lady, the “mystical Rose.” … We pray our little Olivia Rose always stays close to Our Lady and and that in turn, she keeps her closer to her Son.

Thanks again for your help.”

How beautiful is the name Olivia Rose?? And packed with such meaning!! I’m so so so excited that Laura’s comment, connecting Olivia to Our Lady of Olives (who I’d not known of before), helped Jennie and her husband be “sold on the name Olivia”!! This blog would be nothing without all of you!!

Congratulations to Jennie and Matthew and big sibs Hannah, Abigail, and Lucas, and happy birthday Baby Olivia!!

olivia_rose

Baby name consultant: Green bean #4 needs a name that fits with older sibs

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Krystin and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little green bean. 🙂 She writes,

“[We] have a difficult time coming up with names we like because we have both worked with kids much of our lives and have run across many names that are either already used or have negative (to us) connotations, if you know what I mean! We both work in schools …”

Working with kids so often presents difficulty when baby naming! Their other kiddos are:

Luke Earl (“We always loved the name “Luke” due to the religious significance and his middle name is named after my husband and my husband’s father“)
Bennett Paul (“Love the meaning of Bennett (“little blessed one) and Paul is my dad’s name“)
Tessa Marie (“We always loved the name “Tessa” because of Mother Teresa and because it’s just plain cute, and her middle name is the same as mine, my mom’s name is Ann Marie, and we have several other Marys in the family“)

And the names they “can semi-agree on” are:

Grant Matthew (“in total, the name means “great gift from God”“)
Evangeline Rose (“with the nickname Lina because Earl does not like Evie, and Rose is my confirmation name“)

Krystin’s specific questions are:

“What do you think of those name choices? Do they flow with our other kids’ names? I don’t love that Grant doesn’t have a built-in nickname (our kids don’t have “real” nicknames, but I do find that we call them by Lukey, Benny, Tess, etc at times just for fun) – but not sure if that really matters. I love the name Evangeline but worry it is a mouthful and that people won’t think that Lina works as a nickname. We both like that we don’t know of anyone else with those names and that they can “grow” with the child without sounding too kid-ish … I would love to hear your thoughts on those names as well as to hear other ideas that you might have as well for both girl and boy names!!”

I love Krystin and her husband’s name style!

First off, my thoughts about their current ideas are: Grant Matthew seems just perfect! I think it absolutely matches the feel of the other kids’ names, nice job Mom and Dad! I do understand about it not having a natural nickname (as you all know, I’m a big nicknamer!), so I wondered what they’d think about Gray as a nick for it? Even though Grant and Gray are both one syllable, Gray seems just the tiniest bit easier to say, like you started to say Grant but didn’t have to pull your tongue to the front of your mouth to finish it. So I could definitely see Gray seeming like a short version of Grant. I’ve seen Gray used as a nick for Graham, which is similar to Grant in sound/length. So Graham’s a possibility? Also, I know a little Gabriel who mostly goes by Gabriel or Gabe, but ever since he was tiny his dad has also called him “G.” Just G, like the letter, and it’s so cute and affectionate and it could definitely work for Grant too.

Evangeline Rose nicked Lina is beautiful! I would say, if they love it, I would definitely go for it! And yes, I think Lina definitely works as a nickname for Evangeline, and I actually know another mama who’s planning to name a daughter Evangeline with the nickname Lina. However, since Krystin said she “kind of like[s]” it rather than “totally adores it,” I will offer that it strikes me as a little different in style than their other kids. Not totally! I could see it pairing really nicely with Luke, and it would be a pretty exact style match with Benedict, and Bennett is a medieval form of Benedict, so it’s all definitely swirling around the same place. But the other kids’ names are short-middle-ish in length, and Evangeline’s one of those looonnngg names, like Seraphina or Alexandria or Genevieve, all of which are gorgeous — I love them, I do — but I was thinking, for this family, maybe just Lina would be a better fit? I know a Lina in real life who’s just Lina, and Lena Horne’s given name at birth was just Lena – it definitely feels to me more like a formal name that could also work as a nickname for a longer name, instead of a nickname-used-as-a-first-name (though, full disclosure, I do think that’s how it started). Lina Rose? I think that’s lovely, and it works so well as a sister to Tessa Marie (as well of course as a sister to the boys, but I like Lina Rose and Tessa Marie as sisters, they go together nicely!).

Also, Krystin mentioned that she and her hubs like that they don’t know anyone with the names Evangeline/Lina and Grant … I do think it’s important to be aware that Evangeline seems to be shooting up the Catholic baby name charts, as far as the names I hear being considered and used by all of you readers and the families that email me (they usually hope to use the nickname Evie). Both Lina and Grant fit that “not used by many parents” criteria, though – neither one is very familiar to me for babies these days, which is really cool that they’ve “discovered” them!

Krystin also asked for other ideas for boys and girls, which I was delighted to do. (I can always come up with suggestions! Haha!) 🙂 I always shoot for three for each gender, and I did so here for boys, but came up with four for girls:

(1) Molly
Luke, Bennett, and Tessa/ Lukey, Benny, and Tess all made me think of Molly. It’s got that sweet, spunky feel that Tessa has to me, and I think it pairs really well with Luke and Bennett too. Molly Rose is one of those swoony names to me, so sweet! I also love that Molly is Marian (it started out ages ago as a nickname for Mary).

(2) Lily
You all know that I rely heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book as a starting point when doing consultations, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity … Lily popped up as similar in style to Luke, Tessa, and Lina, and I think it’s an awesome suggestion for this family. And Lily is Marian, which is always a big seller for me.

(3) Claire or Clara
This is another one that did quite well for this family in the BNW book, as it’s similar to Luke, Bennett, and Lina. A one syllable name like Claire would please me aesthetically, because then they’d have two kids with one-syllable names and two kids with two-syllable names. (I know this matters zero! But it’s how my crazy mind works. 😛 ) Clara’s so sweet too though … it would be a hard choice for me!

(4) Juliet
Juliet is a total bonus here – three is my preferred number of suggestions, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have thought of Juliet for this family on my own, but the BNW says Juliet is similar to both Bennett and Grant, and I thought that was too much awesome to not suggest! Juliet’s one of my personal favorites, so I’m actually really excited to tell you about it. Juliet Rose? Oh my!

Boys

(1) Samuel
I really like Samuel with Krystin’s other kids, and especially Sam/Sammy. Sam and Ben are two of those nicknames that just really seem like brothers to me, and Luke and Tess totally fit into that too.

(2) Miles
Bennett, Tessa, and Grant are all style matches for Miles – ding ding ding! I never really gave two thoughts to Miles until I read that in Ireland it’s used as the anglicized form of an Irish Gaelic name that means “devotee of Mary” — I just love that Marian connection for a boy! And I also read that, while linguists/name experts aren’t totally sure of its origin, one theory is that it started as a nickname for Michael, and I think that is soooo cool! Miles is kind of similar to Grant, with no built-in nicknames, but I could see Milo very easily being a fun nick for it.

(3) Colin or Ian
These two just felt like they fit to me. They have that same literary and dashing feel that Bennett and Luke and Grant have to me, and they absolutely seem like brothers to Tessa as well.

Those are my ideas! What do you all think? What other names would you suggest for a little brother or sister to Luke, Bennett, and Tessa?

I love to do name consultations! If you’d like me to give your name dilemma a go, check out my Baby name consultant tab.

Nicknames: Ways to get to Sy/Cy

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I’ve been seeing the nickname Sy pop up here and there recently, which has reminded me that I know a boy nicknamed Cy, and it’s kind of stuck with me — it’s feeling really cool to me, and a nice way to manage a heavier or very long given name.

I really liked the suggestion of Sy as a nickname for Sylvester, Silas, Simon, Cyrus, and even Cedric. The Cy I know is Cyril I think, and this suggests it as a nickname for Seymour and this suggests it as a nickname for Josiah. Another possibility is Sidney.

What do you all think of Sy/Cy? Do you know anyone called this, and if so what’s his given name?

Baby name consultant: A little football, a little Catholic baby naming

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I had a little mix-up about today’s scheduled consultation, so I’m going to post this one instead, which I’ve been working on recently. (Yes, I do spend my free time doing things like this. I’m a little bit crazy.)

One of my husband’s biggest disappointments regarding his lovely wife is that I don’t like football. Which isn’t even entirely true — what I don’t like is that when “the game’s on!” (football, baseball, basketball, NASCAR, golf ………………) there’s a lot of ignoring-of-wife. Also, game losses=bad-mood husband. Also, no one can watch anything else because the game’s on! I’m sure some of you know what I mean.

Sports in general I’m a big fan of (though more as a player than a watcher), and I think participating and watching are both great ways to spend one’s time (a lot better than some other things right?). Re: football, I also profess to be a Giants fan because my dad is a Giants fan (daddy’s girl and all). (My husband says I’m not allowed to call myself a Giants fan though because I decided to go to bed with two minutes left in the game during that SuperBowl that the Giants were in, which I couldn’t even remember which one it was so I just texted my hubs and he said: “Super Bowl 42 in 2008. Giants beat the Patriots 17-14 on a crazy last minute drive to beat the previously undefeated Pats (19-0 heading into the game) … And you went to bed.”)

Anyway! All that to say, despite my rocky relationship with football, I’m a huge fan of Chargers QB Philip Rivers. Huge fan! I admit I’ve never watched him play (I probably wouldn’t even know it was the Chargers unless it was pointed out to me. Because I’d probably have my nose in book. I’m such a disappointing wife!), BUT I do know these things about him:

NFL Quarterback Philip Rivers on Faith, Family & Football (by the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word)

Tiffany Rivers, Philip’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know (including their commitment to premarital abstinence, Natural Family Planning, and having a big family)

Touchdown: Chargers QB Philip Rivers welcomes seventh baby (nothing more to say 🙂 )

Catholic in the NFL: An Interview with Philip Rivers (on Life Teen’s blog) (“If you’re going to be a Catholic man, be it all the way“) (“Thanks so much for taking the time today to talk, is there anything that you would like prayers for? Yeah, I can give you many intentions, but I’d certainly be humbled if you prayed for my family and for all the unborn.”)

Catholic Quarterback Philip Rivers Passes On the Faith (National Catholic Register) (the whole article’s the bomb — the Eucharist, favorite saints, the Miraculous Medal, purity)

NFL Star Philip Rivers Tells Catholic University Grads to Never Give Up (he got married and had his first baby while in college)

Philip Rivers — Life on the Rock — Faith, Family, Football (fantastic 52-minute segment from EWTN’s Life on the Rock show, posted on his buddy Jason Evert’s Chastity Project site [which is itself an awesome awesome resource]) (it starts with an opening bit about the sacraments, and Philip comes on around the 8:30 mark)

Challenges ahead for Chargers’ Philip Rivers, but he has faith (“… in May, when the San Diego Chargers quarterback and his extended family visited the Vatican and were in a crowd of thousands for a Wednesday papal audience. Rivers, a devout Catholic, had a prime spot in the crowd and was holding the youngest of his six children, Pete, who will turn 2 in October … “I was about 10 yards away, and the crowd kind of opened up,” Rivers said. “Pope Francis just kind of motioned like, ‘Bring him to me.’ Pete was like, ‘No! What are you doing?!” But we passed him to the pope. It was awesome. The pope kissed him, blessed him. We got great pictures of it.””) (“Real life can be tougher. Rivers and his wife, Tiffany, got that reminder after the season when their 5-year-old son, Gunner, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.”)

I mean, come on. Especially for me as a mom of six boys, Philip Rivers is absolutely the kind of man I’m happy to know is out there, saying things publicly that I want my boys to hear, living a counter-cultural life that’s not hidden.

And happy news! Philip and his wife are expecting their eighth baby — a girl! They have five other girls:

Halle
Caroline
Sarah
Grace
Rebecca

And two boys:

Peter
Gunner

I do love to try to predict what name(s) I think expectant parents might choose, based on the names they’ve already chosen (and what kind of Catholic baby name blogger would I be if I didn’t have some ideas for Philip Rivers!), so using my trusty Baby Name Wizard book and my gut feeling about their taste, I came up with some names that I thought seemed to hit all the right notes:

(1) Sofie (or Sophie)

Halle and Gunner really jumped out from the list of their kiddos’ names — I thought that maybe they didn’t seem to quite fit with the other kids’ names? But when I remembered that the spelling Halle can be Scandinavian (I tend to think of it as more mainstream than ethnic, what with all the Hailey/Hallie/Hayley variants, but Halle is a legit Norwegian name on its own, albeit a male name), and Gunnar (that spelling) is Scandinavian as well, I thought maybe that was the key there. We’d actually considered Gunnar as a middle for one of our boys — it’s a family name on our Norwegian side, and we liked the uber-masculine feel of the sound of it, which we would have said like Gunner (even though I’m pretty sure the Scandi pronunciation is more like goo-NAR?) — so with all that in mind, I really paid attention to the suggestions given in the BNW as similar to Gunnar, and Sofie leapt off the page. That spelling — Sofie — is the Scandinavian spelling, and the Sophia/Sophie names are so similar to the style of Caroline and Grace specifically (and it’s a virtue-type name, like Grace), that it seemed like a really great pick for the Rivers. I really like the Sofie spelling for them because I think it helps loop Halle and especially Gunner in even more with whole group, but I don’t mind the Sophie spelling. (And i could be totally wrong about the whole Scandinavian-Halle-Gunnar/Gunner thing.)

(2) Julia

One of my favorite things is looking at a sib set with names of different styles and trying to find names that bridge the styles. Julia is one such for the Rivers family. It was listed as a style match for Caroline and Grace, and it’s biblical like Sarah, Rebecca, and Peter. And it’s got a pan-European feel — and is indeed used in the Scandinavian countries — which goes well with Halle and Gunner.

(3) Evangeline/Evie

Evie was listed as one of the matches for Halle (or rather, Hallie, as the spelling Halle didn’t have its own entry), which is so sweet, and it made me think immediately of Evangeline, which I thought might have just the right elements: it’s long, like Caroline and Rebecca; it’s biblical-ish, which fits in well with Sarah and Peter; Evie as a nickname is a good match with the shorter Grace; and like Sofie/Sophie and Grace Evangeline’s also a faith-filled concept.

(4) Leah/Lena/Lily (or Lilly)

I grouped these last three together because they’re all four-letter names starting with L. I like each of them for different reasons: Leah’s a major Old Testament woman, so certainly a good fit with Sarah and Rebecca (it’s somewhat pan-European as well, and its Scandi spelling is Lea, but I don’t love that because I think it makes the pronunciation uncertain — Lee or Lee-ah?). Lena was listed as similar to Halle, and can be the Scandinavian short of Helena or Magdalena, or it could be a nickname for Evangeline (I’ve seen a few families do so). And I think Lily — which was listed as similar to Grace — works on so many levels — it’s Marian; it is sometimes used as a form of Elizabeth, which ties in the Bible; it’s got a Scandinavian form (Lilly); it’s sweet and feminine like their other girls’ names.

I don’t know any of the girls’ middle names except Sarah (Catherine), so I don’t know if I’ve listed some names here that are unusable for that reason, but otherwise — what do you all think? Do you think these predictions are well founded? What name(s) would you predict Philip and his wife might choose, based on what we know of their taste from their previous choices?

(If anyone knows Philip or his wife and can pass this on to them, I’d be delighted. 🙂 )

I love to do name consultations! If you’d like me to give your name dilemma a go, check out my Baby name consultant tab.

Birth announcement: Nathaniel John!

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I received another wonderful birth announcement from a private-consult mama! She writes,

“Just a quick note to let you know that our 5th baby has arrived and it was a boy! I’m horrible at guessing the gender lol. We had decided on Lydia Therese if it was a girl, but as he is a boy we went with Nathaniel John as planned.”

I love love love the combo Nathaniel John, so handsome!! He joins his very well named older sibs:

Tahlia Belinda
Angus Jack
Isaac Lachlan
Bethany Mary

Such great taste!! Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Nathaniel!!

nathaniel_john

Nathaniel John

Alumni mag namespotting, and Swistle question

sanctanomina Namespotting, Naming nitty gritty , ,

You know I love getting those alumni mags in the mail! The update section — where everyone shares what they’re doing, like jobs, marriage, and babies — is like a little Christmas-come-early gift. Just the other day I spotted this triplet set (!) (alt characters used for privacy):

S!m0n V!nc3nt
Le0 Charl3s
Cec!lia M@ry

I mean really. A million bonus points to them for Superb Catholic Naming.

I also read this Swistle post yesterday and wondered what you all think: Is Judah “too Judas” for use? I personally don’t ever connect Judas Iscariot with the names Judah or Jude, even though all three are just variants of the same name. Really, all three have totally different feels to me:

  • Judas is one of those names that Catholics aren’t allowed to use (Canon 855 states that, “Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given”)
  • Judah is Ben Hur, or (in my experience) most likely from a Jewish family
  • Jude is all ours (and maybe a little bit Brit, thank you Beatles and Jude Law) because of St. Jude Thaddeus, and his namesake St. Jude’s Hospital, as well as all the little Catholic boys I know named Jude

I have to say, I was surprised that the couple in the Swistle post had heard “the guy that betrayed the savior?” from “99% of our friends and family” — what are your thoughts/experience?

Baby name consultant: Mostly biblical+very saintly names needed for Green Bean #4 (on earth)

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Megan and her husband Stephen are expecting their fourth born baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown). 🙂 Their other kiddos on earth are:

Monica Noelle (Christmas Day baby!)
Rebecca Therese (often called Becca; she was “nearly ‘Rachel,’ but we decided last minute that we liked the ‘-cah’ at the end to match her big sister“)
Jacob Michael

And two little ones in heaven:

Luke
Felicity

(I just love every single one of those names! Awesome style.)

Megan writes,

“I am glad pregnancies are so long because it takes us quite a while to agree on a name (often process of elimination), and then we tend to change our minds in the last week — lol. I blame the Holy Spirit, and He’s never failed us. We won’t know the gender of the baby (and my intuition is never right), so we need boys and girls options … Personally, girls names are so much harder for me than boys names. I like most of the common Old Testament boy names, and lots of familiar saint names, too. For girls, I tend to gravitate to the three-syllable names ending in “ah” [though Megan pointed out she’s not “committed to those syllables or to the ‘ah’ sound”] … Jacob would have been Maria Bernadette if he were a girl [though they’ve moved on from Maria] … We tend to like the names that are easy to say, easy to spell, but not super popular (well, Jacob might be…). So far all the names have a hard sound in them, which I can’t say I’m crazy about. I want the kids’ names to sound complimentary together, but I’m afraid that if we keep the “CK” sound in them for #4, it will be harder to break away for future names.”

Other names they’ve considered for girls include:

Vivienne (“as a pretty name, but no particular other reason, and I’d have to look it up to gauge the Catholicity of it“)
Susanna (“but not excited about Susie and there is a cousin Anna … would we really call her Susanna? I am open to it … or maybe Susie would grow on me“)
Avila (“But I don’t know if I have the courage to use such a different name“)

And for boys:

Gideon (“love the Biblical character, but it’s a little outside my comfort zone“)
Joshua
Caleb
Samuel
David
Jonathan
Micah
Joel
Joseph
Andrew
Thomas
Justin

Also:

“3 of the 4 grandparents have a name connection, so if it’s easy to connect to Brenda or Ellen, that’d be nice. Maybe Brendan for a boy? But it’s not vital … Baby is due mid/late October and there are lots of St. Johns on the calendar around that time. Would it be ridiculous to have another J baby just 18 months after Jacob? Would I be forever getting them mixed up?“

And:

“[Their last name ends with the “lee” sound, so] this eliminates first names ending with the LEE sound because I think it’s awkward. Even some names ending with just the “EE” sound make me pause“

Other names that are off the table because of relatives so named:

Nathan
Xavier
Levi
Matthew
Michael
Daniel
Gabriel
John-Paul
Joseph
Damian
Elijah

Okay everyone, buckle up: I had a LOT of thoughts! First off, I just have to say it — I love Maria Bernadette! I wonder if they’d considered Bernadette as a first name? A friend of mine was going to name her baby Bernadette and nickname her Betsy, which I thought was so clever and fabulous. (She ended up with a boy.)

Vivienne is beautiful, and of course I looked it up — Vivienne is actually a feminine spelling of the French male (!) name Vivian, and there is a St. Vivian, who had been a bishop. (Read more here, but pay no worry to the idea of Vivian as a feminine name being “either an Anglicized form of BÉBINN or a variant of VIVIEN (2)” – any of us who love any version of Vivian would be using it for St. Vivian of course.)

And Susanna! One of my very very favorites! Megan said Anna’s not do-able, and she’s not sure about Susie … there’s also Sukey/Suki, which is a traditional nick for the Susan names, and Zuzu, like Zuzu’s petals on It’s a Wonderful Life. They could do Annie — or is that too close to Anna? Or I’ve even thought Sunny or Sassy could be really cute for Susanna. 🙂

And Avila! I think they should definitely consider it! I see it often enough in families like all of you readers, so I don’t think it’s as out of the mainstream as Megan might suspect. But if it still makes her too uncomfortable, perhaps she can consider putting Mary in front of it? Mary makes any name do-able in my opinion! Mary Avila is just lovely, either as a double first name, or as a first-middle combo. Then they’d have loads of options, like calling her Mary (while always knowing that Avila’s winking from the middle), or Mary Avila, or Avila – all my dad’s first cousins who are women are named Mary+something, and they all go by their middles. Or they could even call her Molly, which is a traditionaI nickname for Mary, and also totally makes sense with the “L” from Avila. And Mary could kind of be an honor name for Megan, as her middle name is Marie. I also have another suggestion tied into this, which I’ll put in my formal suggestions below. 🙂

And Gideon! Also an awesome awesome name, I just love it. If it didn’t sound weird with our last name, I’d totally want to use it!! I personally have found that its lack of natural nicknames is difficult (as you all know, I’m a big nicknamer) BUT (and I know this is crazy) when the actor that played Gilbert Blythe on Anne of Green Gables died, I started thinking about how much I love the nickname Gil, but don’t love the name Gilbert, and how one could get to Gil — and I thought of Gideon with an L middle name, and I’m so in love with this idea that I’m extra annoyed we can’t use it! Gideon Leo, for example, or Gideon Louis – a good biblical name paired with a good saintly name! Even if Megan didn’t want to nickname it though, I love Gideon. I definitely think they should seriously consider this one too. 🙂 If, however, Megan and her husband still can’t get comfortable with it, what about something like John Gideon? John is one of those names that does for boys what Mary does for girls I think — putting John in front of any boy name makes it do-able! John Gideon could go by John or Gideon, or John Gideon.

Finally, before getting to my suggestions, I don’t think John is terrible after Jacob. Yes, they’ll probably mix them up, but I do that with my own kids, even the ones who don’t have matching initials! Hmm … Monica and Rebecca have a nice connection in that they both end in –ca; maybe Megan and her hubs could think of it as Jacob and the new baby if it’s a boy having their own special name connection by sharing the same first initial.

Alrighty! I always shoot for three suggestions for each gender, and I did so here, taking into account no hard K sound and no “lee” sound so as to sound okay with their last name:

Girls
(1) Evelyn or Evelina
I’m pretty psyched about this idea. It was inspired by Megan’s love of Avila and her uncertainty regarding her comfort level with it – both Evelyn and Evelina are from the name Aveline, which behindthename says is “From the Norman French form of the Germanic name Avelina, a diminutive of AVILA.” So Evelyn/Evelina=Avila, but in a more familiar way. So cool! AND it was also listed as similar to Vivienne in style/feel/popularity in my trusty Baby Name Wizard book. Winner! Evie/Eva/Eve are awesome nicknames that also really remind me of their style. And Evelina is long and ends in -a like the other girls.

(2) Eleanor and/or Nell (and its relations) (Or Elena!)
Megan mentioned that she might like to work Grandmother Ellen’s name in somehow –Eleanor was listed as similar to Vivienne in the BNW, and Ella as similar to Luke, so names with that sound seem to fit her taste. I quite like Eleanor with Monica, Rebecca, and Jacob, though I will just warn that Eleanor and Ellen have a tricky relationship etymologically (if you follow that link, be sure to read Sara’s comment as well). I actually started this train of thought with Ellen, and how Nell is a traditional nickname for it, and then I followed the Nell trail — it’s also used as a nickname for Penelope (love!), Helen(a) (so saintly!), and Eleanor — so there’s another connection too. Anyway, it all loops back to Grandmother Ellen, and a lovely way to do so! (I don’t hate “just Ellen” either, I’ve seen it used recently! The nickname Ellie is sweet too.) If Megan and her hubs wanted to match the -a ending of Monica and Rebecca, Eleanora is lovely as well. Or — ooh! — Elena! Like Ellen with an -a on the end!

(3) Lydia or Miriam
I just love Lydia, one of my very favorites. Unsurprisingly (as it’s a biblical name) it’s similar to both Susanna and Gideon in style. Miriam just *seems* like it fits to me — and I have nothing to back that up but my gut! My only hesitation in using either Lydia or Miriam is that they leave Monica out as the only non-biblical name. It’s not a huge deal — Monica’s been used for so long that it has an almost biblical feel — but it’s just something to be aware of. (Like with Mary Avila, Miriam could also be an honor name for Megan — a Mary name like her middle.)

Boys
(1) Jeremiah
Megan basically listed all the boy biblical names as ones she likes! Haha! But she didn’t have Jeremiah listed, which wasn’t at all on my radar anyway until the BNW informed me that Jeremy is similar to both Monica and Rebecca in style. Jeremy didn’t strike me as quite right, but maybe Jeremiah?

(2) Samuel
I know Megan likes Samuel, because she included it in the list of boy names she likes, so I just want to throw my vote behind it as well. Not only do Sam and Jake seem like the most adorable pair of brothers, but Samuel was also listed as similar to Luke in style. What an amazing connection between all three brothers that would be.

(3) Stephen or Simon or Benjamin
I wonder if Megan’s husband would be interested in a namesake? Stephen seems spot on to me, and the BNW concurs — it’s similar to both Maria and Susanna. It’s a bit unusual on little boys these days, but I profiled blogger/author/editor Danielle Bean’s kids a while back, and she has a Stephen Matthias, which I’m still swooning about. Maybe?

I’m not sure I’m getting the vibe from Megan that Simon is exactly her style, but the BNW says differently. 😛 Simon matches up with Vivienne, Susanna, and Gideon (in the form of Simeon), so I thought it definitely deserved a mention. And Benjamin wasn’t on their list of faves, but they have Jonathan on there, and I know a pair of brothers named Benjamin and Jonathan, so I had to suggest it too. Ben and Jake? Come on! So great!

Those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What girl and boy names would you suggest for this family?