Catholic baby names

Spotlight on: Aurora

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My reader/friend Grace asked me a while ago (how long? A month or even two?) if I would spotlight the name Aurora — please all take solace from knowing that I do eventually do what I say I will, even if it takes a while!

As Grace pointed out to me, she was inspired in regards to the name Aurora by this passage from the Canticle of Zechariah:

“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, and shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

It’s the “dawn” bit that pointed toward Aurora, as Aurora is Latin for “dawn.” What a great way to name a baby after a favorite Bible passage! And here of course the dawn refers to Jesus, which is so awesome.

Aurora can also be Marian, as I wrote about here. I referenced this quote from Ven. Mary of Agreda’s Mystical City of God:

“[The] most poor and insignificant hut or cave, to which most holy Mary and Joseph betook themselves … was the first temple of light (Malachi 4, 2, Psalm III, 4) and … the house of the true Sun of justice, which was to arise for the upright of heart from the resplendent Aurora Mary, turning the night of sin into the daylight of grace.” (no. 468)

The “resplendent Aurora Mary” — lovely! A quick Google search also resulted in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Bonaventure, which has as Chapter XI, “Mary for her sake and ours is fitly compared to the Aurora.” (“Aurora” in reference to Mary is mentioned thirty five times!) And in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this is the closing prayer for Vespers:

“Hail, wonderful dial Ezechias of old
Beheld when the prophet His destiny told;
The Word, That incarnate in you did become,
Receded, descending to man’s lowly home.
Nine choirs He passed of superior powers,
To take up the tenth in this nature of ours.
The beams of this sun Are the light of your face,
And you the aurora Preceding his race.
The serpent that lurks In night’s desperate gloom .
You crushed, and caused, All beauties
to bloom.

I have caused a never-fading light to rise in heaven;
And like a luminous veil have spread it over the earth“

(The name Dawn could be used also, of course, but I think today’s naming sensibilities are more in line with Aurora.)

Aurora’s one of those great names that’s used in lots of different languages — a pan-European name, really (usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, Romanian, Finnish, Roman Mythology). The French Aurore is stunning as well, and while I didn’t find anything when I searched for “St. Aurora,” I did find this (Google translated into English) about St. Aurore (aka Aure and Aurea), “Abbess of Paris and spiritual daughter of St. Eloi and St. Columba.”

Secularly, you may know it from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, as Aurora was her given name, or the aurora borealis (the northern lights), which is a lovely reference. Really, there are loads of gorgeous reasons to consider Aurora.

And the nicknames! Lots of good nicknames for Aurora, which is good, as it seems (from the comments on Behind the Name anyway) that a lot of people find it hard to say: Rory or Ro, Aura and Aurie and Aurea. (I once heard of a set of twins named Aurora and Therese nicked Rory and Reece. Cute!)

What do you all think of Aurora? Do you know anyone with this name? Does she go by the full Aurora, or a nickname?

Baby name consultant: Nickname for Victor

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Theresa and her husband are expecting their first baby in a few weeks. They love the name Victor, but, as she wrote,

“I’m dying trying to come up with a nickname that I love for Victor. Vic is the obvious one … but we both sort of feel like it’s a very grown-up nickname for a little boy. We’d rather that he grow into it. But we LOVE nicknames … All of our other favorite names generally have nicknames that would end in a strong E sound, but I’m not tied to it if we can find something else for Victor that we love (Vic-y just sounds way too feminine.)“

You all know how I feel about nicknames! So I was really excited to tackle this one, and I think I’m pretty good at coming up with new and different nickname options, but I found Victor to be a little bit of a stumper!

My parents actually fostered a baby Victor when I was growing up, and we called him Victor or Vic exclusively, so in my mind Vic suits a little boy well (which is probably why I never thought of coming up with something different, despite the fact that I’ve had Victor on my list for a while). But I totally get why it strikes Theresa as grown-up — it has a little bit of an old-world, old-man kind of feel to it.

So this is what I came up with as possible alternatives:

(1) Vicster, Vic-Man, Vicker
Nicknames ending in a long E sound seem such a natural fit for a baby, and Vicky being too feminine for a boy reminds me of the possibility of one of my favorite nicknames, Gus, turning into Gussy, which I don’t care for because it seems similarly feminine (despite my dad’s protestations, since he had a friend [boy] growing up who was called both Gus and Gussy). I’d thought Gusty and Guster could fill that need for Gus, which made me think of Vicster and Vicker for Victor (is Vicker too like vicar though? Or if it is, is that a bad thing?). And “Man” seems a natural add-on to a boy’s name, at least in my house and with my nephews as well. I can totally see Vic-Man working, too cute!

(2) Vito, Vin, Vinny
I know, none of those is directly connected to Victor, and they’re so Italian sounding (which might be great for an Italian family, not so much for other ethnicities?). But Vito has all letters from Victor, and Vin(ny) could be from the letters of Victor+a middle name that has an N/last name with an N.

(3) Vicho, Victo, Vico, Vitty, Vio
I also came across Vicho and Victo (supposedly Spanish nicknames for Victor), and Vico (unknown), and the Italian version Vittorio made me think of Vitty, and one of my books says there’s a St. Vio and when I googled him I did find a Chapelle de St. Vio in France but no other info … but Vio? Kind of cute?

(4) Middle-name nickname
I suppose going by a nickname for a middle name might kind of defeat the purpose of choosing a first name you love and want your child to go by, but if the idea is to have an at-home/within-family everyday nickname to bridge babyhood with the age at which Vic becomes appropriate, a nick of a middle is as good as any other option, right? Victor John might go by Johnny, for example. Some of my boys have funny little family nicknames we use almost exclusively at home (like the -Man idea above), but we’d never introduce them that way to anyone, and at school they don’t go by them, so I think it’s easy enough to, for example, alternate between Victor and Johnny at home, but only introduce him as Victor (or Vic, when the time comes) outside the house. I promise the baby won’t be confused! (Though everyone else might be.)

(5) Last-name nickname
For example, a boy with the last name Callaghan could go by Cal; Sullivan could go by Sully; Monticello or Montgomery by Monty. It’s certainly not unheard of for a boy to go by a nickname of his last name, even within his family (though I do see how this could be problematic of there are more than one boy in the family).

(6) Sporty/attribute/snookums-type nickname
I brought up Theresa’s dilemma at my parents’ dinner table recently, and my dad came up with two great ideas: Champ and Jock. Champ because he was trying to think of names that meant the same as Victor — I thought Champ was pretty inspired. I have a bunch of boy baby clothes that say something about “champ” on them, so it’s definitely kind of a common boyish reference. Jock from the idea of Victor and and a J- middle name flipped — it’s a traditional nickname in Scotland I believe, for John I think (like the scottie Jock in Lady and the Tramp!), and easily takes a -y without being feminine — Jocky. Especially cool if you’re into horses. 🙂 His ideas also made me think of some of the traditional attribute nicknames, like Red or Rusty for a redhead, or Sis/Sissy for a big sister, that kind of thing. And of course parents often seem to come up with crazy cutesy little nicknames, like (as I call all my boys) Lovey and Sweetie Petey. Siblings too — one of my brothers often calls me Blu. These are the type of nicknames that you can’t plan for, though, which is frustrating to parents wanting to decide the nickname ahead of time.

(7) Totally unrelated nickname
I know a John who goes by Gus, a Gregory who goes by Duke, a Jonathan who goes by Jeb, an Edward who goes by Zeb, and a Gerard who goes by Sam. I love a great formal name for the birth certificate and diploma and marriage invitation — well thought out, nicely balanced, good distinguished feel, taking into account faith and family and heritage — but then I really love a friendly, accessible, easy everyday name. There’s no real reason why the formal name and the everyday nickname have to be connected. Even when they are, there’s no guarantee that everyone a person meets will know that (as someone I know named Elizabeth, who goes by Betsey, recently discovered. Who doesn’t know Betsey is a traditional nick for Elizabeth? More people than you might realize). This idea opens up a whole lot of opportunities — you and your husband love the formal name Benjamin but you really want to honor your grandfather who went by Cap? No reason you can’t have a Benjamin nicked Cap.

Well! I think this is a decent list of ideas — what do you all think? Do you think my suggestions are usable, are just crazy? Do you have any other ideas for Victor nicknames, and/or do you know any Victors that have nicknames besides Vic?

Too gruesome for naming?

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I had an interesting name convo the other day about whether some of the more gruesome saint stories are off-putting enough that parents might hesitate before choosing the name for their child.

I think my personal feeling is that I don’t mind the gruesome stories — it’s the heroism and faithfulness of the saint that attracts me, and I suppose it might even be that the more gruesome the story, the more I admire the saint’s holiness. I think of St. Maria Goretti — being stabbed fourteen times for refusing a boy’s advances. I think of St. Margaret Clitherow — being crushed to death for harboring priests. St. Nicholas Owen, St. Charles Lwanga, the Apostles, Bl. Thaddeus (Tadhg) Moriarty, St. Tarcisius, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher — I can think of a million beloved saints and blesseds who showed strength and holiness in the face of suffering and evil. I love them all for their fortitude and faith and, indeed, heroism, and I’d be proud for my children to be named after them and to have their patronage and protection.

What about all of you? Are there any saints whose stories are so awful that you just couldn’t give the name to your child?

Spotlight on: Jacinta

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Happy Feast of Our Lady of Fatima! It’s a special one for me, as I went on a pilgrimage to Fatima just before I turned 14, and I consider it the first and biggest turning point in my faith life. I was brought up in the faith, and taught it well (especially by my mom, at whose knee I literally learned, so stuck to her was I through all my growing up, helping her with the babies, etc., and I loved every minute of it), but I didn’t realize that I didn’t *own* it until I went to Fatima (with the Blue Army sisters and my best friend from childhood, and no parents) — and in Fatima it became mine. I’ve always been grateful for the gift of it.

So it seems the perfect day to spotlight one of my favorite names (and my Confirmation name): Jacinta!

Lucia (by both pronunciations) gets lots of name love in the Catholic families I know/know of, and Francis in all its forms (including Francisco) is kind of all the rage right now thanks to Papa Frank, but I rarely hear Jacinta. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why!

Is it the pronunciation? I say jah-SIN-tah, which is acceptable as an English pronunciation. I know it’s said hah-SEEN-tah in Spanish, and perhaps that’s what a lot of people default to? But just like with loo-SEE-ah versus loo-CHEE-ah, I think all it takes is a simple correction.

As I’m sure you’re not surprised by, I’ve given a lot of thought to nicknames for Jacinta, as it’s definitely one of my very favorite girl names, and back before I knew I was going to birth six boys in a row, I thought there was a chance we might actually get past our very favorite girl name (which I will reveal if I entire menopause having never had a girl. :P), so I needed to know what we would call a little Jacinta when we weren’t calling her Jacinta.

Jess and Jessie have always been my favorites. They’re familiar to American ears, so there wouldn’t be any pronunciation issues as there might be with Jacinta. But one of my husband’s favorites (and mine too) is Tess, and we couldn’t do Jess and Tess, and Tess just a notch higher on our list than Jacinta (I actually still have to convince my hubs of Jacinta. Which I haven’t even bothered with, since all the boys).

So back to the drawing board. I really like the combo Jacinta Rose, and I thought Josie could come from that? I’ve thought of Cinta, but the “sin” sound makes me hesitate. Funny enough, that doesn’t bother me about Cinna (like the Hunger Games character), and Cinna would likely be my second favorite option, if it weren’t for that character. (Though maybe it’s not such a bad association … he was great and heroic after all … hmm …) Cindy’s also a possibility. Maybe also Cissy?

Jacey seems a natural nickname, at least spelling-wise, but the Stacey-Tracy-Jace-Jayden names, all of which Jacey feels like to me, aren’t really my style.

Janey’s a possibility, and a really sweet one … I think I’d love it more if it was just a little bit more different from our favorite name. Same with Jinna and Jenna, both of which could work.

Jetta could work. Ooh that’s a really cool name. Too cool for us I think.

This is a pretty great list though, some really great nicknames on here.

Secularly, I’ve always loved seeing the Aussie actress Jacinda Barrett‘s name in the credits (and I just have to say — she’s married to Gabriel Macht and if “Jacinda and Gabriel” aren’t the coolest names paired together than I don’t know what). Since she’s Australian, if she has a nickname, it’s probably Jazz, right? Don’t they do that Down Under? Barry is Baz and Sharon is Shazzer and all that? And then there’s Halle Berry’s character in the Bond movie Die Another Day whose given name is Giacinta but she goes by Jinx. I could also see a Giacinta going by the nick Gia.

What say you all to Jacinta? Yay or nay and why/why not? Would you prefer Jacinda or Giacinta? Do you know any Jacintas in real life, and if so, do they go by a nickname?

Nicknames: Boethius/Boëthius

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Someone I know was musing about the name Boethius for a boy, and she was trying to think of nicknames besides Bo.

At first I thought it was said “BO-thius,” so Bo seemed like the most natural nickname. I thought perhaps also something like Boze?

Then I saw online that Boethius (aka St. Severinus Boethius) was sometimes spelled Boëthius, and that means the “e” is pronounced, right? I’d verify that except my boys are asking for lunch, so I’m just going with the idea that it’s supposed to be said “bo-EE-thius,” and Bowie immediately came to mind. I also thought something like Boethius David could lead to Bede (I’m always trying to get Bede in there as a nickname! Haha!). Or, maybe something like Boethius Nathaniel for example could be Ben.

Finally, I thought Theo would work, which I thought was really cool.

What about all of you? Can you think of any other possible nicknames for Boethius besides Bo, Boze, Bowie, Bede, Ben, and Theo?

Baby name consultant: Baby #4 (boy names the hardest!)

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Theresa emailed me about a month ago hoping for help with names for her Baby #4.

“We are expecting our fourth this fall (almost out of our first trimester!) and would love love love your expertise with some suggestions. Obviously, we have a lot of time but we really like to name the baby shortly after we find out what it is, probably around the end of May/beginning of June because it really helps my husband and kids bond … We go for double Saint names for sure and mostly old/long names for girls, but not necessarily on purpose … Boy names are so much harder! … I don’t really know what boy names [my husband] likes. I don’t know if he knows … He doesn’t like names that are super specific to any ethnicity (Seamus, Carlos, Giovanni) or most Old Testament names (Noah, Elijah, Isaac) or names that are gender neutral or feminine sounding. If you can find a boy name we both like, I will be amazed!“

Oh husbands!! It was fun for me to come up against a really tough nut. I’m encouraged though because they’ve chosen some wonderful names together — their other kids’ are:

Elizabeth Anne Jude (“Anne is my middle name, Elizabeth just came to both of us at the same time and then the Mass reading a few days later was the Visitation, so we took it as a sign. Jude was because we had suffered a miscarriage before her (whom we named Felicity Jane) and thought a few times that we were losing her as well and prayed to St. Jude and she was fine“)

Adelaide Therese (“I have loved Adelaide for a long time and was stoked when I found out she was a Saint. My husband was hesitant at first but it grew on him. He picked Therese for the middle — sort of for me since I am Theresa“)

Roy Patrick (“He is the third, I did not choose his name, although I like Patrick … He mostly goes by Patch“)

For girls, they both like Genevieve, Charlotte (“but I don’t love how popular it is” … and now that the Princess is here …?), and a family name Mariemma (pronounced like Mary Emma). Theresa also likes Lucy, Evelyn, Eleanor, Louisa, Eloise, Bridget, and Cecily, while her husband likes Margaret (Maggie) and Rosemary (maybe nicked Rory or Romy).

For boys, they’ve discussed Augustine nicked Gus, which Theresa loves but her husband’s not sure. Theresa also loves Finnian (but already used by family), Seamus, Blaise, Ambrose, and double names like John Paul. Her husband likes James nicked Jimmy, Dexter, Peter, Thomas, and John.

Whew!

I wanted to address their current ideas first: After reading their already-born kids’ names, before I even got to what names they’re thinking of, my first thought was Genevieve — and there it was on their list! So that’s definitely one of my top choices for them, especially since it’s one Theresa and her husband both like. Their other ideas for girls are spot-on as well — if I were to nitpick, in the interest of narrowing down their list, I might delete Eleanor and Eloise, because they already have an El- (Elizabeth), but Louisa is a great alternative (especially being so similar to Eloise). Additionally, I’ve always thought Lucy could totally work as a nickname for Louisa, so I would combine those two into one idea. I like Evelyn, Bridget, Cecily, Charlotte (but the Princess!), Margaret/Maggie (or one of the other traditional but offbeat nicks, like Daisy or Maisie?), and Rosemary, I’m also really loving Mariemma for them! What a cool combo, and so great that it’s a family name! They don’t have a Marian name in their crew already, so that would be a great nod to Our Lady.

And the boy ideas: Too bad about Finnian! Such a cool name! Augustine/Gus seems like it fits right in with the other kids (maybe The Mister would warm to August if he can’t to Augustine?). I’d probably delete Seamus because Theresa said her hubs doesn’t care for ethnic names (or maybe put it in the middle?) … Blaise is so cool, and the men I know tend to like it/not hate it because it sounds like Blaze=fast and fiery and just all around cool. Ambrose is great, and I wondered if a nickname like Sam would help The Mister come around? Sam totally works as a nick for Ambrose!! Double names for boys are pretty rare, except John Paul, but I think that there are loads of great combinations one could come up with. (But I do not like Billy Bob, which is probably what many of the men in my life would use as a reason not to double name a boy. Men!)

The Mister’s boy names are hilarious — they were basically what I’d expect, but then … Dexter?? Wow! I’ve taken it as a particular challenge to find a boy name he and Theresa both like!

Okay, now for my suggestions (besides what I mentioned above) … I always shoot for three for each gender, but came up with four for girls, and I went a little heavier on the boy suggestions, since Theresa said they were so hard:

Girls

(1) Josephine
As I’m sure you all know from reading other consultations on my blog, I rely heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book when coming up with ideas. It has this awesome feature where, for each entry, it lists boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. Josephine was all over Theresa and hubs’ list!! Of course it’s an amazing saintly name, both for wonderful St. Joseph and St. Josephine Bakhita (I was reading about her recently — amazing woman!). It’s got the greatest nicknames too — Josie of course, and Jo (like Little Women!), and I totally think Sophie could work as a nickname too.

(2) C/Katherine or C/Karoline
My research showed Catherine, Katherine, and Katie as quite similar to their style. They’re great names (so says a Katherine/Kate who has always loved my name and been grateful to my parents for it!), and Katie/Kate/Kat and even Cass or Casey (as I’ve seen both) are great nicknames.

If Charlotte is too popular for them (and it is very popular) (and the Princess!), I wonder if they’d like Caroline or Karoline? Either could be a great honor name for our great St. John Paul II (birth name Karol). Especially spelled with a K, it’s much less popular than Charlotte, while still being in the same name family (Charles).

(3) Sara(h) (+___?)
This was so unexpected to me! But Sara(h) was even more a match for the names Theresa mentioned and ones that I thought fit their style than Josephine! It showed up as similar to Elizabeth, Adelaide, Thomas, John, and Katherine, so I had to include it here. But with Elizabeth and Adelaide being long-ish names, and Theresa’s ideas of Genevieve, Rosemary, Margaret, Charlotte also being long, I thought maybe a Sara(h) double first name would suit better? Like Sara-Kate (could even be a nickname for the first-middle Sara Katherine) or Sara-Clare/Claire or Sarah-Mae or similar? (With or without hyphens; with or without the H on the end of Sara.)

(4) Penelope or Beatrice/Beatrix
These were my offbeat research results that I just couldn’t not mention. Penelope, which is such a fab name, is a style match for Felicity, Eleanor, Rosemary, and DEXTER! What?!!! Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there’s no St. Penelope (recognized by our Church anyway; I believe there’s one recognized by the Orthodox Church), but I did find that it’s said to St. Irene’s original name, so that could work, right? Like Saul/Paul, Abram/Abraham, Simon/Peter? And Beatrice and Beatrix were so similar to a bunch of Theresa’s name ideas that I had to throw it out here. I also read about its origins recently, and loved it, very faith-y.

Boys

(1) Francis nicknamed Finn
You all probably saw this as one of my suggestions for the Pattons — I just love it. I think it hits such a great spot right now, with the heavier, more serious Francis (that’s a little out of touch with current naming tastes, but so important to so many of us) and the fun, current, ah-MAZing nickname Finn! This seems particularly great for Theresa and her hubs, where Francis seems more along his taste lines, and Finn for her Finnian.

(2) Benedict or Bennett
This was really inspired by Dexter — I was so blown away by its inclusion in The Mister’s list of names that I paid extra attention to it, trying to find any connections. Barrett was listed as a similar boy’s name, which immediately made me think of Bennett, which is a medieval form of Benedict. Bennett on its own would be great, and Ben is an awesome nickname, but maybe they’d prefer the full Benedict? Bennett could still be a nickname, or Ben (or even Bede, which I’m sure The Mister would hate but I love the idea of two heavy-hitting saints in one name!). Benedict is similar in style to Genevieve and Penelope and John Paul, so it is connected to other names that seem to fit their style.

(3) Theodore
What would The Mister think of Theodore? It’s a style match for Adelaide, Augustine, Josephine, and Penelope, and it’s got the awesome nicknames Theo or Ted/Teddy (so cute for a little guy!). Maybe?

(4) Charles
Charles too was quite similar to many of the names on their list and my-list-for-them, and would give the name family of Charlotte without the Charlotte popularity. It could also be an honor name for JP2 (Karol=Charles), and while some families haven’t care for Charlie’s rising popularity among girls recently (as a nick for Charlotte), I think it’s totally fine for a boy, but there are other nicknames for Charles as well — Cal being one of my favorites, and some really offbeat ones like Huck, Hutch, Arlo, or we seriously considered Charles Augustine nicked Gus — maybe something like that would work for them?

So! That’s what I came up with! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Theresa and her husband?

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: Louis Gabriel!

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Sarah’s consultation was one of the first I posted, way back in January, when she was seeking help naming their eighth baby, a boy. Yesterday she let me know he was born! She writes,

“He’s here! Delivered today – Mother’s Day – 5/10/15! He’s 10 pounds even. First name Louis (Louie or Lou) … [and] We chose Gabriel for his middle name!“

Louis Gabriel! What an amazing combo!! And even cooler is that, unbeknownst to me, it was on their original list (before my consultation), and though I didn’t think of it, one of our readers did! You are all very important to these consultations! Congratulations to Louie’s family!!!

louis_gabriel

Louis Gabriel

On my bookshelf: Polish First Names

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Well okay, I don’t technically own this one — it’s on loan from a friend — but I’ve been loving it: Polish First Names by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab.

Its claim to fame so far has been its bolstering of my argument that there are two acceptable pronunciations of Xavier, as it lists the Polish version as Ksawery. To quote that entry a bit more, because I love it: “A well-liked name in Poland, often given as Francis Xavier. Franciszek Ksawery Malinowski (1808-1881) was a notable priest and linguist from the Pozan region.”

That’s the thing I love about the ethnic name books — the ones that have a bit of commentary for each entry — I learn other things about the country, the culture, the language, the faith. I learned from the intro that,

“Polish names are derived from two major time periods: from ancient times until the acceptance of Christianity in 966 A.D., and from 966 A.D. to the present. The former includes native names categorized as Old Polish or Slavic in origin … The second group of names dates from Poland’s acceptance of Christianity in 966 A.D. until the present. During this time, the Church required individuals to receive baptismal names with Christian significance. At baptism, when they were “born again,” early Christians assumed new personal names — invariably the names of exemplary people and saints who had gone before them. Popular Polish names such as Krzysztof and Magdalena can be traced back to the Old and New Testaments … the name was always a Catholic one, derived from the Old or New Testament or from the lives of the saints.”

I thought the bit about the Old Testament names being included in the general group of “Catholic names” was interesting, considering our conversation from the other day.

And, surprise surprise!, I love all the nicknames. The intro states that, “Christian name diminutives often became the ‘pet names’ or ‘nicknames’ used within the family and by close friends as terms of endearment. Some of the ancient Polish spellings would make for unique names themselves.” Some of my favorites from the book include Krysia from Krystyna (Christina), Gosia for Malgorzata (Margaret) (the L has the diagonal line through it), and Klimko for Klemens (Clement).

I found several of the other entries fascinating, like the one for Petronela: “Feminine form of Petroniusz (Petronius) … An old-fashioned name, commonly found among older generation women and nuns.” Isn’t that fascinating? I had to look it up on Behind the Name, to find out why nuns would be interested in this name. I suspected it might be a form of Peter, but what I found was much more interesting: “This was the name of an obscure 1st-century Roman saint, later believed to be a daughter of Saint Peter.” Had any of you ever heard of St. Peter’s possible daughter St. Petronilla? Isn’t it interesting that Poland grabbed onto it? It would take some more digging to find out why — and my hubs is making dinner for me for Mother’s Day Eve right now ❤ so I can’t look it up right now — but, again, it’s one of the things I love about name books. A little tidbit like that can take me on a research trail that I thoroughly enjoy, and I find out such interesting things along the way. All because of the names.

So! If you’re interested in Polish given names and/or Polish nicknames and/or the history and origin behind the traditional names, I think you’ll like this book.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas in your lives!

Find out what other books and web sites I recommend on my Resources and recommendations page.

 

Birth announcement: Clare Meryt!

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A mama who’d emailed me a month or so ago with a very near due date just let me know that her baby has been born! She writes,

“Just wanted to update you that baby has finally arrived! Her name is Clare Meryt. We chose the name Clare from St. Clare of Assisi — I think i mentioned in my original email choosing this name due to our devotion to St. Francis of Assisi. Her middle name, Meryt, is an Egyptian derivation of Mary (meaning cherished and beloved). She is the 4th generation to have a form of Mary in her name. We heard this name in a movie and did lots of research to make sure it is a variation of Mary. In all of our research we found it to be the origination of the name Mary. We particularly liked that it was something unique… And it wouldn’t sound like a magazine title 🙂 Thanks again for all your help and suggestions!! I really do appreciate it!“

Isn’t that a beautiful name?? It’s not often people can surprise me with a Marian name I’d never heard of, but such was the case with Meryt. I’m totally loving it!! Congratulations to Baby Clare and her family!!

Most popular names (et al.) of 2014 announced today

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So the name world has been holding its breath in gleeful, frantic anticipation of the release by the Social Security Administration of 2014’s most popular names — and this morning it happened! (Which you probably all know already anyway, because the first to know and share I am not and likely never will be.)

Of note:

  • Emma and Noah are the #1’s
  • Charlotte entered the top ten — in the year before the princess was born. It’s been hot hot hot for a while
  • The three fastest rising girl names are Aranza, Montserrat, and Monserrat (from telenovelas)
  • The fastest rising boy name is Bode (like Olympian Bode Miller)
  • The fastest falling names included Miley, Britney, and Rihanna; Carmelo and Channing

I’m not a number cruncher or a trend spotter (like Abby: here and here), so I have no further analysis than my bullets above (which were spelled out in the article), but I will say: Mother Mary did pretty darn well for herself.

Consider that Mia and Ava are both in the top ten — neither necessarily Marian, but they could be, with Mia having traditional use as a nickname for Maria (see Mia Farrow, born the gorgeously reverent Maria de Lourdes) and Ava being a variant of Eve (like how Mary’s the New Eve). I’ve also seen Ava paired with Maria in Catholic families because of Ava Maria’s similarity to Ave Maria (Hail Mary in Latin).

And those fastest rising girls’ names are not actually “rooted in Latin soap operas” as was asserted in the article — certainly I get that their use in the telenovelas is what made them spike in popularity here, but their roots are Marian — Aranza is a diminutive of Aran(t)zazu, from a Basque word meaning “thornbush,” stemming from an apparition of Our Lady on a thornbush in Spain; Montserrat and its alternate spelling Monserrat are also used to honor Our Lady, as there’s a Marian shrine in Montserrat and the associated title Our Lady of Montserrat. (Weirdly enough, I did a consultation recently for a mama who asked for unusual Catholic names, and Arantxa was one I gave her, which is also a diminutive of Arantzazu. Never in a trillion years did I think Arantxa’s sister Aranza would be in the list of top 1000 girls’ names in the U.S.!)

So that’s what this Catholic baby name lover gets out of the new SSA stats! My final word: Mother Mary for the win! 😉 ❤