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March CatholicMom article up today! ☘

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Last year on the Eve of St. Patrick (tomorrow) I gave a talk at a dinner for a local Irish Catholic women’s group called the Daughters of St. Patrick on the topic of the history of the name of Mary in Ireland, which I drew from for my March column at CatholicMom, which posted today! Check it out: Our Lady, Queen of Ireland.

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That image is from the Book of Kells and is the earliest existing example of a Madonna and Child image in a Western manuscript — the Irish have long loved Our Lady!

As I say at the end of the article, I’d love to hear any stories you have of the use of the name Mary (girl or boy) in your families if you’re of Irish descent—and even if you’re not! So many of you have shared such stories in the past, and I love them all!

February CatholicMom column up, a Nameberry mention, and thanks for the fun!

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I’ll start with the last bit of the post title — thanks for all your great ideas re: a sister for Reverie! That was so fun to read! You all have amazing ideas!

Secondly, our reader Clare, who has an awesome name site of her own (Name News) and is also my Welsh pronunciation expert, had a piece posted on Nameberry a couple days ago in which she mentioned Sancta Nomina — specifically the “Men Who Love Mary” category! If I’m ever remembered for one thing, having it be names for Mary would be one of my very top choices. 😍 Go check out her great post: Who Knew Victor Hugo was a Name Nerd?

Finally, my February CatholicMom column posted yesterday — a slight re-boot of this post from a couple years ago: Names for Miscarried Babies. Miscarriage was on my mind recently because my parish just started a miscarriage ministry and asked me to help with it (and you know I tapped into our reader Mandi’s great resources at A Blog About Miscarriage). I hope this is helpful for anyone who’s mourning a little one.

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New post up at Catholic Mom!

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My January column at Catholic Mom posted today! Japanese Catholic Naming Customs.

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You’ve probably already guessed that it’s a slightly enhanced version of this recent post (I included one of your comments from that post in this article — your feedback is always so helpful!).

All three images associated with the article (the feature image above and the two within the article) are various representations of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. The feature imag0e above is actually of the Memorial to the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan in Nagasaki. So moving!

As always, I’d love to know what more any of you might know about this topic!

New CatholicMom article up! And some housekeeping

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My December column at CatholicMom posted today! Names for an Advent Baby.

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I used this post, as well as your comments on that post, to put it together — thank you for your thoughts!

I also decided to use PayPal buttons for consultations after all (I’d previously said I’d use invoices instead) — I just updated my baby name consultations page with that info — might be the perfect last-minute Christmas gift for any expectant parents you know! 😉

Happy four days until Christmas!! 😁🎄🎁

New articles up at CatholicMom and Nameberry

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My recent post about the alleged lack of naming after women and moms inspired me to write two different articles on different aspects of the conversation — one for Catholic Mom and one for Nameberry. Both are now up! Check out Gender inequality in naming? at Catholic Mom and Why So Few Girl Juniors? at Nameberry. I’d love to hear your thoughts on both articles!

 

 

 

New article up at CatholicMom!

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My October column posted today! Check it out: Reclaim the Name.

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I drew heavily from my Reclaim the name post of a while ago in putting together the ten names I listed in the article that I’d like to see be reclaimed, and though there were quite a lot to choose from, I focused on the most Catholicky Catholic ones. A couple of the names actually *are* well used — just that I hear some people have a hard time getting past particular associations that I would love to see overridden. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the ten I chose, and any others you would add!

New CatholicMom article

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My September CatholicMom article posted yesterday, a really fun one to put together based on this post and all your comments: The Naming of Things.

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I’d love to hear what you think!

CatholicMom article on Olympic names

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My August CatholicMom column posted today, the one I promised you last week! Check it out: Catholic Names at the 2016 Summer Olympics

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I wrote it sort of last minute last week, knowing it would be my only chance to have a piece on the Olympics post at CatholicMom while the Olympics were actually going on, and I only have so many words I’m allowed, so you’ll see that now, after another week of Olympics and the awesome conversation we’ve had here on Olympic names since then, it feels a little … rudimentary? But it was fun to write, and I’m glad it’s out there. (And thanks to my new Twitter friend Annie Au for the use of her tweet!)

I was going to include in this post all sorts of new info I’ve found about Catholic Olympians and Olympic names with Catholic connections (I’ve been saving links to share for a week!) but my kids are Falling Apart after a morning of me trying to get stuff done, and it’s the only nice weather day predicted for the week, so I made the executive decision to drop everything and haul us all up to the lake. I’m very sorry to not have the time to do the post I’d wanted to do! And I know I have emails awaiting responses as well, and I’m hoping to get all caught up again soon. I know you know how it is, with childhood being too short and summer being too short and all of that. 🌞🌞🌞

I hope you all have a great Wednesday, and if you have any links to share about Catholic Olympians or other thoughts on this topic, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

New CatholicMom article up

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My June CatholicMom.com article posted yesterday, and I’m eager to hear your thoughts on itcatholicmom_screen_shot-06.16.16 — it’s a topic I’ve been thinking about for a while: Name definitions vs. name meanings

I have a few people to thank for their role in the writing of this article — Jen, for sending me the Brandon Vogt FB post that he then published on Catholic Pop (and Brandon Vogt himself, who wrote the post that Jen sent), and Abby at Appellation Mountain, whose Mallory quote I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I’m delighted to finally use it in a piece. Also the mama who I was emailing with recently who was worried that Lydia didn’t mean anything more than “from Lydia” and would therefore make a questionable name choice. I hope this piece is helpful to her and anyone else who feels hindered by name “definitions”!

April CatholicMom column up today

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My April column posted today on CatholicMom.com: Names “foreign to Christian sensibility.” You’ll recognize it as a slight retooling of this post, and I’m like 99.99% sure that when I wrote that original post Canon Law said “Christian sentiment” but when I went back to double check before submitting to CatholicMom, it was all “Christian sensibility.” Weird!

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