Confirmation names

Best introduction to the names of our faith

sanctanomina Resources and recommendations , ,

You all know I frequently link to Amazon using affiliate links — mostly (and I’m totally honest here) because they have all the books that I really highly recommend for any name enthusiast (I LOVE sharing with you the books that I love!), but certainly also because I earn a little money each time you click over using one of my links (so yes, as with my Father’s Day post, sometimes I’ll post other things I think will be of interest. I always try to have them connect to the themes of this blog though — names and faith). (As an aside — how do you all feel about affiliate links? Do you hate them? Not mind them? Are you okay with this?)

Certainly Amazon is the best for heavy duty name books, but there are so many name-related items that I think would be great as gift ideas (or “just because”) that I want to share with you, and a lot of them are available on Amazon, but every time I look on Amazon I feel a twinge that a Catholic company isn’t getting the business (and surely any Catholic companies need the patronage more than Amazon). So I’m thrilled thrilled thrilled to tell you that I recently signed up with The Catholic Company (Catholic Books and Gifts from The Catholic Company – The World’s #1 Catholic Store) to be an affiliate (like with the Amazon links).

Woo! I LOVE The Catholic Company!! No joke, I use it allllll the time for gifts for others, things for my kids, things for me 🙂 , etc., and they have SO MANY great things that fit so many occasions!!

So for my very first Catholic Company affiliate-linky post, I thought I’d list some of the kinds of books that fired up my love of the names of our faith (sancta nomina), all those years ago, when I was a wee girl.

It was all about the saints.

Oh my I loved the books of saints my mom had! And she had a lot — most of them were the same size, and fit in a brown cardboard shoebox-type box, and when I was teaching sixth grade Religious Ed the year I was pregnant with my oldest, I brought that box in with me for my students to use and the other mom who helped me out (bless her, she tried hard, but clearly hadn’t had a great formation in the faith), her eyes just about popped out of her head. “Where did you get those?” she wanted to know — she was so unfamiliar, and so hungry! You know?

These ones, the “Miniature Stories of the Saints,” are ones I actually owned. In fact, I came across one of them in my nightstand the other night! They’re small, with a quick profile of the saint on each page. And they’re very budget friendly — all less than $3.00!

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book One

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Two)

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Three)

Miniature Stories of the Saints (Book Four)

Though I haven’t read this one, I liked the look of it, since it contains all six volumes of the “Little Book of Saints” series in one: My First Book of Saints.

This one too, which comes in two volumes: Saints for Young Readers for Every Day – Vol. I (January – June) and Saints for Young Readers – Vol. II (July to December).

And of course I have to include my boys’ particular favorite, which they have loved to literal pieces: Picture Book of Saints by Fr. Lovasik. (I love Fr. Lovasik. Anything by him is good by me.)

These books are amazing as gifts for baby showers (especially when they ask you to bring a book! I always bring books of saints), baptisms, birthdays for the younger set (maybe age 10 and younger?), and First Holy Communion, as well as Christmas (there’s always a big stack of new books under our Christmas tree, and books of our faith are always well represented).

So! I hope this is all helpful! It’s the kind of post I’d find useful, so I hope you all agree. Happy shopping! 🙂

Spotlight on: Bernadette

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A reader asked me for a spotlight on Bernadette, soooo here it is!

Bernadette is, of course, after St. Bernadette of Soubirous, the little girl who Our Lady visited in Lourdes, France eighteen times in 1858. Until today I didn’t know that she was actually named Marie-Bernarde (according to most of the sources, or Bernarde-Marie, according to the one I linked to in the previous sentence), which makes Bernadette an even sweeter name — a diminutive of Bernarde, akin to Katie for Katherine. (It also brings to mind Bl. Marie-Azelie Martin, aka Zelie — it’s Zelie that’s popular with Catholics, not Azelie nor Marie-Azelie. It’s so sweet that the affectionate nicknames are the ones we’re clamoring after.) (I also love those French hyphenated doubles, especially the ones that begin with Marie. So beautiful!)

Bernadette’s actually a special name in my family, as it’s my sister’s Confirmation name, chosen because Our Lady of Lourdes has always been special to her. I’ve mentioned this sister before — she was technically stillborn, and we attribute the return of her life to the intercession of Ven. Solanus Casey. She had spinal fusion surgery when she was in sixth grade to correct ever-worsening scoliosis, and for years afterward she put Lourdes holy water on her nape-to-tailbone scar every night. She and my dad had the opportunity to visit Lourdes a few years ago, and also to visit the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette in Nevers. My sister was able to spend time alone with Bernadette, praying in the chapel, and she and my dad (and my aunt/godmother who went with them) stayed in the convent overnight. I know it was a very special experience for her. When people ask her name, she often tells them FirstName MiddleName Bernadette LastName.

The reader who suggested a spotlight on Bernadette also indicated that the name seemed to be generating a lot of buzz recently, which I didn’t realize, but it makes sense — long Frenchy names like Charlotte, Josephine, and Genevieve are super popular right now, and Bernadette fits right in. What a sister set that would be!

Appellation Mountain discussed Bernadette here (as part of an -et/-ette post) and here (as the Name of the Day) and noted that it peaked in the 1940s, right along with the release of the Academy Award-winning movie The Song of Bernadette, so it still has a grandma feel to it. Recent popularity may be due in part to the (super smart) character Bernadette on the show The Big Bang Theory (whose character, incidentally, is from a big Catholic family), and probably also because French names are currently popular. Or maybe because St. Bernadette’s waving from heaven with the Immaculate Conception and Catholic parents are noticing? 🙂

Whatever it is, it seems to me an easy nickname is a must, what with all the Charlottes/Josephines/Genevieves called Charlie/Josie/Evie. There’s Bernie, which I think is still out of touch with most of today’s namers. Benny seems fresher, and is totally doable and adorable. Or Etta/Etty. Or — and I think this is my fave, and I’ve mentioned it before — Betsy, as one of my friends was considering using as a nickname for Bernadette. Abby also mentions Betty, Bette, and Bebe.

What do you think of Bernadette? Would you consider it? Have you considered it? Have you gone ahead and given it to one of your daughters, or do you know a little one named Bernadette? If so, what does she go by — the full Bernadette, or a nickname?

Choosing your saint (Confirmation or otherwise) (or vice versa)

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of choosing a patron saint, or having that saint choose you (see my post about St. Anne), and how that relates to choosing names for your children, or for yourself for Confirmation or when taking a religious name.

In that vein, I liked this article giving advice on how to choose a Confirmation name: How to Choose a Confirmation Saint. I thought this bit of advice is something I often forget, and probably others do too?: “The first thing you should do is pray. Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance in choosing a saint that will be best for you.” I think that’s where it all converges, all the choosing and being chosen, in patron saints and baby names and Confirmation names and all of life really. I know you know.

This article was really great too, reiterating all that was said in the article above, including pray pray pray, and some further ideas as well: How to “Choose” a Patron Saint. This was well worded: “There is a saying in the Church that we do not choose our saints; they choose us. But as in all things, we allow the Holy Spirit to work more fully when we cooperate with God’s grace. To do this, we must keep an open mind and heart, and prayerfully listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit” (emphasis as in original).

I’d love to hear what names you chose for Confirmation, and why. Are you happy with your choice? If you had it to do over, would you choose the same name, or something different?

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?

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! 😉 ❤

Spotlight on: Gennaro

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My sister had a boy in her class when she was little named Gennaro. I knew nothing about his name but that I assumed it was Italian, and I loved it so much that I had it on my own preteen/teen name lists for years, despite the fact that I have not a drop of Italian blood (and, though I didn’t know it back then of course, neither does my husband).

I thought Gennaro was the coolest name — I’d never heard it before that little boy, and I hadn’t heard it since then — until March, when the blood of Naple’s patron saint, St. Januarius — aka St. Gennaro — liquefied in the presence of Pope Francis, the first time it had done so in the presence of a pope since Pope Pius IX in 1848.

What a miracle that was! Amazing! And I read about it in wonder, and rejoiced over it, and I thanked God that Pope Francis had been given such a gift … but always in the back of my mind was that swoony feeling I had every time I would carefully copy Gennaro onto my name lists (yes, I had several). And to know it’s a saint’s name!

I don’t know about you all, but Januarius has like 1/millionth of the coolness of Gennaro. Funny enough, despite my constant pretzeling of names to force feasible nicknames out of even the most un-nicknamable, I’ve never once thought of doing so for Gennaro. Off the top of my head, I can’t even think of one — certainly not Gen(n). Naro? Jar-o? (Ha!) Maybe Geo? That would probably be my favorite. But really, for me, it’s all about Gennaro.

What do you all think of Gennaro? Do you like it? Do you know anyone with the name? Is there something wrong with me that I was almost as interested in the Saint’s name as I was in the amazing once-in-two-centures miracle? (*Almost as*, I promise!)

Spotlight on: Joachim

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A reader asked me if I would do a spotlight on Joachim, and I’m very happy to do so, because it’s one of my very favorite names in the whole entire world. Yes, it is.

I’ve tried to convince my husband that Joachim is a perfect name for one of our baby boys for years. Years! I just love it — it’s oozing all that Catholic cachet that I love so much and that my other boys have; it’s offbeat and unusual; it’s Mother Mary’s dad for Pete’s sake! And Jesus’ grandfather! It’s also got a pretty pan-European feel, as every European country seems to have a version of it:

joachim - Copy

(From behindthename.com/name/joachim)

Currently there’s Joachim Löw, a “retired German footballer and current manager of the German national football team,” and “retired Irish sportsperson” Joachim Kelly, and Joaquin is probably the most recognizable thanks to actor Joaquin Phoenix …

Joachim is a GREAT name!

But you know why my husband doesn’t like it? Besides the fact that no one ever seems to know how to say it?*

Joakim Noah.

Ask me if I care that there’s an NBA player with the name Joakim? (Answer: not even the tiniest of tiny bits. MAYBE if I was considering “Dennis Rodman” as a first name-middle name combo, but otherwise — no.)

Because of the name’s unusualness in America, “Every guy who watches basketball will think we named our kid after him,” he says. (A decent argument I guess.) Also, given Noah’s African roots (his grandfather was a formal professional footballer from the Republic of Cameroon), he thinks it will seem strange to those who only know the name through Noah that we of northern European descent decided to use it.

Which drives me bananas, because, first of all, I’m pretty sure the reason Noah got his name is because his mom is Swedish! Northern European! She was, in fact, Miss Sweden 1978! Joakim’s even the Scandinavian spelling — and my husband and children are Scandinavian!

As far as I can tell, the only reason the name is unusual in America is because it’s never been common in England. According to behindthename, through St. Joachim’s “popularity in the Middle Ages, the name came into general use in Christian Europe … [but] it was never common in England.” Withycombe concurs: “Joachim is recorded in England from the 13th C, but has never been in general use.” Do you agree that this is likely why it was never common here? Because it was never common in our “parent country”? Every other country — yes. But not here. I think these are great arguments in favor of us using this name — America needs to have more Joachims!

Still he says no — no no no — but when I remind him of the nickname I came up with for it (not Joe, though this would be an amazing way to get to the nickname Joe without using Joseph, if for some reason you couldn’t use Joseph), his face always softens, his mouth invountarily turns up, and he says, “That is a great nickname.”

Aren’t you dying to know?! For a boy named Joachim, I would totally use the nickname … Jake.

Jake! I love love love Jake! My husband does too! We actually considered Jacob for our firstborn, but have since moved into heavy Catholicky Catholic saint territory and Joachim seems a better fit than Jacob. AND if we had a little boy named Joachim and he hated it — he wouldn’t have to ever tell anyone! He could be Jake always!

This is a perfect name for us. I think I’ll be trying to convince my husband of it til the day I die.

Abby at Appellation Mountain has actually mentioned it a bit, including this delicious tidbit:

“Speaking of greatness, the new Danish prince is set to be baptized later today. Dad is Prince Joachim. He has two sons from his first marriage – Nikolai and Felix. The new prince is Joachim’s first with second wife Marie. Royal watchers are betting on Albert for the baby’s name. Tradition dictates that the baby’s name is not revealed ’til the baptism, so we’ll have to wait and see.” (from July 2009) (It seems the baby was named Henrik, and was later joined by sister Athena.)

And she profiled its Spanish form Joaquin (in which she mentioned St. Joachim), and referred to a Swedish hockey player named Joachim (which caused me to jump right over to Google to find out who this was and found that “Swedish hockey player Joachim” yielded Wiki pages for Joachim Nermark, Joachim Rohdin, Joakim Lindström, and Joacim (sic) Eriksson, as well as “NHL players born in Sweden” which included two more, all on the first page of results).

Abby also linked to Roses and Cellar Doors “It’s Big Overseas” post which notes that “there are some name families that aren’t really used in the US at all. Their variants can be found in many other languages, but are practically unheard of in English (sometimes just American English). Weird,” and includes Joachim as one of them.

It causes me pain that this name is not known more here, and used. We know and love St. Anne — whyyy is St. Joachim neglected??

What do you all think of Joachim? Do you like it? Hate it? Find that the ah-MAZing nickname Jake (or the equally friendly and accessible Joe/Joey) makes it seem that much more attractive? Do you know anyone (especially any little ones) with this name? Does he go by the full Joachim or a nickname? What are his siblings named?

______________________________

*We would use the English pronunciation JO-ah-kim, but there are these other possibilities:

joachim - Copy (2)

(From behindthename.com/name/joachim)

(In case you can’t tell, I only recently learned how to do screen grabs, something I’ve wanted to know how to do for ages. I don’t know … are they cool? Are they not? Helpful? Annoying?)

Two sides to the same coin?

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I’ve noticed a couple names that seem to be either/or names — meaning, if you use one for one child, it seems the other is really not usable for another. I don’t mean like Oliver and Olivia; I mean names that *are* different, but *just* too close. Like:

Theodore and Thaddeus

Evangeline and Genevieve (and Vivian/Vivienne)

Magdalene and Margaret

Theodore and Thaddeus both start with Th-, both have a d in the middle, and can both be nicknamed Ted/Teddy. Evangeline and Genevieve both have lots of v and n and soft g sounds happening, and both can be nicknamed Evie. Vivian/Vivienne strikes me as belonging to that group too, but Evangeline and Genevieve really seem two sides to the same coin to me. Magdalene and Margaret have the M and the g and can both be nicknamed Maggie.

But even as I think they’re too close to each other to be used for different-age siblings within a family, I could see them working quite nicely as twin names — a nice connection without being too matchy:

Theodore could be Theo and Thaddeus could be Taddy

Evangeline could be Evie and Genevieve could be Genny

Magdalene could be Lena or Maggie and Margaret could be Maggie or Greta

One hitch with this twin idea is that these names seem to represent slight but significant differences in taste. For example, it seems to me that people either prefer Theodore or Thaddeus — they don’t like them equally. Another pairing that makes this even more obvious to me is Sophia/Sophie and Sylvia/Sylvie — it seems to me that a person would prefer either the Sophi- names or the Sylvi- names, and whoever would choose the Sylvi- names likely wouldn’t be at all inclined to choose a Sophi- name, and vice versa.

Does this make sense? Do you get what my thought process is here or is it crazy? Can you think of other names like this?

Pearl is Marian!

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Remember when I posted about whether or not the name Pearl is Marian? I said, “I couldn’t find any title/appellation referring to Our Lady that included “pearl” anywhere (if any of you can prove me wrong, I’d be beyond delighted!).”

I’ve been proven wrong! And I’m as beyond delighted as I could possibly be! A reader noted in a recent email to me, “I think pearls have been associated with the Virgin Mary — they’re used in art work of the Madonna to symbolize her purity” (thanks Laura!), so I looked it up and lo — she’s right!

“Pearls, Unicorns, and Lilies: Symbols of Feminine Purity in the Renaissance” discussed this explicitly, with lots of good sources:

“The pearl was imbued with many of its implications in the context of paintings of the Madonna. Through representations of the Virgin Mary pearls came to be associated with faith and chastity. The pearls used to adorn the Virgin were not necessarily the pearls one would see in everyday life. These were larger, perfectly round, and flawlessly white with a beautiful luster, while normal pearls may have irregular shapes and lack the Virgin pearls’ snow-white sheen. The perfection of the pearls served to mirror the Christian perfection of the Virgin Mary.[4]

“Mary’s virginity is one of her most frequently discussed attributes. Her purity was highly contested, and supposedly confirmed by Pope Pius IX in a declaration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Even Mary’s own conception was highly debated, in regards to whether she was immaculately conceived by Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.[5] In short, Mary’s virginity and purity are her main attributes, and the items used to adorn her serve to further this message.”

Do you know what this means? If Pearl can be considered a Marian name, then Margaret can as well, since Margaret comes from margarita, the Latin word for pearl! That same post quoted above connects Mary and Margaret as well:

“In addition to the Virgin Mary, one saint in particular became associated with pearls. Saint Margaret—whose name is markedly similar to the Latin word for pearl,margarita—was known for her purity and chastity, as well as for being the saint invoked most frequently during childbirth … It is not a coincidence that the chaste saint is named for a pearl … Jacobus de Voragine described Saint Margaret as being “named after a highly refined white stone known as margarita, small and filled with virtues. Thus the blessed Margaret was white due to virginity”.[9]“

I mean, I suppose it seems somewhat of a stretch to suggest Pearl and Margaret could be considered Marian names, but I don’t know … if the intention is there — the intention to name a little girl after Mary and focusing on her purity as represented by pearls, which is also translated as Margaret — it doesn’t really seem that much different from naming a little girl after Mary and focusing on her purity as represented by the name Virginia, or Lily, or Rose.

What do you all think? Do you agree that Pearl and Margaret/Marguerite/Margarita/Mairead can be considered Marian, in light of this info about pearls?