Happy Monday, everyone! Today’s the feast of St. Colette, who is a great Saint for our Sancta Nomina community because she is, according to this source, patroness of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers, and sick children; there’s a fuller account of her life here. And her name! 😍😍😍 I think Colette is just gorgeous, and while I would use it as is, I also love that she’s also known as Nicolette, which opens up more possibilities for parents who might like to name their daughter after her. Enjoy today’s consultation! And I hope you all have a great week!

Zoey and her husband are expecting their third baby — a little green bean (gender unknown)! 🌱 This little babe joins big brothers:

Austin Thomas (“Austin is my husband’s middle name and Thomas was a family name from both of our paternal grandfathers. We’ve also given him Thomas Aquinas as his patron (until he wants to choose his own) because he is SO inquisitive especially about the faith. His nickname is Austino/Stino which happened totally organically as I was initially opposed to nicknames but it turns out we are indeed a nickname kind of family, they’re so fun.”)

Elijah James (“This was so easy to pick. I just knew my next boy would be Eli and we loved having a long and short form option + power house project. James because as a convert I loveeeeee the book of James, did you know at the reformation the Calvinists tried to remove the book of James? It’s VERY Catholic and was huge in my conversion. He goes by both Elijah and Eli.”)

I love Austin and Elijah/Eli as brothers, and I love the explanation behind each one! (Also: “I was initially opposed to nicknames but it turns out we are indeed a nickname kind of family, they’re so fun” — sing it, sister!! 😂)

Zoey writes,

“So this time around we (should I say I) am struggling. I can Not turn my brain off and try ink of baby names all day… I need to clear this brain space! So far everything I’ve pitched my husband “likes” but nothing has been the one! I’ve been trying to narrow down what our “style” is and feel like the third baby really solidifies that so maybe that’s why I feel so strongly about the name we choose this time around. I’d like to say I don’t like “popular names” but then look at my boys names and I just stuck my foot in my mouth. But this time around I would like to go less common, which I find easier to do with girls than boys for some reason. I don’t love super traditional names and don’t feel like they have to have a direct saint association… but do like to have a meaning behind the name.”

Names they’re considering for girls include:

Hallie Josephine — “Hallie as a namesake for ‘Harold’ from its nn Hal. Harold is strong in both our families and Josephine was my husband’s great grandmothers middles name + St. Joseph. And I love the double barrel nickname of Hallie Jo.”

Blythe Emily — “Emily was first name of aforementioned grandmother. And Blythe.. not totally sure how I came about this but I like that it’s fairly uncommon and feminine without all the frills. I originally liked Blair but this feels softer especially with our last name.”

Helena (heh-LAY-na) — “my husband actually through this one out so I’ve got to cling to that! I also really like nn Laina. Maybe Helena Zoe or Audrey Helena (my name is Audrey Zoe, and mamas should get juniors too!).”

Scarlett nn Scottie — “but my husband isn’t too keen. Also I’m due 4/25 so technically after the Easter octave but would consider eater-ish names) like Scarlett referring to the precious blood or paschal for boy… you get my drift. We like a good name story, strong association to give the kids some roots as they grow up!“

Miriam — “my husband will only offer Miriam as a girls name… he keeps coming back to it no matter what I suggest. I honestly hate it. Is there a compromise in there from the style of names I like and Miriam? I feel Like they couldn’t be more different!“

And names for boys: 

John Luke — “would be first and middle but I’d really like to call him the full name. My husbands family is very Italian so he would likely get nicknamed the Italian form Gianluca. I love this but it also feels kind of plain… thoughts?“

Alexander Rhodes — “I am not sure how I found the name Rhodes but I have not been able to put it down! … I love that subtle nod to the rosary… sending our prayers up to Mary to be presented to Jesus as a beautiful rose bouquet. Finding a first name with it has been a little hard but I’m loving the idea of Alexander (nn Xander) and that his name would, in a way, make the chi(X)Rho Symbol as a dedication to Christ.”

And — “Other names we’ve thrown around for first or middle are Ambrose, Matthew, Montfort (nn Monte), Xavier, Adam…” 

Middle names are important to Zoey as well:

“For middle name considerations, we like anything biblical (as you can tell!) my husband loves the rosary (I’m working on it!) and divine mercy. His confirmation Saint is Francis, mine is Zelie Martin although I’m not sure I’d like to use that name at all since I’d prefer to use Zoe. (Z-oh pronunciation). Some other middle names we like if not a saint/biblical name would be Soliven (our dear priest friend who just moved parishes! He married us, confirmed me, and baptized both our kids), Rhodes as I mentioned, Woodrow/Woodruff/woods (my husband’s dad’s name). For girls, as mentioned Emily, Josephine, Audrey, Zoe (Z-oh), Laree, Naomi, Amaris, Lea, Marriott (yes like the hotel, my grandmother’s maiden name, pronounced Mary-et like Chariot) or Therese (I don’t love the full version but would consider a variant, maybe Reese? It’s a mix of my husband’s mom’s name Renee Therese).” 

Names they can’t use (including variants):

William 

Louis/Louie 

Andrew 

Anthony 

Joseph 

Michael 

Nicolas 

Elizabeth 

K/Catherine

Finally, Zoey notes,

“The other challenge is we have A LOT of catholic friends with large families or growing families and a lot of the “mainstream” catholic names (think Benedict, Blaise, Kolbe, Caeli, etc) are “taken” by them so we are challenged to be a bit more creative, which is fun but can be hard.”

No surprise that I really enjoyed reading Zoey’s “dilemma” — I do enjoy the struggle of trying to narrow down a couple’s style and I tend to agree with her that “the third baby really solidifies that” … that said, though, I hate for anyone to feel like “rules” like that are binding and you can never wriggle out from under them. You know? Baby naming should be fun! And if losing some rules helps it to feel more fun, I’m all for that! But of course, I do like stylistic consistency! I have some thoughts on what I think Zoey’s boy style is, which I’ll include in my list of “official” suggestions below. Also, how she said she’d like to go “less common” this time and that she finds it easier to do with girls than for boys is very, very common, so I encouraged her not to worry! I also love her criteria of “not super traditional” plus “don’t feel like they have to have a direct saint association” plus “meaning behind the name.” Those are great! Also that she thinks they’d like a nickname option. Oh, also no forms of Therese/a or Mary/Maria (not wrong at all!); no names ending in -ana; no cutesy names — must age well. Also prefer not repeating initials. Whew!

Okay, before getting into my list of official suggestions, I thought I’d offer my thoughts on the names they’re currently considering, in case they’re helpful (some are not mentioned above because they were included in subsequent emails):

• Hallie Josephine: Hallie is such a great way to honor a Harold! I also know someone who named her son Hap (just Hap) because it’s also a nickname for Harold — maybe Hap would work for this family for a boy?

• Blythe Emily: I never, ever see Blythe on parents’ lists — so fun to see it here!

• Blair: I like Blair, too!

• Marriott: I LOVE this as a middle name!! It’s in my book because it derives from Mary!! I personally love it for both a girl and a boy, so cool!

• Helena nn Laina: A beautiful option! A nice connection here is that St. Faustina (of Divine Mercy fame) was named Helena at birth! Zoey included the Divine Mercy as a devotion that’s important to her and her husband, so this would be very meaningful from that perspective.

• Audrey and Zoe as first names or middle names: I’m absolutely with Zoey that mamas should get juniors!! I like both Helena Zoe and Audrey Helena.

• Scarlett nn Scottie: ah-MAZ-ing!! I love love the name Scarlett but could never figure out a great nickname — Zoey has totally done it! Scottie is adorable! And Scarlett for the Precious Blood is just wonderful.

• Naomi: When I saw Naomi as a possible middle name, my first thought was that I’d love that as a first name option for this family — and then Zoey included it in a later email as a first name contender! It has a very “Miriam” feel to me without, of course, being Miriam — this might do the trick!

• Jules for a girl: An interesting option! This actually makes me think of their boy style a lot — I wonder if they would consider it for a boy?

• Julia Reese: Julia Reese is a stunning combo! Zoey worries that Julia sounds a lot like Elijah, which I can definitely see.

• John Luke: I love John Luke, but I do know what Zoey means about it feeling plain. I think calling him by both names would “solve” that — John Luke as a combo makes both John and Luke feel less plain. I know a little Gianluca who is called the full Gianluca all the time, so this feels natural to me!

• Alexander Rhodes: I love all their meaning behind this!! Another name they might like to consider is the male name Royce, which actually means “rose” (I included it in my book!) — I really like Royce for them in place of Rhodes, if they want to have a more explicitly “rose” name for the rosary.

• Ambrose, Matthew, Montfort (Monte), Xavier, Adam: I love all these! Monte is really fun, I think that’s my favorite of these for this family.

• Lucas Gabriel: Love this, yes! Luke and Lucas both feel like a really good first name option as a brother to Austin and Elijah. And Gabriel is one of my favorite names ever!

• Conrad Jude (Thaddeus): LOVE this too!! My husband and I considered Conrad with Cord as a nickname (how cool is that?? AND they could think of it as a rosary connection if they wanted, since the string part of the rosary is often referred to as a cord!). And I had Jude on my list of official suggestions for this baby before even seeing that they had Jude on their list! I would love to see them consider it as a first name!

Regarding Zoey’s husband’s love of Miriam: I wonder if they’ve considered Marriott as a first name? Miriam and Marriott sound very similar to my ear when I say them out loud, and they both are variants of Mary … maybe Hubby would be okay with that? Especially if they pair it with a super Old Testament middle name, like Marriott Zipporah or Marriott Keziah or Marriot Esther? They could even use Miri as a nickname for Marriott? Or Mimi! Another idea I had was Marriott Emilia — I love the rhythm; Emilia can be for Grandma Emily and can also be sort of a Divine Mercy name in the sense that Emilia was the name of Pope John Paul II’s mom and he was huge into Divine Mercy (his mom’s cause for canonization is open!).

Now on to my new ideas! I tried really hard to stick to all their rules, but I’m pretty sure one or two of the girl names might strike Zoey as possibly too cutesy, but I wanted to leave them on in case I’m wrong, and/or in case they might like to consider them as a middle name for Marriott as a first (if Zoey can bring herself and her hubby around to that idea). I went through the Baby Name Wizard book (affiliate link) as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and I looked at past posts I did on names for Divine Mercy and Easter (Sorrowful Mysteries and Glorious Mysteries) and the Sacred Heart (because of Zoey’s comment about Scarlett and the Precious Blood), and some gut-feeling ideas as well — based on all that, these are my ideas:

Girl

(1) Faith

Their boy name style has a “country/western” feel to me, and Scarlett fits into that as well, and Faith is listed in the BNW as fitting into that vibe as well — I love the name Faith! It’s simple and obviously faith-y, uncommon and sweet. I knew a Faith when I was growing up, and I always loved her name, as well as the nickname Faithy. Faith Marriott works beautifully!

(2) Greer

As soon as I read that Zoey likes both Blythe and Blair, I immediately thought of Brynn! Unfortunately there isn’t any obvious faithy connection (despite their being a St. Brynoth and a St. Brynach), but it made me think of Greer because I know a Brynn who has a sister named Greer, and Greer struck me as a great suggestion! It derives from the name Gregory, which is where the faith connection can come (either a St. Gregory, or St. Maria Goretti, since Goretti also derives from Gregory), and I think it sound fine with Marriott!

(3) Rebecca/Rebekah nn Ruby (also Romy?)

I thought quite a bit about how to work with Zoey’s husband’s love of Miriam and marry it with Zoey’s taste, and I thought Rebecca/Rebekah with the nickname Ruby might do the trick. Like Miriam, Rebecca is an Old Testament name (which the spelling Rebekah really hammers home), and years ago I saw a birth announcement for a baby Rebecca nicknamed Ruby and I felt like my whole life was made — I LOVED that so much!! I think Ruby is just darling, and it can have the Precious Blood connection Zoey mentioned with Scarlett as well. (I actually spotlighted Ruby here, with some other ideas of how to get to it.) Thinking about Rebecca/Rebekah Marriott, though, also made me kind of love the idea of Romy as a nickname for that combo — the R part from Rebecca/Rebekah, the M part from Marriott — maybe they’d like that better? Romy is sweet too.

(4) Ivy

When I’m looking up names in the BNW, I always pay attention to names that are listed as style matches for more than one of the names on the parents’ list, and Ivy was a big one! It’s listed as similar to Eli and Zoe, as well as Scarlett and Xavier! It’s an entry in my book because of its Marian connection, and Ivy Marriott sounds pretty amazing.

(5) Willow/Willa

I looked through the Country/Western section of the BNW for inspiration, and was interested to see Willodean in there — because Zoey had mentioned Easter as a possible inspiration for this baby’s name because of her due date, I’d already been thinking of Easter-related names, and Willow and Willa are two of them! More specifically, they refer to Palm Sunday, but I think that’s close enough for what they’re thinking? I spotlighted them both and explained the connection here.

Some other girl names that came up in my research that intrigued me but I didn’t end up putting in my “official” list of first name ideas (but wanted to include here just in case, and/or also as middle name ideas) include Mercedes (it means “mercies” and can take Sadie as a nickname, which I thought was perfect for this family!), Mercy itself (I know a couple little girls named Mercy!), and Chesed (Old Testament term referring to “mercy” — read more in this comment. Amazing!).

Boy

(1) Caleb

As mentioned earlier, I felt like their boy name style can have a country/western feel, and taking into account their affinity for biblical names as well, I thought Caleb was perfect! The nickname Cal is one of my favorites, I love it. Kobe and Colby were listed as similar to names Zoey likes, which made me want to suggest Kolbe, but then she’d specifically mentioned Kolbe as one they can’t use! But Caleb has similar sounds and rhythm, so I do quite like it for this baby.

(2) Casey

I looove Casey!! Casey was in the list of Country/Western names, and Bl. Solanus Casey is one of my favorites, Casey + Bl. Solanus made me think Casey Soliven would be a cool name for this baby! There was also a family I did a consultation for who loved Bl. Solanus but preferred Case instead of the full Casey, so that was the given name they went with — I could see that working for this family too.

(3) Becket

Funny enough, I got to Becket from Bennett, since Bennett is a medieval short form of Benedict like Austin is a medieval short form of Augustine, so they always make me think of each other, but I didn’t think Bennett was quite their style (and also that might have seemed a little matchy?) but then Bennett also makes me think of Becket and I thought yes! Becket! St. Thomas a Becket is an awesome patron.

(4) Garrett

I think Garrett is such a great name — I think it definitely fits with their boys, and can also derive from Gerard, which gives it an awesome faith connection.

(5) Hardy

I’ve suggested Hardy a few times to families over the years and no one’s bitten, so maybe I’m out of touch regarding this name, but I think it’s awesome! It can be a sort of virtue-esque name in the sense of “bold, brave” and also “healthy” AND it can be related to Gerard! (Check it out here and here.) It was the name of a boy in a movie I saw when I was little and I always loved it. (I would also consider it to be an excellent nickname for Gerard, but I don’t think Gerard is this family’s style. Also, there’s this birth announcement I posted for a little Gerhardt [German form of Gerard] who goes by the nickname Hart — I love that too!!)

(6) Jessop

I’ll be interested to see what Zoey and her hubs think of this idea! It’s a variant of Joseph based on pronunciation of the name from mid-sixteenth-century England, and it definitely feels sort of country/western, so I love that it takes Austin’s medieval connection and Eli’s biblical connection (and both of their possibly country/western feel) and adds an authentic St. Joseph connection! I also love the nickname Jess for a boy (love love!). I think this could be amazing! (I included it in my post on names for St. Joseph.)

Some other boy ideas I had included Jasper (one of the Three Kings has traditionally been known by the Casper name family, which includes Gaspar and Jasper), Paxton (inspired by Xander and Xavier and also “pax” means “peace” in Latin — an awesome, faithy connection!), and Jesse (country/western + biblical), but I liked my other ideas better. But I wanted to mention these just in case!

And those are all my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Austin and Elijah/Eli?

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation from either Theresa or myself here.

For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!