German names

Bonus consultation: Baby girl for family with eclectic taste

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

One of the things I find really fun is when a family has several children with names covering a bunch of different styles — I love seeing parents who just use names they like! But even in such situations, it’s not usually too hard to find a thread of a theme (or themes) running through the kids’ names, and I find it so fun to look for it and see what I find.

The family whose consultation I’m posting today is one such, and the reason I wanted to post it. Sara and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, and third girl! Their older kiddos are:

Kolbe Conrad (boy)
Jameson Clare (girl)
Elsie Jo (girl)
Jude Francis (boy — in heaven)

Such a fun, interesting set! And each combo is full of meaning:

“Kolbe is named after St. Maximillian Kolbe and his middle name is a family name, until recently I didn’t know there was a St. Conrad (thanks to your blog!). Jameson is named after my father in law who was diagnosed with brain cancer while I was pregnant with her. Elsie was my maternal grandmother’s name, and Jo is my husbands maternal grandmother’s name. We loved the name Jude because he is the patron saint of hope. With that being said, I want this baby’s name to have just as much meaning.”

I love how Sara and her hubs have honored their family members in the naming of their children — there are so many ways to do so! I was particularly interested to see Jameson, as I have a girl cousin named Jameson, and before her I hadn’t ever seen the name on a girl. She too has a very feminine middle name like Sara’s Jameson Clare, which I quite like.

Names that Sara and her hubs have considered for this baby girl include:

Finley (“my husband likes this, I’m not a fan“)
Philomena (“this is Kolbe’s pick…sisterly love!“)
Faustina
Hope
Rose
Ruth

And names on the no-go list:

Lucy
Grace
Emma
Rebecca

The names they’re considering are just as eclectic as the names they’ve already used — I love them! And I was really eager to see what names my research would yield! You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have already used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I knew Kolbe, Jameson-for-a-girl, and Faustina wouldn’t be in there, but I thought/hoped that Conrad, Jameson-for-a-boy, Elsie, Jude, Finley, Philomena, Hope, Rose, and Ruth would give an accurate picture.

I also picked through my own mental files and looked back in my blog, and I came up with a few ideas as well.

So! All that said, these are my ideas:

(1) Greer or Grier
In trying to figure out if there was any thread(s) of a theme that ran through their taste in names (as evidenced by the names they’ve already used and the ones on their list), I thought surnames-as-first-names (Kolbe, Jameson) and unisex-ish names for girls (Jameson, Finley) were two themes that were apparent. Greer (or Grier) immediately came to mind—it’s one of my favorite names, a unisex-ish first name (though definitely skewing more female in recent years, a la actress Greer Garson, which makes it a nice bridge name between the more masculine Jameson and the very feminine Elsie) that’s also a surname, and it’s got saintly connections as well as it’s a variant of Gregory!

(2) Meike
Another thread that seemed to run through their name choices was a Germanic element, as seen in Kolbe, Conrad, Elsie, and Philomena, which led me to think of Meike right away, another of my favorites. It’s a German diminutive of Maria, said like Micah, so it has a boyish feel to it even though it’s a feminine name. And it’s Marian! I’m always swoony over Marian names!

(3) Ruby
I also thought there was a little bit of an “old lady” feel to some of their ideas, like Elsie, Philomena, Faustina, Rose, and Ruth. Ruby was listed in the BNW as a match for both Jude and Rose, and it also reminded me a bit of the feel of Greer—a little bit brassy and a lot old Hollywood starlet. I spotlighted Ruby here, offering some faithy connections.

(4) Landry
Landry was also a suggestion I got from the BNW, a style match for Finley and the English & French variant of the Germanic name Landric. Behindthename.com, which I always go to for name meanings/origin/history, says it’s a masculine name (there are a few Sts. Landry, all male), but it’s listed in the BNW as feminine, which made me think Sara and her hubs might find it appealing (the Social Security Administration says it was #858 for boys in 2015 and #918 for girls, so pretty even matched). It’s got a really pretty sound!

(5) Mercy (or Mercedes?)
Mercy was inspired by Hope, of which it’s a style match per the BNW, but also this Jubilee Year of Mercy, which they are so lucky to be having a baby born in! I do worry that maybe Elsie and Mercy share too many sounds? Especially with their birth order being next to each other? In which case, I think Mercedes could work—it means “mercies” and also points to Our Lady of Mercy (as does Mercy, of course, Marian names for the win!), and has a more international feel than Mercy, which fits in nicely with their other kids. I discussed Mercedes more here.

(6) Saintly surnames
Finally, I couldn’t help but think of the saintly surnames that I think would be great matches for Kolbe, so I thought I’d list a bunch of them here:
— Avila (for St. Teresa of Avila and/or St. John of Avila)
— Cabrini (for Mother Cabrini/St. Frances Xavier Cabrini)
— Goretti (for St. Maria Goretti)
— Siena (for St. Catherine of Siena and/or St. Bernardine of Siena)
— Talbot (for Bl. Matt Talbot, read more here from a mom who considered Talbot for her daughter)

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for Sara and her husband, based on the names they’ve already used and those they like?

Baby name consultant: No. 5 after four girls

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Laura of the blog B is for Bissonnette and her husband Chris are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱after four girls! Big sisters’ names are:

Kayla Cecilia
Elise Marianna (“we pronounce it Mari (rhymes with starry)- Anna (rhymes with sauna)”)
Ava Chantal
Sophie Rose

Beautiful, right?? So feminine and pretty, each one! (Laura actually blogged about the thought process behind the selection of each name—be sure to check it out!

Laura writes,

“We love names that are not quite classic and not at all crazy.  We tend toward shorter names since our last name Bissonnette (Bih-Suh-Net) is quite long already, but we aren’t married to the idea that they MUST all be short, per se.  Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.  We love a Saint name to be somewhere in the name though it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the first name. As you can see, we have rather inadvertently chosen  first names that are quite popular at this time.  This wasn’t done on purpose, but we have a hard time agreeing on girl names that we both like so we just go with what we can both agree on now instead of worrying about popularity and whether they’ll end up with 15 friends who share their name….”

(I just have to insert here that one of my original suggestions for Laura, which I was feeling really good about, was Colette. Totally forgetting, of course, that she’d explicitly said, “Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.” Gah!)

As for boys,

“My husband’s family has a tradition that the first born son in the family uses his first name as a middle name for his first son, and my husband is the first boy in his family, so his first name, Christopher would be our son’s middle name if we have a boy … Damian/Damien is a name we’ve had on our maybe list for boys for a while. And I’m not sure if it gives you a help just style-wise, but I like the sounds of names like Aiden and Liam (we just don’t do the Irish thing) … Names that fall into that general style of sound (not the language origin) might be names we’d go for.”

Additionally,

“[W]e sort of went with a bit more French (which didn’t really start until our 2nd child, but has been a theme with either the first or middle names of the other 3 girls…) but we also aren’t married to the “theme”, we are very much a couple who just read through baby name books/lists over and over until something hits us just right, which makes us difficult, I know. I’m currently reading tons of St. Therese, so that name as a middle is a huge consideration, but again, we aren’t married to anything at all as of yet. That’s the closest that I’m “in love” with at the moment is that as a middle.  We are still struggling with much for a first that we just LOVE.

… we generally start with Saint names, come up with a list that we like and then categorize them in First, Middle, or Either.”

Saints they love/have particular devotions to include:

Therese
Katharine Drexel/St. Catherine of Siena
Kateri
Faustina
Gemma Galgani
Chiara
Agnes
Felicity
The Blessed Mother

Joseph
Francis de Sales/St. Francis of Assisi
John Paul II
Maximilian Kolbe
Josemaria Escriva
Damien of Molokai
John Mary Vianney
Dominic
Pier Giorgio Frassati
Sebastian
John Bosco

Names that they can’t use for first names because of being part of a big family with lots of nieces and nephews:

Fiona
Siobhan
Liam
Seamus
Kellen
Finian
Sorcha
Eilish
Declan
Grace
Gianna
James
Sarah
Lily
Benjamin
Dominic
Lucy
Logan
Christiana
Xavier
Emiliana
Roisin
Therese
Paul

(What a family! Some ah-mazing names in there!)

Also these have been nixed by the Mister:

Rosalie
Edith
Rita
Names with a similar “old lady” feel are probably going to be vetoed by him as well, including my initial suggestions of Margo and Greta 😦

Okay everyone! Let’s rub our hands together and jump right in!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. Patterns often emerge and it becomes clear what kinds of names the parents tend towards, but I was initially having a hard time pinning down exactly what Laura and Chris’ style was because there wasn’t any real overlap in the few names listed for each entry. Then I started noticing that their girls’ names (firsts and middles) came from the same four lists of names in the book (in the back the author lists all the names according to style): Bell Tones (“freshness with a clean, light touch”—e.g., Kayla), Antique Charm, French, and German/Dutch. Once I figured that out, so many names jumped out at me as ones I thought they’d like! I have a lot of suggestions for each gender, as I found it hard to narrow it down further:

Girls
(1) Chloe or Zoe
Chloe was the name that jumped out at me at first, being biblical and with good French usage. I did consider it may seem too rhymey following right after Sophie? I said the names all together as a set and that was my first thought. But otherwise I like it a lot for this family. And I kept wanting to cross Zoe off the list—Chloe kept seeming like a better fit—but each time I went to delete it I stopped. Something about that zippy Z that’s just really fun, and it’s meaning of “life” is such a great one. It was also the birth name of St. Catherine Laboure, and I’ve heard of a family using Zoe as a nickname for their little Catherine because of St. Catherine Laboure!

(2) Siena
Siena’s for St. Catherine of Siena of course, and it’s really sweet as a first name. I even know of a little one who would have been Siena Catherine if he’d been a girl, which I thought was a neat twist.

(3) Kateri
I loved seeing both St. Catherine of Siena and St. Kateri on Laura’s list of saints because one of my favorite things about Kateri’s name is that Kateri is the Mohawk version of Catherine—she took the name Kateri at her baptism for St. Catherine of Siena specifically! So I kind of think of Kateri as a dual honor name, and I love that it can take the traditional Kat/Kate/Katie nicknames of Catherine.

(4) Corinne
I initially wanted to suggest Cora but, as Laura pointed out to me, it rhymes with her own name, which could be a little weird. Corinne is a great alternative though, a beautiful but not over-the-top French name.

(5) Haley or Halle
There are a trillion ways to spell Haley (like Hayley Mills the actress, or my relatives Haleigh and Hailey, or actress Hailee Steinfeld or ……..!), but no matter which one, it immediately hit me as a name Laura and Chris might like. But then I wondered if it was too similar in sound to Kayla? Depending on how they say it, maybe … especially if they really emphasize the first part as “Hay” … if they said it more like “Hail” maybe it’s okay … but that thought process made me think of Halle, like Halle Berry, which bypasses the potential rhymes-with-Kayla while still having a lot of Haley’s appeal. I posted ideas for NFL quarterback Philip Rivers a while ago, and his wife responded to it and explained how they chose each of their kids’ names, and their oldest is Halle, which is a name they loved, but when she was at Mass once when she was pregnant and realized “Hallelujah” contains “Halle” within it, she took it as a sign. I love that!

(6) Lena or Mina or Mila
Lena is one of those names that can be a nickname for some great names like Magdalena and Helena, but it can also stand on its own as a variant of them, so a little Lena could have St. Mary Magdalene or St. Helena as a patron. Mina is similar in sound, but is connected more to Wilhelmina, which would be a great way to honor a William, if Laura and Chris have one in their family. I could also see it possibly being a nickname for Magdalena, so they could still choose that saint as patron if they wanted. And I discussed Mila recently as the best way to honor St. Ludmila, who was a great lady.

Pronunciation-wise,  I say Lena as LEE-nah, but I’ve also seen LAY-nuh. Mina is MEE-nah, and Mila can be either MEE-lah or MY-lah or even MILL-lah I think. My son had a MEE-lah in his class this year. How about the rest of you? How do you say these names?

(7) Gemma
St. Gemma’s on their list of favorite saints, and I love love love the name Gemma. So it definitely had to be listed here as one of my suggestions! It leans more Italian (in origin and usage) or British (in usage) rather than French, but it’s a short, sweet, saintly ends-in-a name that fits in well with the big girls I think.

(8) Zelie
St. Zelie’s not on their saint list, but it’s French and sweet-and-spunky like the big girls’ names and is connected to St. Therese—a great option!

(9) Vianney
I’ve suggested the girls’ names from the blog My Child I Love You so many times, as I think they’re just so inspired, and Vianney is one of them. I think most people think of naming a boy after St. John Vianney, but Vianney is so pretty on a girl. (I was going to suggest another of their girl names — Clairvaux — but decided not to. Maybe I should have?)

(10) Ruby
I spotlighted Ruby a while back, and I came up with a lot of great faith connections for it. It’s such a sweet name, and I love it on its own or as a nickname (check out that spotlight post for ideas!).

(11) Tessa
Finally Tessa, a name I went back and forth on suggesting, and here now at the last minute, as I’m putting together this post for today, I’m just doing it. I’m not sure why I hesitated, because I love it with the older girls’ names. Though Therese is on their can’t-use list for first names, I’ve seen Tessa chosen specifically for Sts. Therese or Teresa, and I thought Tessa was different enough that it might be okay. Therese as a middle name would be out, but I quite like the idea of Tessa Catherine, Tessa Claire (for Chiara), Tessa Frances (for Francis), and Tessa Vianney.

Other girl names that didn’t make my final cut, but that I think still might be ones they’d like, include: Nora, Mia, Cassie, Isabel(le).

Boys
(1) Blaise
Blaise tops my list of suggestions for Laura and Chris—it’s super saintly and French, and I’ve always loved that it evokes image of speed and superheroes with its “blaze” pronunciation—great name for a little guy!

(2) Jude
Jude is short and light like the big girls’ names, but definitely heavy hitting—who doesn’t like St. Jude??

(3) Oliver
Though Oliver has a really Irish/British Isles feel to me, Olivier, which of course is just one letter difference, is all French, and in my weird way of thinking, it made Oliver seem like a really good fit for this family.

(4) Cam (Campion?)
I’m kind of swoony over my recent discovery that Cambridge was named after the River Cam—Cam! I really love Cam for a boy! This revelation totally makes it doable as a first name on its own, without being a nickname! I really really like that idea, but I know it’s even better if it’s connected to a saint, and St. Edmund Campion is a great way to get there.

(5) Cole (Nicholas, Colman, Kolbe)
Cole is one of my favorite nicknames for a boy. Certainly it can stand on its own as a first name, but I love it as a nickname for Nicholas (so many great Sts. Nicholas! You know my fave is St. Nicholas Owen!), or Colman (an Irish saint; I feel like Colman is kind of unexpected but feels familiar, a nice combo), or even Kole for Kolbe (and St. Max is on Laura and Chris’ list of favorite saints).

(6) Bosco
St. John Bosco’s on the saint list, and I loved when Grace Patton named her youngest Bosco (and my love for it grows every time I see his sweet little face on her blog/Instagram).

(7) Milo or Miles
Milo is described on behindthename.com as an Old Germanic form of Miles, whose origin doesn’t seem to be clear, but I’ve seen it connected to Michael (and I think Milo or Miles could totally work as a nickname for Michael) and the Latin miles, which means “soldier.” A fun tidbit is that Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (from their saint list)’s middle name was Michelangelo, so Milo/Miles could be a nod to him in that way.

At first I thought Milo was more Laura and Chris’ speed than Miles, being that Milo has that Germanic edge, but the recent brouhaha surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos’ permanent suspension from Twitter made me wonder if Milo is going to be a name to avoid for a while (what are your thoughts on this?). Miles is great, and can be considered a legit Marian name for a boy as both Miles and Milo are used as anglicizations of the Old Irish Maolmhuire, which means “devotee of Mary.”

(8) Bram or Abram
These might be totally out there for Laura and Chris, but Bram’s been one of my favorite names for a long time. It’s an English and Dutch short form of Abraham, and my husband and I have also talked about using it as a nickname for Ambrose. I say it to rhyme with “gram,” and I’ve heard it said that way; it can also be said like “brahm,” which I believe is how Bram Stoker said it.

Abram never used to be on my radar at all, but when I was at the doctor’s office recently I heard a mom calling her son Abram, and he was this adorable little guy with blond curls and I immediately loved the name.

(9) Grady, Brady
Both of these were listed as similar to the Bissonnette style in the BNW and while they skew more Irish than anything else (and are the last names of two of the Irish martyrs), I thought I’d include them because I think they’re both really handsome and go well with the girls’ names.

(10) George (or just Geo?) or Jerome
These are 100% inspired by Laura and Chris’ devotion to Pier Giorgio Frassati. I’ve read that he never went by Pier, only by Pier Giorgio or Giorgio (or Georg when he was writing in German), and since Giorgio/Georg is George, I thought that could work. I especially love love love the nickname Geo! So cool! It might even be able to stand on its own as a given name? Or is that too weird? Geordie (Jordy)’s another option that I really like, it’s a traditional nickname for George. And Pier Giorgio took Girolamo as his religious name when he became a Third Order Dominican, which is the Italian for Jerome, so that’s an option too.

As with the girls, there were some boy names that were swirling around the right area for me that didn’t end up making my final cut, but I wanted to mention them just in case: Adrian, Henry, Keegan, Kian, Rylan, Tobias.

A fun last-minute question Laura added was that she’s “especially interested in nicknames/variations of Joseph, Sebastian, Damien, Francis, and John Bosco.” You all know nicknames are my jam!! My ideas for these are:

  • Joseph: according to behindthename.com, Jozo (Croatian), Pepe (Spanish), Sepp/Seppel (German), and Zef (Dutch) are all short forms or diminutives of Joseph. I’m especially intrigued by Sepp, Seppel, and Zef (I think Zef is my favorite!)
  • Sebastian: not to mention Grace Patton’s amazing name style twice in one post, but another of her sons is Sebastian and he goes by Bash. I know he’s not the only one, but he’s the first Sebastian I’d ever heard of going by Bash and I was immediately besotted. Such a great nickname for a little boy! There’s also Seb/Sebby, Bax (especially for Sebastian Xavier, for example), and Baz. I’ve even seen Ian used as a nickname for it!
  • Damien: I’ve had Damien on my own list for a long time, and my nickname idea for it has been Denny, and I’ve felt pretty clever about it. 🙂 Using that same thought process, I think Danny would be great for the Damian spelling.
  • Francis: I’ve suggested Finn a bunch of times as a nickname for Francis—I love that it allows for a super-saintly given name and an on-trend (and Star Wars!) nickname. Frank/Frankie is traditional, of course (and Frankie for a little guy is so cute!), and I’ve also known guys who went by Fran and the Italian Cici/Cic (“Chee-chee”/”Cheech”). Some non-English options that are cute include Chico (Portuguese), Franz (German), and Pancho or Paco (both Spanish)
  • John Bosco: Certainly Bosco, as I’d mentioned (I might have seen Grace’s Bosco referred to as “Boss”? Sooooo cute!), and all the John nicknames (Jack, Jake, Johnny), and even Don for Don Bosco. There are loads of John variants of course, if they’d prefer to go that direction (Evan, Hans, Ian, Ivan, Sean, Shane, etc.). I also just discovered that his middle name was Melchiorre—the Italian for Melchior, which is the name traditionally given to one of the three Wise Men, how cool!

Whew! Those are all my ideas for the little brother or sister of Kayla, Elise, Ava, and Sophie! What would you suggest? What other nickname ideas do you have for the saints Laura was asking about? How do you say Lena, Mina, and Mila?

Baby name consultant: Biblical and/or French/German-ish name for No. 4 green bean

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Monica and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, gender unknown! This wee babe will join big sibs:

Cora Marie (“after the heart of Mary“)
Levi Alphonsus (with Jesus) (“St. Alphonsus Ligouri is my husband’s favorite saint“)
Regina Marie (“Queen Mary“)

How great are those names!! You know I love Marian names, and Levi’s so handsome.

Monica writes,

“We are expecting in August and I’d love to hear your ideas on names for us. This is our 4th. We don’t find out the gender ahead of time, so we are looking to pick out a boy and a girl name. I feel like we are going to have a harder time choosing a boy name … I like nicknames but my husband does not. He says he could possibly be convinced, so I guess there is a chance. Cora and Regina don’t really have nicknames, but I’m not opposed to something that can be shortened … We are open to, but not stuck on Marie as a middle name even though the oldest two girls have that. We didn’t plan to do it that way, but once we decided on Regina it seemed weird to pick any other middle name … We don’t really have name rules and are really excited to hear your thoughts.”

Names they like/have considered include:

Girls
Agnes (“At the top of the list so far [we’ve considered it each pregnancy]. There is something about it and St. Agnes, but I can’t decide if it’s too old school“)
Margaret
Bernadette (“We’ve ruled it out because Bernadette … is such a mouthful” with their last name)
Gertrude (“It would be challenging if [hubby] won’t give in to a nickname“)
Catherine (Monica’s hubs’ “#1 choice, but a little to common for me“)
Hilda (“after [hubby’s] saintly granny“)
Leona

Boys
Elijah (“would have been Cora’s name if she were a boy) — it’s been ruled out as we have a godson named Elijah now“)
Fulton or Victor (“one of them would have been Regina’s name, we were leaning towards Fulton“)
Gerard
Gregory
Jerome

Such a great and somewhat unexpected bunch of names! I particularly loved considering the style of names like Agnes, Gertrude, Hilda, and Leona — they have that fusty feel that’s really great, and I think it’s a bit ahead of curve — I think names like that will be hot soon (I already know of a celeb baby named Agnes — actress Elisabeth Shue named her daughter Agnes Charles) — so Monica and her hubs are trendsetters!

I agree with Monica that Gertrude will be challenging, as she puts it, if her husband isn’t open to a nickname! It’s just a really big, clunky name for a little girl to deal with. Of course, if they named your daughter Gertrude and called her Gertrude, then she would just be Gertrude and it’d be fine. It does have the darlingest nicknames though — Gertie and Trudy are so sweet.

If they’re seriously considering Gertrude, then I’d say there isn’t any name that’s too “old school” — Agnes seems tame compared to Gertrude to me! Agnes is a great name, and the little Agnes in the movie Despicable Me gives it a nice familiarity (and she was adorable).

Margaret is lovely and saintly, I don’t have much more to say about it than that!

Bernadette is great, and it gave me a good sense of their taste, even though they’ve ruled it out (bummer).

I feel about Catherine similar to how I feel about Margaret — it’s lovely and saintly, but it definitely is more common than some of your other ideas.

Hilda I love for this family, I think it’s awesome! I love that it’s a family name, and for a saintly family member — how nice! I would have suggested it — or some form of it, like Hilde or Hildi — if it wasn’t already on their list. I’ve seen St. Hildegard of Bingen being considered by people like us here on the blog — Hildegard’s a big name, like Gertrude, but shorter names that are related, like Hilda, are a great way to work with it.

Leona’s interesting! I see Leonie from time to time, because of St. Therese’s sister, but not Leona too much, so again — trendsetter!

As for the boy names, I feel like Fulton, Victor, Gerard, Gregory, and Jerome all have a certain feel, which I think Cora and Regina and the girl names on their list fit in with well, and then they have their biblical Elijah, which is a great match for Levi. It was fun trying to come up with ideas that fit one or the other — either Victor/Jerome or Levi/Elijah — and, even better, ideas that fit both.

As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and the names they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did so here, and added in some other ideas of my own, and came up with seven ideas for each gender:

Girls
(1) Helen(a)
Helen was actually the first name I thought of for this family, before I even started doing my research as it’s got a little of that “old lady” feel. Helena is a lovely variant as well.

(2) Edith
Helen was quickly followed by Edith in my mind for Monica and her hubs, for St. Edith Stein. I admit one of my favorite things about Edith is the nickname Edie, but the full Edith is lovely too, and I love St. Edith Stein.

(3) Hope, Faith (Mercy?)
Hope is a style match for Victor and Faith’s a style match for Levi, so I thought maybe a virtue-esque name like that could be a nice bridge between the two styles they like. I also really like that Hope can be considered Marian, for Our Lady of Hope. Neither Hope nor Faith nickname well, which is probably a good thing for this family. They both also made me think of Mercy, which doesn’t seem quite like their style, but I thought it was worth mentioning, especially since their baby will be born during the Year of Mercy.

(4) Anne, Anna, Anita, Annette
These were all matches for their styles, and Monica’s Confirmation name is actually Anne, so I thought it might be a nice nod to her to use an Anne name. Anna fits the feel of their biblical theme; Anne is more the Catherine/Margaret part of their list; Anita and Annette fit in with Victor, Gerard, and Jerome.

(5) Yvonne
I’m so interested to see what they think of Yvonne! It’s never been on my radar at all, but it was listed as a match for Gerard, Jerome, and Bernadette! I didn’t even know if it was saintly, but indeed it is — there’s a St. Ivo, who’s also known as St. Ives or St. Yves, and Yvonne’s a feminine form of those names. When I saw Yvie listed as a nickname, I was sold — Evie’s a pretty hot nickname right now, for Evangeline, Evelyn/Evelina, and Genevieve, and Yvie’s a cool twist on that. (Yvie!) (Monica’s hubs has got to be on board with that! I’m dying over how visually edgy and audially popular it is — what a cool nickname!)

(6) Greta
Greta seems to me a pretty great option for this family. It’s a variant of Margaret, which they have on their list, but certainly less common than Margaret. It’s one of my favorites of the Margaret names.

(7) Magdalen(e)/a
Finally, Magdalen/Magdalene or Magdalena seemed like a great idea for Monica and her hubs. I think of it as kind of like “the biblical Margaret” because it can take the nickname Maggie, like Margaret, but it’s so biblical, and it goes well with Levi.

Boys
(1) Leo
Leo is a style match for Cora, and as soon as I saw it I loved it as an idea for this baby. It’s not very uncommon right now, but it’s saintly and papal, a great name.

(2) Hugh/Hugo
Hugh was also a style match for Cora, but I wasn’t sure if I thought Monica and her Mr. would be interested in Hugh or more so in the variant Hugo. I think they definitely have a somewhat German/Dutch/French sensibility with the names they like, and Hugo fits right in with that. One of the Sts. Hugo was a spiritual student of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

(3) Edward or Edmund
Both of these names were listed as similar to their style, and I couldn’t tell which I thought they’d prefer (if any)? They’re both great and saintly in their own rights — I feel like I’ve been recommending them a lot lately, but St. Edward the Confessor and St. Edmund Campion are both amazing.

(4) Clement
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer is the patron of my parish (a Redemptorist parish) and when I read that St. Alphonsus Liguori is Monica’s husband’s favorite saint I thought Clement might be the perfect suggestion. It’s similar in style to a number of the names on their list, and has the added awesomeness of meaning “merciful” — a perfect name for the Year of Mercy!

(5) Alois/Aloys or Aloysius
This is probably the name that I’m most unsure about for my boy suggestions for Monica and her hubs, but Alois was in the list of German and Dutch names in the BNW, as so many of their favorites are, and one of my good friends (who’s a wonderful young priest) has Aloys as his middle name, which I always think is really cool, and then Alphonsus made me think of Aloysius, so put all that together and I thought I definitely needed to suggest it.

(6) Conrad
I love the name Conrad, and it’s similar to a bunch of names on their list. There are a bunch of Sts. and Bls. Conrad, and it can be spelled Konrad as well.

(7) Tobias
Finally, Tobias is one of the suggestions I’m most excited about for this little one. It’s super biblical like Levi and Elijah, and it’s in the “Antique Charm” and “German and Dutch” lists in the BNW — a great bridge for their styles!

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little sister or brother of Cora, Levi, and Regina?

Baby name consultant: Baby #4 to add more joie de vivre

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Thank you all for your patience and kind words and prayers last week! The wake, funeral, and burial for my mother-in-law all worked out so well and beautifully, may she rest in peace.

Though I’d said that I’d be able to finish up the consultations for those waiting for them, I didn’t end up being able to spend much time on the computer, so I’m a couple of days backed up. I should be able to catch up this week though, so if you’re waiting for a consultation or an email reply of any kind, don’t despair!

Now on to our regularly scheduled Monday consultation post!

Lisa, of the blog Joie de Vivre (hence my totally corny post title), and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, gender unknown! This wee babe will join older sisters:

Evangeline Grace (Evie)
Audrey Noelle
Heidi Josefina

And names they’ve talked about for girls include:

Isabel (“maybe more for a middle name?“)
Margaret (“husband really likes…I’m not quite there“)
Juliana (“has been a top choice every pregnancy…I’m ready to take it off the list, though, since the boss of my boss is named Heidi and my boss is named Julianne!“)
Mariette (“husband not on board“)
Faith or Hope
Jane
Teresita (“my confirmation saint is Ven. Teresita but my husband feels it’s too much of a nick name, womp, womp“)

For boys, Lisa says,

“My husband Tim and I have each had a strong devotion to St. Jude since before we met each other and considered that as our ‘front-runner’ for a boy’s name with the 1st pregnancy, however good friends of ours, who had a baby around the same time, also had Jude as their boy-name first choice and did have a boy *and* have the same last name we do, so we’ve sort nixed it but may consider it now that both families have more kids/ their Jude is older?“

Other names they’ve discussed/considered for boys include:

First names
Nicholas
Jude
Christopher
Nathaniel
Kolbe (“I LOVE- Tim says it evokes thoughts of Colby Jack cheese“)
Ethan

Middle names
Scott
Bonaventure
Frederick
Casimir

(“I know the last three are really wild cards but I kinda like that they’re unexpected, and the last two are the middle names of my grandpa’s that I would totally use as a middle name for a boy.”)

And names that can’t be used for various reasons include:

Ava
Anna
Charlotte
Clara
Rose
Sophia
Zelie
Kathryn
Therese
Michael
Charles
Seamus
Samuel
Daniel
Christian
Isaac
Andrew
Eleanor
Olivia
Leo

I really enjoyed working on this because I found that Lisa and Tim’s style wasn’t easy to pin down — I love a good name challenge!

Their girls’ names are each so lovely … and so different! I love each one. I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names that the parents like and have already used for their other children in the Baby Name Wizard book as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and then I look for names that show up in more than one of those lists. It was so interesting to see what names would be found to be similar to more than one of Lisa and Tim’s girls’ names or the names on their list! I’ll explain more in my suggestions below.

I love Jude, and I love that both Lisa and her hubs have a devotion to St. Jude—how weird that they have friends with the exact same last name who also have a Jude! I agree that as there are more children and the ages are more spread out that it doesn’t matter as much as it might have once. It’s a great name.

As for the names she and/or her hubs like(s), Isabel, Faith, Hope, and Jane are all beautiful … I think they’re probably right to take Juliana off the list because of the Heidi/Julianne boss issue, but maybe not forever … Margaret and Mariette are so similar in appearance and beginning and ending sounds, it’s funny that Lisa loves one and Tim loves the other! And Teresita is beautiful — I wonder if they would consider Teresa with Teresita as a possible nickname? Especially since Tim already thinks Teresita sounds more nicknamey? Or maybe Tessa would be more their speed? I like them both with the other girls’ names, and I like trying to find a connection to Ven. Teresita for Lisa in a way that maybe her husband would be okay with.

Their boys’ names are very consistent stylistically! Nicholas, Christopher, and Nathaniel especially have a lot of the same names listed as style matches. I’ll discuss more in my suggestions below.

As for the middle name ideas, they’re all very handsome, and I was particularly struck by the combo Jude Frederick — I think it has such a great flow! BUT – I’m love love loving the idea of Frederick as a first name for them!!! I love that it’s long and sophisticated like Evangeline; it’s got a German feel like Heidi; and it’s really classic like Audrey and all three of them really. It’s got the great traditional nickname options of Fred, Freddie (so cute!), and Fritz, and I know a little Frederick who goes by Erick. I love it! Frederick Jude would be very handsome.

I love Kolbe too, great name and great saint! Colby Jack cheese is hilarious and such a bummer!

Okay, so I have a bunch of suggestions for Lisa and Tim:

Girl
(1) Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn or Madeleine
This was influenced at first by Margaret on their list, as I sometimes find that people who struggle with Margaret but love the nickname Maggie are open to considering Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn with the nickname Maggie. I love it! But as I was doing my research, I discovered that Madeleine is a style match for Evangeline and Isabel, and Madeleine is the French version of Magdalen(e), so I thought it definitely deserved a mention.

(2) Clairvaux
I know Clara’s on the list of unusable names, but Claire is a style match for Audrey and at first I dismissed it … but then when I was thinking about it some more — especially the style of Kolbe (saintly last name) — I wondered what they’d think of Clairvaux? Lindsay at My Child I Love You has a little Clairvaux, after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and I believe they call her Clair sometimes.

(3) Victoria
Victoria is a style match for Juliana, Nicholas, and Nathaniel, and I love that it’s got that longer length like Evangeline. I love that it could be considered Marian (Our Lady of Victory), or a Jesus name (Victory!), and I love that it has a bunch of nickname options: Vicky, Vicka, Tori, Vee, Cora, Ria.

(4) Samantha
Samantha’s a style match for Nicholas, Christopher, and Nathaniel! I know Samuel isn’t usable, but maybe Samantha’s different enough?

(5) Camille or Camilla
Camilla is a style match for Juliana and Jude, and Camille for Hope. I really like it with their other girls, and I love the nickname Cammie.

Boy
(1) Luke or Lucas
Luke was all over the place for this family! Luke is a style match for Audrey, Jude, Ethan, and Faith, and Lucas matches up with Isabel. Wow! I’ve heard Jude described as the “Luke less traveled,” so I wasn’t surprised to see that it’s similar to a bunch of other names they like.

(2) Owen
Owen was also a big hit for them, being similar to Audrey, Isabel, Juliana, Ethan, and Faith. It’s a great name, and its patron is the amazing St. Nicholas Owen, a martyr who built hiding places for priests.

(3) Conrad
It’s funny, when I was first reading your email and saw Heidi, I immediately scribbled down Conrad, and then later discovered it’s a style match for Frederick! My husband and I considered Conrad for our youngest—I’ve always liked it.

(4) Bennett
Being that Kolbe is a saintly last name, I was trying to think of others from that category that Lisa and Tim might like (like my suggestion of Clairvaux above), and when I saw Bennett listed as a style match for Hope, I knew that was the one. Bennett is a medieval form of Benedict! So it’s got great saint cred, but it feels more like a last name (and of course is one, as in the Bennet sisters of Pride and Prejudice).

(5) Thaddeus or Theodore
Finally, I wondered if their love of St. Jude could transfer from the name Jude to the name Thaddeus? It’s long, like Evangeline, Christopher, and Nathaniel, and can take the nickname Thad, Tad/Taddy, and Ted/Teddy. Ted/Teddy made me think of Theodore too, which I suspect might be more their speed, and indeed it’s a style match for Frederick; they could also use the great nickname Theo.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a brother or sister to Evangeline/Evie, Audrey, and Heidi?

Birth announcement: Louisa Marie!

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I posted a consultation for Alyssa and her husband back in January in which I offered suggestions with a German sensibility for their little girl-on-the-way. Alyssa has let me know her Little Miss has arrived, and they gave her the beeeaauuutiful name of … Louisa Marie!

Alyssa writes,

“our little girl is here! She was born on Saturday, March 26 just in time for Easter. I loved reading your consultation and everyone’s suggestions and referred back to the post several times while we were making our final decisions. In the end we just couldn’t shake Louisa. I don’t remember if I told you or not but I grew up on a street called Louisa and my parents still live there, so the associations are strong. It also fit our German bill and as was kind of discussed in your post, it is a name from The Sound of Music, one of my favorite movies! And of course Marie is a tradition and honors not only our Blessed Mother but also several women in my family including my mom, both grandmothers and my cousin who passed away a few years ago. After researching the links you provided about saintly women with her name, St. Louise de Marillac jumped out to me as her patron when I realized her feast day was in March. Thank you so much for all of your help and good information! 

Right now we are calling her Louisa, Lou, LouLou and Louie/Louie Marie. So many fun nicknames! Big brother Konrad Wolfgang is having a blast with her so far!“

How wonderful!! I just loved that Alyssa said that they “referred back to the post several times while we were making our final decisions” and that “in the end we just couldn’t shake Louisa.” That, to me, is evidence that Louisa is and always has been the name for this beautiful baby! I looooove the nicknames too, so so sweet!

Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big brother Konrad, and happy birthday Baby Louisa!!

louisa_marie

Louisa Marie

 

Baby name consultant: Name for a little Austrian lady

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I have really loved connecting with parents from all over the world over our shared interest in names of our faith, so I’m excited to post today’s consultation, from Sabrina in Austria! She and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little girl, though when she first wrote to me they hadn’t yet found out the gender (hence the references to boy names they’d considered, which I’ve left in for inspiration).

This baby will join older siblings:

Parsifal Hubertus
Aurelia

Which I just love! Sabrina writes,

“Our first son is called Parsifal – the germanized version of Perceval. As you might have guessed, we weren’t really practising [our faith] back then, so the second name is Hubertus, however we don’t have a huge culture of using middle names here though. Our daughter is called Aurelia. As you see, the names are quite uncommon, so we need one that fits in with them as well, Peter or Paul just won’t do it 😉 For a boy, we already considered Vito. I sort of like the name and concerning the degree of rareness it would fit, but I was told it would not fit to the style of the two others. There’s also still the consideration of calling him Richard, after my husband’s grandfather, however this would not quite fit in with the rareness.

For a girl, I’d absolutely adore Vivien (or any variation thereof), but my husband doesn’t like it too much. Genevieve would be great and going along with Parsifal well, but it is a tad too un-German to pronounce. My husband likes Agatha, but I think it’s the epitome of an old lady’s name. I’d also like Seraphina if it wasn’t too close to my own name. Also, it would be nice to avoid the too common ones, you can find a current list of them here.

I browsed the lines of our monarchy’s ancestry after reading about our princess, and while the men had all sorts of beautiful names (the more common ones being Franz, Josef, Karl and such), nearly everyone of the women was named Maria, Anna or Theresia. Isn’t that weird?

What we also considered – it would be a bold move and a break with our principle to not use genuine double names, but I really like the idea and my husband does too – was Stella Maris. Stella is a known name here, pretty uncommon but not unheard of, and it would be such a beautiful attribution to the Holy Virgin.

… around here, we can’t just go on and name our kids however we want (like that “Saint” post you posted), the magistrate decides whether it is actually a name and will approve of it. A friend of mine wanted to name her daughter Amalaswintha, after a gothic princess, but they declined and so they had to choose Amalia. Also they nearly declined even our Parsifal, however, they found one or two bearing that name in Germany. 🙂 “

I had fun working on this! I always love delving into names that are more unusual. That said, however, I only know what’s considered unusual for Americans, so I apologized in advance to Sabrina if some of my suggestions were too popular for her, or were names that Austrians would consider unattractive. I was fascinated by the lists of the most popular names she linked to—names like Maximilian, Tobias, Felix, Elias, Fabian, Sebastian, Florian, Valentina, and Magdalena are all the kinds of names I normally would have suggested to a parent with children named Parsifal and Aurelia. I love learning about differences between countries and cultures, and names provide such a fun way to do so!

Okay, these are my thoughts about their ideas:
— Vivian: I love it too! Vivian and Vivienne have been fairly popular here recently, along with other V-heavy names like Evelyn/Evelina, Evangeline, and Genevieve (see below). Vivian derives, as far as I can tell, from Latin vivus meaning “alive,” and Vito, which they’d considered for a boy, is from vitus meaning “life,” so that’s an extra connection Sabrina and her husband might appreciate. Or maybe they’d consider Vita? I quite like Vita! I think it would work really well as a sister to Parsifal and Aurelia.

— Genevieve: A gorgeous name! It’s a recent favorite among several of the Catholic families I know, and a name that’s often loved by those who also like Vivian/Vivienne! A name that’s similar in appearance and length and is more uncommon (at least here) is Guinevere. There’s a St. Winifred of Wales who’s also known as St. Guinevere.

— Agatha: Here, too, Agatha is firmly still an old lady name, though I do think it’s going to coming back into a certain popularity, on the heels of new revivals Alice and Agnes. I do think the nickname Aggie is cute!

— Seraphina: Yes, I love Seraphina too. It’s similar in style to Genevieve and Vivienne — Sabrina has very consistent (and lovely!) taste! But I can see that it might be bothersome to have mom Sabrina and daughter Seraphina.

Those are my thoughts on their current ideas, and of course I came up with some other ones for them as well. As you all know, I always rely pretty heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book when doing a consultation, and its list of “Exotic Traditional” names seemed just the right style for Sabrina and her husband. Using that list, and some other ideas, I have these suggestions:

(1) Veronica or Veronika
I think Veronica/Veronika would fit in nicely with Parsifal and Aurelia! I love that it’s long and sophisticated; it’s got that great V like Genevieve and Vivian; and it’s a great Catholic name!

(2) Anastasia
Sadly, this gorgeous name has been ruined for American Catholic parents for a while, because of the novel series Fifty Shades of Grey. But if it doesn’t have that association in Austria, I would love to see it used! Anastasia is so pretty and saintly, with the amazing meaning of “resurrection,” which is so great for a baby born near Easter. I don’t know if it would bother Sabrina and her hubs to have two A names, but I think Aurelia and Anastasia are different enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.

(3) Philomena or Filomena
Philomena/Filomena is uncommon and exclusively Catholic here (even though it seems St. Philomena is no longer a Saint; the meaning of the name is beautiful anyway. I’ll be doing a spotlight on it soon — stay tuned!), and I love that I think all of these nickname options could work: Fia, Fila, Fina, Finn, Finna, Lola, Mena, Minnie, Pia, Pim, Pina, and Pippa.

(4) Eleanor, Eleanora, Leonora, Lenora
One of my favorite features of the Baby Name Wizard book is that it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity (in America). I looked up all the names that Sabrina and her husband have used and like, and looked for any names that were similar to more than one of their favorite names, and Eleanor and variants were a big hit for them! Lenora was listed as similar to Percy (the entry most similar to Parsifal/Perceval); Eleanor is similar to Genevieve and Vivian; Eleanora is similar to Aurelia; and Leonora is similar to Agatha. To me, that’s pretty overwhelming evidence that they might like one of these names! Are they rare enough for Austria?

(5) Raphaela
Raphaela is a style match for Seraphina, and I really like that it refers to St. Raphael, who is one of the archangels, and Seraphina refers to the seraphim. Nice connection! Beautiful name.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest to Sabrina and her husband for Parsifal and Aurelia’s little sister? If any of you have knowledge of naming trends in Austria, I’d love to hear what you think of the suggestions here!

 

Baby name consultant: German name needed for Little Sister

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Hellooooo 2016!! 😀

This new year is starting off with a really fun consultation from one of my very first and wonderfully loyal readers:

Alyssa and her husband Klaus are expecting their second baby, a little girl! She joins big brother:

Konrad Wolfgang

Which is such an amazingly fabulous name! It’s bold, traditional, saintly, and I love how unapologetically German it is, and how they just own it!

Alyssa writes,

“I’m very excited to have just found out we are expecting a baby GIRL in March! … Here’s some info about our family:

My husband’s name is Klaus Wolfgang and for obvious reasons he really likes German names. It’s the only thing he really claims as his “style.” Our son is Konrad Wolfgang, which began as a compromise name as Klaus wanted a Klaus, Jr. but I really wasn’t going for it. So we compromised and he agreed that if the baby could have his initials, he would settle for “not a junior” and of course it had to be German. So we happened upon Konrad and fell in love. It suits him perfectly and we get lots of compliments on it. We love that it is a saint’s name, along with Wolfgang, and we found out after he was born that it was actually his great-grandmother’s maiden name, too. So, bonus points for the family connection!“

I love every single detail! I also really love that the compromise Alyssa and her hubs worked out was that they wouldn’t do the Junior he wanted, but they would use his initials — and with both Klaus and Konrad being super German, and Wolfgang being their shared middle name, it really really works as a pseudo Junior. Nice job!

“For this baby our “rules” are — must be German or have German usage, and can not start with a K. So far we only have two real contenders: Louisa and Mabel. I don’t believe either of them are saint names, which is a little disappointing to us. But I really like them both!

The middle name will definitely be Marie, as is customary with almost all of the girls in my family and of course I’m happy that it honors our Blessed Mother. I REALLY tried to talk Klaus into Edelweiss (nicknamed Ada) because throughout this pregnancy I’ve had a strong devotion to Ven. Edel Quinn. I actually hadn’t heard of her until your blog post a while ago! So I looked her up and really took to her story and her mission. Unfortunately, Edelweiss is just too out there for him. I understand, but am still a little disappointed. I was thinking about trying to sneak it in as a second middle name but since two middles aren’t really customary in either of our families, I fear it may come off as a little pretentious. What are your thoughts on two middle names? Any other suggestions on girls names?“

There are so many fun things to talk about here! German names; are-they-or-aren’t-they-saints-names; to use a second middle name or not? Let’s dig in!

I really like working on consultations for families wanting really ethnic names. I’ve learned so much about names and cultures from doing them! So I was excited to focus on German names or names with German usage for this family.

I love both Louisa and Mabel! Regarding the saintliness of Louisa — I’ve found a St. Louise who’s also known as St. Luisa and a Bl. Louise who’s also known as Bl. Louisa, both of which can work for patrons for a little Louisa, as can any of the Sts. Louis (de Montfort is a personal fave), and Louisa and Louise are the the same name, really, just linguistic variants (Louisa is the “Latinate feminine form of Louis” and Louise is the “French feminine form of Louis,”) but I do get that it’s kind of a bummer that “St. Louisa” doesn’t yield any results.

As for Mabel, it’s kind of an exciting option because Mabel is a medieval feminine form of Amabilis, which is the name of a male saint, BUT it’s also part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis (Mother Most Amiable, where amiable=lovable). So Mabel’s a Marian name! I would be so over-the-moon excited if I discovered that a name I loved but didn’t think had any saintly connection turned out to be a Marian name! I would think using a Marian first name would knock out Marie as a middle name, but maybe I’m wrong? There’s not really anything weird about Mabel Marie, and in fact it reinforces the Marian connection (like: “Mother Most Amiable, Mary”), but Alyssa and Klaus could also see it as an opportunity to use a different middle name. Like Edelweiss! I just died over the idea of Edelweiss nicked Ada, love love love!!! And that Alyssa has a devotion to Ven. Edel Quinn is amazing! Since her hubs isn’t into using it for a first name, I wonder if they would consider using just Ada as a first name? It’s sweet and spunky on its own, I think, and a fun connection is that the day after I sent this info to Alyssa, I discovered it was the feast of St. Ada! (And yes, you better believe I emailed her right away to let her know — how crazy is that?!) Otherwise, I love the idea of Mabel Edelweiss. Gorgeous!

If they don’t like that idea, though, of course I totally understand. It’s really cool that Alyssa’s family has a tradition of the girls having Marie as a middle! Another way to perhaps keep with the tradition but use another name (like Mabel) might be to re-form it as “all the girls in our family have a Marian name for either their first or their middle name.”

Which brings me to the question about two middle names. I don’t think two middle names are a bad thing! I’ve never really thought of them as pretentious either, though I could see that … something like Sebastian Roderick Maximilian does sound kind of … uppity. But something like Julia Janine Marie doesn’t to me — I would be more likely to assume the parents tried to get in two honor names. Full disclosure: three of my five siblings have two middle names! It can be kind of a hassle with official forms and such, as forms aren’t set up (in America) to take more than one middle name, so the second middle often gets dropped. I don’t think that’s necessarily a deal breaker though — I actually think it can be freeing, because you can do whatever the heck you want with the second middle name (and the third, fourth, etc., if you so choose) if you think of it more like your child’s “real” name as opposed to their “legal” name. It’s an interesting distinction — for most people, they’d probably say their real name *is* their legal name — that’s the definition of “real name.” But Alyssa and her hubs could absolutely have their baby’s legal name be Louisa Marie, and her “real” name be Louisa Marie Edelweiss, and they can bring her up knowing that, and it’ll just be part of her identity, separate from what the government knows. I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t make any sense, but it seems maybe sort of thrillingly subversive! (And now you know just how big of a name nerd I am! Haha!)

I was excited to see what other ideas I could come up with for this little girl, based on Konrad, Mabel, and Louisa, using my trusty Baby Name Wizard book (both the names listed as similar to those Alyssa and Klaus like, and its list of German names), and the list of German names at behindthename.com as well. I have five names that I think they might be intrigued by:

(1) Some form of Adele
I was absolutely amazed to see that Adela was listed as similar to Louisa, and Della (a diminutive of Adela) was similar to Mabel, both of which remind me of Ven. Edel Quinn because apparently her parents intended to name her Adele but the priest misheard and thought they meant Edel, like a diminutive of Edelweiss. So Adele and related names could be a really nice nod to Ven. Edel! Some other variants with German usage include Aleida, which I thought was really pretty (though I did read there’s a character by this name on Orange is the New Black, which I’ve never seen, so I don’t know if it’s a bad association, or neutral?), and Adelheid (though I personally prefer the variant Adelaide, which loses the German flavor though), and Adelais, which I thought was quite pretty.

(2) Eleanora/Eleanore
This would have been my first suggestion if it wasn’t for the connection of Adele to Edel, because Eleanor was listed as similar in style to Louisa; Elinor to Konrad; and Nell (a traditional nickname for Eleanor/Elinor) as similar to Mabel! Wow! The German variants were listed on behindthename as Eleonora, Eleonore, Leonore, Lore, and Nora. I like them all for this family. The El- also kinda reminds me of Edelweiss/Edel.

(3) Greta
This is one of my very favorite German names, and when I saw it listed as similar to Konrad, I knew I had to suggest it. It could work as a nickname for Margaret/Margareta, or it could be a given name on its own. The Margaret names mean “pearl,” which is always so great too — I’d feel so lucky to have pearls be “my” gem, you know? And the name Pearl was listed as similar to Mabel!

(4) Hildi
I couldn’t let a German consultation go by without suggesting Hildi! I’ve been pushing it on everyone recently, haha! It’s in honor of St. Hildegard of Bingen, who was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict. Such a big deal to have a female Doctor as a patron saint! I’m pretty sure Hildegard’s a bit much, though, and I know a little one named Hildi for St. Hildegard and I always think it’s just the sweetest. If Hildi feels too nicknamey, Hilde and Hilda are both full names, but I think Hildi works on its own just fine.

(5) Liesl
I know you’re going to laugh, but Edelweiss make me think of Liesl because of the Sound of Music! Haha! I love the name Liesl, and if we had any German I’d totally try to use it! Being that it’s a short form of Elisabeth, it’s got a saintly connection, and it kind of reminds me of Louisa sound-wise. Alyssa and her hubs could also do Elisabeth with Liesl as a nickname.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a little sister to Konrad in a very German family?