Marian baby names

Baby name consultation: Mary, family, strength, beauty, and nickname options for baby no. 3’s name

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , , ,

Happy Monday! There are a bunch of holy people celebrated today — some that jumped out at me are two popes (Pope St. Adrian III and Bl. Pope Eugene III), St. Morwenna, and St. Sunniva of Bergen.

Please remember that as of July 2 (as I wrote in the post that day), I’m suspending consultations indefinitely due to various things going on in my life (all good!). I will continue to post consultations I’ve already done for those families who want public posts, and I have some birth announcements and other things to post this summer as well; I also always keep you all in my prayers! 🩷🩷🩷

Today’s consultation is for Annelise and her husband, who are expecting their third baby very soon! This little one is a green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱 and joins big sibs:

Mariana Catharine (“She is named after both my mother and great grandmother – both Catharina Maria – with her own unique twist on the family tradition. Mariana also catches my husbands paternal grandmother Mary and mine and my MIL’s middle name, Marie. I love that her name is not only three of my favorite saints, Mary, Anne and Catherine, but also so deeply rooted in our family and Austrian heritage on my mom’s side. She chose her own nickname – Mari. Which suits her perfectly! If she had been a boy, she would have been James William“)

Henry James (“While I was pregnant with him, he came to me in a dream and told me his name. When I woke up, I very excitedly told my husband I met our baby and not only is it a boy but he told me his name. Every fiber of my being knew we had to go with this name for him. When he was finally born, holding him was surreal because he was absolutely the same baby as in my dream. His name carries a lot of family significance on my husband’s side. My husband is named after his grandfather Hale James [“Jim”], who was named after his father James Hale. My husband loves that our Henry has the same initials [HJB] as his grandfather, who passed not long before Henry was born. While Henry the 8th gives the name some bad PR, there are a few wonderful Saint Henry’s we love! And James goes without saying. We love the nickname Hank and our Henry really brings it to life. He is all things boy, tough and wild! If he had been a girl, he would have been Lillian Alexandra“)

Mariana Catharine and Henry James are such attractive combos and I love that they have faith and family significance. Mari and Hank are such sweet sibling names!

Annelise writes,

“For this baby, I’ve been feeling my heart connect to only one name – Maddalena. Which is both wonderful and challenging. I love that this name, like Mariana, has so much familiarity to it and yet is very unique. It sounds both new and old at the same time. It’s a beautiful connection to Mary Magdalene, who’s feast day is in July, and is full of nickname potential! The cons are that my husband isn’t a big fan. His worries are that it is too long, too easily misspelled and worries if it is too similar to Mariana. He would prefer the more common, Madeline. 

When it comes to boy names, we love the idea of using my husband’s middle name as the middle name. Christopher is also my husband’s father’s middle name. Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree on a first name we both like that works well with Christopher. So we aren’t fully committed to this idea.

Stylistically, I am drawn to romantic, lyrical names for girls and regal, traditional names for boys. I care very little about how popular a name is and actually prefer, especially for girls, more unique names with strength, beauty and nickname options. I love when a name has deep religious significance, family and personal ties. My own name is Annelise Marie. I grew up with a unique name and nickname (Lissi) and loved it. I love that it calls to Saints Anne, Elizabeth and Mary. My own name has that unique but sounds familiar feel that Mariana and Maddalena have. 

My husband, however, is drawn to names that sound very familiar and aren’t too exotic. He would happily choose from the 25 most popular names in the US, while I read those as a list of names to avoid, particularly for girls! lol He is on board with using first and middle saint names.” 

Some names that Annelise likes include:

  • Diana
  • Louisa/Louise
  • Cecilia
  • Elisa 
  • George
  • Owen
  • Otto
  • Michael
  • Charles 

Some names her husband likes include:

  • Cecilia
  • Charlotte
  • Delaney
  • Mackenzie
  • Michaela 
  • John/Jack
  • Charles 

Some family names that might be nice to include are:

  • George
  • William
  • John
  • Michael
  • Quinn (could be for boy or girl)

Saints they love include:

  • St. Padre Pio
  • St. Anne
  • St. Mary Magdalene
  • St. Clare
  • St. Teresa
  • St. Azelie 

Some additional considerations:

“Mary has always been my guiding force. I feel profoundly called by her and close to her. Some of her titles I love are Our lady of the Mystical Rose, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Heaven, Queen of All Saints. 

Hard no list: While we both love Charles, we simply can’t do it with our last name.

[Annelise’s grandfather recently passed.] His passing was expected … but has not come easily. He was an extraordinary man and so well loved by his family. 

I think it would be wonderful to honor him somehow in naming this baby.” His full name included Floyd, Eldo, and Quinn.

Additionally, Annelise shared a portion of her family tree with me, which I had such fun looking through — so many great names on there!

I also really loved hearing the names Annelise and her husband would have given each of their older kiddos if they’d been the opposite sex — James William and Lillian Alexandra give a good sense of their style. I know some people consider the names their children would have been named to be off limits going forward — I’m assuming that’s how they feel?

As for the names they’re considering, I’d love to offer my thoughts in case they’re helpful:

  • Maddalena: This is, indeed, a gorgeous name! I like how Annelise characterized it as “both new and old at the same time,” and I love that St. Mary Magdalene’s feast is in the month she’s due. I would love to help figure out a name in her honor that Annelise and her hubby both like! I’m interested that he thinks it’s too similar to Mariana — I’m sorry to say that I had a similar thought when I first read it, especially because the “r” in Mariana would sound more like a “d” for Spanish speakers, which is something I think of because we have a large population of Spanish speakers where I live. But that may not be their situation, which would certainly make Maddalena less problematic from that perspective. If we put aside for just a second the fact that Annelise has “been feeling [her] heart connect to only” Maddalena as a first name (which is definitely an important consideration!), some possible solutions or compromises between you and your husband could be:
  1. Maddalena as a middle name: Moving Maddalena to the middle spot could make Annelise’s hubby feel more okay with them using this form that she prefers. If they did so, they could use a first name that they both agree upon and really just leave Maddalena as the seldom-seen middle name, or they could incorporate Maddalena into the everyday call name. For this family, my favorite idea would be Mary Maddalena. It’s an old but traditional practice in several Catholic cultures (Irish, French, Spanish, Italian) for every daughter in a family to have a form of Mary as their first name, even if they exclusively go by their middles. Considering that Mariana already has a Marian first name, they could consider Mary Maddalena as their second baby’s given name (first + middle), and call her by a nickname of Maddalena. If you used Lena, there’s no issue at all with Mariana and Maddalena being similar — Mari and Lena are great together! You could also do something Rose Maddalena and do a mashup nickname from the first + middle like Romy or Reina.
  2. A different form: Maddalena and Madeline are sort of the two ends of the spectrum regarding the names to honor this Saint. I wonder if something more in the middle would be agreeable to them both? I’m thinking Magdalene (or Magdalen, Magdalyn) — it’s not as familiar as Madeline but not as potentially problematic as Maddalena (especially in terms of not being as similar to Mariana). It also has more of a surname feel, like Delaney and Mackenzie on Annelise’s husband’s list. Another option is Magali, which I don’t see often — I knew a woman with this name a long time ago, it’s the Occitan (French) form.
  • Cecilia: Because Annelise and her husband have pretty different lists except for Cecilia, which they both share, Cecilia is definitely high on my list for them! I love it as a sister to Mariana and I love it on its own, but I also love the idea of something like Mary Cecilia as mentioned above.
  • Louisa/Louise: Both lovely names, but they made me think of two other names that I would think of as a closer match for this family: Lucia for a girl and Louis for a boy. I wonder what they would think of those?
  • Diana: I find this one surprising! But when I consider that Annelise prefers “regal” names for boys, Diana makes sense. I don’t love that it has the same ending as Mariana though.
  • Elisa: This is one of my favorites for this family because of its connection to Annelise’s name! I love that Mariana has “ana” like her Anne, and using Elisa for her second daughter would give both her girls a nice connection to her. Because she likes “romantic and lyrical” names for girls, including the very Italian Maddalena, I wonder what she would think of the Italian form of Elizabeth, Elisabetta? Elisa could still be the nickname.
  • Charlotte: Even though Annelise don’t have this on her personal list, Charlotte is a style match for Louisa, and since they both like Charles but can’t use it, maybe Charlotte is a good compromise?
  • Delaney, Mackenzie: These names Annelise’s husband likes are definitely different from the ones she likes, but they gave me an idea for some that might be good compromises — I’ve included those ideas in my list of “official” suggestions below.
  • Michaela: I’m interested by Michaela — it can have a Delaney/Mackenzie feel (as in McKayla), but in the spelling Michaela it has a more traditional feel. I’ve actually always loved it and had it on my own list.
  • Christopher as middle name: I love their tentative plan of using Annelise’s hubby’s middle name for the baby if they have a boy! It’s so meaningful that it’s also her father-in-law’s middle name. Since she said they haven’t been able to agree on a first name they both like that works well with Christopher, I wondered what they’d think of considering Hale as a middle name? It’s a middle name that would clearly be for Annelise’s husband’s side of the family, and it has a totally different sound and rhythm from Christopher, which might mean that it would work well with names that wouldn’t work well with Christopher.
  • George: This definitely fits into the “regal, traditional” feel Annelise prefers for boys. Georgie is such a fun nickname, and I also love Geo and Geordie.
  • Owen: I loved seeing Owen three times in Annelise’s family tree! I’m not sure what I think about it for a first name for them, though … it has a different feel from George and Charles, for example … I have always loved St. Nicholas Owen — I could see loving them using it in that way (as a middle name for Nicholas, as a direct nod to that Saint, while also looping in their family name), or as a middle in general.
  • Otto: Otto is very cool, but this helps me articulate a thought I’ve been trying to formulate: the mix of ethnicities they have represented in their name lists is unexpected, especially given their very English surname. Even though Mariana is listed in Behind the Name as Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Czech, Bulgarian, and Ancient Roman, I think it, and similar names like Juliana, have been used enough that they don’t come across as obviously ethnic. Maddalena, however, is clearly Italian, and if then if they add in Owen, which has a more Irish feel, and especially Otto, which has a very German feel, people who pay attention to names might take notice. I know Annelise has German and Austrian ancestry, so Otto totally makes sense for them! I guess I’m feeling like Otto calls names like Maddalena into question more, which I’m not sure they want to do. Or maybe it doesn’t matter to them! And it doesn’t have to necessarily! (** ETA: Annelise subsequently shared with me that she had a very international upbringing, which has definitely informed her taste in names. So cool! **)
  • Michael: Michael on Annelise’s list and Michaela on her husband’s is interesting … Michael is certainly solid, handsome, and saintly for a boy!
  • Charles: I’m so bummed that they both love Charles but they can’t use it! I wonder if the variants Carlo (like for Bl. Carlo Acutis — soon to be St. Carlo!) or Karol (St. JP2’s birth name) appeal to them?
  • John/Jack: John with the nickname Jack seems like a perfect name for this family. John has the “regal, traditional” feel that Annelise prefers, and Jack feels like her husband’s style. John is probably my top choice for this family of the names Annelise and her hubby are considering! It also has the amazing quality of going well with all kinds of middle names — it can serve to “normalize” the more out-there middle names, too, in the same way that I’ve always thought Mary as a first name does for girl names. When I was looking through Annelise’s family tree and saw a relative named John George, I immediately loved John George as a combo for them! But I also love John Christopher! And John Pio! And John Charles! I think John Christopher nicknamed Jack is what I would recommend — it seems like a name that hits all the right notes (family, faith, and a name that both Annelise and her husband are likely to like).
  • William: I really love names that work to honor both sides of the family!
  • Quinn: I love Quinn as a possible middle name! I’m not as much of a fan of it for a first name for them — if they were doing all Owen-type names, then yes, definitely Quinn! But with Maddalena and Otto in the mix as well, I would prefer Quinn in the middle. George O’Quinn, John O’Quinn, William Quinn, and I love Mary Quinn for a girl (sounds like Mary, Queen)! This is a nice, easy way to honor both Annelise’s mom and her grandfather.

Speaking of, I want to spend a minute talking about Annelise’s grandfather specifically and her family tree more generally — I have so many ideas to share! First off: her beloved grandpa. I had so much fun thinking about his name! I looked it up to see if the meanings of any of his names might be helpful, and Behind the Name says Floyd is a variant of Lloyd, which means “grey.” Grey! What a cool name! I think it could work for a boy (for a first or middle) or a girl (probably more as a middle — the new Hunger Games book/movie has Lucy Gray Baird as one of the main characters, and she goes by the double Lucy Gray, so I wouldn’t do that that combo [though I love it!], but Maddalena Grey is a very intriguing combo!) But only if Annelise was sure to feel like her grandpa was represented in a meaningful way if Grey was used somehow!

Then, Eldo: I’m so intrigued by Eldo! It’s kind of a mystery name! It’s not in Behind the Name’s database (I consider Behind the Name to be the most trustworthy in terms of name meaning, origin, etc.) so I had to venture out into sites of questionable reputation and found that it could be of Aramaic origin via South India meaning “birth of Christ” (source, source) (would be cool if Annelise or her hubby had any ties to India in their family!), or it could be of Spanish/Galician/Portuguese origin meaning “happy, joyful” (source). Both of those meanings are amazing! They inspired some of my suggestions below. Also, Christopher could nod to Eldo if they accept the “birth of Christ” meaning!

Then, further in Annelise’s family tree, I found some really lovely names and combos, some of which also inspired some ideas below. It was cool to see Cecilia — a name they both love, and it’s also a family name! Regina is a middle name for one of her ancestors, which means “queen” and has a long, impeccable tradition of being used for Catholic girls in honor of Our Lady. It could be used in honor of Queen of Heaven and Queen of All Saints, as Annelise noted she loves those titles. Other variants include the Spanish Reina (RAY-na) and the French Reine (REN). Could be cool for a middle name! Ooooh and I’m just thinking, they could use Reina as a mashup-type nickname for Rose/Rosa Maddalena, which would get Mystical Rose, St. Mary Magdalene, and any of Our Lady’s titles as Queen in one name! Gah! I’m loving that idea!

Speaking of Marian titles, Annelise said that some of her titles that she most likes are Mystical Rose, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Heaven, and Queen of All Saints. I wonder if she would ever consider Rosa Mystica as a first + middle combo? Any of the Rose names could honor that title (Rose, Rosa, Rosemary, Rosalie), and could also honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, too. They’re considering John for a boy, which could also nod to Our Lady of Guadalupe because of St. Juan Diego (Juan is the Spanish form of John). And I already mentioned some ways of working in “queen” (Regina, Reina, Reine), but the “of heaven” part could be fun to play with: Regina Caeli is “Queen of Heaven” in Latin, with Caeli said like CHAY-lee — I’ve seen some families name daughters Caeli (first name) in honor of this title. Celeste means “heavenly,” so that could work too: Regina Celeste, Reina Celeste, Celeste Regina. Annelise and her hubby both like Cecilia, and the very similar Celia, which can work as a nickname for Cecilia but is also its own name with separate etymology, means “heaven” — maybe that? Celia Regina, or mixing it up to something like Celia Rose or Celia Rosemary, could be lovely and meaningful from a Marian perspective.

Okay! On to new ideas! As noted, I was inspired by Annelise’s family tree, and I also did my usual research, looking up Mariana as well as the names they’re considering in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I really tried to harness a “romantic, lyrical” feel for girl names and a “regal, traditional” feel for boy names. Based on all that, these are my ideas:

Girl

(1) Elena

This idea was inspired by a couple things. I didn’t think of it until I saw Annelise’s ancestor Helen Regina in her family tree, and thought that was such a beautiful combo! Helen didn’t seem quite right for this family, though, nor Helena or Helene, but the variant Elena seems perfect! Then I realized that Elena has the same sound as the end of Maddalena, so maybe Elena could be a good compromise between A. and her husband! (They lose the St. Mary Magdalene connection, but they could make up for it with a variant of Mary somewhere: Maria Elena, Mary Elena, Elena Marie, etc.) If they like the idea of mirroring the full Helen Regina combo, Elena Regina and Elena Reine would both do nicely.

(2) Natalia, Natalina, Noel(le)

This was originally inspired by the possible meaning of Eldo being “birth of Christ,” since the Natalie and Noel names literally refer to Christmas Day. Then I saw Natalia in the BNW as a style match for Mariana! Like Mariana, Natalia is very pan-European, having usage in lots of different countries and languages. I couldn’t help but notice that a specific Italian variant is Natalina, which nearly rhymes with Maddalena (depending how you say the “lena” part), but might provide enough differentiation from Mariana that Annelise’s husband would be okay with it? Then of course Noel and Noelle. They could certainly consider them for the first name spot, but I feel like they’d be a more natural fit for them in the middle spot.

(3) Matilda

Annelise has an ancestor named Mary Matilda, which I loved right away! Matilda is also a style match for Louisa on her list! It’s a little clunkier than Mariana and Maddalena, but a beautiful name nonetheless with some sweet nickname options.

(4) Stella(maris)

Estella is a match for Louisa, which didn’t feel quite right to me for this family, but made me think Stella might be perfect. Then I found that Henry, Jack, and Charlie are all style matches for Stella! While I love the trimmer Stella, I wondered what they’d think of the fuller Stellamaris? It refers to Our Lady’s title Star of the Sea, and is also seen as Maristella, which I would have suggested in a heartbeat if it wasn’t so similar to Mariana! I also have a friend who named her daughter Stella Marissa as a nod to Our Lady, Stellamaris.

(5) Saintly surname-type names

Because of the surname-y Delaney and Mackenzie on Annelise’s husband’s list, I wanted to try to think of names that might be similar, but with saintly significance and hopefully a “romantic, lyrical” feel. Avila came immediately to mind — it’s not technically a surname, but serves a similar role in St. Teresa of Avila’s name. Another is Salette, from Our Lady of La Salette — I did a consultation for a family considering Salette (dropping the “La”) and I thought it was brilliant and so pretty. Bessette is another, from St. Andre Bessette, and has the added feature of looking like a French diminutive of Elizabeth. Annelise and her hubby might also like to look through the girls’ names in this family — there’s a definite saintly surname feel in a few of them, like Vianney, Clairvaux, and Lourdes, and all of them done in an ultra-feminine way. (That link goes to the original post I did on them; here [this baby had some scary health issues at birth, in case any of you can’t handle reading that kind of stuff right now!], here, here are birth announcements for subsequent babies. Amazing namers!)

Boy

(1) Edmund

As soon as I saw Edmund in the list of names similar to Louisa I knew I had to include it on the list! It has that regal, traditional feel I think Annelise is looking for, with lots of nicknames options: Ed, Eddie, Ted, Teddy, Ned. St. Edmund Campion is great! Edmund Christopher is very handsome to me.

(2) Arthur

Arthur is a style match for Louise, and again, once I saw it I was like yes! What is more regal and traditional (especially from an English perspective) than Arthur?? I thought they might particularly like a nickname I’ve been seeing for Arthur: Bear, because of Arthur’s possible and mostly accepted meaning of “bear.” (I love the nickname Bear so much that I tried to convince my husband of Benedict Gerard with the nickname Bear for our youngest!) There are several Blesseds with that name. I think this is a name that wouldn’t pair well with Christopher — do you all agree? Arthur Christopher has repeated ending sounds, but some people quite like that. If these parents like Arthur but not Christopher with it, maybe they would consider Arthur Grey? Or, I also really like Hale from Hubby’s family — Arthur Hale is handsome too!

(3) Felix

This was originally inspired by Eldo’s possible meaning of “happy, joyful,” but then I was excited to see that it’s a match for Otto and Eliza (similar to Elisa). I’ve been seeing some little Felixes here and there, it’s a cool name!

(4) Alexander

I did a quick general search online for “regal” names for boys, just to see if anything jumped out, and Alexander was on the list, which reminded me that Alexandra was going to be Henry’s middle name if he’d been a girl, and I wondered if they’d be interested to switching it to a boy’s name? Alexander is saintly and papal and has some cool nickname options in addition to the familiar Alex like Xander, Zander, and Sander. Sandy is a traditional nickname that isn’t used much anymore, but my boys have a friend named Sandy whose given name is Alexander and I love hearing it.

(5) Bates, Hart

These last two are taken from Annelise’s family tree, both names that I think are so cool and could work as either first or middle names. Bates is the first: I’ve always loved that Bates is a medieval diminutive of Bartholomew, giving it impeccable faith credentials in an unexpected way.

The other is Hart: I worked with a doctor a long time ago in a previous career whose son was named Hart — his wife’s maiden name. I loved that! A hart is a male deer (stag), and the “ard” part of names like Gerard and Bernard are actually the Old German element “hart” which means “brave, hardy,” both of which gives it a really masculine spin. I also love that it sounds like “heart,” which gives it an affectionate feel. There’s also this birth announcement I did for parents who named their son Gerhardt and call him Hart. Love, love, love!

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little sister or brother of Mariana and Henry?

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!

Baby name consultation: floral, literary, possibly Brit, probably not too Italian-y for baby girl’s name

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

Happy feast of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria! I hope my American readers had a good 4th of July! Please pray for America! 🗽🙏

Be sure to note that as of July 2 (as I wrote in the post that day), I’m suspending consultations indefinitely due to various things going on in my life (all good!). I will continue to post consultations I’ve already done for those families who want them, and I have some birth announcements and other things to post this summer as well; I also always keep you all in my prayers! 🩷🩷🩷

Today’s consultation is for Jessica and her husband, who are expecting their fourth baby — a girl! Little Miss joins big siblings:

Gianna Catherine (“Gianna is my confirmation saint [I converted in college] and also a patron of our family. I knew after learning her story that I would want to name a daughter after her, so once we found out that our first was a girl, that was that! My husband and I met through pro-life work during our college years, and after we married, I pursued a degree in Catholic Bioethics, and Gianna’s patronage covers the whole gamut of issues important to us [the department at the university where I earned my degree was officially christened The St. Gianna School of Health Sciences soon after I graduated]. The middle name Catherine was chosen both for how well it flows with Gianna and also because we wanted to honor St. Catherine of Sienna, another strong Catholic woman who served the Church in an entirely different way than St. Gianna. We mostly call her Gianna or some other non-name-related nicknames, but a lot of relatives call her Gigi or G [we do as well, but not as frequently]“). 

Dominic Ivan (“To be perfectly honest, the main reason we chose Dominic was that it was one of the only boy names we both liked. I used to joke that we would struggle to name any future boys, but the joke is on me now because we’re having a girl and struggling anyways. But we both liked the name Dominic, and a bonus was the connection to St. Dominic and the Order of Preachers, whose charisms we appreciate. It also paired well with Gianna’s more Italian-style name, and is a fairly common name in Croatia, where my father’s family is from. Ivan is my husband’s grandfather’s name – once I suggested Ivan as a middle name, my husband really liked the idea and that also helped push Dominic to the top. We had been considering some other names like Thomas or Damien, but felt that Dominic Ivan flowed better than the alternative options. We also mostly use his full name, but occasionally shorten it to Dommy (Or Doodle, but I doubt he wants that nickname to follow him into adulthood] 😂”)

+Stella Mercy (“We named our miscarried baby Stella Mercy.  We lost her right around the start of Advent, so a star-related name seemed appropriate, and I have always loved the name Mercy.  My husband didn’t like the idea of a unisex name [even though we lost her too early to know the sex] but I like to think that her name could also be Stella Clement if, in fact, she was a boy. The meaning would be the same“)

Absolutely fantastic names!! And two consultations for families with a little Dominic in one week!!😍

Jessica writes,

“So this little rainbow baby will be our third here on earth, but our fourth to name. I have always been into baby names, and as a kid I used to read baby name books and make long lists of names – for book characters but also for future children. So now that I’m actually in the baby-naming phase of life, I feel a lot of pressure to pick the perfect names! We both prefer names with strong meaning, or family names. I am also very picky about the cadence of a name, and how well the whole name flows together, as well as just the first/last combo (since that’s what they’ll most often be called).  Our last name is very short and choppy. Most single-syllable names are out because they don’t sound good, and any name that ends with D also doesn’t work (I like Marigold and Adelaide but they’re just too clunky with [last name].)

My husband and I have a decent amount of baby name style overlap, although I am definitely more accepting of unusual or less common names.  I tend to throw out a bunch of name ideas and he whittles down our list by vetoing the ones he doesn’t like (like Aveline, Linnea, or Calliope).  Our last name is very simple (and boring! – I say that with full agreement of my husband too 😅) so I wouldn’t mind going completely ‘out-there’ with names but my husband is skeptical of names he doesn’t hear super often.”

Sounds familiar! 😅

Names they’re considering include: 

  • Clara (“this was our top choice for a while but my husband says it’s not clicking as well as he thought it would; it’s a family name on my side and I also really love the connection to St. Clare [who was born Chiara, which is the Italian form of Clara]“)
  • Lydia (“this was our girl name pick when pregnant with Dominic. It’s still one of Hubs’ favorites but I’m not as sure about it anymore, but we love the biblical Lydia and her association with the early Church and hospitality“)
  • Maisie (“we would use it as a nickname, probably with Mary Therese or Margaret as the full name. Hubs prefers it as a nn for Margaret, but his mom and my grandmother are both Mary, so it feels like it would be a missed opportunity to pick Maisie but not honor the multiple Marys in our lives“)
  • Josephine (“my husband really likes the nickname Josie, I’m worried it’s too sing-songy with our last name. Also this is nitpicky, but my name is Jessica, and our older daughter is Gianna, so it feels like a lot of repletion of the J/G sounds in all the girls“)
  • Felicity (“we both like the cadence of the name, and especially the nickname Lissie. The one hang-up we have [and we’re not sure if it’s even a real concern] is that some friends in the area just had a girl in April and named her Felicity. We have no issue with anyone in our circle using the same names as our kids, and we’ve said as much to friends who mentioned liking the names Gianna and Dominic, but I know that not everyone feels the same way about ‘stealing’ baby names and we want to bring it up casually with these friends and see if it would be something that bothered them before we lock anything in“)

Additional names that Jessica likes but her hubby doesn’t:

  • Adeline
  • Emilia
  • Rosalie
  • Violet
  • Elowen 

Names already used in their family (basically a “no” list) include:

  • Julia
  • Mikayla
  • Emma
  • Anna
  • Ellie 
  • Charlotte
  • Allison
  • Lilly
  • Emily
  • Elaine
  • Evelyn (nn. Evie with a long E)

Some final considerations:

“Gianna and Dominic both have saint names (and vaguely Italian names) but we didn’t necessarily intend that as a requirement – so I’m a little worried that we might lock ourselves into a theme if this baby also has a saint name (or a name that’s too Italian sounding I guess). My favorite boy name for the future is Tristan, which is not a saint name, so it’s on my mind, and names like Clara, Lydia, and Maisie seem like a good happy medium – biblical or saint associations without being overtly a saint name. We could easily name future children after saints or not, without anyone ending up being the odd one out.  

Baby girl is due in early November, so if there are any late Oct/early Nov feast days that might be relevant, that would be interesting to know! Also we are both very into theology and literature – my husband is a huge LOTR fan (although he still won’t sign off on the name Eowyn 😅). One of the reasons I felt drawn to Maisie early on was the connection to Maisie Ward, a Catholic theologian and writer connected to the Oxford movement in England. I mentioned that my ancestry is mostly Croatian and Italian, but my husband’s ancestry is German and Ukrainian, so we’re open to names more from that region. Also my husband is a big anglophile and probably wishes he lived in England, so we love a good British name too!  I know that’s all over the place, but maybe it can help with some inspiration!“

I absolutely love Jessica’s older kiddos’ names! Gianna Catherine, Dominic Ivan, and Stella Mercy (/Clement) are all so beautiful, meaningful, and full of faith significance! I loved reading all the background behind each one.

I laughed over Jessica’s characterization of their family’s surname as “boring” and I tend to fall in the same mindset she has of balancing that kind of thing out by “going completely ‘out there’ with names,” but I also really like how she articulated her husband’s reservations: “skeptical of names he doesn’t hear super often.” That’s one of the best explanations I’ve heard for why so many husbands (in my experience) are reluctant to consider certain names, and also why so many seem stuck on names that their wives describe as being “names of girls they went to high school with.”

I love their list of ideas, and I’ll start by offering my thoughts on each one, in case they’re helpful:

  • Clara: This is a great and less-expected way to nod to St. Clare, a beautiful name! I get, though, that sometimes a name that has been a top contender for a while might start to feel … stale? To one or both parents?
  • Lydia: It sounds like what’s happening with Clara for Jessica’s husband is what’s happening with Lydia for Jessica! It’s a great name, and I loved her explanation of what they love about the name including “her association with the early Church and hospitality.” I’ve also always loved that purple would be a Lydia’s own personal color!
  • Maisie, Josephine: Okay, I’m putting these two together because I think there might be a solution here that would involve both of these names! Jessica mentioned that her love of Maisie began in part with Maisie Ward; also that her mother-in-law and her grandmother are both Mary; also that Josie LastName sounds too sing-songy to her; also that having another girl’s name start with the J sound seems overmuch. I know Jessica’s husband prefers this as a nickname for Margaret, which I get, since in origin it is a diminutive of Margaret, but I wonder if he — and Jessica — would be open to Mary Josephine nicknamed Maisie, especially when they find out that Maisie Ward’s given name was Mary Josephine?? It seems to bring together/solve all the things Jessica listed! (Except for the Margaret thing, which I am sorry for, but it would allow Jessica’s husband to call their daughter Josie if he wants! Moms and Dads sometimes have different nicknames they use for their kids.)
  • Felicity: Oh man, I love Felicity for this family! But I also get Jessica’s reservations about using it without making sure that it’s okay with the other family they know! If their friends give their blessing, I really do love Felicity as Gianna’s and Dominic’s sister. If their friends aren’t okay with them using it, I wouldn’t think it’s totally off the table — maybe just shelved for now. You never know what the future brings — that family might move away, or Jessica and her family might, or a few years’ difference in ages between two Felicitys might diffuse any issue.

I’m glad Jessica included the list of names she likes but her husband doesn’t — I was interested by the number of flower names (Marigold, Linnea, Rosalie, Violet) and tried to keep that in mind while working on this. I also love that Jessica’s favorite boy name is Tristan — funny enough, it’s a style match for Dominic according to the Baby Name Wizard book! (affiliate link) And though it’s not a Saint’s name, I did include Tristan in my book of Marian names (not an affiliate link!). This is what I wrote:

“Though Tristan seems to have originated as a variant of the name Drustan, which is unrelated to Our Lady in any way, the Latin word tristis (“sad”) played a role in its evolution from Drustan to Tristan due to the old and well-known tragic story of Tristan and Isolde. Its sad connotations give the name a great connection to Our Lady of Sorrows.” (230)

Also, I’ve heard before from readers that they don’t want to saddle their children with names that have a tragic connection (whether Our Lady of Sorrows or even the martyrs! [That one surprised me!]), but Theresa wrote a beautiful piece on her choice of Our Lady of Sorrows as her daughter’s patron, in which she wrote:

“This, I think, perfectly illustrates who Our Lady of Sorrows is and a Catholic view of sorrow. It is hope, instead of despair, in the face of tragedy. It is fortitude in the face of upset and chaos. It is trust in the midst of darkness. And it is gratitude in the midst of hardship.”

I love that! So I absolutely love Tristan as a possibility for a future son. I also like Jessica’s thought that Tristan “and names like Clara, Lydia, and Maisie seem like a good happy medium — biblical or saint associations without being overtly a saint name. We could easily name future children after saints or not, without anyone ending up being the odd one out.” In fact, I might suggest characterizing their children’s name style (including Gianna and Dominic) as simply “Catholic,” which removes all pressure to use only Saints’ name and opens up so many other things that can all go together under the style umbrella of “Catholic.”

Okay! On to new ideas! I did my usual research 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 looked up the names Jessica and her husband have already used and those they like. I loved the extra info about her and her husband’s shared interests in theology and literature (me and mine too!), including LOTR (it was an inspiration behind my first suggestion below!) (also, that’s an affiliate link, and the boxed set, including The Hobbit, is only $20 today!), and her husband’s Anglophilia. There are posts here on the blog that address each of those things that I used in my research, and I want to be sure to list them here in case any of you would like to look through them, too:

  • Birth announcement for a baby whose mom introduced me to Maisie Ward and who has a similar aesthetic to this family
  • Profile of a family who names with a literary + Catholic sensibility — they’ve already used fantastic names, and there are some additional ideas, too (an update to a post I’d done on them several years earlier, which is referred to in the posts below)
  • Several posts I’ve done on Catholic literary names: here, here, here.
  • Consultation for a family living in England, the parents of whom are converts and whose dad is a former Anglican Clergyman-turned-Catholic-priest. They had a “preference for three-syllable Old-World catacomb-y names” that would also fit in in England — Dominic was on their list! Woo! There’s also this birth announcement I did for them a couple years later for their next baby, which includes the name they chose for the baby the consultation had been for.
  • The mom of a mama I did a consultation for did a post fifteen years ago on the very unusual names her kids have, inspired by Tolkien and Lewis.

Based on all that, here are my new suggestions for Jessica and her hubby:

(1) Elanor

When reading Jessica’s email, I immediately knew I wanted to include Elanor in my suggestions for her! I was initially inspired by Elowen, as Elanor is also a LOTR name, but a more accessible one. Seeing all the flower names that she likes inspired me, too, as in LOTR, not only is Elanor the name of Sam and Rosie’s baby girl, but it’s also the name of a little flower. The fact that it means “sun star” in Sindarin could make it perfect as a little connection to the baby that came before, their Stella, but that’s only if they like that connection — otherwise they can ignore that. I will admit I’m a little hesitant because of Ellie and Elaine on the list of cousins, but it’s so perfect otherwise (in my opinion — they may disagree!) that a way they can work around that is by using Nora as a nickname, which is a common and traditional nickname for Eleanor and has usage in Italian, German, and Ukrainian, making it a nice nod to both Jessica’s and her husband’s heritages, or another more unexpected idea like Lore (a German contracted form of Eleanor) or something made up like Linny or Nori.

(2) Eloise

While Elanor is my favorite El- suggestion for this family, and one that I offer even knowing that Ellie and Elaine might make it problematic, I can’t not include Eloise on this list for the sole reason that it was a huge style match for them according to the BNW! It’s a match for Adelaide, Adeline, Rosalie, and Violet! Similar to Elanor, they’d need to find a non-El- nickname — Lola and Lulu could work. Also, as far as I know, there’s no Saint named Eloise (though there is a Bl. Helwisa, also known as Eloisa and Heloise), and the strongest connection to the faith that I know of is the story of theologian Peter Abelard and his wife Heloise (Eloise is a variant of Heloise) — I don’t know how well known that story is among Catholics or the general population, but I read it years ago and it’s still a dominant thought for me regarding Eloise.

(3) Zelie

St. Gianna is linked with St. Zelie in my mind as two women who served the world and their families through work, and Zelie is distinctly not Italian, so it’s a nice addition to this family’s names from that perspective. An additional inspiration is that many, many people consider Azelie (St. Zelie’s given name) to be French for “azalea” (I just have to add that I’ve never been able to confirm that — according to Google translate, azalée is the French for azalea, but if you do a general search for “is azelie French for azalea” you’ll find lots of sites that say so), which could be a nod to Jessica’s love of floral names.

(4) Cora(lie)

Cora is a match for Stella and Clara, and since Clara isn’t feeling quite right to Jessica’s hubby but Cora’s so similar, maybe Cora would feel like a fresh take? I’ve known many families to choose it because of cor meaning “heart” in Latin — they use it for the Immaculate Heart of Mary and/or the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is so lovely. Then I saw Coralie as a match for Rosalie, and thought that might be even better! With Jessica’s hope of moving away from Italian-feeling names, Coralie feels closer to that goal than Cora does.

(5) Phoebe

This is another name I wouldn’t have thought of for this family, but it’s a match for both Lydia and Maisie and has an early-Christian biblical association like Lydia. I just heard from a mom who I’d done a consultation for that they’d named their baby girl Phoebe and are calling her Bee, which is so darling!

(6) Beatrice, Beatrix

Speaking of Bee, I wonder what they would think of Beatrice or Beatrix? Beatrice is a match for Violet and Josephine, and it’s literary and saintly; I also included Beatrix in my book of Marian names for this reason:

“As the word Beatrix in Latin means ‘she who blesses, makes happy, delights,’ the name Beatrix can easily refer to Our Lady, who blesses us all and is the Cause of Our Joy (Causa Nostrae Laetitiae)!” (42)

Beatrix has the added fun element of being the name of Beatrix Potter — British + literary! I love Bea or Bee as a nickname, and Trix and Trixie are cute, too.

(7) Natalia

Natalia is a match for both Dominic and Tristan, so while I wouldn’t normally have included it, since it seems to lean into the Italian-ish feel rather than out of it, the fact that it’s a match for Jessica’s two favorite boy names — who themselves might normally feel mismatched as brothers (though I and the BNW don’t agree with that) — seems a big deal! It or its variants also have usage in other languages, including Croatian, German, Italian, and Ukrainian, making it a real pan-European name (I always love pan-European names!), and they could have fun looking into the diminutives for it in those languages for nickname possibilities. Natascha is a German diminutive and Natalka is Ukrainian, for example. Its nickname Talia has separate origins as a Hebrew name, and Lia sounds like the biblical Leah, both of which tip it a little closer to Lydia. Tilly could work, which has a “Lissie” feel. Some nice options!

(8) Avila

My last idea is inspired by Aveline on the list of names Jessica likes but her hubby doesn’t. Aveline is, in origin, a diminutive of Avila, and Avila is all “St. Teresa of Avila” to Catholics, but isn’t her actual name, so I thought it might be perfect! Avila as a name derives from Old German, which is a nice nod to Jessica’s husband’s heritage; Avila the city has a different etymology and is considered Spanish today (being a city in Spain).

Those are all my “official” suggestions, but there were a few others that I wanted to include in this final note, just in case. One was Willa — it’s one of the names that the “literary + Catholic namer” I linked to above used for her daughter, after Willa Cather, who wasn’t Catholic but whose fiction is considered consistent with a Catholic outlook. I’d done a spotlight post on the name a while ago in which I took some liberties in assigning it a connection to “willow” — that botanical connection and Jessica’s love of floral names made me think she might like to consider it! They could consider Willow itself, of course, but that didn’t seem to be their style as much as Willa.

Another name I saw in the literary posts was Philippa, which feels SO British to me! She’s the main character in Rumer Godden’s In This House of Brede (affiliate link), about a cloister of Benedictine nuns, and the nickname Pippa is to die for. I could see the connection to the royal family being a big selling point to Jessica’s husband … but also a negative? I wanted to mention it anyway. It also feels like Lydia to me because of the apostle Philip and the Letter to the Philippians.

I also quickly went through the list of feast days and memorials from October 21 to November 10 at CatholicSaints.info, which is my favorite source for all that stuff. These were the ones that jumped out at me:

Oct. 22: John Paul II — names in his honor include Caroline, Karoline, Karolina, Charlotte

Oct. 24: Anthony Mary Claret — I like that “Claret” could connect to Clara

Oct. 27: Martyrs of Avila (some)

Oct. 28: Martyrs of Avila (others)

Oct. 29: Chiara Badano (another nice connection for Clara)

Nov. 2: Margaret of Lorraine

Nov. 4: Charles Borromeo

Nov. 5: Beatrice of Swabia

Nov. 6: Beatrice of Olive

Nov. 7: Eleanor of Portugal

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little sister of Gianna, Dominic, and +Stella?

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!

Baby name consultation: Second baby girl needs a pretty, Italian-ish name

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Happy Tuesday of the week of July 4th! Happy feast of lots of titles of Our Lady: Our Lady of the Garden, Our Lady of Madhu, Our Lady of Montallegro, Our Lady of the Grove, Our Lady of the Leśniów Spring, Our Lady of the Visitation, Our Lady of the Way of Leon, and Our Lady of Vaussivieres!

Unfortunately, as of today, I’ll be suspending baby name consultations indefinitely, as I will have a very busy fall and probably the entire upcoming school year (some new professional things, and sending my second son off to college! My mama’s heart and mind can only take so much! I started Sancta Nomina three months after my sixth was born; my oldest was 9. Now my oldest is going to be a college junior, and my next boy a college freshman, and my baby [boy no. 7] will be in first grade, and I can’t even believe how big all my boys are!). If you’ve already sent me a request, no worries — I will honor all of those I received as of midnight last night. If I’m able to resume consultations in the future, I will let you know here on the blog! In the meantime, the Catholic Baby Naming Discussion Facebook group is a great option — it’s got lots of members and is very active, with several posts a day by mamas looking for name help and lots of people eager to offer their ideas/thoughts/suggestions. Thank you to all of you who have invited me into your baby name conversations! I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your families and helping you find names for your little ones that connect to our faith.

I also want to note that I celebrated my tenth blogiversary last week! Wow!! What a fun decade it’s been!! If you’d like to read my first post ever, click here.

I won’t be gone from the blog altogether, but do note (as many of you have discovered!) that my ability to read and reply to emails in a timely manner is getting less and less. I do apologize to anyone who’s left waiting longer than you’d like!

Today’s baby name consultation is for Kate from Kate Scimeca Art (such beautiful, faithy art prints!) and her husband as they prepare to welcome their fourth born baby — their second girl! This little lady joins older siblings:

Dominic Andrew

Lucia Marie

Vincent James

+Francis Joseph (in heaven)

Such attractive, saintly names! Kate writes,

“So far, we chose saint names that seem to suit our Sicilian last name pronounced SKIM-uh-ka. We like the Italian-ish sound to the names, and we like the kids to have an easy patron saint to turn to. To us, the boy names need to feel strong and the girl names need to feel pretty. 🙂

We chose Dominic very quickly and easily right after the 20 week ultrasound when we found out he was a boy; no special devotion from us – just loved the strong sound of the name! Andrew is my husband’s middle name and my grandpa’s middle name. For Lucia, that was our top girl name had Dominic been a girl and we still both loved it two years later so we named her that right away after the 20 week ultrasound again. 🙂 We like to connect it to Saint Lucy and Sister Lucia from Fatima. Marie is my middle name, my mom’s middle name, and my grandma’s middle name. Vincent was harder for us to name. We couldn’t agree until after he was born. My husband wanted Anthony, but I don’t like the nickname ‘Tony’. I really wanted Solanus (with the nickname ‘Sully’) after Blessed Solanus Casey, but that name was a little too ‘out there’ for my husband. Vincent was both of our second choices, and of course we have no regrets since we see now how it suits our son perfectly. His middle name James is his other grandfather’s first name. I think we tend to like names that are classic but not boring – generally not too unique that they’d cause difficulties in life but not so common that they feel dull to us – and again, a natural connection to a saint. And we like middle names to have some kind of family connection. We do call Lucia ‘Lulu’ a lot and Vincent ‘Vinny’ sometimes but we never call Dominic by a nickname.”

The names they’re considering for their baby girl include:

  • Avila Clare (“I wanted to name Vincent this if he was a girl. It just sounds so pretty to me! We have no connection to the middle name Clare, though, and I worry that Avila might be too unusual? Though hopefully not as ‘out there’ as my love of the name Solanus!“)
  • Gianna (“My husband’s pick. I just don’t love Gianna for some reason. I really don’t think I’ll change my mind.”)
  • Gemma (“I love this one! I much prefer it to Gianna. My husband feels the same way about this one as I feel about Gianna – just doesn’t click for him but I think he can be convinced, hah. Saint Gemma’s birthday is our wedding anniversary.”)
  • Camilla (“We both like this one – it’s very pretty. I feel like we wouldn’t use a nickname. I’m not sure about Catholic saints with this name though.”)
  • Juliet (“This one came to us out of the blue. We both like it and favor the nickname ‘Jules’ but aren’t certain about Catholic connections with this one either!“)
  • Stella (“We both like it but aren’t sure since our last name also starts with S.”)

Middle name ideas include:

  • Anne (“It is a tradition in my family to give as a middle name to the second daughter, like my sister and aunt both have this as a middle name.”)
  • Marguerite (“Marguerite is my mom’s first name and my husband has a grandmother Margaret. This one is my preference and I think my husband’s as well. We are up for bucking the Anne family tradition because we think this name is so pretty. To us, Anne just doesn’t sound as good with our first name preferences but ‘Camilla Marguerite’ as an example sounds so lovely to us.”)
  • “I guess we’d never use Mary/Maria since we used Marie as a middle name. I also don’t love Catherine/Elizabeth/Caroline because they feel too common even though they’re very beautiful.” 

It goes without saying that I LOVE their older children’s names! Dominic, Lucia, Vincent and +Francis Joseph are so attractive and full of faith significance, I love them! I also love that they fit in nicely with this family’s Sicilian heritage and surname, while also being able to connect to other cultures: e.g., the Spanish St. Dominic and the Portuguese Sr. Lucia. These parents have done a great job!

As for the names they’re considering for this baby, I thought I’d offer my thoughts on them in case they’re helpful:

  • Avila Clare: What a beautiful combo! I think it’s a really nice fit for this family in that it’s a Spanish place name, which is one of the reasons I mentioned the pan-European nature of their older kiddos’ names — it’s great to choose names that can fit together even when coming from different countries/cultures/languages. The fact that Avila ends with an -a can give it a vague Italian-ish feel, too. I feel like Lucia Marie and Avila Clare are really well matched as sister names! I don’t think Avila is too “out there” at all — I see it with some regularity in the families I work with (here’s a birth announcement for an Avila Rose!), both on already-born daughters and on lists of names for consideration. I think it’s so lovely! And the possible nickname Ava really makes it very familiar if they decided they wanted to do that. I also don’t think it’s a problem at all to not currently have a connection to the name Clare — I really do think that sometimes Saints find us through our taste in names! This family could absolutely cultivate a devotion to St. Clare of Assisi, and it’s extra nice for them that she’s an Italian Saint!
  • Gianna: It’s so interesting that Kate doesn’t love this name — it does seem like the kind of name she would choose! But I’ve had that same feeling many times, when a name seems like it would be perfect for our family but I just can’t get there.
  • Gemma: I’ve also had the experience where I liked a name and was sure I could bring my husband around, haha! I also LOVE that St. Gemma’s feast day is their anniversary!! That’s amazing!! It’s also really cool that in the Baby Name Wizard book (affiliate link), which lists style matches for each entry, the matches for Gemma are mostly British-y feeling, so even though she’s obviously a legit Italian Saint, they would also introduce a different European feel into their family, which can open more possibilities going forward (if they’re so blessed). My preference is always to try to help parents find a name that they both equally love (or at least both equally accept), and I never want to interfere in baby name conversations between parents — only help — but between you and me 😊 , I really like this option for this family!
  • Camilla: This is a really pretty name, too! Though Kate said they likely wouldn’t use a nickname, it is pretty cool that both Cammie and Milla/Millie could work, which are nice options. But the full Camilla is lovely too! I also love that Kate and her hubby both like it! As for Catholic Saints, there are two Saints and a Blessed; St. Camilla Battista Varano was a Poor Clare, which immediately makes me think Camilla Clare would be lovely!
  • Juliet: Oh man, Juliet is one of my very, very favorites — I love seeing it on their list!! Like Gemma, it has a somewhat Brit feel, but of course the original Juliet was Italian, so it works nicely for this family! I did a spotlight post on Juliet here, which provides some good faith connections! (Don’t mind me saying in it that Jules isn’t my favorite nickname — if Kate and her hubby love it, I’m thrilled!!)
  • Stella: This is another great option for this family, and since I’m a fan of alliteration, I don’t mind Stella Scimeca at all! Maristella is a longer option that gets away from the S-S at least formally, though if their daughter always goes by Stella as a nickname/everyday call name, then a non-S formal name doesn’t really help with that. I wouldn’t cross it off their list if it was up to me, but they’ll have to decide how they feel!
  • Anne: Ooh, I am a big fan of family traditions, but I’ve also been in the spot to not like how a particular name works as a middle name for a first name we like. I wonder if Kate and her husband would consider a compromise of sorts by using a different Anne name? There are so many variants and related names like Annabel(le), Annika, Hannah/Anna, Annette, Anita, Nancy, and so many others. Using one of those could be a cool way to freshen up the family tradition and balance their chosen first name better?
  • Marguerite: It’s hard for me to argue against Kate’s mom’s name, especially when it can also nod to her hubby’s grandma and it’s also the name they both prefer! I wonder if they would consider a double middle name? Marguerite Anne or Anne Marguerite? Those combos are giving me gorgeous French princess vibes — it makes me want to add a hyphen in the manner of French royalty or French Saints! Marguerite-Anne and Anne-Marguerite are beautiful!
  • Mary/Maria: Though Kate said they wouldn’t use these because they already used Marie, I do just want to throw out there that it’s a very traditional Catholic practice to give each daughter in a family a variant of Mary as part of their name, so if they want to include a Marian name, there’s no reason not to! If they don’t want to, that’s totally fine too!
  • Catherine/Elizabeth/Caroline: Just a thought — I wonder if Kate would like these better if she considered the Italian or Spanish versions? Caterina, for example, is gorgeous, and can nod to St. Catherine of Siena and Kate herself as well! Elisa, Elisabetta, and Isabella are all beautiful, and Karolina is one of my favorite ways to honor St. John Paul II (since his birth name was Karol).

Okay! On to new ideas! As I mentioned, I did my usual research in the Baby Name Wizard, looking for names that are similar to the style they’ve shown that they like (through the names they’ve already chosen and those they’re considering). I also really leaned into their preference for pretty girl names! Based on all that, these are my ideas:

(1) Chiara

This is a little bit of a cheat idea since they already have Clare on their list as a middle name possibility, but Chiara is the Italian version and has gotten some attention in recent years among the families I work with in large part because of Bl. Chiara Luce Badano and Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo — two wonderful models of the faith and certainly both named after St. Clare of Assisi, who would have been known as Chiara. This is a style match for both Gianna and Gemma, so maybe it’s a nice compromise for Kate and her husband?

(2) Emilia

Emilia is a style match for Lucia — it’s always meaningful to me to find style matches for the older children’s names as opposed to the names on the parents’ list! My favorite thing about Emilia is that it’s the name of St. John Paul’s mom, whose cause for canonization is open; for this family, I also like that it has pan-European usage, which fits in so nicely with their other kids.

(3) Siena

I’d already had Siena on my list for this family because of Avila, since it’s also a saintly place name and an Italian one at that (most familiar because of St. Catherine of Siena [Dominican], but there’s also St. Bernardine of Siena, who was Franciscan and is known as *the* promoter of the Holy Name of Jesus). But another fun thing is that I know a family who purposely leaned into their Italian heritage when naming their two daughters — they named them Emilia and Siena!

(4) Natalia

Natalia is a style match for Dominic and it’s long been one of my favorite names! Though Kate’s having a July baby, I love that Natalia’s meaning is literally “Christmas” — “the birth of Jesus.” So beautiful!

(5) Rosa(lia)

When I saw Rosa listed as a style match for Lucia, I immediately knew I wanted to include it in my list of suggestions! It also made me think of the longer Rosalia, which is a particularly Italian long form. The Rose names are always so lovely, and I love that they are Marian, too.

(6) Seraphina

Seraphina wasn’t listed as a style match for any of the names I looked up for this family, but I saw it as I was flipping through my BNW and I was like yes! Seraphina! I think it’s one of the prettiest girl names, and since that’s one of Kate’s criteria, I definitely wanted to include it! It refers to the angels (specifically the seraphim), and as such I think it can nod to Our Lady’s title Queen of the Angels, though there are also a few other holy women with this name. An Italian spelling is Serafina, which is also really pretty.

(7) Philomena

I wanted to see what names are style matches for Seraphina to be sure I wasn’t totally off the mark by suggesting it, and saw Philomena listed as one of them, which, again, made me go yes! Philomena is one of those obviously Catholic names, which is a characteristic I love, and speaking of love — its meaning is “to be loved,” which is so special! Like with Seraphina/Serafina, an Italian spelling is Filomena.

(8) Zita

Even though Seraphina and Philomena can hold their own length-wise with Dominic and Vincent, it didn’t escape my notice that Lucia and the girl names on their list are shorter. Zita is one of the shortest, and specifically Italian! There’s the St. Zita most people know about, but many of the families I work with have been loving Servant of God Empress Zita. I do too!

(9) Caeli

This is a Latin name I see from time to time in the families I work with (this family has a Caeli Rose, gorgeous!), and I love it! It means “of heaven” (like in Regina Caeli = Queen of Heaven) and in Church Latin is said CHAY-lee.

(10) Felicity

I know I’ve already given more ideas that they bargained for, but just one last one: Felicity is a style match for Gemma and Juliet (a little bit more of that “Brit” feel), such a beautiful name.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little sister of Dominic, Lucia, and Vincent?

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!

Baby name consultation: Maybe Mediterranean-ish for new baby, but definitely not Oregon Trail

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Happy Monday, everyone! This week is winter break for both my elementary and high school kids, so if you are also on break, I hope this consultation is a fun diversion for you in the midst of the much-needed break from the stresses of school days and also the additional fun and mayhem that is always part of it, at least in my house!

Today’s consultation is for a couple expecting their second baby, a sweet sister for big sister Avila. This family has the good fortune of Avila being a surname in their family tree! I love that so much!

A funny thing to keep in mind is that the papa says, regarding names, “1880’s America is out” and, “If it came over the Oregon trail, it’s out.” That made me laugh! But also provided important info about what kinds of names he doesn’t like (to a certain extent; see my comments below).

The mama also writes,

“I feel like our style and preferences are all over the place!

We like …

  • Josephine (for a long time, we said our second girl would be Josephine, but we’re second-guessing it now for some reason. We have a devotion to St. Joseph but I don’t love ‘Josie’ or ‘Jo’ for a nickname)
  • Madalena or Maddalena (your spotlight post about Mary Magdalena made me cry, in a good way! I love the nicknames Lainey and Lena, we like the Italian/Portuguese feel. We like how this sounds like Madeleine — a name my husband loves — but just a little more unique)
  • Lucia (pronounced loo-see-uh, but my husband does not care for Lucy, so he is hesitant, since Lucy seems like an inevitable nickname. I am Portuguese, so I like the connection to Our Lady of Fatima here, without literally naming the baby ‘Fatima’)
  • Caroline (We love this name! But does it feel too preppy next to Avila and other names we gravitate towards?? It might be worth mentioning that our home/clothing/lifestyle preferences lean quite preppy, so while it fits ‘us,’ I don’t know how it goes with Avila)
  • I like Edith and Edie, but my husband is strongly opposed (the Oregon trail comment haha)
  • I also like Bridget, but my husband isn’t a fan

Also,

“Our style is …

  • Familiar, but not super common
  • Not overly saccharine (i.e. ‘Isabella’ because the nickname ‘Bella’ is just too frilly for me)
  • Would like it to be a patron/tied to a saint
  • Like ‘hipster’ Catholic names as much as the classic European names (two styles that I feel like are conflicting)
  • We love traditional English names for boys (Charles, George, Henry) so if we go too Mediterranean this time, does that nix any English names for future children? If it helps, if this baby was a boy, we’d be strongly considering Giorgio, after Giorgio Frassati (we love him!)

Additionally, names they can’t or won’t use include:

  • Jacinta
  • Rose or Rosalie
  • Anna
  • Cecelia
  • Lucy
  • Edith
  • Eden
  • Zelie
  • Clementine
  • Noelle
  • Marigold
  • Gianna
  • Isabella
  • Veronica
  • Siena
  • Lily
  • Sophia
  • Colette
  • Stella
  • Hannah
  • Felicity

And they’d like to avoid:

  • Place names (since we already have Avila — we LOVE Siena but won’t use it for this reason, and because our best friends have a Siena that’s Avila’s age)
  • Unless you really convince me, I’d like to avoid another ‘A’ name

Finally,

“Overall, to me, it feels like Avila could go with a very classic/traditional name theme, or could go super Mediterranean. So, it seems like baby #2 could really determine a theme for us either way.”

Baby no. 2 really does offer an interesting opportunity for parents who like names of differing styes! My favorite idea is to choose a name that provides the most possibility for future children, which is the mindset I brought to this consultation.

The “Oregon Trail” thing and the fact that the mama said Edith falls into those categories for her hubby gave me a decent idea of what names he doesn’t like. It’s unfortunate, because those names are totally back in fashion right now, and a lot of the ones I thought I might like to suggest based on what’s in fashion right now for Catholic families (like Avila) have that older feel. (In fact, I would characterize some of their list as fitting that vibe! I could easily see Josephine and Caroline riding in covered wagons, and Mad[d]alena, Lucia, and Bridget could be thought of having a late 19th/early 20th century immigrant feel, which might be similar to what this papa says he’s opposed to. So unfortunate! I personally love those pioneer/Old World names.)

I was very interested by how Mama defined their style. From everything she wrote, I was most inspired by the fact that their “home/clothing/lifestyle preferences lean quite preppy,” “Not overly saccharine,” “hipster Catholic names” (which is where I would put Avila), “and “classic European names.” In fact, of all those, I would say “preppy” was the most inspirational to me — if I have the right idea of what that means, I think of names that I have characterized as “pearl necklace names” for girls and “pinstripe names” for boys (the latter was the Baby Name Wizard’s description for the name Brooks, which I would think might appeal to this family). So while she worried that “classic European names” conflict with “’hipster’ Catholic names,” I think both can fit with the pearl necklace/pinstripe aesthetic, and that’s the sweet spot I was shooting for.

Also, I wanted to assure this mama that “pearl necklace names” aren’t necessarily frilly. Her example of Isabella being out because Bella is too frilly for her gave me good direction — maybe Isabel is more her speed? I like that it doesn’t naturally nickname to Bella. The nickname Isa (if they wanted to use a nickname) feels more her speed, too, as it doesn’t have the same lacy feel that Bella does. I also think the “traditional English names for boys” that this couple favors fit in perfectly with their style as I’m understanding it (although … not to play devil’s advocate, but those are the exact kind of names the pioneer boys would have! Or does Papa only dislike those kinds of girl names?).

That’s actually another good point to discuss — it’s totally normal for parents to have a different style for their girl names than their boy names! I do agree with this mama that baby no. 2 can help determine a theme for them, and if they were having a little Giorgio, I do think it would mean Caroline and Henry would feel out of place going forward. But they could totally do George/Henry/Charles for boys and Avila/Lucia/Madalena for girls, no problem at all. And when I say “no problem at all,” I mean I don’t think it would really raise any eyebrows if they were to do so because doing so is within the realm of “normal” for American parents. But if they didn’t care about what others’ perceptions are, they could simply consider their style “Catholic hipster” and have Avila, Henry, Giorgio, Zelie (though I know it’s on their “no” list), Kateri, Stanley, Fulton, and Faustina! And confuse everyone, haha! But I’d really like to figure out a way for them to be able to use all their favorite names *and* have their children’s name style make sense to them.

This would be a good time for me to go through the names they’ve discussed or are considering and offer my thoughts, in case they’re helpful:

  • Josephine: I’m always a little sad when I read that parents have loved a certain name for a long time and when the time finally comes when they can use it, they’re not feeling it so much. I do understand! I’ve had the same feeling myself. But if the traditional nicknames are the only things holding them back from Josephine, maybe an unexpected nickname would solve the problem? A traditional but less common nickname for Josephine is Posy/Posey/Posie, which I think is darling and brings in the extra nice meaning of a posy being “a bunch of flowers.” Or Poesy, which is a poem/poetry. I also think Sophie can work for Josephine (but does Sophia on their list of names they won’t use make this one unusable?). I know Pina is a nickname sometimes used by those of Italian descent, since the Italian variant, Giuseppina, ends in -pina. And I’ve seen Fia sometimes suggested. So they have some options to consider that might make Josephine feel a bit fresher to them!
  • Madalena/Maddalena: I love these variants! They go really nicely with Avila, and Lainey/Lena are sweet. They do take this family more in that Iberian/Mediterranean direction, which could make Josephine and Caroline feel more mismatched for future daughters, but again, I don’t think it should affect their English boy name list at all. All that said, I think I would have thought Madeleine was more their style, so I’m not surprised Papa loves it! I get a “straightforward” feel from this couple re: their girl names (Isabel instead of Isabella). So while I love Mad(d)alena, since Madeleine feels like a better fit to me but Mama would like a more unique version of it, I wonder what they would think of Magdalene? They could still use Lainey/Lena as nicknames (even though I think it’s traditionally said to rhyme with “pin”), as well as Magda and Maggie. I like that Magdalene is Catholicky Catholic but not Spanish/Portuguese/Italian (though I do love that this mama has Portuguese heritage!), which makes it a great fit for Avila and other names on their list without making them feel restricted to names from a certain part of the world.
  • Lucia: Oh man, with Mama’s Portuguese heritage and love of Our Lady of Fatima, Lucia seems like a slam dunk! But if Lucy is a dealbreaker, that’s going to require some creative thinking. They could double down on Lu/Lou as a nickname, which would likely require them to use it almost exclusively and be firm and consistent with family/friends to make sure it doesn’t turn into Lucy, which could be exhausting. I could see Lu/Lou turning into Louie, which could be cute (I have a girl cousin we affectionately call Louie). Or actually, even better: Lulu! I do think that if they used Lucia at all, even occasionally, it’s very likely Lucy will emerge, but if they always and only use Lulu and introduce their daughter that way, I think that could work, and still give them the satisfaction of having Lucia on the birth certificate. For a Fatima connection, I totally would have suggested Jacinta, which seems more Avila-esque to me, but it’s on their no list … Jacinta is the Portuguese for Hyacinth, I wonder if they would be interested in that? If you watch the Pioneer Woman, you’ll know that one of her best friends is Hyacinth and she always refers to her as Hy. I also think Frances has that “straightforward” feel that I think is part of their girl name style, and could be a nod to Francisco — a different way of naming a girl for Our Lady of Fatima. (But is Frances too Oregon Trail?)
  • Caroline: Based on so many things in this mama’s email, I’m not at all surprised that she and her hubby love this name and feel that it fits “them”! If they reframe their thinking about it, I think it can totally go with Avila! Many, many families have named their children after St. John Paul II by using a Charles variant, since his birth name, Karol, is the Polish for Charles. Caroline is one I’ve seen many times! If they wanted to lean into this connection even more, they could spell it Karoline. Also, to address the “preppy” concern, one of the naming trends I see and love among parents with a similar style is using surnames as first names — Sloane is sort of a stereotypical example; mothers’ maiden names are often used as well — from this perspective, Avila exactly fits into that! The fact that it’s also a super Catholic saintly place name is just amazing for a family like this, but even if they weren’t Catholic, I could see someone with Avila as a family surname choosing it for their daughter’s first name. So they’re good with Avila and Caroline both fitting their preppy style!

Okay, on to new ideas! You all know that I always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have already used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did so for this family, but it was only somewhat helpful because Avila and Madalena don’t have their own entries, for example, and even if Avila did, its style is as much “surname” as “saintly place name,” which makes it equal parts amazing and complicated from a style perspective. I kept thinking about a consultation I did for a family a while ago who were expecting twin girls — “pearl necklace names” were my total focus, and there was some overlap between the names they were considering and some this family likes (they ended up naming one of their babies Caroline, and the other Evelyn, which is, in origin, derived from Avila!), so I read through those posts again. I also looked through the list of Portuguese girl names on Behind the Name for inspiration. In doing all this thinking and researching, I found it pretty difficult to stay away from the old timey names! Hopefully they like something here:

(1) Mary or Maria [something]

Not only do I love a Marian double name anyway, but I really think something like this could be a bridge between Avila and any other kind of name they like. Consider Maria Caroline, for example, either as a first+middle combo or a double first name (Maria-Caroline; I use hyphens throughout this consultation for my double name ideas because I like that it makes the double name obvious, but it’s totally not necessary if they don’t like it!). Maria hits all the Avila notes, which means the middle name can be anything they want and still fit style-wise, and they can use the middle name (or second first name, if they consider it a double first name) as the everyday call name. Consider St. Therese and her mom and sisters, who had Marie- as the first part of their first names but went by the second (or third, in St. Therese’s case). So Mary or Maria [something] could go by her middle name, or a nickname of her middle name, and might help this couple feel more comfortable using a name they like that doesn’t necessarily feel like it fits with Avila. Doing this really opens up a whole host of names! If they hadn’t already used a family surname, I would suggest they consider doing so; boyish names become feminine and Catholic when paired with Mary or Maria (something like Maria-Bennett or Mary-Blaise); names that might have nickname issues could be helped by being paired with Mary or Maria (like Mary-Lucia — I don’t think a Mary-Lucia would automatically be shortened to Lucy [to Mary, if anything, I would think], and they could have fun trying to think of mashup nicknames if they wanted to, like Mia, Marly, Marilu, Malou, that kind of thing). While Mary Clare and Mary Elizabeth might be Oregon Trail names, I don’t believe Maria-Caroline, Mary-Lucia, and Mary-Bennett are!

(2) A different kind of double name

While double Marian names are traditional and not uncommon among Catholic families, double names in general strike me as having a preppy feel. As with Mary/Maria, they could give two traditional names an unexpected twist by pairing them, or femininize or normalize an otherwise uncommon or unfamiliar name for a girl, or temper a name that might feel overly feminine for them but they’d like to consider anyway. Some ideas include Sara-Kate, Lucia-Jane, Molly-James, Caeli-Clare. Other elements that might pair up in various combos might include Tessa, Cara, June, and Nell. Some boyish names could be fun, too, like Jesse and Elliott. I was looking around online for unusual real-life double names and saw Rose-Maite (I know they don’t want to use Rose, but I looove Maite! It’s a Spanish mashup of Maria and Teresa), Anna Reid, Kara Drake, Charlie Kate, and Sarah-Taylor. I was also thinking how this mama likes Edie, and thought they could consider an E name with a D middle (or second first) and use Edie (E.D.) as the nickname. Something like Elisa-Day or Eva-Daisy could work. I also know a Mary Elizabeth who goes by M.E. (Emmy).

(3) Julia or Juliet

Julia is a style match for Madeline (standing in for Madalena, which doesn’t have its own entry in the BNW) and Caroline, and has that non-frilly “straightforward” feel that I think they might like. It leans more “classic European” than “hipster,” though, which made me think they might like Juliet even better in terms of looking for a “familiar, but not super common” name. Juliette would certainly be overly frilly for this family, I think, but I don’t think Juliet is … or maybe it is? Just by virtue of the story? It does have good faith credentials, though: I did a spotlight post here.

(4) Eliana

Eliana was in the list of Portuguese names, and it’s such a beautiful name I knew I wanted to include it! Though its Portuguese roots don’t trace back to a name of much interest, it’s simultaneously a Hebrew name that means “my God has answered,” which is so great!

(5) Beatrice/Beatrix/Beatriz

Another name that caught my eye in the list of Portuguese names was Beatriz, and Beatrice is a style match for Josephine — I really felt like this name family (Beatriz, Beatrix, Beatrice) has that same feel that this couple likes. It could be a good replacement for Bridget on the mama’s list?

(6) Vivian, Verity

Because of Avila’s prominent V, I was hesitant to include other names with prominent V’s, but it was hard to do! Genevieve, Violet, Evangeline, and Victoria are all names that showed up in my research as being similar to names they like. But I did like the idea of Vivian — again, it has that straightforward, non-frilly feel (which, like Juliet, seems more their speed than the frillier Vivienne), and if the V’s bother them, it could be a good candidate for a double name like Mary-Vivian. I also like the idea of Verity — this strikes me as a Catholic hipster name! I also think this could be cool in a double name: Mary-Verity, Maria-Verity, Verity-Jane.

(7) Sidony

I wanted to think of an idea that could possibly appeal to the part of their style that loves Siena, so I was looking for names with similar sounds, and wondered what they might think of Sidony? It’s got an amazing meaning! According to The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (1977) (affiliate link) by E.G. Withycombe,

“this name was formerly used by Roman Catholics for girls born about the date of the Feast of the Winding Sheet (i.e., of Christ), more formally alluded to as ‘the Sacred Sendon’. Sendon or Sindon (from Latin sindon … ‘fine cloth’, ‘linen’) was used in Middle English for a fine cloth, especially one used as a shroud. The Sacred Sendon is supposed to be preserved at Turn … Sidonie is not uncommon in France, and the Irish Sidney is probably really Sidony.” (pp. 268-269).

The Feast of the Winding Sheet isn’t on the calendar anymore, but it used to be commemorated the day before Ash Wednesday. Isn’t that a cool background for a name?! So Catholic! So unexpected!

(8) Thais

I really wanted to give this couple a range of names, from Mary doubles to unusual ideas. Thais is unusual! In fact, it doesn’t fit their “familiar, but not super common” criteria, but it’s such a beautiful name that I wanted to include it. And it has a Portuguese variant (Thaís)! I spotlighted the name here. If they like it but hesitate that it’s a little too unusual, it would be a good candidate for a Mary double or other double: Mary-Thais or Ella-Thais or Clara-Thais.

I also wanted to mention a few more names that showed up in my research as matches for this family that didn’t feel quite right to include in the list above for whatever reason, but I didn’t feel right leaving them out altogether: Camila, Carina, Emilia.

As an additional note, I was thinking that Becket is a name that could be added to their list of English boy names that would also fit the Catholic hipster theme they like and be a nice match for Avila — a bridge name, maybe, between Avila and George.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for Avila’s little sister, taking into consideration the details discussed above?

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Baby name consultation: Ukrainian + Marian + unfamiliar-ish (?) for baby no. 4 on earth

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

In observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, issued a beautiful statement that you might like to read. This is a lovely quote from it, which contains a quote from Dr. King himself:

“As Rev. King taught us, we must confront the evils of racism and prejudice with the love of Christ: ‘Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God . . . the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth.'”

Today’s consultation is for Lindsey and her husband as they prepare to welcome their fourth baby on earth, a little green bean (=gender unknown 🌱)! This little one joins big sibs:

Lukas Paul (“Lukas is a nod to the blessed mother’s fiat and Paul is my dad’s name. He sometimes goes by Luka [our intended nickname] but prefers and introduces himself as Lukas. St. Luke the evangelist and St. Paul are his patrons, and I love that they were friends! [Your blog was my permission for Lukas to be a Marian name. I wanted our firstborn to have a Marian connection but since he was a boy I struggled until reading your reasoning!]“)

Simon Peter (“Simon is my husband’s great grandfathers name, Peter is his grandfather’s name. St. Simon Peter is [obviously] his patron. He has been a long time favorite saint of mine so was very excited to get to honor him so completely in Simon’s name. Whenever I yell his full name out at the playground I sometimes get a comment like, ‘Wow! Y’all really went for it!’ Indeed, we did, haha.”)

“Lukas and Simon are twins so we wanted their middle names to have a special connection, and we absolutely love both Sts. Peter and Paul to represent the east and west, as I was raised Roman Catholic and my husband was raised Byzantine Catholic and we are trying to foster a love for both rites in our home!“

Rose Marie (+) (“Our baby in Heaven. When I returned from the doctors appointment confirming my miscarriage, one single rose was in bloom in our garden that wasn’t even budding before. A true gift from Our Blessed Mother and St. Therese. Now I always imagine her as a little rose interceding for our family in Mary’s heavenly bouquet. She and St. Therese frequently shower our family with roses.”)

Mika Rose (“[pronounced mee-kah] — we call her MikaRose mostly. I am a big fan of her full name, and really wish we had made it MikaRose and then a separate middle name. It will be a happy addition when she is old enough to pick a patron saint name. (: Mika is a Ukrainian nickname [at least in my husband’s family!] for Maria/Marika. She is named after my husband’s beloved grandmother, Maria, always called ‘Mika.’ Nicknames are Marika, Mee-shoo, and Meeksy [coined by big brothers and man has it stuck….] Rose is for her sister and great intercessor in Heaven! Her patron is Mary, specifically Our Blessed Mother’s title of Mystical Rose and St. Therese. MikaRose even got to meet her namesake and great-grandmother Baba Mika a few times before Baba’s passing, which was just so incredibly sweet.”)

Incredible names, right?? Of course, you have to know that I am SO THRILLED that Lindsey was reassured of Lukas’ Marian connection by my work here at Sancta Nomina! I love the twin connection between Lukas and Simon, the sister connection between Rose Marie in heaven and Mika Rose on earth, the connection between Mika Rose and her great-grandmother, and how Our Lady is all through these beautiful names. Lindsey and her husband have done such a great job!! It’s such a joy to read such thoughtful and beautiful naming!!

Lindsey continues,

“My husband’s family is of 100% Ukrainian heritage, so we do like names that can be said easily in Ukrainian OR have a Ukrainian connection (not required, just preferred), and have an obvious patronage. Top priority to have a family name as either first or middle.

For a baby boy we have always loved Clement, Blessed Clement Sheptetsky (a Ukrainian priest and hieromartyr!) as patron and obvious Marian connection in the Salve Regina (which was the Marian hymn sung at our wedding). My concern is this — does it mix with our other kids names well? I worry because Simon and Lukas are very familiar names and Clement is not so familiar. But MikaRose isn’t familiar at all. So maybe a good bridge name? Also a little nervous he’s going to be nicknamed ‘Clem’ on the soccer field, but could stick firm to having people call him Clement (our community is mostly understanding of using full names). Middle name needs to be a family name and a canonized saint (do we need an apostle to fit with brothers???): some options are Stephen, Aloysius, or Cole. 

Still discerning if Clement is the right fit… Other boy options we really like are:

Basil. My husband and I both love this name, so it’s a top contender. We love St. Basil the Great and the Ukrainian pronunciation Vasyyl is so sweet. Basil Aloysius is a really cool name. The more I write about it the more I love it! I don’t know which pronunciation we would use, like the herb (BAY-zil) or like the Saint (BAZ-ill). I like both, but don’t love pronunciation confusion. 

Jacob- we like the Ukrainian pronunciation and we have a sweet nickname for it ready to go. 

Vincent – my husband isn’t sold on this one, but could maybe be persuaded. This is my uncle’s name whom I was very, very close to. I love the nickname Vince. Some great patron saint options too. 

Thomas- we love the Ukrainian pronunciation, don’t love the nickname Tom. 

A few more we have tossed around are: Gabriel, Mateo, James (very close friends named this), Thaddeus, Francis, Max, Nicholas, Louis (much too close to Lukas IMO), Cyril (too close to Simon?), and Gregory (don’t like any nickname option for Gregory), and Josaphat (don’t think we would actually go for it, but it is an epic name).

Boy family names (not used yet): Aloysius, Stephen, Ihor, Myron, Cole, Matthew, Vincent, Maurice, Nicholas, Alexander

Girls names we have quite a few options we are shaking around the brainbox, and I feel that my problem is I have too many ‘ideas/themes’ that I’m making us work with. My first idea was to have all of our daughters named after a title of Mary in the Litany of Loreto. So, MikaRose is Mystical Rose and any sisters following would have one as well. I do love this idea, but am not loving how it’s making many of the names we love feel unusable. So I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t HAVE to do this, but if we could find a name we just adore that also so happens to be a title of Mary, I would be so so happy haha. Also the girl name needs an obvious patron and a family name. AND the name needs to fit well with MikaRose because I feel like we can get away with boys having a style and girls having a style, but don’t want this girl name to match the boy’s too much and leave MikaRose’s hanging awkwardly beside them. ….And maybe be a Ukrainian name…. I’ve dug myself into a hole with all the rules 😅

Girl names we are currently discussing: 

Stella- we both adore this name, but it’s not a family name or Ukrainian! But maybe it doesn’t matter? Obvious Marian title with that one! 

Azelie – same like Stella. We love this name, just no family or Ukrainian connection! Pronunciation would be a struggle. 

Margaret – my mother’s name. I would LOVE to honor her in some way. Her middle name is Anne. Although I’m a little nervous that it’s too “regular/common” like Simon and Lukas, compared to MikaRose which is a very unique and not obviously Catholic name. We would not call her Margaret, though, we like the nicknames Daisy and Mae. Also lacks the Ukrainian connection, but since it’s my mom’s name and a saint we love, could get past that. One of my favorite books growing up was My Only May Amelia and I just love that name. Thinking Margaret ‘Mae’ Emilia could be sweet, and she might go by the double name some, just like MikaRose. 

Magdalena or Helena – (nickname Lena or just use full name!). [Hubby] likes Helena more than Magdalena, but is open to both. Worried about Helena pronunciation, there are so many pronunciations and spellings. HELL-ena, hell-Lay-na, Ha-leena, etc. Sometimes I see Halina which is a name I like, but I think different name completely? 

Lilia – MikaRose was almost Lilia, Cecilia, or Josephine. Worried if we have another girl or two she’ll have to be a flower and we will run out!! (Same goes with  Daisy nn for Margaret above …. But clearly we love flower names and already have a few in the running, so maybe we should embrace the floral theme!) This feels like a good, safe option. Not super thrilled about it right now for some reason, though. I think maybe because Lily names are somewhat popular. But maybe our enthusiasm will grow again because it truly checks off the boxes – it’s Ukrainian, it matches MikaRose, and making it Marian will be easy – just need to add a family name)! Lilia Margaret is pretty special, and Mary, most pure would be an appropriate Litany title I think.

Marianna – beautiful Ukrainian name! Love the double patronage of the Blessed Mother and St. Ann and think the nickname Mari (marr-ee) is sweet. 

Edith – my husband’s suggestion. I don’t love it, although I do love the saint, and could probably get behind it eventually. It feels off though because it hardly checks any of my many boxes. 

Pia – don’t know if we could ACTUALLY go for this name, but we both do really love it. We have tossed this name around for years since we were pregnant with the boys. 

I like Genevieve, Vera, Gloria, Katerina/Katherine (nn Katya) and Felicity but my husband is not a fan. Giving for stylistic examples. 

My husband REALLY REALLY wants and  loves ‘Mary” or “Maria’ but I think we already have used that as a first name. He disagrees that all of our daughters could have a Marian first name and he IS right. He also makes the good point that I love Marianna. I worry that ‘Mary’ makes MikaRose’s name stand out from the other biblical/common names. I love the name Mary, I do(!!!!), but it just doesn’t feel like the right fit. I also love Maria, but especially since Mika is a nickname for Maria, it really feels like that belongs to MikaRose. He disagrees, and I am up for being persuaded differently. He says MikaRose and Maria are perfect sister names. I agree to an extent, except it once again makes MikaRose ‘out there’ and the other names super normal/classic. 

Formerly we have loved Josephine and Cecilia, but both feel a little too popular in our circles. But I could be convinced with the right nickname or Marian connection. They are already family names because both of my great-grandmothers were Josephine and my confirmation name is Cecilia. Maybe good middle names- just missing the Marian connection. Maybe we will fall in love with one of them again! 

Clara – we both like this name!

Girl family names: Margaret, Oksana, Frances, Carolyn, Gertrude, Maria, Anne, Mary, Mary Ann, Josephine, Doris, Mae, Cecilia 

Family devotions/patrons: the Sacred Heart of Jesus (our homeschool name is Sacred Heart Academy and our home is consecrated to His Most Sacred Heart), the Holy Family, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Ignatius, St. Padre Pio, anything Ukrainian/Byzantine focused we can get behind. Have started looking into some Ukrainian virtue names, like Rada means joy but I don’t love it.”

I loved reading all this and couldn’t wait to spend time working on this! And BOY DID I WORK ON THIS! This is definitely one of my longest consultations, if not my longest, and you have to know that I had to actually cut myself off — there was so much more I wanted to research and write about! Even as I was trying to finish it up I was reading about some Ukrainian martyrs and crying and showing my husband and sons, gah! I had to make myself stop reading about holy people so I could finish! And even here, I tried to edit it down a little so it isn’t ridiculously long.

I absolutely loved reading about Lindsey’s husband’s Ukrainian heritage and their efforts to foster a love for the Roman and Byzantine Rites in their home and family! I used this as my major inspiration when trying to find names I thought they both might like.

Before getting to my new ideas for this family, I thought I would start by offering my thoughts on the names already on their list, in case they’re helpful:

  • Clement: This, to me, is the name to beat. It’s got the great Ukrainian connection and the Marian meaning, with the additional layer of connecting to their wedding, and as Lindsey herself noted, I do indeed think of it as a great bridge name between Lukas/Simon and Mika. I myself go back and forth on Clem as a nickname — on the one hand, it’s the kind of nickname that’s not for everyone (just this morning I thought of “Clay” as a nickname I could suggest to parents that are interested in Clement but would like a different nickname than Clem — maybe for Clement Aidan? Clement Eamon? Clement Abram?), but on the other hand, I know that if we had named one of our boys Clement (it was on our list because of the Marian connection, and also our parish is St. Clement’s, for the Redemptorist St. Clement Mary Hofbauer), we totally would have eventually shortened it to Clem and grown to love it. I suspect it would be the same for Lindsey! And like she said, living in a community that’s “mostly understanding of using full names” means they’ll likely not have too much of a problem.
  • As for the middle name, Lindsey wondered if they should stick to apostles’ names in order to fit in with the brothers — that’s totally up to them! It makes sense for twins to have some sort of name connection (howwww many hours did I spend coming up with lists of twin names for my own self?! So fun!), so moving away from apostles’ names for their third boy seems like a fine and reasonable decision. Maybe even preferable, so they don’t end up feeling tied to it in the future? Stephen is a nice option because it’s biblical like Peter and Paul; Aloysius is nice because it’s not biblical, so it establishes that they’re not tied to biblical names; Cole made me hesitate a little — I like that it’s a family name, but it has a trendier feel to me than the more “serious” (in a good way!) feel of the older kids … but at the same time, maybe that would be nice, as a way of balancing the more unfamiliar Clement? I do tend to like alliteration as well. And Cole was on our own list for ages, it really is very sweet.
  • Basil: I agree, Basil Aloysius is pretty amazing!! I like that it’s clearly an Eastern name as well. I’m with Lindsey regarding pronunciation, though — I’ve seen some charged conversations online where people who pronounce it like the herb are skewered for “mispronouncing” it, despite the fact that both pronunciations are totally acceptable; also, the only BAY-zil I know is a girl (and her parents specifically liked the connection to the plant, as well as its connection to “basilica” and St. Basil). Hmm … now I’m wondering — I wonder what Lindsey and her hubby what would think about Basil for a girl?? Okay, so let me step off into a tangent for a minute:

I have a lot of thoughts about MikaRose’s name and its impact on their future naming, especially for girls! I absolutely love it, I really really do, and it was the second big influence on my final list of suggestions below (the first being Lindsey’s hubby’s Ukrainian heritage). I feel like her name is so unfamiliar to most Americans that one of the ways to find names that “match” hers is to look for names that are faithy but unfamiliar, whether or not they’re “technically” a match. So to me, a “technical” match would be a Ukrainian nickname for a traditional girl’s name. Some that I came across when doing my research that would fit include Natalka and Nastya, for example. But Natalka doesn’t feel like a “nickname” in the way Americans typically do nicknames because it’s as long as its originating name, and Nastya sounds unpleasant to English ears. So “technical” matches aren’t always exactly right. I feel like a good direction for this family to go, if they’d like MikaRose to feel like her name fits with their future girls, is to look for “faithy but unfamiliar-ish names that might have an Eastern European feel.” To a certain extent, Mika’s name will “explain” any unusual choice they make for any of their kids going forward!

So then, Basil — I totally never thought of this as a suggestion for a girl for this family at all when I was doing my research and compiling my list, but thinking of that little Basil Grace and their own double-name usage with MikaRose has my mind clicking!! Some ideas: Mary Basil or Maria Basil, as a nod to Lindsey’s hubby’s desire to use Mary or Maria as a first name, but have her go by her middle name? Or have her go by a mashup nickname, like Maisie? Or what about Basil Maria called Basil Mae/BasilMae as a double name like MikaRose? Or Basil Margaret nn Basil Mae? Then they get in the Mae they’re thinking of as a nickname for Margaret! I also really love Basil Grace, and that would satisfy their desire to have a Marian name for each of their girls. Okay, tangent over! I’ll talk more about girl name ideas after I finish with the boys!

  • Jacob: love it. I wonder if they would consider Jakob because of Lukas and MikaRose, or is that silly? (I got very excited about K’s when I was working on this!)
  • Vincent: Vincent seems like an important name to Lindsey! Since hubby doesn’t love it, I would love to see them consider it as a middle name!
  • Thomas: great name, and the full name can totally be insisted on.
  • Gabriel: one of my very favorites!
  • Mateo: Ooh, I love Mateo! So handsome and romantic! But I don’t love it with their other kids and their Ukrainian sensibility. I would love some version of Matthias/Mattias for this family, though! Maybe to honor their Matthew family member?
  • James: Always a great name!
  • Thaddeus: Fantastic. I love the Polish variant Tadeusz, too — would it be similar in the Ukraine?
  • Francis: Ditto James!
  • Max: Oh man, I’d forgotten this was on their list — I had Maksim/Maksym/Maximilian on my list of suggestions for them! I like this one for this family as a nickname for a longer name!
  • Nicholas: Keeping a Nicholas as the full Nicholas (harder than Clement and Thomas, I would think, because of that additional syllable), I would love to see this as a middle name for one of their boys
  • Louis: I agree that it’s too close to Lukas
  • Cyril: Simon and Cyril aren’t as problematic as Lukas and Louis, so I wouldn’t cross it off altogether — maybe just shelve Cyril for this baby and revisit it again in the future?
  • Gregory: Some non-Greg nicknames I’ve suggested to people include Rory (maybe too Irish for this family?) and Gus (especially with an S middle name, like Gregory Stephen)
  • Josaphat: I thought this was such a crazy addition to their list until I saw that St. Josaphat is a great Ukrainian Saint! I agree, it’s an epic name! I’d love to work it in somehow, but I’d probably try to do so in the middle name spot!
  • Boy family names not yet used: It’s a great list! I admit I’m thinking of them more as middle name possibilities (except maybe Vincent, as Lindsey would like to use it as a first name). Is Ihor said like Eeyore? From this consultation I learned that G’s are usually H’s in Ukrainian names! So interesting!

And for girl names:

  • I know you’re not at all surprised that I’m 100% on board with their idea to have all their girls have a Marian name somewhere (first or middle)! But also, I think it’s very wise that Lindsey’s moved away from the Litany of Loreto idea — there are SO MANY titles of Mary, flowers with Marian connections, and virtues associated with Our Lady that they will have enough to choose from for 100 girls! Or more!
  • Also, I definitely agree that they can have a girl style and a boy style that are different — many families do so! When this is the case, what I usually see is more creative/adventurous names for the girls and more traditional/familiar names for the boys, which is how I would characterize Lindsey’s and her husband’s style. I’m a fan!
  • Stella: I’m SO EXCITED to share something about this name that Lindsey and her hubby “both adore” but that they don’t think is Ukrainian! Crazy enough, I did a consultation for a mama a couple of years ago whose daughter is Anastasia, and she said they’d planned to call her Stella but it didn’t really work out. What??!! I asked her about it and she said,

“As for the nickname Stella for Anastasia: my great grandmother was Ukrainian and her birth name was Anastasia but she solely went by Stella. That’s how I initially came upon this nickname, but I’ve since met a few Russians whose full name is Anastasia but they go by Stella. I think it’s a semi-common nickname in Eastern Europe? To be honest I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of it!“

Can you believe that?? Then, Theresa noted in this consultation she did for her suggestion of Anastasia: “Stella is an Old Slavic nickname for Anastasia. I can’t find any reason why, but it is!” Isn’t that funny? I don’t remember telling Theresa about it, and like her, I could never find anything that explained it, but it’s totally a thing! I’m so excited to make a Ukrainian connection for this name for Lindsey and her hubs!!

  • Azelie: Okay, I have a few thoughts for this one. First, I wonder what they’d think about Mariya Azelie? I’m using that spelling of Maria because I know it’s Ukrainian, but certainly Maria Azelie would be lovely — that way, they’d have a Ukrainian first name (even if they decided to call her Azelie or Zelie exclusively. I’ll throw out Mazie again as a mashup nickname idea). Also, I’ve seen many people say that Azelie is the French for the azalea flower, and have named their daughters Azelie being pleased with the floral connection (plus St. Zelie of course), and while I’ve never been able to find anything authoritative that proves this (the French is the similar azalée), in this case, maybe it could be helpful to this family? The Ukrainian word for azalea seems to be azaliya — maybe they could use that as the given name, and use Zalie or Zelie as the nickname, with the intention of honoring St. Zelie? Not to add another floral name to their list, unless they want one! Haha! (You can read more about how I think intention matters more than the “facts” in naming here.)
  • Margaret: I really love Lindsey’s idea of Margaret Emilia nn Mae Emilia! Even though I agree that Margaret is “too ‘regular/common’ like Simon and Lukas,” their reason for using it is spot on, and Mae Emilia sounds like a natural sister to MikaRose.
  • Magdalena or Helena: I like both! Because Helena has so many different pronunciations, they can pick their favorite — it just requires them to be firm and consistent when telling people their daughter’s name, and when she’s old enough she’ll do it herself. Lindsey’s right that Halina is a different name — it’s a feminine variant of Galen! There’s a St. Galen, if you’re interested.
  • Lilia: This is my favorite of the Lily names! I love what Lindsey wrote about it, and I agree that Lilia Margaret is special. Mary Most Pure would be a beautiful attribution!
  • Marianna: You have to know I would love this one! It checks Lindsey’s boxes of Ukrainian and Marian, and you know I love St. Ann! Mari is very sweet, and so close to Mary that I’m surprised this isn’t the clear winner for Lindsey and her hubby!
  • Edith: I love St. Edith Stein too! But I agree with Lindsey that “it hardly checks any of [her] many boxes.” I would shelve this one for now, if it was me.
  • Pia: Oh man, I LOVE this as a Marian name, and it’s totally in the Mia/Leah realm, which is a group of names I love, and this reader named her baby Pia, which made me so happy! I seriously would love it if they used it!! Maybe it would be easier to use as part of a double name? Mary-Pia? Pia-Kate?
  • Genevieve, Vera, Gloria, Katerina/Katherine nn Katya, Felicity: These are all such pretty names! I’m glad Lindsey included them for stylistic purposes. Of them, I absolutely love Katerina/Katherine nn Katya — all three of those names were big style matches for this family in my research!
  • Mary and Maria: This is so funny to me! I totally get the difference of opinion that Lindsey and her hubby are having, even though on paper it seems like there should be no disagreement. My take is that I *don’t* think they’ve already used Mary or Maria, even though Mika is technically a nickname for Maria. I’m thinking of it as similar to Molly being, in origin, a nickname for Mary, but I would think sisters Molly and Mary are fine. Also, it’s a very Catholic tradition for all the girls in a family to have a form of Mary in their names, often as first names. I know I’ve shared here often that my dad has four first cousins from two different families, three of whom are sisters, with Mary as their first name, but they all go by their middle names. Additionally, another of those cousins is Marianne; my dad’s mom was Mary Loretta, who went by Loretta; and his sister is Marylee. So many Marys! In French, Marie is the version that’s used. My parents wanted all of their girls to have a form of Mary, so they switched things up between the first and middle names: I’m Katherine Morna (I discuss in my book of Marian names the Marian connection with Morna) and my sisters have Molly, Mary, and Maria. So none of us has the same form of Mary, but she’s there nonetheless. All that to say, I think this couple can consider Mika and Maria to be two variants of Mary, and add Marianna and Mary to the mix as well. I totally get what Lindsey means when she says she doesn’t feel like Mary is the right fit, and Maria doesn’t feel comfortable to her for this baby, so I would suggest either playing around with ways to make them feel comfortable (would an unusual Mary+ combo make Mary feel okay? Like Mary-Pia mentioned above, or Mary-Clement, Maria-Basil, Mary-Cole, Mary-Mattea [instead of the Mateo they’ve considered], Mary-Greer [Greer is derived from Gregory]? I’m using hyphens to make them clear as double names, but of course they don’t have to use them — they could do MaryCole, for example, to mimic MikaRose?), or shelving both Mary and Maria for now and focus on finding a different Mary name for this baby. Marianna is the obvious contender, but other options could include Mae already on their list, Mariae (the Latin possessive form of Mary), Marie, Marisa, Maylis (a combo of Mary and Lily), Molly, Mariah, Ria, Miriam, Mara, Maura, Maureen, and a whole bunch more. They could also consider branching out from variants of Mary to Marian titles, attributes, or symbols as they’ve already done with Pia and Lilia, but also Regina, Caeli, Virginia, Dolores, etc. Also all the flower names! Vincenzina Krymow said in her book Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends & Meditations (affiliate link), “It is thought that at one time all flowers and plants honored Mary, the ‘Flower of Flowers,’ in legend or in name” (12). I have loads of flower names in my book of Marian names with specific connections to Our Lady, including Daisy, Lily, Marigold, Iris, Violet, and others.
  • Josephine and Cecilia: I can see how these might feel too popular to Lindsey. I like Posie and Sophie as unexpected nicknames for Josephine, and they can both be Marian in that Posie is floral and Sophie can be from her title Seat of Wisdom. For Cecilia, interestingly enough the very similar Celia is unrelated — Cecilia means “blind” but Celia means “heaven” and with that meaning it can be considered to relate to Our Lady through her title Queen of Heaven (as with Caeli). And of course, putting Mary in front of them makes them Marian! Mary Josephine and Mary Cecilia are lovely and traditional, and you can have fun with nicknames — Masie for Mary Josephine, Malia for Mary Cecilia?
  • Clara: Beautiful! I wonder if they would consider the Klara spelling?
  • Girl family names: they’re all beautiful!

I feel like I’ve already written way too much, and I haven’t even gotten to my new ideas yet! So I’m not going to go in depth regarding Sacred Heart names (but do check out this post I did on the topic — there a few names there I think Lindsey might like), and I really wanted to look into Ukrainian virtue names (such a fun idea!), but I will have to be content with the list of names I compiled below. They’re the result of my usual research in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link), where I looked up the names Lindsey and her hubs have used and those they like as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I also looked through my book of Marian names, consulted the lists of Ukrainian names on Behind the Name and UkraineTrek.com, considered the names in the list of holy people who were Ukrainian by birth at CatholicSaints.info, and read this article on Ukrainian Saints. I admit I did look up some words on the English–>Ukrainian Google translate, which did inspire one of my ideas!

Girl

(1) Karoleva

Not having too much familiarity with Ukrainian, I can’t know for sure if this is a really viable option, but Google Translate tells me Karoleva is the word for “queen” in Ukrainian and I LOVE it! It’s like a Karoline-Eva mashup! I looked up “Queen Mary” and the result was Karoleva Mariya, which I also love! How beautiful!! (I also like the idea of just Eva, or Maria+Eva in Marieva.)

(2) Nadia

Nadia was actually the first name I thought of for this family — it means “hope,” and Our Lady of Hope could be the Marian title.

(3) Susanna

Susanna is listed as a Ukrainian name and is one of my very favorites (our first girl would have been Susanna!). It means both “lily” and “rose” in Hebrew, which earned it a place in my book of Marian names. Because of the unusualness of MikaRose, they might like to consider Susanna’s more unusual nicknames, like Sukie and Zuzu.

(4) Beata

This name has good Eastern European usage and is in my book because it means “blessed” and is specifically used to describe Our Lady in the Latin for “Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary”: Assumptione Beatae Mariae Virginis. Some form of Beata Maria/Maria Beata/Mary Beata/Beata Mary would be a meaningful combo!

(5) Willa

When I was looking through the listing of holy people that were born in Ukraine, Sr. Wilhelmine Balka, also known as Sr. Angela, caught my eye because she was a nun in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (which seemed meaningful because of this family’s devotion to the Sacred Heart). Her cause for canonization was open as one of the Martyrs of Baining (though it’s since been suspended because those in charge of gathering information can’t find additional evidence that the murders were done out of hatred for the faith). An interesting and very sad story! Anyway, Wilhelmine is a big name, but the shorter Willa immediately struck me as a name that would be a great sister to MikaRose! I think Willa would work fine as a nod to Sr. Wilhelmine if they wanted it to! I also did a spotlight on it here, connecting it to Palm Sunday.

(6) Colette

My last idea for a girl is Colette, inspired by family names Nicholas and Cole. St. Colette’s given name was Nicolette, but I love Colette on its own. I have a friend who named her daughter Maria Colette, which I’ve always thought was stunning. I also mentioned Mary-Cole above as a possibility — I could see that working as a nickname for Mary Colette as well.

Boy

(1) Martyn (or Martin)

I don’t know what Lindsey and her hubs think about the Y spelling, but it seems to be specifically Ukrainian (Mariya, Nadiya, etc.) — when I saw Martyn in my research, I thought it would be a great name for Lukas and Simon’s brother!

(2) Konrad

This is one hundred percent inspired by Bl. Mykola Konrad. I love that his first name is the Ukrainian variant of Nicholas, so using Konrad could maybe be a nod to the Nicholas/Cole family members? His story is so moving!

(3) Joachim

I couldn’t not suggest one of my very favorite names when it seems to go so well with this family’s aesthetic! I think it goes great with their boys, and doesn’t sound strange at all next to MikaRose — in fact, I think it has real potential as a bridge name. I even found a church called Saints Joachim and Anna Ukrainian Catholic Church, which I thought was a good sign! Even better, I read the terrible and moving story of Bl. Yakym Senkivsky who was in the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat (I love that the Order’s name contains two of the names they included on their list) — his name is the Ukrainian form of Joachim.

(4) Leo (or Leonid?)

Leonid is in the list of Ukrainian names on Behind the Name, and with Leo being a fairly popular name, Leonid could bring a fresh perspective! Leo is, of course, the perfect, easy, nickname; I’d also be thrilled if they used Leo as the given name.

(5) Oskar

Oskar was inspired by the fact that it’s a style match for both Edith and Clara on Lindsey’s list, and of course I chose the K spelling because it feels more Ukrainian (is it getting old yet that I keep doing that?!). There’s a St. Oscar who’s also known as Ansgar and St. Oscar Romero as patrons.

(6) Elliott

This last one has a different feel to me and is maybe a little surprising? But Elliott’s a style match for Stella and Cecilia, and I’ve always loved that it’s a derivation of Elias/Elijah, which of course has the Ukrainian counterpart Illya. I also consider it Marian because of the Prophet Elijah’s connection to Our Lady in the bible and through the Carmelite Order.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the baby brother or sister of Lukas, Simon, and MikaRose? If you have specific knowledge of Ukrainian naming, please share!

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Baby name consultation: Baby no. 7 after six boys!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

Happy belated feast of the Epiphany! And today is a new-to-me feast day: Our Lady of Prompt Succor! I’m very familiar with Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Succor), and now OL of Prompt Succor — she’s such an immediate and everlasting help, that Mother of ours!

Today’s consultation is a tender one as it’s for a mama who’s expecting a baby after losing her previous youngest to a tragic accident. I think you’ll be as moved and inspired by this family’s story as I am! (I also wanted to give a little heads-up to anyone who might not be up for an emotional story today, which I totally get — sometimes [especially when I was pregnant] I just can’t spend the day crying, you know?)

First off, the name info: Jill and her husband, who are expecting their seventh born baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown🌱)! This little one joins big sibs:

Graham Stephen (“Graham is my maiden name. In addition to being my husband’s middle name, Stephen is also his father’s first name“)

Lucas Patrick (“We call him Lucas and Luke. I always loved the name Lucas. Patrick is Tim’s uncle, who he lived with a bit in college and thinks highly of. St. Patrick’s was also our church at the time. St. Patrick has been a favorite Saint of many of our kids over the years“)

Raymond Browning (“We call him Raymond and Ray. Ray is Tim’s maternal grandpa. Rae is also Tim’s mother’s middle name. We didn’t know it when we named him but St. Raymond Nonnatus is the patron of expectant mothers and midwives because he miraculously survived his mother dying in childbirth. I have spent my entire nursing career in the NICU and Women’s Services so learning this felt very divinely orchestrated to me. Browning is my father’s middle name [and his father’s and grandfather’s]“)

Titus John (“We came across the name Titus when we were pregnant with Raymond and searching for Catholic or Biblical boys names. We chuckled a bit about it because it felt so… I don’t know… Roman, but it stuck with us. By the time Titus was born, I loved the book of Titus and I felt sure we were supposed to use the name for him. It fits him well. It’s fun that he shares a feast day with his dad. During this time, I had also fallen in love with the Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved and couldn’t imagine not naming one of my boys after him“)

Leo Joachim (“The only baby who’s gender we knew was Raymond’s. So, we’re pregnant with baby #5 and already have 4 boys. I had zero idea what we were going to name this baby if he was a boy … Titus’ name had felt so divinely orchestrated that throughout pregnancy #5 I prayed that God would make it obvious to me what we were supposed to name this baby. Occasionally I would suggest boy names that I thought were ‘okay’ and Tim would say, ‘meh.’ Tim suggested Leo over and over again. Leo is his maternal great-grandfather. I knew a few toddler Leos at our church so I thought the name would be too common and didn’t really want to use it. The morning Leo was born, after we moved into our post-partum room, we started trying to name him. My mom was on the way with our boys and we joked that if we didn’t name him by the time she arrived, she would name him. I had a list of about 10 boy names that I thought were okay and Tim didn’t like any of them. He still wanted Leo. I said, ‘Well, let’s just see who the saint of the day is. Maybe it will be someone we haven’t thought of yet. Maybe it will spark a name we haven’t thought of yet.’ I pulled it up and started laughing out loud. Pope Saint Leo the Great. I said yes to Leo right then but in case I needed more reassurance God sent more. My sister in law sent me an e-mail with a reflection from the day and said, ‘Leo would be a great name!’ Then, my co-worker, who isn’t Catholic, and didn’t know what we had named him, went to the gift shop to buy me something before she came to our room to see us. [She was on the lactation team with me.] She brought us a stuffed Lion. [Leo stems from the Latin word for lion.] It was settled. We liked Leo Joachim and Leo Joseph. [Joe is my father’s name.] I am always a fan of different names so since Tim was up for the name Joachim, I picked that. In addition to being a great name for Mary’s father, Joachim is also a family name on Tim’s paternal side.”)

(Sorry, I just have to interrupt to say JOACHIM!! And also, how about this story of allllll the signs that Leo was clearly the right name for this baby??!! 😍😍😍)

Augustine Joseph (“When we were pregnant with baby #6, I felt like Titus was a bit of an outlier, as far as being a name from the earlier years of Christianity. So, I was looking at names from the Roman Canon and the earlier saints. Tim’s sister and brother in law had lost a baby at 19 weeks who they named Gus [Augustine James]. St. Augustine of Hippo fit my search for older saints. I asked them how they would feel if we used it and they said they’d be honored. We weren’t settled on it by any means when we asked them but I don’t remember much about the rest of our name considerations or discussions. Born in January of the year of St. Joseph, we named him Augustine Joseph. I mentioned earlier, Joe is also my dad’s name [and his father’s and grandfather’s]. Augustine went by his full name but also Gus, Gus Gus, Gustin, and Auggie. At 18 months old, he choked on a sandwich and after I did CPR on him he was declared brain dead two days later. Saint Augustine of Hippo’s writings occur constantly which I see as a beautiful way God would frequently remind me of my saintly son and his patron saint. We like to say St. Gus, pray for us! Or Saint Augustine Joseph, pray for us. My sister in law and brother in law had not buried their Gus yet because they couldn’t find a spot that felt right (they live far from family). So, we buried the two of them next to each other in the baby section of our Catholic cemetery. It’s great because I can visit, pray at, decorate and care for Augustine James’ grave as I do Augustine Joseph’s. There are more details on some of the many ways God has worked miracles through Gus’ short life and death at https://breezybreastfeeding.com/how-to-grow-your-yes-to-god/ and in some of the links I placed in that article.”)

What a cross this family has been asked to bear! What a blessing that they’ve been given so many comforting signs like the frequent occurrence of the writings of St. Augustine and the miracles Jill’s been able to see come about through the loss of their beautiful boy.

“Throughout these babies, we’ve also had four miscarriages named John, Sammy, Josephine, and Gemma.”

This family has experienced so much loss! It’s always a privilege for me to work with families on choosing names for their babies, and I was feeling that privilege extra much when I was working on this. I’m so grateful for all the ways God uses my funny little interest in names to help others!

Jill continues,

“My favorite names are ones that people have heard of but are not common. Augustine was a bit tricky for me because so many people pronounced it like the town in Florida instead of like the saint. If they pronounced it like the town in Florida, then they would often think he was a girl because of the Christine-like ending. Though I care less about people being able to pronounce my kid’s name over the years and am open to more obscure Saints and Biblical names. 

Tim’s preferences lean more toward common names … He’s grown a lot though to consider many other names but he still learns more toward common names than I do. If a name is listed in the top 10, I consider that a negative but we still have used some common names I love. And my oldest ended up having three Grahams in his grade at our parish so you never know! If we had named him Luke like we originally planned, he’d be the only one. As it is, our Lucas is one of many (maybe 6) Lukes in his grade at our parish.”

Names they’re considering for a girl include:

  • Clara (“always our front-runner, we visited Assisi after Gus died and I fell in love with St. Clare. I used to think she was too intimidating to name a child after. Who can live up to Saint Clare?! While we were in Assisi, I realized she simply said yes to God and his plan for her. His plan for me will look different. But my goal is to say yes to his plan for me, however it looks, and I pray that my kids will say yes to God’s plan for them. I love the tweak of Clara. We live in a town with an active, Catholic, homeschooling community which means there are a lot of Clares. Clara is definitely not uncommon either. Clara Faye has been our front-runner. Leena Faye was my paternal grandmother’s name, though she went by Faye. My maternal grandmother’s name was Marjorie May and we have also considered May for many girl middle names“)

  • Cecilia (“I had a dream last year that we were pregnant with twin girls named Clara and Cecilia and I have loved the name Cecilia ever since. Our Cathedral is Saint Cecilia’s. Our parish, St. Wenceslaus, has St. Cecilia in stained glass in the chapel where we have daily Mass. I love to sing. Though I don’t have the talent or training to share it outside my home and Mass, my kids know that I may break into song at any moment. I have a few kids who insist we use Marie as a middle name for our first girl, since we used dad’s middle name for our first boy. I do think Cecilia Marie is beautiful“)

  • Ivy (“I just read my boys the story of Holly and Ivy. I loved this book as a kid and even though it’s about a little girl and a doll, my boys were very engaged with it. I loved the name and I checked your Marian naming book afterwards to see if Ivy was in there. I was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful writing about Ivy in there and her roots to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was first introduced to our Lady of Sorrows years ago when my friend had a 16 week miscarriage [actually two friends on the same day at 16 weeks]. My friend was reluctant to invite Our Lady of Sorrows into her life but Our Lady pursued her and my friend finally gave in. She now has a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was able to witness this process of hers so when Augustine died, I knew I wanted to learn about Our Lady of Sorrows. When Tim and I went to Italy after Augustine died, the one thing I had in mind to look for was an Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary. We were in Orvieto, Italy on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15, and they have a powerful statue in their church of Mary holding Jesus after he was taken down from the cross. Our priest, who walked with us through all the Gus things, gave a homily about Mary’s thoughts while she stood at the foot of the cross. His contemplations about Mary’s thoughts were identical to my conversation with God throughout Gus’s last brain function test. Then I realized that my thoughts, prayer, and mindset during his last test (the one that would declare him legally brain dead or not) was not of my own making but a gift from Our Lord or from his mother. The next day, a fellow pilgrim said she had something for me. She said, ‘I didn’t mean to bring this to Italy, but I found it in my pocket. It’s an Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary that I made years ago. The colors remind me of the church we were at yesterday, in Orvieto, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and I feel like you’re supposed to have it.’ I still chuckle at her words. I replied, Yes! I think I am supposed to have it! ;)”)

And names they’re considering for boys include:

“We are strongly considering the name Augustine for a middle name.”

  • Daniel (“love the old testament Daniel“)

  • Nicholas (“Tim has never been a huge fan but I’ve always come back to this one as a possibility“)

  • Simon

  • Anthony (“My maternal uncle’s name. His story wasn’t unlike St. Augustine’s. From reluctant to great disciple of Jesus. He died about ten years ago in his early 50’s. Naming a child after my Uncle Tony would be great but I’ve never loved the names Anthony or Tony. I do like AJ“)

I really love the names Jill and her hubby have given their kiddos! I’m so glad her husband came around on Graham — I think it’s so fantastic when Mom’s maiden name is doable for a first name! Lucas, Raymond (“Raymond Browning” is such a great combo!), Titus, Leo (I love all the signs from heaven that his name should be Leo!), and Augustine are all wonderful, too, and I love how they have a fairly eclectic group of names — it allows them to do pretty much anything they want going forward since they’re not tied to any one style.

And of course you all must know how absolutely STARRY EYED I am over Leo’s middle name!! I LOVE Joachim!! It’s so cool that it’s a family name on Jill’s husband’s side! That’s so awesome!

The names they gave their miscarried babies are also wonderful. I’m interested by their reusage of names — John and Josephine as first names, and John and Joseph for middle names, as well as the possibility of using Augustine as a middle name for this baby. In my experience, it’s a rare practice, but not unheard of, and can really create lovely connections between your children. We named the baby I miscarried sixteen years ago Ignatius, and my 15yo — the boy born ten months after I lost Ignatius — was just Confirmed and chose Ignatius as his Confirmation name, in large part because of that baby. It’s given me more joy than I would have thought to think of my baby in heaven and my son on earth sharing a special connection through their name.

Okay, I’ll start by offering my thoughts on the names they’re considering for this baby, in case they’re helpful:

  • Clara: I love it, it’s a beautiful, saintly name and has long been a favorite of theirs, never mind Jill’s meaningful realization about St. Clare. Clara Faye is lovely! To me, this is the name to beat.
  • Cecilia: The song in Jill’s voice (no pun intended, haha!) when she wrote about Cecilia would totally have put it at the top of my list for them if it wasn’t for Clara! Twins Clara and Cecilia would be perfect; otherwise, Cecilia is my favorite name for a second girl for this family.
  • Marie as a middle name: I’m with Jill’s kids — I love the idea of using Marie as their first girl’s middle name since they used Hubby’s middle name for their first boy! I’m also wondering what they’d think of Marie as a first name?
  • Ivy: This is such a sweet name! I love the connection to Our Lady of Sorrows, too, and was so interested to read Jill’s connection to her. What a cool story about the lady who gave her the Our Lady of Sorrows rosary!! This post on my blog about Theresa’s devotion to OL of Sorrows is a good one to link to here — I love this quote especially regarding the Catholic view of sorrow: “It is hope, instead of despair, in the face of tragedy. It is fortitude in the face of upset and chaos. It is trust in the midst of darkness. And it is gratitude in the midst of hardship.”
  • Daniel: Jill’s love for the Old Testament Daniel inspired one of my name ideas below! Also, a more familiar name like Daniel would pair really nicely with a middle name like Augustine.
  • Nicholas: You’ll see in my Appellation Mountain consultation that Nicholas was a name my husband and I talked about a LOT! We could never figure out how to make each of us comfortable with it … we talked about the nickname Cole (or even as a given name), and the variant/short form Colin is a style match for this family according to my research; I love the nickname Nico and the similar formal names Nikolai and Nicodemus (Nicodemus is another name I pushed for with my husband! It was always a hard no from him!).
  • Simon: I love it! It’s a big style match for this family per my research.
  • Simeon: I love Simeon, too!
  • Anthony: I feel similarly to Jill about Anthony — a great name and a great Saint, but I can see why it doesn’t appeal to her. I saw Antonia in my research for them (style match for Cecilia) — I wonder if they would be interested in flipping the honor of Uncle Tony from a boy to a girl? Antonia would be a pretty middle name; I also have a friend Antoinette and am often struck by how pretty and feminine her name is. It would be really nice as a middle for a short first name — Ivy Antoinette maybe? (Not Marie Antoinette!) Or Marie Antonia? The an-to-NEE-ah pronunciation would have a nice flow with Marie.

Okay, on to new ideas! I really love working on challenging consultations, which I consider this one to be because of Jill and her hubby having already named so many boys. It was fun to try to come up with ideas that I thought fit their style while not being names they’ve already used or considered or are on their “no” list! But no worries — I can always come up with more ideas! So as mentioned, I did my usual research in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link), but I also had some ideas of my own that I added to the list for gut-feeling reasons (which aren’t always on point, but sometimes are). I was reluctant to add any that are in my Mary names book, since Jill’s already familiar with it and I feel like she would have included ideas from it on her own list (besides Ivy and Simeon) if they appealed, but sometimes making a strong argument for a name gives it a sparkle it didn’t have before, so there are a few on my list below that are also in my book.

Girl

(1) Susanna, Annabel(le)

When I read that Jill loves the Old Testament Daniel, I immediately thought of Susanna, who is a virtuous woman in the Book of Daniel and saved by Daniel from death due to a false accusation. There’s also a Susanna in the New Testament who had been healed by Jesus and accompanied Him on his journeys and provided for Him. And there’s St. Susanna, whose feast day is the same as St. Clare! This is in my book of Marian names because it means both “rose” and “lily” in Hebrew (one in ancient Hebrew, one in modern Hebrew).

Annabel/Annabelle is also in my book, and Susanna made me think of it, as well as the fact that Anna and Hannah are both style matches for this family per the BNW. Annabelle is also a style match for Juliet! It’s a variant of Amabilis, which is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis. So pretty!

(2) Phoebe

I never would have come up with Phoebe on my own for this family, but I was so interested to see it listed as a match for both Graham and Titus — I thought that was too cool to ignore! One of my fave Catholic mamas, Grace Patton, has a Phoebe — see all her kids’ names here; here and here and here and here are other families that have a Phoebe in case you’d like to see what a Phoebe’s siblings are named.

(3) Elise or Eliza (or the full Elizabeth/Elisabeth)

Elise is a match for Graham and Simon, and Eliza for Clara and Cecilia — that’s pretty amazing! They could use the full Elizabeth (or the spelling Elisabeth) to use either of those, or bestow one of the shorter forms as the given name.

(4) Lydia

Lydia also did quite well in my research, being listed as a match for Titus, Simon, and Simeon. I’ve always loved that Lydia in the bible was a seller of purple cloth, which means a little Lydia has her very own color!

(5) Natalie/Natalia

Natalie is a match for both Nicholas and Anthony, and it’s also in my book of Marian names because of Our Lady’s role in Jesus’ Nativity (Natalie refers to Christmas), as well as that word being attached to her through her own Nativity. Natalia feels like a more current version and closer in style to Clara and Cecilia. Natalie and Natalia are both pretty!

Boy

(1) Benjamin, Bennett, Benedict

I think one of these is my favorite idea for this baby if a boy! Benjamin is a style match for Lucas, Daniel, and Nicholas, and the nickname Ben is in the same friendly category as Ray, Leo, and Gus. Additionally, Jill and her hubby have two biblically named boys so far and four that aren’t, so it would be cool to loop in another biblical name.

That said, however, Bennett is really appealing to me — it’s a match for Juliet and as soon as I saw it I thought Yes! It just felt right, and the fact that it’s a medieval short form of Benedict made it seem extra cool. (Interesting to note that Austin is a medieval short form of Augustine.) I also feel like Bennett Augustine is an easier combo than some of the longer options, like Benjamin or Benedict.

Which, of course, brings me to Benedict. It’s got the same heavy “monastery” feel as Augustine, and Ben lightens it up just like Gus does for Augustine. You’ll see in the Appellation Mountain consultation I really wanted Benedict as a first name for my youngest! We couldn’t use the nickname Ben, but I really liked Bear. (Hubby was a no.)

(2) Dominic

Dominic is inspired by Augustine and Benedict (I always think of those three names as the “monastery” names). Nic(k) and Nico can be nicknames for Dominic! Maybe that’s how they can work in Jill’s affinity for Nicholas?

(3) Zechariah

Zachary is a match for Nicholas, but that didn’t feel quite right to me. It did make me think of Zechariah, though, which I love because of his connection to St. Elizabeth and further to the Visitation. Zeke is my favorite nickname for it, which feels a lot like Ray and Gus to me! (That “old man” vibe, which is so cozy and sweet!)

(4) Oscar or Owen

I’m not convinced that Oscar is a good fit here, but the BNW says differently! It’s a match for August (standing in for Augustine, which doesn’t have its own entry), Gus, and Clara, and I know of three sweet little boys with the name: here and here (Oscar) and here (Oskar).

Another O name that showed up in my research is Owen, which is a match for Lucas and Ivy, and my nephew Leo’s little brother is Owen. Also, St. Nicholas Owen is one of my faves! I’m not sure how that fits in with Nicholas on their list, but I needed to mention it!

(5) Tristan

Finally, Jill’s devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows made me think of Tristan. I love the name anyway, but knowing of its connection to the word “sad” — and therefore to Our Lady of Sorrows — gives it a really nice and unexpected faith connection. (I’m a big fan of “unexpected” in naming!)

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Graham, Lucas, Raymond, Titus, Leo, and Augustine?

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Birth announcement: Ivylisse Victoria!

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Happy Christmas Eve!! It’s almost bedtime here at my house, and I have several little boys — and big boys! — who are beyond excited about it! They can’t wait to go to bed! 😂❤️💚

And I’m excited to share this birth announcement with you!! The other day I posted a consultation I’d done for Sheri and her husband’s fourth baby and second daughter — a consultation that Sheri had said I could post even though she and her hubby had already worked through it and chosen a name for their baby. As I’d shared, Sheri had said, “There’s no way you can put that much effort into all this and not get a juicy post out of it!”

I was so excited when I’d received the email from Sheri that let me know an idea I’d offered had inspired their final choice! I’d suggested Ivelisse, and they’d tweaked it a little to Ivylisse and added the V middle name Victoria for an absolutely stunning combo! As Sheri wrote,

“What a cadence, reminiscent of older times like her siblings, without being an old lady name, or too modern to feel real. And my husband feels like he had a big say in it because he liked the middle name ‘Victoria’ for a while (after OL of Victory, of course). Ivylisse balances it out sweetly, while still getting in the fun ‘IV’ in both nicknames and initials!

Oh fun thing, apparently Our Lady of Victory’s feast day is the same day/renamed as Our Lady of the Rosary, which is October 7th, which I only remember because it’s my youngest brothers birthday… and we asked him to be her Godfather (Mike and I are HIS godparents, being 19 year his seniors). Super happy coincidence I didn’t look up till we made our decision!

Thank you again! We love her name and it suits her so well!“

Isn’t that so fantastic?!! Ivylisse Victoria is absolutely lovely!! A perfect name for a Christmastime baby!!

Congratulations to Sheri and her husband and big siblings Finnian, Roanan, and Zeda, and happy birthday Baby Ivylisse!!

Ivylisse Victoria

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Birth announcement: Maria Josephine!

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I hope you all had a wonderful feast of St. Nicholas!

I had the privilege of doing a consultation for the first baby of Kathleen and her husband last spring, and am delighted to share that they had a girl and gave her the gorgeous name … Maria Josephine!

Kathleen writes,

“Our baby GIRL arrived on August 31st. We named her Maria Josephine. We love the idea of honoring the Blessed Mother with our Irish heritage (naming the first girl after Mary) and Alex’s Greek heritage with Maria being the Greek form of Mary. Thank you for the inspiration!!!!

Josephine, of course the feminine version of Joseph, is in honor of my dad and his confirmation name.

We can’t thank you enough for your help and encouragement!“

Isn’t Maria Josephine absolutely lovely?? I love that it incorporates Mom and Dad’s Irish and Greek heritage as well, and works in a nod to Kathleen’s dad, which was important to her. Just beautiful!!

Congratulations to Kathleen and her husband, and happy birthday Baby Maria!!

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Baby name consultation: Some really fun name rules (hopes) for baby no. 5

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Happy All Hallow’s Eve’s Eve, everyone!

Today’s consultation is for a little green bean (= gender unknown🌱) due on Holy Thursday — the family’s fifth baby. Before sharing big siblings’ names, you should know that Mama Tricia wrote, “We love all our children to have a family name, patron Saint, and title of Mary in their name” — I’m amazed at how well she and her hubby did especially with the title of Mary! Check out these beautiful names:

Noah Samuel William (“Our Lady Queen of Patriarchs is the Marian title, St. William is patron, Samuel is the family name“) 

Maria Joy (“Marie is heavy family name, Joy is a play on her dad’s name Roy. Patron Saint is Maria Goretti and Our Lady Cause of Our Joy“)

Adam James (“Adam was the middle name of my brother who died as an infant, patron St. James the greater. My husband proposed on his feast day and hiking the Camino was a really moving experience for me. Title of Mary is Our Lady Queen of Apostles“)

Martha Lily (“Martha is my grandmother’s name and confirmation Saint. Lily is a name I’ve always loved and St. Joseph is my husband’s confirmation Saint. Her patrons are St. Martha and St. Joseph, and Our Lady Most Pure“)

What do you think of these names?? Aren’t the Marian title just amazing?? I love them all!!

I also want to point out, in case it’s helpful to anyone who might be considering these names for their own babies, that Maria goes by Mia sometimes within the family, and Martha goes by Millie sometimes within the family, as a mashup of Martha and Lily. I love those!

Tricia continues,

“Holy Thursday is my favorite liturgy — I was so happy to hear it would be our new child’s due date. There are so many feasts around that time too! I am open to naming the child something related to the day they are born, if indeed they come on the Annunciation, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter!” 

Names they can’t use include:

  • Aubrey 
  • Clark
  • Cecilia 
  • Juliette 
  • Miles 


Names they like for girls:

  • Agnes (“esp for an Easter girl“)
  • Dolores (“esp for a Good Friday girl, probably call her Della, but my husband doesn’t like it“)
  • Anna 
  • Monica 
  • Catharine “Kate”
  • Greta 
  • “I love Matilda and Gloria, but my husband says no“
  • “He likes Avila and Zelie, beautiful names but I’m worried about everyone always mispronouncing“

Girl middle names:

  • Felicity 
  • Sage (“seat of wisdom“) 
  • Pieta (“esp for Good Friday“) 
  • Ann (“my middle name“) 
  • June (“my mom’s middle name, maybe Immaculate Heart as title of Mary“) 
  • Fiat (“if bday is March 25?“) 

Names they like for boys:

  • Gabriel (“esp for March 25 bday“) 
  • John (“prob front runner, his dad’s name, lots of great Saints, James and John were brothers“) 
  • Luke (“I have always loved Our Lady of Częstochowa“)
  • Judah 
  • David 
  • Ambrose “Bo”
  • Maybe Pascal “Cal” (“for a Holy Thursday boy“) 

Also, some family names that could work include:

  • Theresa June (“my mom“)
  • Krista Lynn (“his mom“)
  • Gregory Michael (“my late father who I love so dearly, definitely think of honoring him but my brother is also a Greg and my nephew is Miles Gregory after him …”) 
  • John Samuel (“his dad“)

Tricia also wrote,

“I’d love more ideas especially with possible holy day birthdays, maybe what your favorites are?” 

Just to reiterate, in case you didn’t catch my enthusiasm above (!), I am just really impressed with how Tricia and her hubby worked a family name, a patron Saint, and a title of Mary into each of their children’s names. I love “Queen of Patriarchs” for Noah; Adam James is very handsome, and I love the family connection to Tricia’s brother; I’m also kind of blown away by their girls’ names: Maria Joy and Martha Lily are unexpected combinations to me, and I LOVE them! So lovely!

I wanted to offer some thoughts on the names they like, in case they find them helpful:

  • Agnes: Considering Noah, Maria, and Adam, I wouldn’t have thought of Tricia as liking “old lady” names (said with the utmost respect), but then with Martha, Agnes makes sense to me! Because of the baby being due on Holy Thursday, I thought of how one of you readers once told me you like the combo “Agnes Daisy” because it sounds like “Agnus Dei” — I thought it might be the perfect idea for this family! Daisy is a traditional nickname for Margaret, which derives from the Latin word for “pearl” (margarita), but its French form, Marguerite, is the same as the French word for the daisy flower (hence the traditional nickname Daisy). So there are a few layers of meaning in the middle name Daisy! It could work as the “title of Mary” element: as I wrote in my book of Marian names,

“The common daisy flower (Bellis perennis) has also been known as Mary’s flower or Mary-Loves, and the oxeye daisy (chrysanthemum leucanthemum) has also been known as Mary’s Star.”

Additionally, since Daisy is connected to Margaret, and Margaret means “pearl,” Tricia might also like this bit from the “Pearl” entry in my book:

“Though Pearl is a variant of Margaret, since Margaret means “pearl” (Latin: margarita), Pearl can take its place as a Marian name through the fact that Our Lady is referred to as ‘Pearl of Virgins’ in the Litany of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows.”

The connection to Our Lady of Sorrows can also be appropriate for this baby based on the due date, since the last four are connected to Jesus’ Passion and Death (The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross; the Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross; the Descent from the Cross, where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms; the Burial of Jesus).

  • Dolores: this is in keeping with the older feel of Martha and Agnes, and Tricia’s planned nickname of Della is darling! That said, I’m a big fan of finding names that both mom and dad like, so my advice would be for them to shelve this one for now since her hubby doesn’t like it (though it is perfect for a Good Friday baby!)
  • Anna: I love the name Anna! It’s one of my very favorites BUT — they already have Adam, and I’m going to propose some additional A names below that I like better for them than Anna, so my vote is to either cross Anna off the list entirely, or consider a related/soundalike/nickname-connected name like Susanna or Hannah. I have seven boys, and for all of them, if they’d been a girl, our chosen name was Susanna. We intended to use Anna for a nickname, which Tricia and her hubby might like as well! Hannah is another great option — it’s the same name as Anna etymologically-speaking, and gives them a different initial from Adam with nearly the same sound as Anna; it can also honor Tricia as an Ann name, since Ann is her middle name. I like that both Susanna and Hannah are Old Testament names like Noah and Adam, too.
  • Monica: Monica also has that older feel, and I do love it, but I’m also thinking of their Maria and Martha and how adding Monica to the mix is really M-heavy.
  • Catharine/Kate: How could I not love this name, with my own name being Katherine/Kate?! It’s a great option, and so timeless — it fits right in with the older names Tricia likes, and Kate is specifically a style match for Adam.
  • Greta: This was one of the reasons I thought of Daisy as a middle name for Agnes! I love Greta — it’s one of my favorites of the Margaret names, and it, too, has that older feel. I gave a lot of thought to how Tricia could honor her dad, Gregory Michael, and I think she could consider Greta to be for him, given that they both begin with “Gre.” If she did something like Greta Michaela or Greta Michelle, that could really hammer home the point.
  • Matilda and Gloria: Tricia’s style is so clear!
  • Avila and Zelie: I see these names a lot with the families I work with — I think of them as “new favorites” among Catholic families, while still being traditional names with solid, saintly history and usage. If Tricia’s concern is solely related to pronunciation, I would be inclined to advise her not to worry too much about that — Zelie especially is becoming more and more common (I wrote about it several years ago; as an added data point, my 9yo has a girl in his class named Xaylie). It is true that the names Tricia likes are ones that generally won’t be mispronounced, so I can see why the possibility of mispronunciations might bother her. At the same time, so many “normal” names have the possibility of being mispronounced — Madeline and Caroline can be said to rhyme with “lynn” or “line”; I’ve seen some people think Sean is pronounced like “seen”; even Maria is said like Mariah sometimes in England — and I always tell parents to just be firm and consistent with correcting people and teach their children to be as well.
  • The middle name ideas: I love all of these! I find it especially fun to discover that someone has a middle name that’s unexpected, which these parents have done with Joy and Lily, and their middle name list is similar! To me, unexpected middle names are the ones that don’t follow the traditional path of names like Marie, Rose, and Grace, which have been incredibly common for girls (for a reason — they’re incredibly beautiful!). I also like when currently popular first names are used as middle names, like they did with Martha Lily. That particular point made me think to suggest Sophie or Sophia as an addition to their middle name list, since, like Sage, they also mean “wisdom.”
  • Gabriel: Because Tricia doesn’t like the possibility of mispronounced names, I feel like I have to share that I know a Gabriel who frequently has to deal with people (doctor offices, for example) thinking his name is pronounced like “Gabrielle” (which I know is legit as the Spanish pronunciation, but he uses the English pronunciation and lives in a predominantly English-speaking area). I’m always surprised by that — I would never have thought that Gabriel was a difficult or unfamiliar name, given that it’s biblical and all! I would imagine this would be a dealbreaker for Tricia, so my suggestion is to make it a middle name. I particularly like it with John — John Gabriel is so handsome! Especially for a March 25 baby, like she said.
  • John: I think of John as one of those names that can take a bigger/more unusual/out-there middle name, which, as I’ve mentioned a few times already, I love! Johnny and Jack are great nickname options, too.
  • Luke: I love how Marian Luke is, not only his connection to the various images of Our Lady with the Child Jesus (Our Lady of Częstochowa as Tricia mentioned; Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a particular devotion of the Redemptorist Order, which founded my parish; etc.), but also that his gospel is the most Marian and contains her beautiful Magnificat.
  • Judah: I do love Judah — the sound, the “h” on the end, all of it — BUT I do think that its similarity to Judas might be a little too much for a Holy Week baby? Especially Holy Thursday?
  • David: I loved discovering that “Tower of David” is one of Our Lady’s titles! David also fits in really nicely with the Old Testament-ness of Noah and Adam. My older boys have a friend who has always gone by Davy, even now as a high school junior — I love, love Davy! So sweet!
  • Ambrose/Bo: You are speaking my language! We had Ambrose on our list of possibilities, and coming up with nickname ideas was one of my favorite things. Bo was definitely one of them! I also thought of Sam, Bram, and Brody (especially if paired with a “D” middle name, like Ambrose David). However, Tricia and her husband have a definitely style going on with their older kids, and the more unusual names on their list seem better suited to middle names I think. Again, I’ll go back to John: John Ambrose is incredible! They could even still do Bo as a nickname if they want (one of my boys goes exclusively by a nickname of his middle name and it hasn’t been a problem at all).
  • Pascal/Cal: Another awesome name that was on my own list! And I LOVE Cal! John Pascal (or similar) would be my preference for this family for the reasons I mentioned above, and would be really great for an Easter baby.

Tricia also gave a list of family members they’d like to honor if possible — I had a couple thoughts that I thought might be helpful:

  • Theresa June: I love both Theresa and June! They’d both be lovely for a girl. Junia is a biblical name — I wonder if that would appeal to Tricia in honor of her mom?
  • Krista Lynn: I was thinking that Kristopher could be a great middle name to honor Tricia’s mother-in-law! Maybe John Kristopher?
  • Gregory Michael: I had mentioned Greta above as a possible way to nod to Tricia’s dad; I also wanted to point out that the name Greer is derived from Gregory. I don’t think Greer is this family’s style, but maybe as a middle name?
  • John Samuel: John as a first or middle is great!

Okay, on to new ideas! I did my usual research, looking up in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link) the names they’ve already used and those they like as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I also considered details of Holy Thursday that might offer some inspiration. Based on all that, these are my ideas:

Girl

(1) Abigail

Abigail is a style match for this family according to the BNW, but what originally inspired me to add it to the list was that Holy Thursday is when Jesus instituted the priesthood, and Abby is similar to Abbey and Abbott, which can be considered priest-y!

(2) Olive

Olive has that “older” feel of so many of the names Tricia likes, and was also inspired by Jesus going to the Mount of Olives on Holy Thursday night.

(3) Carmel or Carmen

These names were my attempt at finding a name similar to Avila and Zelie but without the pronunciation issues that Tricia’s worried about. Carmel is a holy place name like Avila, and has, to me, an “older generation” feel (I know an older lady named Carmel); Carmen is a variant of Carmel, if they prefer that form more. A bonus is that these names can be related to Holy Thursday, too! They mean “garden,” which calls to mind Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. I really like this idea for them.

(4) Mandy

This is inspired by Holy Thursday’s alternate and old name of Maundy Thursday; “Maundy” derives from the word mandatum and refers to Jesus’ words from Holy Thursday: “I give you a new commandment.” Mandy can be a reasonable nod to it, right? Mandy is one of those sweet nicknames that always feels so affectionate to me! I have a friend named Mary Angeline who goes by Mandy — I would love to suggest that here, except that they have a Maria already! Amanda is the most familiar way to get Mandy, and means “beloved,” which is fantastic; it also doesn’t start with M, which is something I’m trying to stay away from because of Maria and Martha. In the style of Mary Angeline, maybe something like … Amata Nadine? Angela Madeline? (Or Madelynn, incorporating Tricia’s mother-in-law’s name?) This could be fun to work with!

(5) Elizabeth

I love that Elizabeth has the biblical connection that the other kids have, and the Visitation is one of my favorite Marian feasts. I also thought Tricia might like the nickname Ella, since she has Della as a nickname idea for Dolores (which I love!).

Boy

(1) Andrew

Andrew is a style match per the BNW, but I also consider it (and other An- names, like Anson and Anthony) to be a possible way of honoring an Ann (St. Ann, and/or, in this case, Tricia because it’s her middle name), which I think makes this a really strong choice for them!

(2) Benjamin

I was very influenced by the fact that Noah and Adam have Old Testament names, so when I saw Benjamin listed as a style match, I thought it was a great choice! I think Ben is one of the friendliest nicknames.

(3) Nathan or Nathanael/Nathaniel

Nate was the inspiration here — it was listed as a style match for this family — and I like both Nathan and Nathaniel as the formal name for it. Using Nate as a nickname would probably knock Catharine/Kate out of the running for the future, but maybe that’s a chance they’d like to take? Nathan is shorter like Noah and Adam, and I love what I consider to be the Old Testament feel of Nathanael/Nathaniel (it feels weighty like Abraham and Melchizedek and Solomon). Nathanael has the added benefit of being an alternate name of the apostle Bartholomew, who of course was at the Last Supper — a nice Holy Thursday connection.

(4) Caleb

Caleb sounds like a natural brother for Noah and Adam, and it can take the nickname Cal, which they already have on their list for Pascal!

(5) Oliver

Finally, Oliver, which I’m including for the same reasons as Olive above. It’s one of the sweetest names, and I love that it can have a Holy Thursday connection via the Mount of Olives.

Tricia said she’d “love more ideas especially with possible holy day birthdays, maybe what [my] favorites are,” so I went through the feast days from two weeks before her due date to two weeks after, and these jumped out as me as possible ideas, either as a first or a middle:

March 14: Eve, for Bl. Eve of Liège and Our Lady (the “New Eve”)

March 15: Clement or Clementine for St. Clement Mary Hofbauer (my parish’s patron and one of my favorites) and Our Lady (“O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary”); Peter or Pascal for Bl. Peter Pasquale

March 17: Patrick, for St. Patrick

March 18: Clement, Clementine, or Mercy for Our Lady of Mercy

March 19: Joseph, for St. Joseph

March 20: Lucy for St. Photina of Rome, the name traditionally given to the Samaritan woman (Photina means “light” and so does Lucy)

March 28: Kristopher for Bl. Christopher Wharton and Tricia’s mother-in-law

March 29: Agnes for Bl. Agnes of Chatillon (she’s also celebrated the day before by the Cistercians)

March 30: Irene for St. Irene of Rome

March 31: Benjamin for St. Benjamin the Deacon

April 1: Sofia or Zofia for Bl. Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska

April 7: John for St. John Baptist de La Salle

April 8: Julia for St. Julia Billiart

April 11: Helen for Bl. Elena Guerra

This is not an exhaustive list of holy ones with feast days during that four-week period, just ones that jumped out at me. If you’d like to look through them yourself, start here and go forward day by day.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little sister or brother of Noah, Maria, Adam, and Martha?

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation 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!

Birth announcement: Marigold Elizabeth!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , , ,

I posted a consultation for Maria and her husband in June, and I’m so very happy to share today, on the feast of the Queenship of Mary, that their little girl arrived and has been given the amazing name … Marigold Elizabeth!

Maria writes,

“We are so happy to announce the safe arrival of Marigold Elizabeth. Our sweet Mary born on August 9 at 1:45 pm.

Although we originally came to you looking for a unique middle name for Mary, your mention of Marigold made us realized it was just the perfect first name! We plan to also call her Mary.

Once we landed on Marigold, the more traditional Elizabeth was just the right fit for a middle name, giving us that a Mary-Elizabeth visitation connection that I also have in my name.”

Isn’t this just so perfect?!! And today is the perfect day to post this announcement because the feast of the Queenship of Mary has been taken by two of my other Marigold mamas as the name day for their little girls (here, here) (the gold of her crown –> Mary’s gold). I absolutely love it! And for this family, who had originally decided on Mary for the first name, using Mary as a nickname for Marigold is just right. I love it all!

Congratulations to Maria and her husband and big sibs Samuel, Phoebe, and Anna, and happy birthday Baby Marigold!!

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!