Baby name consultant: Green bean No. 5 needs an elegant, slightly offbeat name

Happy Memorial Day everyone!! 🗽 Many many thanks to all those who died in defense of our country. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May then rest in peace. 💕 🙏

Colleen and her husband who are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean! 🌱 He or she is joining big sibs:

Hanna Marie
Angele Therese nicked Angie
Nadia Renee
Leo Sebastian

Such gorgeous, elegant names!!

Colleen writes,

“We like some slightly offbeat, heavier French but some foreign-ness to them names that can be normalized if people flip out (such as Angie), but they do need to stem from saints or have a faithful meaning.”

This is such a fun “theme” to work with — there are so many delicious names to choose from!

Names they’re currently considering include:

Girl
— Margaret Alice
— Elizabeth Anne
— Azelie Colette/Catherine
— Rosemary Bernadette
— Gloria Mercy
— Annelise
— Bridgette (“this is the only name that [my hubs] has brainstormed to me, so I put weight on it. This was back when we were expecting Nadia, and he now doesn’t remember, but when I said it without saying its source, he swooned all over again“)
— Mireille (“I love these Marian-looking French names. One just as pretty but slightly easier to pronounce would be great. I understand this would be something like “meer-AY”“)
Ruth

Boy
— Louis Clement (frontrunner; “I have huge devotion to the famous saintly Martin family (Louis, Zelie, and their children), so Louis would be pronounced the French “Loo-ee.” Clement for the year of mercy“)
— Louis Jerome (further 2nd place; “Jerome meaning holy name, from what I can find, and obviously a saintly background“)
— Samuel Joseph (“it’s fading in both of our love for it, but we haven’t 100% nixed it“)
— Jeanluc Vianney (“love it, love the double 1st name, but I worry that it’s SO French“)
— Joachim Vianney (“I’d do a nickname of either Joah or Jovi … [Colleen’s hubs isn’t feeling it, but his] oldest brother’s full name is Jory Christopher, so that sound combo is already familiar, but unused. I also think Joachim Vianney ties together Hanna and Angie’s names with Hebrew & French“)

(Omgoodnessgracious you guys! Did you see that JOACHIM is on her list?! Hurrah!! 😍 🎉)

Colleen says,

“I feel like we have a lot of lovely options if this baby is a girl, but not a lot for a boy. We are pretty smitten with the idea of Leo & Louis bopping around being boys together, but we’re so used to girl options…it feels strange to have so few for boys!“

And an additional consideration in regards to girl names is that,

“[T]he frontrunners right now are either Rosemary Bernadette or Gloria Mercy. I have concerns about a Gloria coming next, though.

Our Angie is aptly named, and is our sensitive soul. If we have a Hanna, Nadia, and Gloria, and ANGIE…even though I think her full name is the most elegant of them all, Angie will hear and FEEL that she’s the only “ee” girl. She would love a girl named Gracie or Rosie. I love the name Rosie as well. Gracie/Grace is lovely, but [my hubs] doesn’t go for (English language, clearly Nadia means Hope, but he wouldn’t consider Hope itself) virtue first names. But he’ll accept Rosemary. Win-win there.”

Finally, names they like but can’t use for various reasons include:

Ellis
Wilson
Michael
Anthony
Kolbe
Thomas
Nathan
Andrew
David
Lincoln
Martin

Alrighty! So first, some thoughts about the names on their list of considerations:

I think it’s so sweet they’re worried about Angie and her sweet sensitivity! It played a big role in the names I came up with for girls for Colleen and her hubs (below). Rosemary certainly takes care of that, and I also wondered if they’d consider nicknaming Gloria “Glory,” or just using Glory as the full name? Or Mercy as the first name? Or Mercedes nicked Mercy? I love Mercedes for them! (Spotlight on it here.) Also Bernadette as a first name could go by Bernie or Birdie or Benny … but is the –nadette part too similar to Nadia?

The rest of their girl ideas are great, and I only had a couple thoughts, like: What about Marguerite instead of Margaret, to up the French aspect? What about Elisabeth instead of Elizabeth? (Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur is a favorite of mine.) Annelise seems a bit much with Hanna, but it made me think they might like just Elise instead of the full Eliz/sabeth.

Mireille is gorgeous! I wondered if the variants Mireia or Mireya might be easier? And Bridgette is beautiful, and I agree with Colleen — any time my husband tells me he likes a name I try to figure out how to make it work, because he rarely offers ideas. I also love Ruth, especially Ruthie — that could be Angie’s “ee” name! Though they didn’t ask for middle name ideas, I’m really digging the first+middle combo Ruth Azelie, swoon!

For boys, Louis Clement and Louis Jerome are fab, no quibbles here.

Samuel Joseph is so handsome, and Jeanluc Vianney! Wow! I had a couple thoughts about Jeanluc — first, if they did JohnLuke or John Luke or Johnluke or John-Luke (which I think is my favorite) they could still have the French feel and the double first name without all the Jeanluc-ness of it, you know? John-Luke Vianney is so handsome! (It made me wonder if they’d considered Vianney as a first name for a girl? It’s got that “ee” ending, like Angie, and the family at the blog My Child I Love You has a little girl named Vianney. They also have a Clairvaux, who goes by Clair sometimes, and I thought that was a great suggestion for this family as well.)

And of course I love that Colleen loves Joachim! A girl after my own heart! I was thinking … if she really wanted to try to convince her hubs … would pairing Joachim with a middle name like Robert or Gregory or Gerard or Jerome and using the nickname Jory appeal to him? Using his brother’s name Jory as a nickname as a nickname for Joachim + [something with R in the middle] makes it feel more familiar and connected to family …

As for new ideas for Colleen and her hubs, I struggled a bit, mostly because I rely so heavily on the Baby Name Wizard to point me in the right direction (it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity), and so many of their names weren’t in it (like Angele … there’s Angela, but I don’t think Stephanie, Tamara, and Melissa are style matches for Angele like they are for Angela). And I was really feeling the French vibe, but then Nadia brings in a Slavic element … So I just went ahead and made a list of names I *thought* might work, with some help from the BNW as well as my own mental files.

Girls
(1) Domitille
Back in November I posted a pseudo consultation for a family who likely won’t have any more babies, but wanted to have some fun thinking of ideas in the slight possibility that they might. The mom is from France and the dad is Irish-American and they decided the mom would name the girls and the dad would name the boys. So the girls all have French names, and the boys all have Irish! Haha! Anyway, the French girls’ names are super French, being that the mom is French, and I thought of them right away when working on this for Colleen and her hubs. One of the girls is Domitille, and she sometimes goes by Domi (DO-mee), which I thought fit right in with Angie (and Domitille ends in –le like Angele!). (Their other girls have beautiful names as well, and I suggested a bunch more French names to them, so I think it’s definitely worth a look!)

(2) Sylvie
I was definitely on an “ee” kick (you’ll see it in my next two suggestions as well!), and French was my main inspiration, so Sylvie was a natural fit. A mom told me recently that she named her daughter Sylvie Regina and I almost died with happiness, what a great combo! I love how it sounds so much like Salve Regina.

(3) Lucie
Lucy was listed as a style match for Leo and Alice, and I thought it really went with the sweetness of their other girls’ names, but I loved the idea of changing the spelling to the French Lucie. I think they could also think of Lucie as a nod to St. Louis Martin, because of its similarity in sound, or I’ve often thought Lucy/Lucie could be a natural nickname for Louisa, so maybe they’d like to consider that?

(4) Felicity
I know, Felicity is neither French nor any kind of exotic, but I love it, and it’s a style match for Annelise, which is pretty cool (I do love Annelise). I waffled about whether or not to include it here, and ultimately decided to because I love seeing Hanna, Angele, Nadia, Leo, and Felicity listed together. It’s a totally subjective gut-reaction kind of thing.

Boys
(1) Maximilian
Even though I found it harder to come up with ideas for boys, I tried to come up with a few more than girls’ names, because they seem so set with girls’ names. Maxim is a style match for Nadia, Max for Leo, Maximilian for Sebastian, and Maxwell for Annelise. So Max- names seemed like they’d be the kind this family would like, and if I had to guess, I think Maximilian would be their favorite out of all of them. And it’s St. Maximilian Kolbe without the Kolbe that’s on their no-go list!

(2) Gerard
I always think of Gerard and Jerome together, so seeing that they’re considering Jerome for a middle name made me think of Gerard. Then I saw that it’s a match for Therese and Colette—voila! Certainly Gerry/Jerry’s a natural nickname, but I also like the idea of Ged/Jed.

(3) Gregory
Gregory is 100% inspired by Leo. Leo, to me, is always Pope St. Leo the Great, and Gregory is Pope St. Gregory the Great. Two Pope St. the Greats have to be brothers! Rory and Gus are two nicknames I think are a bit more current than Greg (Gus could come from something like Gregory Stephen, ohhh my).

(4) Xavier
My brother has a Leo and I suggested incorporating Xavier for their second son, because for some reason I always think of them as going together. I think Xavier has some good use in France, and it’s certainly got the saintly cred.

(5) Blaise
Blaise is one of my favorite names for a boy, because its fiery sound totally reminds me of my own little boys whizzing around the house/yard/you name it. And it’s French!

(6) Dominic/k
Finally, Dominic or Dominik. I kept trying to find names that ventured a little bit from French into maybe Slavic territory, a la Nadia, and Dominik seemed like a really good fit. The “k” ending makes it seem just a little more Nadia-esque, but the Dominic spelling is fine too, and in fact my father-in-law’s dad was from Poland and spelled his name Dominic, so either one could be great. I love Dominic/k as a brother to Leo and to their girls.

And those are my ideas for Colleen and her hubs! What do you think? What names would you suggest for a little brother or sister for Hanna, Angele, Nadia, and Leo?

Name ideas for imaginary Baby No. 10

May 26, 2016 sanctanomina Baby name consultant Catholic baby names, Mary, Men Who Love Mary

One of you lovely readers sent me the link to this article about John Clark of Seton Magazine, because he lists the full names of his nine children:

Athanasius Chrysostom
Veronica Marie
Demetrius Innocent
Tarcisius Bellarmine
Philomena Guadalupe
Dominica Rose
Bonaventure Duns Scotus
Immaculata Faustyna
Mary Katherine

After I stopped absolutely dead-faint swooning over those names (!!!), I was excited to read this bit:

“I am open to suggestions for the next child, if by the generosity of God there is a tenth. Maybe Lisa and I should initiate a naming contest—submit ideas for the name and the winner gets a free dinner for four at Jack in the Box. If you are inclined to do so, be sure that the name is: 1) at least four syllables, 2) the name of a doctor of the Church, and/or 3) someone who directly conversed with Jesus.”

And I know he was being cheeky but I also had to see how recent the article was, just in case, but alas it’s from 2010 and I did a tiny bit of research and he’s still listed as a dad of nine so I don’t think there were any more babies. But I couldn’t let such a fun opportunity go by! I gave it some thought and came up with these ideas:

Girl

(1) Archangela

Reader Lisa let me know about Bl. Archangela Girlani not that long ago and I’ve been loving her name ever since. It’s four syllables and while her profile doesn’t say she conversed with Jesus she did have the gifts of ecstasy, levitation, and miracles. So there’s that.

(2) Apollonia

Five syllables! Also not a Doctor or conversed with Jesus, but “After her teeth were broken with pincers, she was given the choice of renouncing Christ or being burned alive; she lept onto the fire herself.” A nice twofer here too for any Godfather fans. 😉

(3) Christiana

I just looove the name Christiana. And why name after a saint who conversed with Jesus when you can name after Jesus Himself?!

(4) Maristella

I think we all got swoony over this name when this mama used it for her lovely little lady! A beautiful name to honor Our Lady, who did indeed converse with Jesus.

Boy

(1) Theophilus

The book of Luke and the book of Acts are addressed to Theophilus, meaning “friend of God.” A nice little twist on Theodore!

(2) Nicodemus

Nicodemus is another of my favorite fantasy names! I’ll never be able to convince my husband of it, but it sounds like John Clark could be convinced! Nicodemus in the bible helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare the body of Jesus for burial. ❤ (Also … Arimathea? Hmmm….)

(3) Stanislaus

I posted a little recently about St. John Paul’s devotion to St. Stanislaus of Cracow. Every time I see his name I think of JP2 and the fall of Communism. Awesome awesome associations. Stanislaus is a rule-breaker at only three syllables, but it’s so long — it just looks like a four-syllable name, doesn’t it?

(4) Maolmhuire

I’ve suggested Miles a million times because it’s used as an anglicization of Maolmhuire, an old Irish name meaning, “servant of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” But I’m thinking that for the Clark family, Maolmhuire might be the preferred version! I *think* it’s said male-MWEE-rah, which is only three syllables, but I could be wrong, both about the pronunciation and the number of syllables. Maelmarius is given as the Latin variant — maybe that’s a better bet?

And those are my ideas for imaginary Clark Baby No. 10! What about y’all? Can you think of names that would follow John Clark’s “rules”?

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

May 23, 2016 sanctanomina Baby name consultant Biblical names, Catholic baby names, French names, German names, Mary

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

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

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

Monica writes,

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

Names they like/have considered include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birth announcement: Beatrice Lucia Marie!

May 14, 2016 sanctanomina Birth announcement, Uncategorized Catholic baby names, Italian names, Mary

I posted a consultation back in February for Elizabeth and her husband, and she’s just let me know her baby girl has arrived and been given the gorgeous name … Beatrice Lucia Marie!

Elizabeth writes,

“I feel like proclaiming “Habemus Nomen!” Baby Beatrice is 1 month old today, and we just finalized her name! I’m notoriously bad at decisions, and this was a particularly tough one.

Beatrice Lucia Marie arrived on April 13 at 5:27am (after an amazing but whirlwind less-than-5-hour labor in which we made it to the birth center just 13 minutes before she was born). She was a perfect 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 19 inches long.

Here’s basically how it went:

We had pretty much narrowed first names down to Mary or Beatrice in the last few weeks of pregnancy. I was almost certain her name would be Mary, so I was surprised that when we saw her, we were both knew immediately that she was not a “Mary.” It still took us a good 48 hours to commit to “Beatrice.” But we were at a total loss on her middle name. We had too many great options and none that filled every criteria we had. We narrowed it down to Lucia, Chiara, Vittoria, Maria and Caterina and then down to Lucia, Chiara, or Caterina. We love St. Catherine of Siena. She’s such a powerhouse saint and one of the 2 patrons of Italy (along with St. Francis of Assisi). The fact that I lived in Siena for 6 months in college and Brian has visited there with me a couple of times was a big draw, too. And I just love her quote about setting the world on fire…But I felt like I just couldn’t come to terms with the potential mispronunciation, and I actually prefer Catherine, so maybe we’ll keep that in mind for a future daughter! 🙂 We went back and forth on Chiara and Lucia. I really liked that there is so much more documented about Chiara and the connection to Francesco (George’s middle name, as I’m sure you recall), and now there’s also Bl. Chiara “Luce” Badano. In the end, though, we decided that Lucia just fit her best. And we like the way it flows. And neither of us wanted to let it go since we’d loved the name from the start. And George called her Lucy for weeks during my pregnancy. We still struggled with the fact that so little is known about St. Lucia… but the essence of her story is so relevant to a Catholic growing up today. Lucia is such a strong example of standing up for your faith in a society that is (sometimes/often) hostile to it. Plus we love that it means light. And Beatrice could also claim Bl. Chiara Badano as a patron with the Luce-Lucia link.

As I said before, I was really hoping for a Marian name for baby Bea, and maybe they’re a stretch, but I came up with a few connections that I like (and I thought you’d appreciate). First, St. Beatrice founded the Order of the Immaculate Conception. Also, Beatrice in Italian is simply blessed (“beata” — or “beatus” in Latin) + ending indicating a female (“trice”). So, even though it’s usually said to mean “bringer of joy” or “she who brings joy” (which I love), to my Italian-centric ear it’s more accurately “she who is blessed,” which immediately makes me think of the Blessed Virgin Mary and “blessed are you among women…” Also the initials B.L.M. make me think of “Blessed Mother.” (Not quite so obvious as B.V.M. but it’s still reminiscent of Our Lady.) Then there’s Lucia of Fatima. And did you know there’s a Madonna della Luce/Our Lady of Light? So… Marian connections! Finally, at 2 weeks, we had the birth center send in her official documents with the name Beatrice Lucia!

But I still felt like something was missing and wasn’t totally at peace about her name. I even called our state’s department of health to see what the rules were for changing middle names on the birth certificate. (You have until the baby is a year old to change the name! I think that includes first and middle names.) I really wanted her to have a form of Mary in her name, and we talked about adding Marie as a second middle. I liked the idea of carrying on the tradition of “Marie” (both my mom’s and my middle name), but both Brian and I had mixed feelings about a double middle name (for a few reasons, mostly logistics though). We’d been praying about it, and stumbled across the solution when we were finalizing the info for her baptismal certificate. (She’ll be baptized this Sunday!) When I mentioned our middle name dilemma to the office manager at church and asked if it might be an issue if we changed her middle name later, she said the name on her baptismal certificate did not have to match her legal name. Total lightbulb moment! I called Brian immediately, and we decided that the perfect solution would be to have her baptized as Beatrice Lucia Marie and keep her legal name as Beatrice Lucia! (For now… we have 11 months to change our minds about that. ;)) I immediately felt a flood of peace about the whole thing, which had been weighing on me heavily since she was born. I’m so glad that she’ll have Marie as an official, even if not legal, part of her name! Bonus, I think my mom is pretty happy about it. 🙂 It’s great that she has connections to all sides of our family, too: Beatrice (mother-in-law’s suggestion and, inexplicably, her nickname in Jr. High(!)), Bea (my paternal grandmother’s nickname), Lucia (husband’s paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Lucas), and Marie (my mom’s middle name and mine)….

We’ll mostly call her Beatrice but also use the nickname “Bea.” (She ended up being born the day before my grandmother’s birthday (Albina a.k.a “Bea”)!)

We’ve also gotten a bit creative with other nicknames. I’m not sure if any of these will stick, but I thought you’d appreciate them.

Bertie/Birdie
BettyLu
Beats
Bea (“bay-ah”; nn for Italian pronunciation of “bay-ah-tree-chay)
Bella (first and last letters of her first and middle names)“

I’m all a-swoon over all these details!! What a beautiful, thoughtful, meaningful name Elizabeth and her husband have chosen for their little girl!!

Baby Beatrice joins equally well-named big brother:

George Francesco

Nice job, Mom and Dad! Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Beatrice!!

Beatrice Lucia Marie with her big brother and parents

Birth announcement: Clara Grace!

May 11, 2016 sanctanomina Birth announcement Catholic baby names, Mary, Powerful patrons

I posted a consultation for Maureen and her husband back in March, and she’s let me know her baby girl has arrived and been given the loveliest lovely … Clara Grace!

Maureen writes,

“Just wanted to let you know that our Clara Grace entered the world on Wednesday May 4 at 4:37am. She was 8lbs. 10oz. and 21.25″ long and we love her to pieces already. She is learning to sleep through big sister, Eleanor’s antics and Eleanor is learning to show her affection gently. We can’t thank you enough for helping us name our sweet girl!“

Clara Grace!! I love it!! Extra exciting is that Clara was one of the ideas I offered in the consultation!! 😍 👊 🎉

Congratulations to Mom and Dad and big sister Eleanor Maureen, and happy birthday Baby Clara!!

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Clara Grace

Birth announcement: Bernadette Rosemary!

May 10, 2016 sanctanomina Birth announcement, Uncategorized Catholic baby names, Mary, Powerful patrons

I did a private consultation for Hannah and her husband a couple of months ago, and I was delighted to be alerted to this on Twitter a couple weeks ago:

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So I clicked over to see this birth announcement:

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Bernadette Rosemary!!! What a beautifulllll name!!! I emailed Hannah to congratulate her and she offered this further fun bit of name info:

“We were going back and forth about her name for almost a day until we decided on Bernadette. It has always been one of my favorite names and Saints, and I just kept going back to it. We really loved Regina “Ruby” as well though, and my husband was loving Zelie. Ultimately, Bernadette just felt so right and I love it more every time I say her name. I think what was holding me back was not having a nick name that I loved for her, but for now we just call her by her full name, and it feels so right.

I was set on Frances for her middle name but Ralph didn’t love it. I thought it would be a great idea to honor Mary with her middle name because of Saint Bernadette’s devotion to Mary. Rose was also my grandmothers name so Rosemary it was! I love the combination of the two names and how “old fashioned” they sound together.”

I love name stories like that, where a bunch of different elements come together and just feel right. ((sighing with happiness))

Baby Bernadette joins her amazingly named big sibs:

Jack Timothy
Remy Patrick
Liam Edwin
Lucille Estelle

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Bernadette!!

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Bernadette Rosemary

Birth announcement: Mercy Adelaide!

May 8, 2016 sanctanomina Birth announcement Catholic baby names, Jubilee Year of Mercy, Mary, Powerful patrons

A mama I did a private consultation has let me know her baby girl has arrived, and she’s been given the fabulous first+middle combo … Mercy Adelaide!

She writes,

“Thanks for all of your suggestions, it brought about a lot of conversation regarding naming our baby. We considered all of your suggestions as well as our list. We still were undecided even after she was born. We needed to meet her to know for sure. She was born 4/7/2016 at 3:01 am (so early!) and was 7lbs. 1 oz. and 20 inches. We settled on Mercy Adelaide. Mercy for the reasons you suggested, and it has also had a deeper meaning for our family in recent months. Adelaide means kindness, and she’s also the Patron Saint of large families, which is now fitting.”

I’m just dying over Mercy Adelaide, what an amazingly awesome name for a little girl!! I would love it anyway, but it’s so extra great that she was born during the Year of Mercy, how meaningful. She joins her equally well named big siblings:

Molly Justine
Milo Remy
Maisy Marian
Maren Thérèse
Marina Thomas (with Jesus)

I love seeing sibsets that begin with the same letter, and this is a pretty amazing bunch of names. Well done, Mom and Dad!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Mercy!!

Mercy Adelaide with her mama

For you all, in honor of Our Lady during her month of May

May 7, 2016 sanctanomina Sancta Nomina community Mary

May is Mary’s month* and in honor of her I wanted to do something for all of you wonderful readers who have brought such joy to my life through our shared love for the beautiful names of our faith. I chose today to share this small gift with you, because it’s Saturday (which is Mary’s day) of Mother’s Day weekend!**

Are you all familiar with the National Shrine of Divine Mercy? It’s a beautiful, holy place, and one of the places where I was blessed with one of the turning points in my faith life many years ago when I was in college. In this Year of Mercy and this month of Our Lady, it seemed especially fitting to light a candle there for you in the Shrine’s Our Lady of Mercy Candle Shrine.

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I was so happy to find this place of intercessory prayer — how wonderful that “all intentions are remembered by the Congregation of Marians each day during Mass and their personal prayers, and by the Diving Mercy Intercessory Prayer Ministry”!! And how awesome that “Each prayer intention is prayed for individually before the Blessed Sacrament in Our Lady of Mercy Oratory”!!

These were my specific intentions:

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I loved that I was able to state specifically the intentions I was asking prayer for, and the “We will also pray for your additional intentions” bit refers to a menu of more general intentions that I could check off — these were the ones I chose to add:

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I hope May is a blessed month for you all! With love and gratitude, in the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. ❤ ❤ ❤

* Be sure to check out the beautiful readings about Mother Mary for each day of the month in that link. I love that today we honor her role as “Our Model in Ordinary Life” and tomorrow her role as “Mother of Christ” — perfect!

** My 6yo likes to tell me I’m the “second best mom in the whole world!” He’s referring to Mary as the best mom, of course. 😂 😍 ❤

Baby name consultant: Sole Searching Mama’s Baby No. 7

May 5, 2016 sanctanomina Baby name consultant Biblical names, Catholic baby names, Mary

Happy Feast of the Ascension y’all!! 😀 I’m delighted to mark this holy day with a consultation for a mama who, like me, has six boys!

Susan, from the blog Sole Searching Mama (so clever!), and her husband Steve expect their seventh baby any day (she’s taking prayer requests to offer during her labor and delivery, so be sure to send her your special intentions!). They don’t know if the baby’s a boy or a girl, and I know she feels similarly to me in that another boy would be as happily welcomed as a baby girl, but of course it’s so fun to wonder if a Little Miss is about to make her debut after allllll those brothers!

Those brothers are the handsomely named:

Benedict Steven Robert
Andrew Simon Joseph
George Patrick Thomas
Henry James Augustine
Charles Gabriel Francis
Joseph William Karol

I love each combo — so saintly! So masculine!

Susan writes,

“Our “method” for choosing names is usually the same. We begin tossing around names of saints we love, and family names are also considered. Then, we pray about it, discuss, discuss, discuss, and then eventually a name comes together that we both mutually KNOW is the one.”

I love how she articulated their process — it’s similar to my own, and I’m sure a lot of you do this too!

They’re pretty well set on boy name ideas (though they’re open to hearing more, so I included a few ideas below) — it’s the girl name that’s a stumper! Susan says,

“I’m probably hyper-fixated on the girl name, and need not be, since given our present circumstances, the likelihood of us having a girl is slim. But, the Lord may surprise us yet!“

Names they’ve considered include:

Magdalene
Zelie
Ave
Maris
Therese
Clare

And names they like but can’t use include:

Elizabeth
Katherine
Gianna
Emma

I had so much fun working on this! With big families, it can sometimes feel like all the new ground has been long broken, but coming up with names for a girl after having all and many boys (or vice versa) is so new and different.

I wanted to comment quickly on the names Susan and her hubs like/have considered:

Gianna, Magdalene, Zelie, Ave, and Therese all have, to me, that Catholicky Catholic feel of Benedict’s first name and the middles Maximilian, Kolbe, Vianney, Augustine, Gabriel, and Karol, while Emma, Maris, and Clare are a little less obvious, more like the other boys’ first names. I like seeing that — it gives me a good sense of where their taste is. Emma is especially telling, since it’s really not obviously saintly (though it is, indeed, saintly).

So you all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard book as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Based on that research and my own mental files, these are my ideas for a little girl for Susan and Steve:

(1) Gemma
I probably would have ended up putting Gemma on the list of suggestions for them anyway, but when I read that they like both Gianna and Emma it was immediately clear to me that Gemma is an awesome choice for them! I love that it’s like Gianna and Emma put together, and St. Gemma Galgani is a great patron for a little girl. Another fun tidbit is that when I was looking up St. Emma, I came across a different St. Gemma—St. Gemma of Goriano—who’s also known as Emma! And her feast day is Mary 12, so close to Susan’s due date! The name is Italian in origin, meaning “gem,” which is also a great meaning for a little girl’s name to have, but it has a lot of use in England, which gives it a really English feel too, similar to Benedict, George, Henry, and Charles. (For example, see the British actress Gemma Jones, who’s been in films like Bridget Jones’ Diary, the Harry Potter movies, and Sense and Sensibility. Abby at Appellation Mountain also did an awesome spotlight.)

(2) Stella or Maristella
My next idea for them—and the first one I scribbled down when I was first reading Susan’s email—is Stella, totally inspired by Maris on their list. Though Maris has the lovely meaning “of the sea” and refers to Our Lady, Star of the Sea (Stella Maris), I think its meaning is almost completely diluted for those who aren’t familiar with it. Niles’ wife on Frasier was Maris, and when I hear it on its own, that’s what I think of. (Maybe most people are more refined than me? I hope! 😀 ) But if they were to put Maris together with Stella, as in Maristella (as this mom did, gorgeous!), then I think its meaning is more obvious. Maristella would be gorgeous for them, and is a bit like Magdalene from their list in terms of length and appearance, but I kind of like the trimmer Stella a bit more for them, especially if they did Stella Maris (first name + middle name). (Stellamaris is also a possibility.) (I don’t suppose Stella comes across as obviously Marian any more than Maris does, but for some reason it seems to me that it does.)

(3) Lucia or Lucy
Lucia was listed as a style match in the BNW for Gianna and Lucy was listed as a match for Henry, Charles/Charlie, and Emma, so I think either one (or Lucia nicknamed Lucy) would be a great idea for Susan and Steve.

(4) Margaret
Margaret is the third in the classic, regal girls’ names trio: Elizabeth, Katherine, and Margaret. There are lots of Sts. Margaret to choose from, and lots of sweet, traditional nickname options, like Maggie, Meg and Peg, Maisie and Daisy, Greta, and Rita.

(5) Anna or Annabel(le)
One of the things I love about looking names up in the BNW is writing down the matches for each name on the parents’ list and then looking for names that show up in more than one of those list of matches. Anna was a big hit for this family, being listed as similar in style/feel/popularity to Katherine, Joseph, Elizabeth, and Emma. I love the name Anna, and you all know St. Anne is Sancta Nomina’s patroness, so I love giving her lots of name love. There are so many pretty variants, like Ann(e), Hannah, Anya, and Annika, and mashups like Annelise/Anneliese and Annabeth that would allow for Anne and Elizabeth together in one name.

I know I’ve talked a lot recently about Annabel, which is a new love of mine — I love that it looks like an Anna name and could be considered so if desired, but actually has different roots: it seems it is, in origin, a variant of Amabel, which arose in Scotland in the Middle Ages … Amabel is a variant of Amabilis, which means “lovable” and was the name of a male saint, but it’s also part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis (Mother Most Amiable; amiable=lovable). How cool is that?? The spelling Annabelle makes it a bit frillier and looks more like Anna + belle (belle=beautiful), which is another nice layer of meaning.

Huh. But actually, now that I think about it … is Anna too similar to Andrew? I personally think that with so many children, and Andrew being #2 and this new baby being #7, it’s not that big a deal. But it is something Susan and Steve would have to think about and make their own decision about.

(6) Rosa or Rosemary or Rosanna
I love the sweet and spunky Rosa—it’s such a lovely name for a girl, and the nickname Rosie/Rosey is to die for. But I also love Rosemary for this family—to me, it’s one of those obviously Catholic names, and I kind of love that a little Rosemary would have her own herb. It can still take Rosie/Rosey as a nickname, or Romy, which is traditional as well. (Ooh, I just thought of Rosanna too—I love that! It gets in the Anna from above without any potential Andrew/Anna issue, and the Rose bit, which is Marian and lovely.)

There were a couple other names for girls I thought of that in the end I just didn’t think made the cut for my suggestions, for one reason or another, but I thought I’d list them just in case: Christiana, Leonie, Edith, Adelaide, Felicity, and Elodie.

Even though Susan and Steve are set with a boy’s name, they said they were open to hearing more ideas, so I came up with a few that really seemed to fit the style of their other boys’ names:

(1) Edmund or Edward
Edmund is a style match for Benedict and Therese and a nod to awesome St. Edmund Campion (also, Narnia!). Edward was actually a better match for this family, according to the BNW, being listed as similar to George, Henry, Charles, Joseph, and Elizabeth (wow!). St. Edward the Confessor is a particular fave of mine.

(2) Louis
This was totally inspired by Zelie, being her dear hubby’s name, and totally fits with the other boys.

(3) Dominic
I feel like there aren’t too many heavy-hitting Catholic names for boys that they haven’t already used, but Dominic is one. It’s similar to Benedict with that monastery/incense feel (which I love), and I think it fits in really well with the other boys.

(4) Luke
Luke is such a solid boy’s name, and I consider it to be a Marian name as well, as his gospel is the most Marian and contains her beautiful Magnificat.

(5) Leo
Leo has a really similar feel as Benedict and Dominic to me, and he’s a Pope St. the Great like JP2. So cool!

And those are all my ideas for Susan and Steve! What do you all think? What would you suggest for Boy No. 7 or Girl No. 1?

Names for the Luminous Mysteries

April 12, 2016 sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty Biblical names, JPII, Mary, Rosary names, Spanish names

Today marks the last post in our Mysteries of the Rosary series as we conclude with the Luminous Mysteries!

I know I went out of order, but it all made so much sense: I posted the Sorrowful Mysteries during Holy Week; the Glorious during the octave of Easter; the Joyful the day after the Feast of the Annunciation; and today’s Luminous Mysteries (also known as the Mysteries of Light), which were added to the Rosary during the Year of the Rosary by our beloved St. John Paul the Great in his beautiful Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (October 16, 2002), come a day after the feast of St. Stanislaus of Cracow, to whom JP2 had a great and subversive devotion. If I can digress for a moment, this is one of my favorite JP2 stories:

“A controversy arose [in Poland] over the proposed dates of John Paul II’s visit. The pope wanted to arrive to celebrate the nine hundredth anniversary of Poland’s patron saint, St. Stanislaus, whose feast day is traditionally celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 May [only in Poland — we celebrate it on April 11]. In 1079, Stanislaus, the bishop of Cracow, was beheaded by King Boleslaw II for denouncing royal oppression and fomenting a baronial rebellion against him. The legend of St. Stanislaus represented the moral justification for resistance to an oppressive state under the courageous leadership of the church. It linked Catholic morality and Polish history. While Stanislaus’s martyrdom resonated with the pope’s message supporting human rights, this was just the type of symbolic linkage the regime wanted to avoid.

The party opposed the May dates requested by the pope. While First Secretary Gierek wanted to welcome John Paul II in order to show that the PZPR was patriotic and one with the nation, he did not wish to strengthen the opposition or provide occasions for antiregime demonstrations. As Central Comittee secretary Stanislaw Kania put it: ‘Above all … the state leadership wants to demonstrate its happiness with the selection of a Polish pope.’ Gierek and Cardinal Wyszynski met to discuss the broad outlines for John Paul II’s visit. Then a special church-state commission spent many weeks working out the details. They finally reached a compromise: the church conceded that the pope would not come for the May anniversary of St. Stanislaus; instead John Paul II would visit in June but stay longer. The government agreed that the pope would be invited for nine days and would be allowed to visit six cities (rather than the two originally requested). Once the matter was settled, the ‘Polish church immediately announced a delay in the official [St. Stanislaus] anniversary celebrations until the Pope arrived.’ To add insult to injury, Pope John Paul II made it a point to mention St. Stanislaus in every sermon and at every stop along his journey. As masters of symbols and ceremony, the Polish church leaders were far more accomplished in public relations than their state functionary counterparts. IT was not going to be easy for the Communists to thwart the pope’s intentions for his pilgrimage.” (From Solidarity and contention: networks of Polish oppositions by Maryjane Osa, pp. 139-140)

That visit had huge repercussions (this and this are also quite good) and indeed it is said that ” John Paul II’s 1979 trip was the fulcrum of revolution which led to the collapse of Communism.” I can barely write it, so moving I find it all to be. That man. His courage. Thank God for him. ❤ ❤ ❤

Anyway! ((wipes eyes before continuing)) These are the Luminous Mysteries (read more here) (and here’s how to pray the Rosary):

The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
The Miracle at the Wedding Feast of Cana
The Proclamation of the Kingdom
Jesus’ Transfiguration
The Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper

Names associated with the Luminous Mysteries might include:

Girls

Alazne — Basque for “miracles” (right skimac? and how is that pronounced?)

Cana — the place of the wedding feast where Jesus performed his first miracle (we have a reader who gave her daughter this amazing name!)

Charis — from the Greek for “grace, favor, gratitude” and is contained within the word Eucharist (“thanksgiving”)

Christi — Latin for “of/belonging to Christ,” inspired for this list by the Eucharistic phrase Corpus Christi (“the body of Christ”)

Clare, Claire, Chiara — from the Latin for “clear, bright” as a nod to the Mysteries of Light and the brightness of the Transfiguration

Evangeline — for the Good News — the proclamation of the kingdom

Jemima — means “dove,” for the “Spirit of God descending like a dove” on Jesus during His baptism

Jordan — the name of the river in which Jesus was baptized

Lucy, Lucia, Lucille — from the Latin for “light”

Mary, et al. — for Our Lady, who brought Jesus’ attention to the wine crisis at the wedding (“He did it because His mother asked Him to!” I frequently tell my boys. 🙂 )

Maya, Mayim — from the Hebrew for “water,” as a nod to Jesus’ baptism

Milagros — Spanish for “miracles,” as a nod to Jesus’ first miracle at Cana; see Alazne

Paloma — means “dove”; see Jemima

Ruby — “red,” for Jesus’ Blood given to us at the Last Supper

Scarlett — same as Ruby

Boys

Baptista, Baptiste, Battista, Bautista — referring to Jesus’ baptism and to the one who baptized him (John the Baptist) (these are all listed as masculine by behindthename, but they could easily be used for girls as well, as I don’t think they come across as masculine [or at least not exclusively so] in America)

Colum, Columba — means “dove”; see Jemima

Conway — possibly means “holy water” in Welsh

Elijah — he appeared to Jesus during the Transfiguration, and Jesus spoke with him. See also Moses. “Moses and Elijah represent, respectively, law and prophecy in the Old Testament and are linked to Mount Sinai … They now appear with Jesus as witnesses to the fulfillment of the law and the prophets taking place in the person of Jesus as he appears in glory.”

James — one of the Apostles who witnessed Jesus’ Transfiguration; see also John, Peter

John — the one who baptized Jesus; also the only gospel that contains the story of Jesus’ miracle at the wedding feast at Cana; also one of the Apostles who witnessed Jesus’ Transfiguration (see James, Peter)

Jonah — means “dove”; see Jemima

Jordan — the name of the river in which Jesus was baptized

Lucian, Lucius — see Lucy

Moses — see Elijah

Peter — see James

River — for the River Jordan

Tabor — Mt. Tabor was where Jesus’ Transfiguration occurred

I can’t wait to see what others you can add to this list!

+ “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” … “Do whatever He tells you.” +