Mary

Spotlight on: Jael

sanctanomina Spotlight , ,

A reader requested a spotlight on Jael, which is a name I’m almost completely unfamiliar with. My only two associations with it are a girl I used to work with named the variant Yael (though I didn’t know her well enough to ask about her name), and the Judith spotlight I did a while ago, on which Grace left the following comment:

“Only three women in scripture have the privilege of being called “blessed among women” and it’s not who we’d expect! They are Jael, Judith, and Mary. Jael and Judith both won victories for Israel by killing the enemy leader. This is an important connection to Mary, because it shows us that when she is addressed as “blessed among women” it has a specific meaning, not just “oh, how nice, you’re blessed.” It means that Mary is the VANQUISHER of the enemy! We think of Mary as meek, which of course she is, but she is also INCREDIBLY powerful, she is the enemy’s greatest fear.”

Pretty darn awesome, right?? This is the passage from Judges where Jael is called “blessed among women,” part of the “Song of Deborah”:

“Most blessed of women is Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
blessed among tent-dwelling women!
He asked for water, she gave him milk,
in a princely bowl she brought him curds.
With her hand she reached for the peg,
with her right hand, the workman’s hammer.
She hammered Sisera, crushed his head;
she smashed, pierced his temple.
At her feet he sank down, fell, lay still;
down at her feet he sank and fell;
where he sank down, there he fell, slain.
From the window she looked down,
the mother of Sisera peered through the lattice:
“Why is his chariot so long in coming?
why are the hoofbeats of his chariots delayed?”
The wisest of her princesses answers her;
she even replies to herself,
“They must be dividing the spoil they took:
a slave woman or two for each man,
Spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera,
spoil of ornate dyed cloth,
a pair of ornate dyed cloths for my neck in the spoil.”
So perish all your enemies, O LORD!
But may those who love you be like the sun rising in its might!
And the land was at rest for forty years.” (Judges 5:24-31)

Matt Fradd did a short post pointing out the similiarities between Jael, Judith, and Mary as well, saying they “Each crushed the head of the enemy king,” and Fr. Z. pointed out a mention of Jael our Holy Father Emeritus Benedict XVI made during his papacy (and he added artwork of the murders by Jael and Judith, they were some tough women).

So all this connection between Jael and Mary and mentions by BXVI and yet I’ve only known one person in real life with the name (and a variant at that), and she was, I believe, Jewish. Why is that?

I’m guessing her gruesome story is a turn-off to parents who even know about the name, and I think it probably also comes across as a very Jewish name, similarly to how some feel about Judith. And also that it rhymes with jail. This seems kind of a big consideration to me. So maybe the variant Yael is more appeaing? Abby at Appellation Mountain spotlighted it just last month and noted that not only are there potential pronunciation issues — it actually doesn’t rhyme with Yale, sounding rather more like yah-ELL — but also that it’s currently used more for boys than for girls, and that the variant spelling Yaelle has arisen (which reminds me of the lovely Maelle). I would imagine that usage by boys would be very appealing to some parents of daughters, especially when you add in the fact that it’s a legit feminine name with a long and traditional usage. Back to Jael, usage for girls still edges out usage by boys, but only by a few.

I’ve also seen the name spelled Ja’el and Jahel, and then I just happened to notice Jaelyn somewhere today and thought huh, that could be a cool way to do Jael — more obviously feminine and a less felonious pronunciation. 😉

What do you all think of Jael, or its variants? Would you consider using one of them for your daughter, or have you? Do you know anyone with one of these names? Does she go by a nickname?

Baby name consultant: Baby Girl needs an obviously Catholic name

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Jaclyn and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little girl! She’ll join big siblings:

Lillian Charlotte
Olivia Kathryn
Henry Sullivan

Which is just such a lovely, elegant set. ((sighing with happiness))

Jaclyn writes,

“We have really had a reawakening and increased love for our faith in the last few years, so it’s important to us that that name is a saint (or derivative) or otherwise Catholic in nature…we want someone to hear her name and just know she’s Catholic

We are currently considering Lucia/Lucy, Clare, Gianna, and Azelie/Zelie (though we really want your input on how a Midwestern American would say the name!)

We have always liked Madeline, Eleanor, and Cora as well but they didn’t feel “Catholic” enough. We liked Cecilia but ruled it out as baby has a cousin named that.”

First off, I think Jaclyn’s kiddos’ names are full of faith-y significance! And they’re very consistent style-wise, as are Madeline, Eleanor, and Cora. I’m interested that they don’t think they’re “Catholic” enough — I do know what she means I think, and I have some super duper Catholicky Catholic suggestions below — but at the same time they all can hold their own in the world of saint names: St. Madeleine Sophie Barat is amazing; Eleanor is often given as a form of Helen(a), and St. Helena is wonderful; I’ve seen Cora used recently in reference to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (see the comments on this post especially) — all heavy hitters!

But there are definitely names that are clearly, obviously Catholic to most people. I love how Jaclyn said, “we want someone to hear her name and just know she’s Catholic” — a beautiful hope! I guess there will always be someone who just isn’t familiar enough with Catholicism and its names to get right away that their daughter’s name is a Catholic name, but some that I think are pretty universally known include:

  • Lourdes
  • Therese, Theresa, Teresa (especially Therese, I think, but they’re all great)
  • Maria, Marie
  • Mary+[something] (Mary doubles tend to come across as nun-like, which I love)
  • Bernadette
  • Regina
  • Philomena
  • Rosary (there was a baby on the blog last spring named Rosary and I LOVE it!)
  • Rosemary, Rosemarie
  • Immaculata, Immaculee
  • Cecilia
  • Benedicta
  • Scholastica
  • Magdalene/Magdalena

Others that definitely ARE very Catholic, and almost exclusively so, but might be less likely than those listed above to come across that way, just because of having other associations as well or being unfamiliar, include:

  • Grace
  • Gemma
  • Catherine
  • Elizabeth
  • Margaret
  • Lucy, Lucia
  • Jacinta
  • Felicity
  • Clairvaux
  • Vianney (the Lourdes mentioned above has sisters Clairvaux and Vianney!)
  • Josephine
  • Genevieve
  • Evangeline
  • Karoline (that “K” points right to St. John Paul II)
  • Avila
  • Ava when paired with Maria as the middle name or as a double first name — like “Ave Maria”
  • Azelie, Zelie (I don’t think anyone else is using these but Catholics, but they’re so unfamiliar that I don’t think enough people know where this comes from)
  • Kateri
  • Gianna
  • Chiara
  • Clare
  • Perpetua (I’ve seen Pia and Pippa as nicknames for this, so sweet!)
  • Pia
  • Frances, Francesca

And then certainly there are a million other names that have saintly connections, but are so widely used by Catholics and non-Catholics that they don’t have an exclusively Catholic feel. Some people love that they just get to choose their favorite names and not worry that they’re saintly because so many (most?) names that Americans use today can trace back to a saint somehow. But when you want an obviously Catholicky Catholic name, I think a name from the lists above are your best bet.

So the names this family is considering — Clare, Lucy/Lucia, Gianna, and Azelie/Zelie — are all ones I’d consider to have that really Catholic feel they want. Clara/Clare and Lucy/Lucia are especially really similar to other names they like, style-wise.

As for their question regarding the pronunciation of Zelie, I’m guessing the pronunciation zellie, like rhyming with Kelly, would be their best bet. The Lourdes, Vianney, and Clairvaux sisters I mentioned above also have a sister named Zellie, spelled that way, which makes their pronunciation really obvious — maybe that would help? I have seen other pronunciations for it too, which I wrote about here.

It was fun to put together the lists above of names that are likely to be recognized as belonging to a Catholic girl, but of course I’m sure they don’t all fit the particular taste and style of this family. So I went through the Baby Name Wizard, as I almost always do for consultations, and looked up all the names they’ve used and liked, looking for patterns and overlap, and thought these names (which are included in the lists above) are the closest fit:

(1) Grace (or Mary Grace)
Grace seems a great fit for Jaclyn and her husband! It’s similar in style to their other kids’ names, and has such beautiful meanings, from the grace of God to Our Lady of Grace. Lovely! I especially like that I consider Lillian and Olivia to be Marian names (lilies are associated with her, and another of her titles is Our Lady of Olives), and Grace would fit right in with that. It is quite popular though, which they may not like, as the more popular a name the less any one association sticks to it, so I wondered if they might like Mary Grace? They could still call her just Grace, or Gracie, but the full Mary Grace definitely has Catholic cachet.

(2) Mary, or Mary+, or Maria
Mary on its own is being used less and less these days, which makes it kind of a bold yet very traditional and very Catholic choice. Mary could take Molly as a nickname, as Molly started out as a nickname for Mary, as did Polly; the nickname Mae would be sweet too — I’m offering all of these in case Jaclyn and her hubs like the idea of Mary as the first name but not as the everyday call name, if that makes sense.

Putting Mary in front of any names immediately “Catholicizes” it, I think, so I wondered if they’d consider something like Mary Madeline (reminds me of both Mary Margaret and Mary Magdalene, which are such traditional Catholic combos!), Mary Eleanor, Mary Cora … all so pretty! The middle names could be the call names, or both names all the time — it seems a good way to try to work in names they really like but want to be more heavy hitting faith-wise. Mary Elizabeth is another pretty combo, I know one who goes by M.E. (sounds like Emmy, so cute!). Sophia was a name that is really similar to a lot of names Jaclyn and her hubs like — maybe Mary Sophia? Maria Sophia? Which reminds me that Maria is a great option on its own, and Maria Teresa or Maria Therese would be really pretty too.

(3) Elizabeth, maybe nicknamed Zelie?
Another way of getting around the Zelie pronunciation issue is to use it as a nickname for a more common name. It’s kind of a crazy idea! But I did a consultation for blogger Jenny Uebbing a few months ago, and one of her readers suggested Elizabeth with the nickname Zelie, which incidentally I had just thought of myself before even reading it and thought was brilliant, and a reader here recently reminded me of it as well.

Even just Elizabeth on its own would be a lovely choice (or as Mary Elizabeth, as mentioned above) as it’s definitely saintly and Catholic — The Visitation is considered a really pro-life mystery, because of John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb for joy — so I always think of Elizabeth as a really pro-life and even Marian name, in a sense. But I know it’s been used so much that it might not come across as Catholic enough.

(4) Ava Maria
Ava showed up in my research quite a bit as a name that’s similar to others this family likes. On its own it’s certainly lovely, but pretty popular these days, and I think most people would think of Ava Gardner or other associations, but if it’s paired with Maria as a double first name, I think it’s really very Catholic sounding, as Ava Maria sounds so much like Ave Maria. It could even be hyphenated (Ava-Maria) or make it one name (Avamaria or AvaMaria).

(5) Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn/Magdalena
Finally, I wondered what Jaclyn and her hubs would think of Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn/Magdalena? It’s the origin of Madeline/Madeleine/Madelyn — they’re all variants of Magdalen(e) — but I think I’m correct in thinking that Magdalen(e) et al. come across as extra Catholic. With Magdalen(e) (or whatever spelling) they could have the nickname Maggie, which is the kind of thing I love — a bolder, more offbeat given name with a more accessible, familiar nickname. (Since they’re thinking of Clare, I was also reminded of this little Clare Magdalene, which is a combo I love!)

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Lillian, Olivia, and Henry’s little sister?

Birth announcement: Marielle Elise!

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Do you all remember the spotlight post on Ruby? Julie had asked for it, since she and her husband were considering it for their second baby girl — she emailed me to let me know her little one has arrived, and has been given the gorgeous name … Marielle Elise!

Julie writes,

“Hi Kate!

I am the reader that had requested the spotlight on Ruby. You asked if I would share our final choice, and I would love to! We didn’t end up choosing Ruby for the birth certificate, but this little girl came out with bright strawberry blonde hair so it has been floating around as a nickname. 🙂 I tend to be very “nick-namey” so she also goes by Mellie, Ellie, Elle, and Mari-Berrie … Marielle Elise was born in early February! (Pronounced Mary-El)

Our older daughter is Rosalie Gabrielle so you can tell that we gravitate toward French monikers. We liked the idea of both girls having connections to our Blessed Mother via at least one name. Then it happens that my favorite mysteries of the Rosary are the joyful, so their middle names tie into people present at the Annunciation and the Visitation. Both full names have numerous family connections as well.

I have suffered medical complications since her birth so I would appreciate any spare prayers you might have. Thank you and thank you for your blog. Keep writing!“

You all are such great prayer warriors, I know you’ll remember Julie in your prayers. And how wonderful are her girls’ names?! I love that both have a Marian name and a Joyful Mystery name — that’s pretty Master Class naming right there! And I love that Ruby’s still possibly a contender as a nickname — I love that, in Marielle’s case, it would be for her hair, how lovely!

Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Marielle!! (And remember Julie in your prayers!)

marielle_elise

Marielle Elise

(Can you believe that sweet smiley face on such a tiny girl? ❤ )

 

Pope told parents to name their daughters after Mary?

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Whew! My head is spinning after yesterday’s post! You all had so many good thoughts! I do want to let you know that my computer (or WordPress?) has been acting up recently and I can’t always interact with the comments the way I want to — sometimes I’m not able to “like” them in the notifications, sometimes I miss them completely … just this morning I started writing down all the posts that had new comments so I could go back to each one to like all the comments (since the notifications thing wasn’t working) and decided I just can’t — it would take me all morning! But I love each one of your comments, I love all the feedback, I love that this blog is exactly what I hoped it would be when I started it — a searchable database of Catholic name info. You’re all the best! ❤

I also have some more thoughts on yesterday’s post, but I think I need to sit with it all for a while more and organize my thoughts. Stay tuned!

So this is the post I was going to post yesterday before I got sidetracked by Abby’s post. I was doing some name research the other day (you don’t say) ( 😉 ), chatting with some family members about family names, and one of my cousins said she thought, in reference to the many Marys in our family of a certain age (mostly born in the 40s, though there are a bunch of older relatives named Mary as well), that the Pope had told parents to name their daughters after Mary.

You know me, I was immediately like a prairie dog up on my hind legs, totally alert. How interesting! I’d never heard of such a thing — and I assume whatever truth there is to it, if any, is surely not an official statement but perhaps an informal comment, or perhaps something like, “Mary is a wonderful role model for your daughters” which got mistranslated into, “Name your daughters after Mary.” So I took to the internet, searching mostly for anything similar attributed to Pope Pius XII, who was Pope right when the women we were talking about were born and named (1939-1958), and who was pretty Marian, what with his Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and his definition of the dogma of the Assumption, but wasn’t able to find anything. My history-teacher friend and suggested maybe it was the local bishop and not the Pope, so I looked for info about him — also very devoted to Our Lady — but couldn’t find anything like what I was looking for. A priest friend suggested maybe Pope Benedict XV, who was Pope from 1914 to 1922 and who both instituted the old Code of Canon Law (1917), which said that Catholic parents must give their babies saints’ names and if a baby didn’t have a saint’s name the priest was to give one at baptism, and also authorized the Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, so he was namey *and* Marian, and I could see that being the source of this belief. But again, I wasn’t able to find anything official (I did find this interesting article while searching, which talks about naming requirements and practices among different groups, including Catholics. It’s not accurate Catholic-wise, but an interesting read nonetheless).

I also found this article, which says that “For very many years the Catholic Church in Ireland would not baptise a child unless the name chosen was that of a saint or, in the case of a girl, was a version of Mary,” but it doesn’t cite any official source — I’m thinking like any kind of Church documents or regulations that were actually written down and not just unwritten local custom. (Written local custom would be fine!)

Have any of you heard this idea before? Can you shed any light on all this?

Baby name consultant: Saintly, Italian, meaningful name for Baby Girl

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You can see how much better I did at staying off the computer last week than I did at Christmastime! 😀 I hope you all had a great week, and I’m glad to be back!

In today’s consultation, Elizabeth and her husband are expecting their second baby, a girl! She’ll join her big brother:

George Francesco

Amazing combo, right? I love that George is handsome and normal-ish, and then pow! You’re hit with an amazing and unexpected middle name! And a fun little tidbit is that I recently did a poll on Twitter — what’s your favorite way to name a baby after Pope Francis — and I included both George (for his birth name Jorge) and Francesco!

papal_name_poll-02.14.16

So yeah, George Francesco is just a great name all around. 🙂

Elizabeth writes,

“We would be so delighted if you were to weigh in on our current naming quandary … I’m Italian and my husband is part Scots-Irish … We like names that are fairly traditional (although we could possibly be swayed by a really great not-so-traditional Catholic name), saintly, meaningful, and not too popular. And there has to be an Italian name in there somewhere. I love love love our son’s name and hope to be equally in love with our daughter’s name.

A little background on our son’s naming: “George” is a family name … We love that it’s strong, traditional, not very popular, a saint’s name, and a family name. “Francesco” we chose for several reasons: George was born just a few months after Pope Francis’s election (fall 2013), St. Francis of Assisi is one of my favorite saints, and [there’s a connection to my maiden name as well]. Other potential first names were Gianluca, Luca, Henry, and James, and even though George was the front-runner even before we knew we were expecting, we didn’t officially bestow the name until he was a few hours old. (Funny story about “George”: I woke one morning in July 2013 and saw on Facebook that Duchess Kate was in labor, and I immediately thought “Oh, no, the baby is going to be a boy and they’re going to name him George, and it’s going ruin everything!” Well, it didn’t ruin everything, but I have noticed the name becoming tad more popular lately. 🙂 )

So, for our daughter, we definitely want an Italian middle name (or even first name but “at least” a middle name). We’d like the Italian part of her name to be obviously Italian (i.e. not something that could be easily confused for another origin or that has a widely accepted American pronunciation, for example Maria or Veronica). If we go with an Italian first name, we want it to be fairly easily pronounceable in English, without having to “put on” an Italian accent to say it properly.”

I always think of really Italian names as “confection” names — beautifully delicious. I was excited to come up with some ideas!

Some more thoughts:

“We both love “Francesca” as a first name (for many of the same reasons we love Francesco), but we feel a little weird about using it so soon after naming our son George Francesco… maybe if we have another little girl in the future?

We want our daughter to have a strong saint to connect with (and whose feast day we can celebrate as her “name day”). For George, we celebrate St. Francis’s feast day as his name day, because we love St. Francis and love that there’s so much more to read/learn/emulate about him (in comparison to St. George). I hope that at least one of the saints our daughter is named for will be that way too. I don’t want her to be disappointed if there’s not much to know about her saint or most of what we “know” is as much folklore as fact. (One reason I like modern day saints so much.)“

The names Elizabeth and her hubs are considering include (the asterisks are the current favorites):

*Beatrice (Elizabeth’s grandmother is nicknamed Bea)
*Mary
*Lucy
*Lucia
*Bernadette
Josephine
Emilia
Gianna
Alice (“I’ve always written this one off because “alice” means “anchovy” in Italian, but I recently saw that it’s in the top ten names in Italy, so I guess no one cares“) 😀
Claire/Clara
Giulia/Julia/Giulianna
Jane
Alessandra
Eleanor/Elena

And their favorite middle name ideas (largely dependent upon first name):

Lucia
Chiara
Benedetta
Maristella
Luisa (“I have a great-grandfather Louis/Luigi“)
Rose/Rosa (“I’m afraid Rosa isn’t obviously Italian enough to work with an English-language first name“)
Marie (“my and my mom’s middle name; but would only work if she had a very Italian first name; I wish Maria were a good alternative, but most people associate it with Spanish-language origins more than Italian, at least around here“)

Elizabeth also said she’d love to honor St. Anne in some way but is struggling with ways to do so that fit their style and taste:

“I’ve considered Marianna as a middle name (Mary and her mother!), but neither [of us are] sold on it. And it also has the potential to sound not Italian.”

Also:

“If we name her Beatrice, we could “get around” the Marian dilemma by using a middle name that starts with ‘v’ — so her initials would be B.V.M. I can’t think of that many Italian ‘v’ names that really speak to me, but I’ve thought about Valentina, Viviana, Vincenza…?“

Okay, so I love their list of girl names. Beatrice seems so perfect — it can be Italian, but not necessarily. I also LOVE their idea of using a V middle name for initials BVM for Our Lady. Brilliant! I like Valentina, Viviana, and Vincenza, and another idea is Vittoria — a friend was telling me recently about Our Lady of Victory — Vittoria could be a nice nod to her! It seems that the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was originally the feast of Our Lady of Victory, after the victory of Lepanto, which Our Lady of the Rosary points to as well. Kind of like two Marian titles in one name!  I also like that Vittoria is specifically Italian, as opposed to Victoria, which is used across multiple ethnicities but not Italian. Do you all have other ideas for Italian V- middle names?

Mary, Lucy, and Bernadette are all great — impeccably saintly, beautiful, feminine.

It would be so great to get St. Anne in there! Marianna is a beautiful idea, but if they’re not loving it, I wonder what they would think of Annetta? Behind the Name says it’s a diminutive of Anna with exclusively Italian usage. I could see it being beautiful as either a first or middle name. Mary Annetta? Lucy Annetta? Beatrice Annetta? (Probably not Bernadette Annetta!)

I have similar feelings to Elizabeth about Francesca — gorgeous name! But perhaps for a later girl?

From the rest of their list, Alice, Claire/Clara, Jane, and Eleanor seem great matches for the style of George. All beautiful! Gianna, Guilia/Julia/Giulianna, Alessandra, and Elena definitely skew more Italiany Italian. George and Mary or George and Alice will likely come across as very English, while George and Gianna or George and Alessandra (especially George and Alessandra) will be more surprising. I like both options! I might suggest Elizabeth and her husband give a quick thought to how they see the rest of their children’s names playing out, if they have more. Do they want to feel like they’ve set an English bookish vibe and then if they choose something more Italian sounding it’ll sound out of place? Or do they like the freedom that comes with choosing a different style name from George right now for their second baby, which preserves the possibility of both English-y and Italian names in the future?

I loved their list of Italian middle names! Several of them were ones I’d scribbled down as I’d read Elizabeth’s email initially, before I’d gotten to that part (especially Lucia and Chiara). Benedetta, Maristella, Luisa, Rose/Rosa are all beautiful … I wonder if an Italian Rose variant like Rosetta, Rosina, or Rosella would appeal to them? I love that Marie is Elizabeth and her mom’s middle name — maybe the variants Marietta and Mariella would be good to consider? I like that they contain “Marie” within them, but they also have that Italian twist.

I had a few more ideas for super Italian middle names:
Agostina
Amalia (I know someone from Italy named Amalia)
Annamaria (despite that both elements could seem Spanish on their own, put together they read really Italian to me. Am I crazy? There’s a character in a book I recently read named Annamaria, so pretty)
Antonella/Antonia
Assunta (I wrote here about how women from Italy named Assunta sometimes anglicize it here as Susan!)

Annnnd there are just a lot of gorgeous names! A great list with a lot more options is here (you can see I only got through the A’s!).

I liked this bunch of specifically Marian super-Italian names:
Annunziata
Incoronata (I have a friend whose daughter’s middle name is Incoronata after her Italian grandmother, and it’s hard to find on name sites, but this one says it’s only used in Italy)
Consolata (from Behind the Name: “Means “consoled” in Italian. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, María Consolata.”)
Rosaria

And I’m sure there’s more of those too at that link above! I also love Josephine and wondered if they’d considered the variant Giuseppa?

Alrighty, so I have a few more ideas for this family, based on the names they’ve already chosen and those that they like:

(1) Gemma
Gemma was the first name I thought of. St. Gemma Galgani was an Italian saint and a pretty well known one, so Elizabeth’s little girl would definitely have a feast day — April 11, right near her due date! I also really like that even though Gemma’s an Italian name, it’s been fairly popular in England for a while, so I think Gemma could serve as a nice bridge between George and a future daughter named Alessandra for example.

(2) Stella
Maristella on their list made me think of Stella right away, and I love it for this baby for a first name. As with Gemma, even though it *is* Italian I like that Stella doesn’t necessarily come across as Italian, so it can be that kind of “bridge” name between George and some of their more ethnic options for later daughters.

(3) Carmela
I know Elizabeth might not like this because it’s apparently both a Spanish and Italian form of Carmel, but I think of Carmen as being more common as the Spanish form, while Carmela’s all Italian for me, probably because I know a young Carmela whose family is very Italian, and an older Carmela who’s from Italy. A reader asked for nickname ideas for her little Carmela here. I love that it’s also Marian!

(4) Maddalena
I love Magdalene in any form, but the Italian version is so beautiful, I had to suggest it! It’s got really cute nickname options too — Maddy, Lena.

(5) Giacinta (Jacinta)
I wouldn’t have thought to suggest this except Elizabeth and her hubs have Julia/Giulia/Giuliana on their list. Jacinta’s one of my favorites, and I love the Italian spelling as well (I didn’t even know there was an Italian spelling until discovering that Halle Berry’s character in the Bond movie she was in, who went by Jinx, was actually Giacinta, and Jinx was a nickname. God works in mysterious ways. 😉 ).

(5) Catherine or Caterina
Finally, my favorite idea of these two is Caterina, which was St. Catherine of Siena’s actual name. So beautiful! And so fun that this family can pull it off with their Italian heritage! (I have none!) But I was starting to feel like I was leaning too heavily Italian and not considering the other names they like, and loved discovering that Catherine is a style match for several of their favorites (George, Mary, Alice, Julia). Either one would be just beautiful.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the baby sister of George Francesco?

Spotlight on: Mercy names

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I’ve gotten a few different requests recently for more info on names connected to Mercy, so I thought it would make a perfect Spotlight post.

This Jubilee Year of Mercy is such a great reason to consider a Mercy name for a baby during it! There’s also the Divine Mercy connection, which, in my mind, includes a connection to both St. Faustina and Pope St. John Paul the Great (I really like typing out his full title. So cool), and there’s Our Lady of Mercy/Mercies. I love them all!

First, of course, is Mercy itself. I love the name Mercy. I’ve seen it used as a middle name, which is a perfect spot for a name that might feel a little too adventurous for one’s style, but I love it as a first name too — I think it holds its own nicely with Grace, Faith, Hope, Sophia, Felicity — all the virtue-esque names. It could have a Pilgrim/Puritan feel also, with their children named Patience and Chastity and Temperance, but that’s not a terrible thing either in my opinion. A pretty variant is Mercia.

Other versions of Mercy that might appeal include:

Mercedes
I love the name Mercedes. I did a mini spotlight here, really just pointing you to a great post by Laura Wattenberg (the Baby Name Wizard herself) on “how such a devout Catholic name became a car brand.” I loved hearing it in Jim Caviezel’s The Count of Monte Cristo, and that movie made it seem do-able to me for non-Spanish families (the characters were French). I’ve also gotten swoony over the idea of Sadie as a nickname (could also be spelled Cedy? I’ve also seen Cedes), and Merche is a traditional Spanish nickname for it; Mercy also certainly works. I’ve seen the combo Maria Mercedes, which is such a heavy hitting name and really emphasizes the Marian aspect.

Clement/Clementine
Clement means “merciful” or “gentle” (think: clemency), so any of the Clement names could work if you’re going for a merciful meaning. I’ve considered Clement for my own boys (just can’t get my hubs on board!), and Clementine is such a great name for a girl (I love the nickname Clemmie, and Emmy and Minnie are also possibilities). I don’t mind the folk song reference either.

Piedad
The meanings of the Spanish Piedad can include “mercy” or “pity.” Piedad is inspired by the Marian title Nuestro Señora de la Piedad (Our Lady of Pity). You can see the connection between “pity” and “mercy” when you think of the phrase “have pity on me” — it’s similar to “have mercy on me.”

 

Behind the Name offered a bunch of other names that have “mercy” in their meaning, but they were so unfamiliar to me I thought I’d just list them and you can check them out if you’d like: Armo, Chesed, Chifundo, Ebele, Eir, Eskarne, Hanan, Remiel (this is said to be a name of one of the seven archangels according to the apocryphal Book of Enoch. I’d be careful with this, as the Church has not included this name in its list of Archangels’ names).

What do you think of Mercy or the other Mercy-meaning names? Would you consider using them for your child, or have you? Do you know any little ones with any of these names?

Baby name consultant: Baby #4, awesome initials please

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , ,

Dianne and her husband are expecting their fourth baby and third girl! Their older kiddos are:

Ava Lilian
Sophia Elizabeth
Caleb Augustin

Love. Love. Love.

Dianne writes,

“My husband prefers initials that spell things, but so far we haven’t done that well with the other children! Ava’s initials are ALM (and we stretched that to say she’s our almsgiving). It’s obviously not a deal breaker, but it’s nice.

We liked Ava because it was close to “ave”, the start of a Ave Maria … “Lilian” is her aunt’s name. Spelled with one middle L, being the Filipino way to spell it. (My husband is Filipino and I’m white, so our kids are mixed race. We considered more traditional Filipino names, but they’re mostly hispanic in origin and we don’t feel like that works well in the US with our heritage).

Sophia’s name was almost going to be Olivia, but my grandmother (middle name Elizabeth) died shortly before her birth. And for whatever reason at the time, I didn’t like Olivia Elizabeth and decided that Sophia went better with it. Since then, my cousin named her daughter Olivia, so I’m not keen on using it again.

We thought that Caleb Augustin was just a real strong name. We dropped the “e” on Augustin because we thought it helped to pronounce it as “Au-GUS-tin” instead of “AUG-us-teen.” His first name was almost Augustin, but I didn’t want a Gus (we did like the nickname Augie!), and I ultimately thought it would be too “weird” sounding outside of our Catholic circle.

We didn’t consult “top name” lists until after we named our kids. We had no idea how popular they are. I would probably prefer a name not at the top of the popularity list like our other kids, but again, not a deal breaker. I do want names that are common enough to 1) be pronounceable, and 2) not seem too weird on future job applications, etc. We would also love a very strong saint’s name, or at least some obscure connection to a saint.”

This was so fun for me to read, I love being given lots of information about the hows and whys a couple named their children.

For this baby, their top name contenders are:

Siena — (“Catherine of Siena is my patron saint. I don’t really like Catherine“)

Seraphina — (“we like that she could go by something more common sounding — Sera — while still having a beautiful name, that reminds us of the angels”)

Adele — (“A beautiful saint name. We don’t love the mental association with the singer, but we don’t dislike the musician, so it’s still a contender.. ha“)

Charlene, Charlotte, and Madeline — (Dianne likes but her hubs doesn’t care for Charlene or Charlotte, and Dianne’s not confident Madeline goes well with their last name)

Basically, it all boils to these three things:

1) Are these names too similar to Ava or Sophia’s names?
2) if we have future girls, are we locking ourselves into a name ending in “a” if we choose Siena or Seraphina? I’d lean towards Adele because of that reason, but I think Siena Adele sounds prettier than Adele Siena.
3) what nicknames would be good for these names?

Alrighty, first off, I love that Ava’s name was chosen because it’s close to Ave! I actually know a little girl named Ava Maria, for that same reason. Ava Lilian is a beautiful combo, and I love her initials!

Sophia is a beautiful name, and sounds lovely with Elizabeth. I do see what Dianne means about Olivia Elizabeth not flowing well!

I love Caleb Augustin, so handsome! We almost named our youngest three boys Augustin, that spelling, for the same reason Dianne and her hubs used that spelling—we wanted au-GUS-tin, not au-gus-TEEN. In the end, just like them, we just couldn’t pull the trigger! But I do still love it.

As for the names on their current list:

Siena is a great name, and a great way to honor St. Catherine of Siena if you don’t care for Catherine. It is similar in sound, rhythm, and length to Sophia, but with Caleb between them I don’t think it’s a huge deal. They could also consider a variant of Catherine — there are so many! Caterina was Catherine of Siena’s actual name (Catherine is an English and French version), and there are a million more variants here. I wouldn’t think of nicknaming Siena, would you? I could maybe see Sia working, if you really wanted to shorten it, but there’s the singer reference there as well (who’s actually quite well named: Sia Kate Isobelle. Gorgeous!).

Seraphina is one of my favorites, such a gorgeous name! But it is very similar to Sophia, more so than Siena I think, because it shares the beginning S-, the ending –a, and the –ph- in the middle. If Dianne and her hubs decided they wanted to use it anyway, there are some sweet nicknames for it: Sera, as mentioned; also Fia, Fina, Fifi, and even something sweet like Sunny! Another way to make it just a little different is to use the French Seraphine instead, which eliminates the –a ending. It also made me think of Josephine — it has a similar length and rhythm and some shared sounds, but that it starts with J- automatically makes it more different from Sophia.

Adele is great if they want to move away from names that end in –a. I agree that Siena Adele sounds nicer than Adele Siena, but of course they could do a different middle. Something like Adele Josephine, for example, or even Adele Seraphina — both sound lovely to me! I think the most natural nickname for Adele is Ada, which doesn’t work with their Ava, but I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t do Elle or Ellie, or even Dell — kind of sweetly tomboyish.

Charlene I was surprised by! It’s feminine and pretty, but has more of a mid-century feel to it (style matches would include Marsha, Gayle, and Francine) than the other names on their list. Charlie and Lena are both cute nickname ideas.

Charlotte, on the other hand, didn’t surprise me at all! It’s very consistent with the other names they like style-wise. It (along with all the names on their list) helped inform my ideas for below.

Madeline is also beautiful and consistent with this family’s style. I don’t mind alliterative first name-last name combos as much as some others do — I think Madeline M____ could be really kind of M-memorable! 🙂 And with an I- middle name, MIM is a cute nickname option. This is me being crazy, but I’ve seen Mim as a nickname for Miriam, so they could possibly see MIM initials as a super subtle nod to Mother Mary? I know, my thought process is not to everyone’s taste … 😛

I did come up with some other ideas, of course! I can always come up with name ideas! As you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up all the names that the parents have used and like in the Baby Name Wizard book, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. I then look for names that show up as similar to more than one of the names they like, and I comb my own head for ideas as well. With all that, I had six ideas for this little baby girl on the way:

(1) Isabel or Isabelle
I know they already used Elizabeth for Sophia’s middle name, and Isabel(le) is a variant of Elizabeth, but its sound and appearance is so different — and it would be in the first name spot instead of the middle — that I thought Dianne and her husband might be willing to consider it. It’s very similar in style to the other names they like, and going with Isabel or Isabelle rather than Isabella gets away from the ends-in-a names. As for the initials spelling something, I’m reminded of the little girl named Isabelle Verity who goes by Ivy because of her initials I.V., so sweet! That doesn’t work with sister Ava, though … or what about something like Isabelle Helen or Isabel Hope for initials IHM=Immaculate Heart of Mary? (Other good initials-as-nicknames ideas here.)

(2) Violet
Violet is kind of, ahem, flowery (haha!), which is how I’d describe Seraphina as well, and yet it also reminds me of Adele in some way — pretty and feminine but also solid and traditional. It can also be considered Marian, which is always a huge plus in my book! Violet Isabelle M___ would have the initials VIM, like “vim and vigor” (vim means “robust energy and enthusiasm,” love that!).

(3) Caroline
Caroline is long like Seraphina, and was inspired by (and is a variant of) Charlotte; its –ine ending also calls to mind Seraphine, Josephine, and Madeline. A lot of Catholic parents have been loving Caroline recently because of St. John Paul’s birth name of Karol (and I’ve seen Karoline and Karolina as well, to get even closer to his name). I can’t think of spelling a word with initials, but Caroline Adele M___ would be CAM, which could lead to nickname Cammie.

(4) Grace or Faith
Grace and Faith are virtue-esque names, like Sophia. Grace is also a style match for Charlotte and August (Augustin(e) isn’t listed in the book), and Faith is similar to Caleb. Grace can refer to God’s grace, as well as Our Lady of Grace, and of course Faith refers to all of what we believe. They are so similar to me in terms of faith-y significance that I would think popularity would be the deciding factor, if they decided they like these ideas. Faith is vastly less popular than Grace, but just as sweet in my opinion. I don’t have any ideas for initials-words for Faith, but Grace Emmanuelle M___ could be GEM — great initials for their little gem!

(5) Vivian or Vivienne
People who like Seraphina tend to like other long, frilly, saintly/faith-y names like Genevieve, Evangeline, Veronica, and Vivienne (lots of V’s!). Of those, I thought Vivienne would be of interest (perhaps more likely as the spelling Vivian, being shorter and closer in length to the big sibs’ names). I don’t *think* it’s too similar to Ava, with the V’s, but maybe you all think it is? Especially if they go with the nickname Vivi, which is so sweet, but very like Ava. See Violet above for an initials-word idea.

(6) Abigail or Chloe
I’m listing these two together because neither one are names I’d come up with on my own, but they both were similar to several names Dianne and her husband like: Chloe to Ava, and Abigail to Caleb, Madeline, and Olivia. Both are biblical names — Chloe was a woman in the New Testament who housed St. Paul, and Abigail is in the Old Testament (King David’s wife) and is referred to as Abigail the Matriarch, with a feast day of September 1. Chloe Adele M___ (CAM, like Caroline above) or Abigail Irene M___ (AIM, like “aim for heaven”)?

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would suggest for a little sister to Ava, Sophia, and Caleb? Any other initials-make-words ideas?

Birth announcement: Josie Rosalyn!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , ,

A mama I did a private consultation for has let me know her baby girl has arrived and has been given the lovely name … Josie Rosalyn!

She writes,

“We welcomed another daughter on November 10 and named her Josie Rosalyn!  Josie to honor my grandfather whose middle name was Joseph and Rosalyn to honor my grandmother whose middle name was Rose.  Thank you so much for helping us name our daughter!  Your suggestion of Rosalie inspired Rosalyn for a middle name when my husband decided Josie was his favorite first name.  I will be sure to save your suggestions to hopefully use again in a few years 😉 “

What a wonderful and meaningful choice! I think you’ll be extra impressed when you read her other children’s names:

Aidan James
Maren Patricia
Sadie Elizabeth

Do you see the pattern? They all have five-letter two-syllable first names! And each such a great choice! Nice job Mom and Dad!

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

josie_rosalyn

Josie Rosalyn

Men Who Love Mary: MFVA

sanctanomina Men Who Love Mary , , ,

Grace shared a link in the comments yesterday to an ah-MAZ-ing group of men — the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA).

Check.Out.These.Names.

Rev. Fr. Patrick Mary
Rev. Fr. Leonard Mary
Rev. Fr. Anthony Mary
Rev. Fr. Joseph Mary
Rev. Fr. Mark Mary
Rev. Fr. Dominic Mary
Rev. Fr. Miguel Marie
Rev. Fr. John Paul Mary
Rev. Fr. Paschal Mary
Br. John Therese Marie
Br. Leo Mary
Br. Bernard Mary
Br. Tarcisius Maria
Br. Matthew Mary
Br. James Francis

I did search around a little trying to find an official explanation of why they use a form of Mary as their last names and how they choose their religious names, but couldn’t find anything. I did find this, from their Constitutions:

9. Our two pillars are the Eucharist and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the mantle of the Magisterium of the Church.

So yeah, they’re big Mary Men. I also love that Br. John Therese took Therese as part of his name! And I found this article, which gives a little paragraph about why Fr. Paschal took the name Paschal.

All in all, a very satisfying start to today’s name thoughts!

Reading round-up

sanctanomina Reading Round-up, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

Buckle up guys, I’ve been adding to my “reading round-up” list for months now — today’s the day! I’m getting it done!

Grace told me about a NYC gathering she’d gone to called Catholic Underground, which is totally the kind of thing I would have loved when I was in college, and the name of the director:

“Of course, it was fabulous with an hour of adoration and getting to see one of the actual missionary images of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But the reason I’m emailing you is not just to tell you about a great experience but to share with you an awesome religious name I spotted. On the little flier we got walking in the door there was a nice little letter from the director of Catholic Underground, and his name is…….Br. Mark-Mary!!! How cool is that!? It’s so rare that you see men take feminine names, so it just makes me so happy to see it when it happens!“

I love that!! #MenWhoLoveMary

Emma wanted to be sure I’d seen this post (from early December) over at Swistle’s blog, saying, “Oh boy, does Swistle ever need Sancta Nomina over at her blog today!!!!” Haha! The mom writing is expecting her third, and her older two are Harriet Paloma (“Hattie”), and Hugo Campion. Ohh my! In her dilemma letter she writes things like,

“Their middle names feel (to my ears) more modern and have religious significance (“Paloma,” meaning “dove” which stands both for peace and for the Holy Spirit, “Campion,” after St. Edmund Campion)“

and

“[regarding the fact they’re considering Consuelo] I have always been fascinated by the French and Spanish-language tradition of naming children after the Virgin Mary, but using her many titles or apparition locations. English is pretty limited when it comes to honor names for the Blessed Mother. We have Mary, Marie, and some more unusual, but related, variants such as Mae, Mamie, Maren, Molly. But nothing compared with the range and diversity of the French/Spanish naming tradition: Lourdes, Carmel, Soledad, Guadalupe, Luz, Amparo, Araceli, Socorro, Belen, Pilar, Delores. And on and on! My daughter’s godmother is Monserrat after Our Lady of Monserrat (love!!).”

I would indeed have loved to get my hands on that dilemma! But this bit from Swistle sums up my feelings pretty exactly (the question was Margaret vs. Consuelo as a first name):

“Margaret Consuelo is a pretty kick-butt name, and coordinates beautifully with Harriet Paloma and Hugo Campion. Paloma (peace) and Consuelo (solace) are particularly well-matched.”

Speaking of Swistle, I also loved the sib set in this post: Charles (Huck), Isaac, Katherine, and Seth. (I love Huck for Charles!!) One of the commenters (our very own eclare!) said she guessed the family might be Catholic, based on the size of the family, the kids’ names (which she accurately described as “saint/biblical”), and some on their list (including Xavier), and I agree. I was disappointed by Swistle’s reply though — she said, “I don’t think Seth or Charlotte are saint names,” which is misleading. Seth the Patriarch (from the Old Testament) appears in Book of Saints by the Monks of Ramsgate as well as Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints, and his feast day is March 1. There are also several Blesseds Charlotte, and, as eclare correctly pointed out, Charlotte can be and is often used as an honor name for any of the Sts. Charles/Karl/Carl/Carlo/Karol.

One more Swistle post: Baby Names to Consider: Classic/Traditional Names with Atypical/Non-Traditional Nicknames. I loved reading the ideas from her and the commenters!

Shelby told me about this article: The Saint behind the Jagermeister Logo is also one of the 14 Holy Helpers. I love finding out stuff like that! As Shelby put it, it “goes well with your post about Catholic things in plain sight like the Sophie the Giraffe.” “Catholic things in plain sight”! I love that!

It reminds me of something else I read recently: Nutella Founder Dies, Said Secret of Success Was Our Lady of Lourdes: Devout Catholic took employees to visit site of Marian apparitions. Yes, Nutella is now my new favorite food. 🙂

Then there was this: A 3yo boy named Diesel will only answer to Popcorn, and so his parents are going to legally change his name.

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources is one of my favorite resources, and I was so struck by one of its recent blog posts about the rise of certain names in Protestant records after the Reformation that I raised a question:

dmnes1-01.27.16

The Apocrypha in this context are the books (or parts of books, as in the case of Daniel) that are part of the Catholic bible but not part of the Protestant bible. (As opposed to books Catholics consider to be apocryphal, like the Protoevangelium of James.) It was so strange to me that Judith (the book of Judith is rejected by Protestants) and Susan (the English form of Susanna(h), from the part of the book of Daniel that’s considered apocryphal by Protestants) would receive an uptick in use by Protestants after the Reformation. So interesting! And even better — the DMNES team (including our own Sara) is on it!

dmnes2-01.27.16

I find stuff like this so fascinating. As I said to Sara, I learn so much about culture, religious, politics, history, and language through names. I can’t wait to read what she comes up with!

I was also interested by this bit in the DMNES post on New Testament names after the Reformation, about our dear St. Anne:

“Anne: This name could be classified as either an Old Testament name or a New Testament name. In the OT, this was the name of the mother of Samuel (more often modernly transliterated as Hannah); in the apocrypha, Anne is usually identified as the mother of Mary, though she is not named explicitly in the NT. Whatever the origin and whatever the spelling, this name was always common; it was, in fact, one of the most common feminine names throughout all of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, due primarily to the early veneration of the mother of Mary. The name was so well entrenched that the Protestant turning away from the veneration of the saints did not cause any reduction in its popularity.” (emphasis mine)

How cool is that! It’s also particularly funny that its entrenchment was “due primarily to the early veneration of the mother of Mary” — not only a saint, despite “the Protestant turning away from the veneration of the saints,” but a saint who’s never named in the bible we all agree on, nor even in the apocrypha rejected by Protestantism — Mary’s mother’s name is only given in the Protoevangelium of James, so its use is totally due to Catholic tradition. She’s a great lady, that St. Anne. 🙂 ❤

Finally, I was enjoying these dilemmas on the Baby Name Wizard site recently:

Thoughts on Gemma

Bishop as a first name?

Religious or not religious? (this mom has since figured out a solution, but I really liked some of the ideas offered in this post)

(Also, I think the commenter Optatus Cleary would like it here. 🙂 )

Whew! I think that’s all I have for today!

ETA: Oh! Also this: Twitter Reveals That All Kids Hate Their Names (my takeaway: pray and do the best you can, and then don’t worry), and this: Are There Any More Z Names? Neither the author (Laura Wattenberg herself) nor any of the commenters mentioned Zelie/Azelie!