Mary

Spotlight on: Regina

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Weeks ago Laura asked me to do a spotlight on Regina — I try really hard not to forget anyone’s request, even if it takes me a while to get to it. It’s been on my to-post list since then! And today’s the day, woo!

So Regina: What do you all think of when you hear it? I think of Mother Mary first and foremost — she’s always been my first association, maybe because I never knew anyone in real life with the name except for one small baby named Maria Regina, for Our Lady, so again — Mother Mary’s the big association there, for me. It’s a lot less popular than it used to be, so I imagine it might feel pretty dated to a lot of you, especially if you know women with the name.

And then there’s the pronunciation issue … how do you say it? I’ve always said reh-JEE-nah, but I understand there are some who say reh-JYE-nah, which of course rhymes with a part of the female anatomy, and even if parents are determined to have the reh-JEE-nah pronunciation, there’s still the chance that someone will mistakenly say reh-JYE-nah. (Turns out that’s the pronunciation of Saskatchewan’s capital, so … it’s definitely a possibility. Check out Abby’s profile of Regina for more info.) I can see that being the kind of thing a little girl might be mortified over (see the conversation from yesterday about names with bullying potential). (I guess a hard G is also a possibility, according to behindthename. Have you ever heard that?)

But, if that isn’t a concern, or if the intention is to put the name in the middle spot, I think this is just one of those great Catholicky Catholic names — super Marian, super traditional, *especially* paired with Maria. It’s got cute nickname potential too — certainly the familiar Gina, and also apparently Ina (Ina Garten was born just Ina though), and I think Ree could work, or Rina, or Ria.

The variants of Regina, though, are where I *think* most people of childbearing age right now would feel more comfortable: Reina/Raina/Rayna, or the Bulgarian Raya, or the French Régine or Reine (pronounced like wren, or like rain I think — the spelling Raine would make it more obvious if you prefer the latter). The Irish Ríona is quite pretty too, and I’ve also seen Regan presented as a variant of Regina, though I’m not sure how accurate that is since it was mentioned in the comments and not in the official post at BTN (and King Lear’s daughter and the character in The Exorcist ruin Regan for a lot of people, which is such a pity, because I love Regan).

What do you all think of Regina? Would you use it for a daughter? Do you know any little Reginas? What about pronunciation — how do you say it? What have you heard?

Baby name consultant: Saintly, nature-y name that follows the rules needed for Green Bean Baby #3

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Chelsea Anne (lucky girl, with our own St. Anne as a patron!) and her husband Timothy are expecting their third baby, gender unknown (green bean!). She writes,

“My husband and I wait until birth to find out the baby’s gender, so we are on the hunt for a boy’s name and a girl’s name.

Interestingly enough, my daughters were named before I was even considering reverting to Catholicism. Saints weren’t even remotely on my radar. And yet, there is that Catholic glimmer in both of their names! It seems like a sign to me that I am on the right path.”

Okay, you guys? This is one of the very reasons this blog has been such an amazing blessing to me — I get to read stories like this! The workings of the Holy Spirit can be evident even in baby naming.

Their girls are:

Celeste Marie (both family names; “I love that the name Celeste is rooted in Latin and that it is familiar in many languages. I love that it is ancient and somewhat rare. I also love that it reflects the natural world (the celestial, starry, heavenly, bodies).”)

Rosa Maeve (Rosa’s a family name and Maeve a tip of the hat to Chelsea’s Irish heritage; “Rosa’s first name is also familiar in many languages, as it has that Latin root. It is also somewhat rare (Rose is far more common). And it reflects the natural world (in the case, in Rosa’s earthiness!) I don’t even know how to explain her middle name, except to say that we were called to give her the name Maeve because of her mischievous wild temperament!“)

I could just die over both of their names. Sooo beautiful!

“I wasn’t consciously aware of the above patterns when they were born, but the commonalities I find between my daughter’s names are:

-Traditional, romantic
-Latin Root/familiar or accessible in many Western languages
-Have a Marian aspect (“Marie” and “Rosa”)
-Reflect the natural world in a very subtle way (in the above cases, the elements of Earth and Air)
-I tend to like “ethnic” sounding names
-My husband pointed out that both their middle names start with M and have five letters, which was unintentional but very noticeable to me now

The baby name wizard book describes both the names Celeste and Rosa as “womanly” which is very cool to me. I tend to like the idea of naming grown-up people rather than babies! … If I do have another girl, it would be cool to honor a Saint for her first or middle name, maybe include a subtle Marian aspect. I love rare, high-impact, somewhat intense, romantic, traditional names.

I also feel interested in honoring the sea with this child’s name, for some unknown reason … but thats not a rule.”

BUT … speaking of rules …:

“I do have a few pesky naming rules. The good news is that I am quite open-minded so you might get me to budge on some of these. Especially if the suggestion is really, really cool.

Rules
-I would prefer not to choose names (for either gender) that repeat the first initial (C, R)
-I would prefer not to choose names that repeat the ending of the name. In other words, I have always liked “Lucia”, but I feel that the “a” at the end of that name already belongs to my Rosa. When I call my children’s names outloud, I love the idea of their names having distinct endings. For Celeste, this is a non-issue. But if you eliminate girl’s names ending in the letter “a”, you definitely wipe out a lot of options.

My heritage is very important to me (especially because my children will receive my husband’s very common last name). I am Cuban/Spanish, Irish, German, Dutch. My husband’s ancestry is English, Irish, German … Because I am so new to Catholic naming, I am sure there are names out there that I am just not even aware of. I would love to find some new names (or reexamine names I have overlooked), particularly in the girl category!“

Some of their favorite names are:

Beatrix
Brigid
Margaret (but popularity is an issue)
Genevieve (ditto re: popularity)
Therese (“my husband cant seem to pronounce this tho…“)
Maris
Pearl (but used by a friend)
Luz

Padraig/Padraic Willem
Forrest/Forest Willem
Seamus Henry
Simon Henry
Duncan ___

And names from their family tree:

Ellen
Helen
Cullen
Anne
Ivo
Palma
Margaret
Patrick/Padraig
Willem
Bernadina
Magdelena
Edward
Catherine
Lillian
Molly
Maureen
Thomas
Francis
Arthur
Aloysius
Victor
Graciela
Luisa
Matthew/Mateo
Simon
Beatrice
Lucia
Grace
Lola
Olive
Henry
Nathaniel
Phineas
Samuel
Mabel
Muriel
Elisabeth
Edwin
Willard
Elias
Forrest
Everett
Pearl

A further note:

“I tend to really go for Irish boy names, as you can see by the list above. For boy’s, I also like the idea of using a name that is traditional, HANDSOME, hearty, possibly with a Latin root, that includes at least one nod to a Saint (in either the first name or the middle name). The only name on this list that reflects the natural world in any way is Forest, which is probably why it is the favorite of my farmer husband.”

Also, because I know you’ll all love it, Chelsea told me that getting feedback from me “is like having a name doula” — a name doula! I might just have to put that on my business card! 😀

Okay, first my thoughts about their current list:

Their girls choices are all great and lovely! It’s fun to see a mix of names I see a lot through the blog (Genevieve, Therese, Margaret) and those I’d love to see more often (Beatrix, Brigid, Maris, Pearl, Luz). I personally don’t think they can go wrong with any of them. I particularly like how Maris can fit into the five-letter-beginning-with-M pattern they already have for Celeste and Rosa’s middle names, and it’s Marian, and it’s related to the sea—it seems like they have a perfect middle name right there!

The boys names have a very different feel to me than the girl names, and I like them all. I’m particularly impressed with the super Irishy Irish Padraig/Padraic! AND I discovered recently that St. Patrick is the patron of organic gardening! Since Chelsea’s husband is a farmer, I thought that was particularly meaningful. I have an idea for a middle name for Duncan, which I’ll include in my suggestions below.

I had fun coming up with ideas for this family, because of all the rules! I love love a good name challenge! I always shoot for three, but I came up with so many ideas that I grouped them into five suggestions for each gender:

Girls

(1) Carmel
Aaaand right off the bat I’m breaking rules! But I’m hoping this might be one of those really, really cool suggestions that they don’t mind, especially since the C doesn’t make the same sound as Celeste. Carmel is for Our Lady of Mount Carmel—it comes from the Hebrew for “garden,” and is the name of a mountain in the Holy Land featured in the book of Kings (chapter eighteen). In this chapter, the prophet Elijah challenged King Ahab to call on his god Baal to start the fire of sacrifice, while Elijah would call on the Lord. “The God who answers with fire is God,” Elijah said, and “All the people answered, ‘Agreed!’” (1 Kings 18:24). Not surprisingly, Our Lord was victorious. Afterward, Elijah instructed his servant to look out to the sea from Mount Carmel and report what he saw there; six times the servant reported there was nothing to see, and Elijah sent him to look again. On the seventh time, the servant told Elijah, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea” (1 Kings 18:44).

This is the coolest part: Carmelite tradition holds that Elijah understood this cloud to be a symbol of the Virgin Mother who would bear the Messiah, as foretold in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14).

I’ve done a little research on it, and one place I found online explained, “When the servant of Elijah saw a small cloud rise from the sea, God revealed to Elijah that a certain child, Blessed Mary, symbolised by that cloud would be born of sinful human nature, symbolised by the sea.”

Tradition also suggests that, even in Old Testament times, a group of hermits followed in the example of Elijah by living on Mount Carmel and leading lives of contemplative prayer; praying, in fact, for the coming of the Virgin Mother. Then,

“On the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, the spiritual descendants of [Elijah] and his followers came down from Mount Carmel. Fittingly, they were the first to accept the message of Christianity and to be baptized by the Apostles. When, at last, they were presented to Our Lady, and heard the sweetest words from Her lips, they were overcome with a sense of majesty and sanctity which they never forgot. Returning to their holy mountain, they erected the first chapel ever built in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. From that time devotion to God’s Mother was handed down by the hermits on Mount Carmel as a treasured spiritual legacy.” (source)

In the thirteenth century AD, so my favorite version of the story goes, the hermits left the mountain and went to Europe, where they received Papal approval for their Order, and became known as the “Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel,” or, the Carmelites. Later that same century, on July 16, 1251, Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, and gave him the Brown Scapular, promising, “‘This shall be the privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.’ In time, the Church extended this magnificent privilege to all the laity who are willing to be invested in the Brown Scapular of the Carmelites, and who perpetually wear it.”

So Carmel is Marian and related to the sea! I love it, I think it would be smashing for Chelsea if she has a little girl. If she hates the C, because of it repeating the first letter of Celeste’s name, behindthename.com says that the Hebrew word, when transliterated, becomes Karmel, which for some reason we then make Carmel, so Karmel would be a possibility. It also strikes me as Irishy and womanly, probably because the only Carmel I’ve met was a middle aged woman who ran a B&B in Dublin. Also, the Spanish version is Carmen, which they also might like because of their Spanish heritage.

(2) Hildi or Edith
It’s hard to follow Carmel with all its info! But I had immediately thought of Hildi when I was reading Chelsea Anne’s email. St. Hildegard of Bingen (who was famous for her writings and poetry and prophetic visions) was recently declared a Doctor of the Church, which is a big deal because she’s a woman (there are three other women: St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese, and St. Catherine of Siena), and I know of a little girl named after her—I can’t remember if they named her the full Hildegard or just Hildi, but she goes by Hildi and I’m just head-over-heels in love with it. It’s so sweet! I definitely think Hildi stands on its own, despite technically being a nickname, and it fits all their naming rules. Another option, if they preferred a non-nickname name, is Hilde, which is the German and Dutch (their heritage!) version of Hilda, which is related to Hildegard, but Hilde is said the same as Hilda, so unfortunately there is the –a ending that’s already Rosa’s. (And I wasn’t sure if they didn’t want to repeat the ending sound of Celeste (T) or actual letter (E)? So there’s that too. Hildi gets around all of that.)

Hildi made me think of Edith, because of its Germanic-ness, and Edith is St. Edith Stein, whose religious name in life was St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a convert from Judaism and died in a concentration camp during WWII. She is awesome, and I’m seeing Edith get quite a bit of name love among Catholics recently. The nickname Edie is beyond adorable too. Both Hildi and Edith have a womanly feel to me, like Chelsea said she liked about the Baby Name Wizard’s description of Celeste and Rosa.

(3) Margo
Chelsea said she loves Margaret but its popularity is concerning—I think Margo’s a great alternative. It’s a variant of Margaret, and I think it can take all the Margaret nicknames if they wanted it to. The original Margot, of which Margo is a variant, is French, so the T is silent, but since they wanted to avoid repeat endings, I thought maybe the T was too close to the appearance of Celeste? Margaux is another acceptable spelling. Margaret also means “pearl” so using a Margaret variant would honor the Pearl in their family! Pearl can also be Marian (I blogged about it!), so Margo could be considered a very subtle Marian name. I also like that Margo is five letters starting with M, so if they didn’t care for it in the first name spot, they might like it in the middle. (I also wonder if they’d like the Irish form of Margaret, Mairead? It rhymes with parade.)

(4) Pilar or Belén
These two were inspired by all their rules and their Spanish heritage. I’m not sure if they’d be interested in a Spanish name, but I love both of these. Pilar is from a title of Our Lady, and under this title (María del Pilar) she was declared Patroness of Spain and of all Hispanic Peoples by St. John Paul II in 1984. Belén is the Spanish form of Bethlehem. Both gorgeous, meaningful names!

AND — ohmygoodness!!! — I didn’t know this until right this minute but TODAY is the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar/Nuestra Señora del Pilar!

(5) Verity or Amity
I did a little research in my BNW, looking for connections and overlap with the names that they’ve used and liked, and was following a path from Forrest to Mercy to Amity, which also made me think of Verity, which I’ve always liked—Amity means “friendship” and Verity means “truth” so they’re really great meaning names, AND they don’t break any of the rules!

Boy

(1) Elias or Elliott
I spotted Elias right away in their list of family names, because it’s one I’d already had in mind for them as I was reading the beginning of Chelsea’s email because of the Carmel connection—Elias is the Greek form of Elijah, so using it for a boy could be thought of as a nod to the sea and honoring Our Lady all in one. And it’s a family name for them! If Chelsea and her hubs didn’t like it as a first name, I thought it would be an amazing middle name for Duncan. Duncan Elias is so handsome! And Elliott actually originated as a diminutive of Elias, so they could use Elliott both as a connection to Carmel/Elijah and their family member named Elias.

(2) Declan
I thought Declan seemed a perfect addition to their list, based on their desire for “Irish, traditional, HANDSOME, hearty … includes at least one nod to a saint.” St. Declan was a contemporary of St. Patrick and is quite loved in Ardmore in Ireland. One of my cousins used it for her little boy, and I just love it.

(3) Nicholas, Brendan, Elmo/Erasmus
I wasn’t totally sure if their desire to honor the sea was also for boy’s names, or just girls? But I looked up patron saints of sailors, and St. Nicholas, St. Brendan (Irish!), and St. Elmo (also known as St. Erasmus) are all. All these names fit the rules as well.

(4) Isidore, George, Fiacre
I also looked up patron saints of farmers and similar, which is how I discovered that St. Patrick is the patron of organic gardening. There’s also St. Isidore, patron of farmers, which I’d known, and St. George is the patron of farmers, field workers, and shepherds, which I hadn’t known! And I thought they might be really intrigued by Fiacre—it’s the French form of the Irish Fiachra, and is the name of an Irish saint who settled in France—and he’s the patron of those who grow vegetables and medicinal plants, and of gardening in general. How cool! Now I know that each of these names has the same ending as Celeste, but I as I mentioned I was a little unclear as to whether they didn’t want to repeat her ending sound (T) or her ending letter (E), so I took a chance.

(5) Heath, Jasper, Timothy
When I was looking up names in my BNW, looking for connections and overlap with the names that they’ve used and liked, I found Heath as a brother name for Amity, and I immediately thought they might like it because of its nature connection. It originally meant someone who lived on a heath, sort of like an uncultivated field. Jasper was a brother name for Everett, which I was intrigued by from their family names, and I loved Jasper for them because it’s a kind of rock (nature!), and also one of the names traditionally assigned to one of the three Wise Men (Casper is a variant of Jasper, which is also sometimes given for that Wise Man). And Timothy! Chelsea’s husband’s name! I only recently discovered that timothy is hay! Or rather, it’s a kind of grass that is “widely grown for hay in the United States” (according to the dictionary). I don’t know if she or her hubs would like using his name as either a first or middle, but it’s pretty cool to have that nature/farm-y connection.

Whew! Those are all my ideas! What a mama of a post! What do you all think? What names would you suggest to Chelsea Anne and her husband for their little baby-on-the-way?

I love to do name consultations! If you’d like me to give your name dilemma a go, check out my Baby name consultant tab.

Reading round-up

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Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary! Such a lovely feast for little Rosary, and also a good day to pray for special intentions — I have one, if you don’t mind adding it to your own. And I’ll remember you all and your intentions in my rosary this evening. ❤

So we’re all going crazy wanting to know Emily’s baby’s name, right? For anyone who didn’t yet see, Emily linked to her consultation on her blog, and added the tantalizing note that she’d actually had the baby that morning, and that she’d reveal his name soon. I’ll share it as soon as she gives the okay!

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, which I just love, and whose Editor-in-Chief, Sara, sometimes offers her thoughts in our comments here (I’m still a little dazzled!), has just added Joachim to its database! You know it’s one of my very favorite names, and I asked Sara about it a few months ago, and she tweeted me the other day to let me know it had been added. I *love* the entry! This is my favorite part: “The name was never common in any culture, but the importance of the saintly father of Mary meant that this name could be found pretty much anywhere” (emphasis mine). That’s one of the things I love about it!

Has anyone seen this article? The New Tug of War Over Baby Names. I totally get having hopes, even very strong ones, that a family name will be used by the next generation; I get feeling badly if that doesn’t happen; I DON’T get offering bribes for baby names! Definitely an overstepping of bounds, no? Have any of you experienced this in your own families, or heard about it happening in real life?

Finally, a reader just sent me this today — I don’t know how I missed it! Cate Blanchett Got Her Son’s Name from a Captain Underpants Book (Yes, It’s True!). Despite how very Catholicky Catholic her kids’ names are, it appears Roman Polanksi and Captain Underpants provided inspiration for the naming of two of her sons. Which just illustrates one of the things I love about saints’ names: You can be as ostentatious or understated about your faith as you want in regards to your kids’ names and no one really need bat an eye; conversely, there are so many saints’ names that no matter your taste (and even no matter your faith), you can still end up with children that make people like me think swoonily of popes and martyrs. 😉

Happy Wednesday to you all!

Baby name consultant: Lots of restrictions, lots of creativity

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Tanya, from the blog Our House, and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, a girl. She writes,

“We ALWAYS have a hard time with names. ALWAYS. I’m Armenian and my husband is French Canadian. Our kids are dark haired and have dark eyes so I don’t like any names that sound super American like Hunter or Emily etc. I like unique names that aren’t too weird or hard to say. As a general rule I don’t like any names in the top 100 list by the SS. We did break this rule once with Samuel. I like names that start with E and A and L … No names that start with other kids letters (I,S,K and N) and last name starts with V … I feel like girls names should be feminine and boys names should be manly.”

As soon as I read this paragraph, I felt like rubbing my hands together with glee — I do so love a good name challenge! Then I read their kids’ names … oh my! I love them!

Keira Joyce (Joyce is Tanya’s mom’s name)
Israel Benedict (Benedict after Fr Benedict Groeschel)
Nairi Anne (pronouced NY-rie, rhymes with Riley)
Samuel Fulton (Fulton after Fulton Sheen as dh loves him)

Tanya and her husband know they’re having a girl, and have a couple strong contenders for her name, but I did this consultation for them a few months ago, and I’ll post it in full (minus the boy suggestions — it was before they’d found out the gender), juuust in case. (Also, just because it’s fun. 🙂 )

Names on their original list for a girl included:

Meliné (Tanya’s grandmother’s name, said mel-eh-NAY) (“I love the name but I don’t think anyone will pronounce it correctly and that will drive me nuts. Plus the accent issue…. I honestly don’t even know how to type an accent“)
Constance or Madeline as middles (Tanya’s hubs’ mom’s names)

Names that can’t be used because of cousins:

Elyse
Kateri
Illana

So here are my original thoughts and ideas:

This consultation was such an interesting one! Between the names they’ve already chosen (especially Nairi), and their restrictions/preferences (no I,S,K,N,V; no American-sounding names; prefer E,A,L; no using cousins’ names), and Tanya’s Armenian heritage and her husband’s French Canadian heritage and Tanya’s grandmother’s French name and Keira’s Irishy name, it was a lot to consider, and a lot that I’m not familiar with. I really loved learning more about Nairi, a name I’ve never heard before – it’s an old name for Armenia, which is such a clever/cool/beautiful way to work in Tanya’s heritage! As you all know, I often start with the Baby Name Wizard book for inspiration, as it offers for each entry boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. But the ideas it offered for Keira and Samuel didn’t seem like this family’s style, and Nairi and Israel weren’t even listed, so I felt like I was flying blind a little. So I was extra interested in whether or not Tanya would think I was circling the right areas with my ideas.

Before I list my own ideas though, I had some thoughts about their list: first off, Meliné is just gorgeous. I love that it’s Tanya’s grandmother’s name, and that its Frenchiness is a nice nod to her husband as well. I do agree with her though that its pronunciation will likely be skewered at first pass (I assume most people would say meh-LEEN, especially in absence of the accent), and that accent will definitely be somewhat problematic. I don’t mind the pronunciation meh-LEEN – it’s quite pretty on its own – but I can see why it might feel a big lackluster to Tanya in light of the real pronunciation, as well as not being her grandmother’s pronunciation. I thought maybe a different variation of it, or a similar name, might be a reasonable alternative? I wasn’t able to find it online though … I found Méline, which I think is pronounced more like may-LEEN, which was said to be a French form of Melina, which itself was said to be English, French, and Greek, an “Elaboration of Mel (either from names such as MELISSA or from Greek μελι meaning “honey”). A famous bearer was Greek-American actress Melina Mercouri (1920-1994), who was born Maria Amalia Mercouris.” So that wasn’t terribly helpful … I looked at the variants listed for Melina and thought Melantha and Melania sounded intriguing. Or maybe something like Mila? Similar sounds, but more familiar to Americans. Depending on how close to the actual name a name has to be for Tanya to consider it an honor name, I found some other French M names that I thought might be worth a look:
— Marise (diminutive of Marie – I’m a sucker for a Marian name!)
— Magali (I’ve long loved this one – it’s the Occitan [southern France, et al.] form of Magdalene)
— Margot (solid choice)
— Mireille or its Catalan variant Mireia (gorgeous! They may be trading one difficultly pronounced name [Meliné] for another, but at least there aren’t any accents!)

I also wondered if they might consider Meliné as a middle name? Then it can be said and spelled (accent and all) just as they please with no issues.

Otherwise, I scoured all my go-to sites as well as the BNW book for other ideas that thought might work for them, and while I always shoot for three ideas, I came up with quite a few more, which I’ve grouped into five broader ideas:

(1) French A names
I really like the idea of a French name for this baby, since Keira has an Irishy feel, and Nairi is Armenian – it seems, between Tanya’s grandmother and her husband, that French would make a lot of sense. Using Tanya’s fondness for A names, I looked through listings of French names and loved:
— Amélie (can have the accent, but doesn’t need to, which is a bonus) (I know this is similar to Emily, but doesn’t read “American” to me at all)
— Annick or Anouk (I’ve always loved these variants of Anne. But maybe they wouldn’t care for that, since Nairi’s middle name is Anne?)
— Aurore (I think this is my favorite suggestion for them. It begins with an A, it’s French, it’s got a beautiful sound, and it has R’s in it like Keira and Nairi. It’s also Marian!)

(2) Names “for France”
Because Nairi is an old name for Armenia (and I was clutching at any idea that might work), I looked up old names for France and Canada (and I apologize too if there’s a real political/emotional difference between France and French Canada, where Tanya’s husband wouldn’t feel at all honored by a connected-to-France name … I’m not aware of any, but it’s not my area of expertise!) and found:
— Britta (Brittany would be the actual name, for that part of France, but I’m sure Brittany’s not their style … but when I typed all their kids’ names into nymbler.com, Britta was one of the results, so … maybe?)
— Frances or Franka/Franca or Francesca/Franziska/Franciska (since the Francis names literally mean “from France”)
— Gallia or Galia (Gallia’s not technically a given name, but it’s the old Latin name for France. Galia *is* a real name, though not related to Gallia except in appearance and sound [which I assume they share], it’s a Hebrew name, which could be a nice connection with Israel and Samuel’s Hebrew names while being a nod to French heritage)

Frustratingly, one of the only names I could find connected to Canada that seemed doable – and I was really excited about it for a few minutes – was Scotia (from Nova Scotia). I’d seen someone else consider it recently, and I thought it was brilliant. But then I remembered – no S names! Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, one of the names that was proposed for Canada, when it was being officially named, was Borealia, which is Latin for “northern,” but it makes me think of aurora borealis, which reminds me again of my suggestion above of Aurore. An extra nod to her husband’s heritage? Love it!

(3) Élodie or Laure
I also looked through the E and L lists, and Elodie and Laure both jumped out at me. Like Amélie, Élodie can be spelled with an accent, but it doesn’t have to be. And like with Aurore, Laure has an R in it, which I like as that small thread through the sisters’ names.

(4) Genevieve
Genevieve has been getting more love recently than ever, but it’s still out of the top 200, and St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris! So cool.

(5) Azélie (with or without the accent) or Zabel
Zelie’s recently popular among Catholic families, for St. Therese’s mom Bl. Zelie Martin (born Marie-Azélie), but I haven’t seen anyone consider Azélie/Azelie. It begins with an A! And Bl. Zelie’s going to be canonized this fall, so that would be a really nice connection for a little girl born soon after. And I checked out Armenian names, just to see, and came across Zabel, which is an Armenian form of Isabel – Isabel is listed in the BNW as a style match for Samuel, which makes a nice connection. And can you beat Z as a cool letter??

Those were all my original ideas for Tanya and her hubs. As you can see, I’m big on trying to make connections with names, but I also tried to include names just because I thought they might like them.

As an extra bonus, as mentioned above, Tanya emailed me with their updated list and ideas, and an added dilemma. So fun!

“[Email from a couple weeks ago] As of now we are still not sure on a name for her. We are considering Azelie and Ani and Constance (Coco?) … I do love Aurora but I think its too popular and the French Aurore sounds like its missing something to me. I liked some of your M suggestions but two close friends just had girls and both went with M names (Mary and Mariella) so I want to avoid M for now … [Email from just the other day] Since someone posted on your comments the other day about Constance … I would say the strongest contender now (26 weeks pregnant) is Constance Rose with a nickname of Cora/ Coraline or Coco. Dh says he will call her Constance but he is fine with a nickname too … Cora is my fav but our oldest is Keira so it’s kinda close….would love to hear any other creative C names that could work for Constance.”

So coming up with nicknames is one of my very favorite things (as I’m sure you all know!). I had a ball trying to think of more ideas for Constance besides Coco, Cora, or Coraline and came up with (and as you’ll see, I felt very free to be offbeat!):

— Cosette: If they’re willing to consider Coraline for Constance, then I don’t think length or even that close a connection to the name is that important. I really like Cosette because it’s got the C,O,S of Constance, which overlaps nicely with the O,S,E of Rose if they went with the combo Constance Rose.
— Colette: Cosette made me think of Colette, which is a saint’s name, and since Cosette is sort of a mashup of Constance Rose, I immediately thought Colette could be a sort of mashup of Constance Meliné, which just made me want to fall over with happiness. Beautiful!
— Cosi, Coley — Not only can these made sense as nicknames for Constance (especially Cosi), but they were both listed as nicknames for Cosette and Colette, respectively.
— Costa: I believe this is technically a man’s name, a traditional nickname for the Greek Constantine, but it makes so much sense for Constance.
— Stanzi: I read that Stanzi was the nickname for Mozart’s wife in the movie “Amadeus,” short for her given name Constanze. I thought that was cool!
— Tia: According to Behind the Name, Constance is “a Medieval form of Constantia,” so I think Tia could totally work!
— Tacey/Tacy: I thought at first of Maude Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books, where Tacy is a nickname for Anastasia, but I definitely think it can work for Constance (and fun to have a literary connection too!).
— Tasia: I say this TAH-sha, which echoes for me the “ah” in the first syllable of Constance, never mind the shared T,S, and A.
— Stacia/Stasia: I know, I know, it begins with an S, but on the slight chance an S nickname is okay, I couldn’t leave it off the list. It’s got the “Sta” of ConSTAnce and the sss sound at the end, like Constance. It can be pronounced STAY-sha or STAH-sha.
— Scotia: See Stacia/Stasia — I know it doesn’t stand a chance, but this original idea of mine (from “Nova Scotia,” a nod to hubby’s Canadian heritage), like Stacia/Stasia, shares some letters and sounds with Constance.
— Nicknames for Perpetua: Okay, this is another of my crazy ideas, but since Constance has a very similar meaning to Perpetua, I thought maybe one of the Perpetua nicknames might intrigue? Like: Pia, Pippa, Peppa, Pip, Pep, Poppy.

And finally, I did have one more idea that came to mind very recently for Tanya and her hubs, and it specifically goes against her new no-M-names rule, but it seemed like it might be the very kind of name they like: Meike (said like Micah) or Mieke (said MEE-ka) — the former is described as a German and Dutch diminutive of Maria; the latter is said to be only a Dutch diminutive of Maria. I love the pronunciation of Meike especially, though Mieke gets away from mirroring the “ei” of Keira … they’re similar in length and share some letters with Keira and Nairi, and I love that they’re Marian! Meike Rose, Meike Meliné, and Meike Madeline all strike me as really beautiful combos. (Unfortunately I don’t think Meike Constance has a great flow because of the k-k sound. But that doesn’t have to matter, if they love it.)

Whew! That’s a mama of a consultation! What do you think of the nicknames I suggested for Constance? Do you have any other ideas for first names (given that Azelie, Ani, and Constance are the current finalists) or nicknames for Constance?

#PopeInUS: Family saints, Mother Mary, Jim Gaffigan

sanctanomina Pope Francis , , , ,

That Pope Francis. ❤ To Congress: “Thank you for the lunch invitation! But I’ll be eating with the homeless.” To the Little Sisters of the Poor: “I’m with you, Sisters.” To John Boehner: “I’m gonna make you CRY.” To America: “Let me refer to you as the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave.’ Let me refer to your important and beloved people.” To the United Nations: “In all countries, in light of all issues, real people need to come first, with a special care needed for the poorest.” That man. ❤

Name-wise, did you see that the World Meeting of Families, which Pope Francis will be attending in Philadelphia tomorrow, has a listing of Saints for the Family? So many of our very favorite saints and very favorite names:

Pope St. John Paul II
St. Gianna
Mary, Undoer of Knots (Pope Francis has a special devotion to her)
St. Joseph
St. John Bosco
St. Anne (our very own)
St. Joachim
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Raphael

Speaking of Mary, Undoer of Knots … I’m dying to talk about that other Marian name we were all atwitter about yesterday: Maristella! Several of you said you’d never heard of it before, and I hadn’t either until someone suggested it for Simcha’s baby. (I don’t agree with that commenter’s husband though — despite the fact that it’s technically an Italian variant, as I actually shared with the mama of Maristella “one of the things I love about [the Irish] naming style, especially historically (perhaps less so now), is their heavy use of saints’ names of all cultures/ethnicities.” I know of Irish girls/ladies named Maria (read that only if you want to cry your eyes out), Jacinta, Lucia, Gemma, Philomena … and there’s not a huge amount of difference between Maristella and Isabella, which is used by all sorts of Americans=diverse ethnic backgrounds … anyway. Rant over!) So of course it’s a version of Stella Maris=Star of the Sea and — so cool! — the UK’s Apostleship of the Sea has Stella Maris Masses several times right around now! The pic I posted to Instagram for Maristella is a particularly lovely one too.

And speaking of five children (because our Maristella is one of five, nice segue right?! 😉 ) … Jim Gaffigan (who has five children–>there’s the connection!) is performing at the World Meeting of Families for an audience of over a million people that might possibly include Pope Francis. Wha??? Jim’s got great, solid, saintly names for his kids in real life:

Marre (very intrigued by this one … a user-submitted entry on Behind the Name says it’s a Swedish diminutive of Maria, Martin, and other Mar- names, and that it’s pronounced MAHR-ah … do any of you know anything more/different?)
Jack
Katie Louise
Michael
Patrick

And for his kids on his show:

Elizabeth
Mary
James
Joseph
Daniel (? not sure on this one; I know it’s also the name of an adult character)

(If anyone knows Jim or his wife Jeannie, feel free to point them in my direction — I’d LOVE to chat with them about their names!)

And that’s my name-related Pope Francis wrap-up for today! (I know you love how I made a whole big name post out of the Pope’s visit. 😀 )

Birth announcement: Maristella Katherine!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , ,

Today’s birth announcement comes to you courtesy of a mama who emailed me a few short days before her due date hoping for thoughts/fresh suggestions, and I have to tell you that I LOVE last minute emails! It’s so exciting and such a privilege to be invited into the whirlwind of the newborn time.

So this mama was expecting her fifth baby, a girl, and her other kiddos are named:

Jillian Rose
August Robert
Theodore (Teddy) Joseph
Noelle Teresa

And just a few short days after I got back to her, her little one was born and given the amazingly beautiful, meaningful name of Maristella Katherine! There are so many things about her name that I love! I mean, the first is the obvious: it’s SO Marian, with Maristella being a version of the Marian title Stella Maris. And I love that it has two L’s in it, like her sisters, but none of the sisters’ names are matchy. Nice job!

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

maristella_katherine

Maristella Katherine

Baby name consultant: Not-so-normal Catholic names

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A mama wrote to me asking for suggestions for not-so-normal Catholic names. I don’t have permission to share her name or her children’s names, but I did want to share my response, and get any other suggestions from all of you.

(1) Last names as first names
I often see in name books certain saints’ last names used as girl’s first names, and often with the note/disclaimer “mostly used by Roman Catholic families” or similar, which I always think is cool. Some of these are: Liguori, Majella, Vianney, Clairvaux, and Piamarta (which I think translates as “holy Martha,” which is kind of cool). The associated saints for those are St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Gerard Majella, St. John Vianney, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. John Piamarta. I’ve referred to the blog My Child I Love You several times before because of their awesome taste in names — two of their girls are Vianney and Clairvaux, and they’d considered Talbot at one time as well, for Bl. Matt Talbot.

There are some saints’ last names that are used for boys, too. Xavier is a great example, although it’s not so unusual anymore. And I think you would want to be a little careful, because some (like those mentioned above) are used almost exclusively for girls, even though they’re male saints’ last names. Some good ones for boys might include: Kolbe (St. Maximilian Kolbe), Campion (St. Edmund Campion), Rice (Bl. Edmund Ignatius Rice), Bosco (St. John Bosco) (Grace just named her baby Bosco!), Jogues (St. Isaac Jogues, said in French like Joe with a G on the end, but in American English I’ve only ever heard it said like Joe with a “GZ” on the end).

There are a whole bunch more here, both in the post and in the comments.

(2) Marian apparition sites
Another kind of name I see used from time to time for girls is the names of places Mary appeared. Like: Lourdes, Liesse, Salette (from “La Salette”), Fatima, Guadalupe (actually used for both boys and girls). Liesse is a new discovery for me, and I’ve just been loving it.

(3) Words (feasts, adjectives, nouns) that give off a Catholic vibe
This sometimes works better within the context of siblings with Catholicky Catholic names, but consider, for girls: Vesper, Eden, Trinity, Pieta. And for boys: Roman, Paschal, Emmaus, Tiber, Creed, Boon. These came from this post (including the comments, nice suggestions offered).

(4) Catholic names from other languages
This would make them “not-so-normal” only from an American standpoint, but that can be good enough. Like, for girls: Belén (Spanish for Bethlehem), Zelie (French, for St. Therese’s mom, who will be canonized next month), Inessa (a Russian [I think?] form of Agnes), Pilar (from a Spanish title for Our Lady), Paloma (Spanish for “dove”), Brid (form of Bridget, said “breed”), Caoimhe/Keeva (just one example of the million unusually spelled Irish names). For boys: Cruz and …. I’m blanking on more! I keep thinking of Xavier, which just isn’t uncommon enough.

(4) Other
Then I just started going through The Catholic Baby Name Book and my own head, trying to find or remember unusual saints’ names I’ve heard, and came up with, for girls: Quiteria (I actually know a mom who was considering this for her daughter), Amata, Keziah/Cassia (biblical), Pia (though I think Piamarta works better because it doesn’t focus so much on the “pee” sound. So unfortunate, because Pia’s a sweet little name).

And for boys: Athan (like Ethan, but not — I believe he was a Welsh saint), Inigo/Eneco (St. Ignatius of Loyola’s birth name; also The Princess Bride!), Ephraim/Efrem (not terribly obscure, but rare), Ivo (more popular in England/Europe I think than here), Aaro (Finnish for Aaron), Eleazar (form of Lazarus).

What do you all think? What names can you add that fit the criteria of “not-so-normal Catholic names”?

Mary’s genealogy; and Joachim and Eli

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , ,

While writing up the post about Jesus’ genealogy the other day, I started wondering about Mary’s. I found this article, which sort of blew my mind: Why isn’t Joachim mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy?

Basically, the idea is that the genealogy as listed in the Gospel of Matthew (the one I referred to in my Jesus’ genealogy post) is believed to be that of Joseph, which shows Jesus’ legal lineage, and his claim to the throne of David through his legal father. The genealogy presented in the Gospel of Luke, however, which is different than Matthew’s, is argued by some to be that of Mary, which shows Jesus’ natural lineage, and his claim to the throne of David through blood.

!!!!

One of things I found most fascinating is that some of the Church’s Big Thinkers argue that Mary and Joseph may have been first cousins. I’d never heard that before!

“Many of the Fathers maintained that Jacob and Heli [see below for more on Heli — he’s listed as Joseph’s father in Luke, as opposed to the Jacob listed in Matthew] were brothers and that, after Heli died childless (or, at least, without any sons), Jacob took Heli’s widow for his wife. Of her was born St. Joseph. Hence, according to the flesh, Joseph would be the son of Jacob only; but, according to legal right of inheritance, Joseph would be the son of Heli also. This explanation is certainly plausible, and enjoys the favor of many scholastic doctors as well (including St. Thomas Aquinas) …

If Heli is Joachim [see below for more on that], then we may presume that Joachim died without any sons. Joachim’s widow (presumably, a second wife other than St. Anne) would have married Jacob and bore him St. Joseph.”

So to answer the question posed in the article title, and alluded to in the quote above, another theory is that the Heli that’s listed as Joseph’s father in Luke actually refers to his father-in-law, Joachim:

“… we may follow the opinion of other scholars who maintained that Jacob (Joseph’s father) had died young and that Joseph became a quasi-adopted son of Heli/Joachim through his marriage to the Virgin – for this reason, then, Joseph is called son of Heli.

Whatever the intricate details, the central claim of this theory is that Joachim was called Heli and that this “nick-name” would have been common knowledge to those for whom St. Luke was writing. This opinion is said to have been held by St. Jerome, and is defended with great vigor by Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide. It was a common opinion that enjoyed the favor of many scholars from at least the 1400s up through the early 1900s …

We argue that Heli and Joachim are linguistically related, such that it would be very natural for a single man to go by these two names. Joachim seems to be a variant form of Eliacim, which is abbreviated as Eli, a variant of Heli. Hence, though the two names may at first appear quite different, there is a great linguistic similarity between Heli and Joachim.

In any case, there are many persons in the New Testament who are called by multiple names: Nathanael is called Bartholomew, Thomas is called Didymus, Cleophas is called both Clepas and Alphaeus (though this last is more debatable), Salome is called Mary (her full name being Mary Salome), et c.”

This is the genealogy as listed in Luke 3:23-38:

[God] (those in brackets were not listed in Matthew — he starts with Abraham)
[Adam]
[Seth]
[Enos]
[Cainan]
[Mahalaleel]
[Jared]
[Enoch]
[Methuselah]
[Lamech]
[Noah]
[Shem]
[Arphaxad]
[Cainan]
[Shelah]
[Eber]
[Peleg]
[Reu]
[Serug]
[Nahor]
[Terah]
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Judah
Perez
Hezron
Arni (Ram in Matthew)
Admin (missing in Matthew — maybe this was an admin mistake when transcribing? 😀 )
Amminadab
Nahshon
Sala (Salmon in Matthew)
Boaz
Obed
Jesse
David
Nathan (this is where the Lucan genealogy splits off from Matthew’s)
Mattatha
Menna
Melea
Eliakim
Jonam
Joseph
Judah
Simeon
Levi
Matthat
Jorim
Eliezer
Joshua
Er
Elmadam
Cosam
Addi
Melchi
Neri
Shealtiel (and picks it back up again)
Zerubbabel
Rhesa (and diverges again)
Joanan
Joda
Josech
Semein
Mattathias
Maath
Naggai
Esli
Nahum
Amos
Mattathias
Joseph
Jannai
Melchi
Levi
Matthat (despite the fact that Matthan is listed here in Matthew, and so I might have presumed it’s the same guy, the article I cite above says Matthan and Matthat are two different men)
Heli (Jacob listed as Joseph’s father in Luke)
Joseph

Also, St. Joseph is listed as eleven generations from Shealtiel in Matthew, while in Luke it’s twenty.

So interesting!

Another quick note about the possible Joachim/Heli connection — I’d only ever read the Behind the Name entry that says Joachim is a “Contracted form of JEHOIACHIN or JEHOIAKIM,” where Jehoiachin means “established by YAHWEH” in Hebrew, and Jehoiakim means “raised by YAHWEH.” This idea of it being “a variant form of Eliacim” was new to me, so I looked it up, and while I didn’t find that spelling I did find Eliakim, which means “God rises.” So indeed it does seem that Eliakim and Jehoiakim mean the same thing, or very nearly, and if it wasn’t for this bit of research today I never would have discovered that connection. What do you all think of Eliakim, possibly with the nickname Eli, OR Eli on its own, with the intention of it being a variant of Eliakim, as an honor name for Mary via her dad, as argued by the article cited above? Do you all find Eliakim/Eli more accessible than Joachim?

September CatholicMom.com column

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer

Ack! I posted a screen shot of this on Instagram like an hour ago intending to post here right away and then I was having a million difficulties with the computer and uploading the photo to here and cropping it correctly and then dinner and vacuuming and children shrieking for drinks!

catholicmom2-09.16.15

But here, now, finally, is my post about my post — my September column is up over at CatholicMom.com! It’s all about the Holy Name of Mary — the Feast, the power of the name, its meaning, and some forms of it. If you get a chance, hop on over and leave a comment!

Birth announcement: Molly Róisín!

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Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary — what a wonderful feast day for all of us here! And in honor of Our Lady, it’s perfectly fitting that this is the birth announcement I have for today:

Back in June I posted a “not-too-difficult Irish name needed” consultation for Jenny from Irish by Marriage — the baby has arrived! Jenny writes,

“Molly Róisín is a week old today. We are so thrilled with her name. Thank you so much for your help! It is the perfect balance of everything we wanted.”

Molly Róisín!! Ahhh!! It’s such a beautiful beautiful gorgeous Irish Marian name!! For those of you not familiar, Róisín is Irish for “little Rose” and the one Róisín I’ve known said her name ro-SHEEN so I assume that’s the universal pronunciation. Lovely!! One of my very favorites of the Irishy Irish names.

Congratulations to Jenny and her husband and Molly’s big sibs Caitlin and Sean, and happy birthday Baby Molly!!

molly_roisin

Molly Róisín