Mary

Baby name consultant: Baby D (#6)

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Mom and Dad D. are expecting their sixth baby at the end of May! Mom writes:

“I am struggling with a good Catholic name for this little one … This current pregnancy & baby I feel are such a gift, given my advanced age. I will be 43 end of June.  I had a miscarriage in 2013 & named the baby Francis Mary- we didn’t know if it was a girl or boy. I prayed to discern God’s will in many holy hours before the blessed sacrament since that miscarriage & through a divine experience, I found out I was to have another baby ( it’s a cool story, but too long to share here). It involves praying the rosary every day for my brother & sister-in-law named Bob & Susan. (They are both doctors) As soon as I started praying the rosary for them everyday, I became pregnant. Absolutely incredible! I still pray for them everyday, I have no idea why I should pray for them, but I just feel I should!!

Can you help me with some girl names?

For a boy, right now I’m thinking Theodore Jeffrey. Theodore I believe means “gift of God” & Jeffrey is my husband’s name.

But just randomly I also like Rocco

My favorite saint is St. Therese. [They’d also previously considered Christianna.]“

As a side note — this is one of the things I just love about talking about names — I inevitably get to hear these amazing stories of prayer and faith, sadness and joy, and always such hope. It’s always such a privilege.

Anyway! Their other children’s names are:

Zachary [Mom’s maiden name]

John Paul

Mary Kathleen Dorothy (Mary Kate)

Charles Gregory

Timothy Michael

All of their names were chosen with a mix of family and faith connections, and they’d love a similar name for their new little one. I came up with a few ideas for them, all of which I loved so much, for different reasons, that I had a hard figuring out how to list them. I always shoot for three suggestions for each gender, which sometimes takes the form of three names, or three categories/ideas … but for this family, there was so much overlap, especially for girls, that I didn’t quite know how to list them! So I’m just throwing all my ideas out there:

Girl

(1) Susanna

The baby’s aunt is Susan, and they previously considered Christianna — Susanna came right to mind. My trusty name-meaning source says Susanna means lily in old Hebrew and rose in modern Hebrew, both of which are flowers associated with Our Lady. Susie’s a sweet nickname, or Anna; other traditional nicks include Sanna, Sukie, and Zuzu (Zuzu’s petals!).

(2) Christianna

Since they loved it before, perhaps they still do? Being that it’s a Jesus name, it makes me think about all the Mom’s holy hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament — a really nice connection.

(3) Gianna

I was so struck by the prayers being offered for the Mom’s brother and sister-in-law, and how she said she doesn’t even know why she’s feeling compelled to pray for them. St. Gianna Beretta Molla is the patron of mothers, physicians, and unborn children. Could it be any more perfect for this situation, with the brother and sil both being doctors?!

(4) Rosary

Isn’t that a crazy suggestion?! But wait! I recently did a consultation for a family who ended up naming their daughter Rosary — check it out: consultation and birth announcement. It’s so specifically meaningful for this baby on the way too, because of all the Rosaries the Mom’s been saying!

(5) Other Marian name (first or middle)

The baby’s due in May, the month of Our Lady; the parents used a Marian name in their Mary Kate’s name, as well as the name of the baby they miscarried; the Mom found out she was pregnant after starting to say the Rosary for her brother and sil — I mean, wow. Mother Mary’s all over this for them! Especially for a little girl, it would be so nice for the sisters to both have a Marian name — a nice thing to share in a male-dominated household! And an old Catholic tradition as well.

They could certainly do a Marian name for a middle — I love the idea of Susanna Mary, Christianna Mary (Jesus and Mary in one name! Pow pow!), and Gianna Mary, or perhaps Rose — there are so many beautiful Marian names! For first names though, I thought of:

  • Elizabeth (somewhat of a stretch, since it’s not *technically* a Marian name, though with Mary’s love for her cousin, it’s pretty darn close. I know a Mary Kate with a sister Elizabeth)
  • Lily (it’s associated with Mary; it’s also a traditional nickname for Elizabeth!)
  • Rose or Rosa (also associated with Mary, beautiful)

(5) Some form of Anne

As I was scribbling down Gianna … Susanna … Christianna on my little post-it when I was first thinking of suggestions for this family, I couldn’t help but notice the Anna that kept jumping in my face! Of course it made me think of St. Anne. Anne is lovely, as is Anna, and then I was thinking about Hannah — Anna is the Greek and Latin version of Hannah — and her story of praying for a baby, and her prayers were answered. It’s a nice parallel to the story of St. Anne praying for a baby, and her prayers were also answered. So any of those seem lovely and appropriate!

Boys

(1) Samuel

I found boys to be much easier to suggest names for! Samuel was an immediate favorite, because of the Hannah and Samuel story. I love it with the other kids’ names, and Sam is a favorite nickname in my family (my husband loves it, as do I).

(2) Luke

Luke was another immediate favorite for me, as he’s a patron of physicians (that connection to the brother and sil again!). Great name.

(3) Joseph

I can’t believe there isn’t a Joseph among the other boys already! I always think of Joseph as a somewhat Marian name for boys, and May 1 is the patron of St. Joseph the Worker — nice connection with the baby’s birth month!

I did consider Robert as a first name, for the Mom’s brother, but I liked it better as a middle. Samuel Robert, Luke Robert, and Joseph Robert all sound very handsome to me. I like Jeffrey with all of them as well, except Joseph – a lot of J’s! But if you love Joseph Jeffrey, I say go for it. Rocco would also be a fun middle!

I do love Theodore also, and if they decide to go with that, it’d be a great choice! The meaning is certainly so appropriate and sonderful! I will just say … Mary Kate’s second middle Dorothy means the same thing! Theodore and Dorothy are basically the same name, just with the elements reversed. It’s not a huge deal – I mean, how many people know what a person’s second middle is? Or that Dorothy and Theodore are related? (Just this crazy lady. :p) But just something to consider. I don’t know what nickname you would use, if any – Theo’s my favorite, and that would be great, but if you went with Teddy, which is also adorable, there’s the Timmy and Teddy thing … but not a deal breaker!

So that’s what I got! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for Baby D?

Little Miss SHAN-ick!

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The SHAN-ick Family’s name dilemma was one of the first I posted — they were good with their boy pick, but were having trouble with a girl’s name. I’m delighted to announced that they did indeed have a girl! And what a beautiful name they chose! Mama SHAN-ick writes:

“I wanted to thank you again for your help and let you know that we had (drumroll) a girl! And we ended up naming her Rosemary Therese. She was born … after a very (blessedly) fast labor! I’ve attached some pictures: one from her birthday and a more recent one. 🙂

We pronounced Therese as “ter-EZ.” She’s named after Mary, obviously, and St. Therese of Lisieux. Rose is also a reference to St. Therese as well as Mary the Mystical Rose, and we’re getting to know Rose of Lima better now too. We haven’t talked about nicknames but we find ourselves shortening it to Rose and Rosie.

We’ve gotten great reactions to her name! It seems like it’s unique enough because although it’s very traditional it isn’t super popular right now (at least not among people I know!) We love it. She is so very Rosemary!

THANK YOU again! Your help was really wonderful.”

Isn’t Rosemary Therese just a gorgeous name?? Congratulations to the SHAN-ick Family on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!!
rosemary_shanick1-04.11.15rosemary_shanick2-04.11.15
Rosemary Therese

Baby name consultant: Camp Patton’s newest camper

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I’m beyond excited to have the great privilege of offering name suggestions to Grace Patton of the mom/fashion/style/lifestyle/humor blog Camp Patton!

There were a bunch of mama blogs that I read when my older kids were little, and then I took a break from blogs for a while, and then when I dipped my toe back in Grace’s blog was the first new one I started reading and I haven’t stopped. She’s a hilarious writer, and so so cool that I usually feel (1) old, (2) frumpy, and (3) bland when I’m reading her posts and flipping through her photos (which the younguns are calling “grams” I think? At least, that’s what Grace calls them) … but then she refers to herself as a “house mouse” and is blessedly free of the mother-this-way-or-you’re-not-a-good-mom bologna and says she loves shoes and chatting about baby names and that it’s important to her that she and her husband “stay in the saint family of names but I’ll be very honest and admit that I’ve liked a name and then Googled to make sure there is a saint by that name” and I think “soul sisters” and reconsider my aversion to painting my fingernails with the kind of super dark colors she rocks.

Anyway, Grace and her husband Simon have four born babies already, with these amazing names:

Julia Grace

Sebastian Xavier nicknamed Bash

Theodore Augustine nicknamed Theo

Phoebe Annika

Gender-surprise Number Five is due in June, and if you’d asked me before Phoebe was born what Grace and Simon’s style was I’d say Brideshead Revisited without a doubt and start making lists of names like Eleanor and Cora and Charles. Then Miss Phoebe was born and it’s very rare that I’m completely caught off guard by a couple’s name choice, especially if they have more than one other child (two or more gives a really good idea of name style I think, especially when they’re mixed gender), but I was totally blown away by the name they chose, both first and middle. In a good way of course! I loved it the second I read it.

But it really threw a wrench into my name ideas for the Pattons, because I’d been so sure I’d pegged them, and recalibrating my mindset is never an easy task. But recalibrate I did, for an embarrassing number of weeks (I do so enjoy a good name challenge, not joking even a little bit), relying heavily on my trusty Baby Name Wizard book (you remember — for each entry it lists other boys and girls names similar in style/feel/popularity), and came up with what I think are some good ideas. At least, if my children had the names of the Patton children, I’d be pretty happy using any of these for #5. As always, I shoot for three suggestions for each gender:

Girls

(1) Nickname: Lola

It may seem strange to start with a nickname idea, but hear me out: Grace has a style that pervades her whole blog+Instagram, from her fashion sense (for her and her kids) to her music to her interior design to her photographic eye to her funny turns of phrase, and it always strikes me as trendy — but not even close to being so in a bad way — more like, on point, like her finger’s on the pulse. Like how gifts from my similarly cool sibs are often the exact coolest thing that I didn’t even realize was the big new thing or that I looked at from afar and considered too cool for me. Lola strikes me as that kind of name. It feels kind of feisty but sophisticated, and though so far Grace and Simon don’t seem to love nicknameable girls names, they’re really into cool nicknames for their boys (I mean, Bash and Theo? So cool), so Lola kind of bridges what they’ve done already for their boys and girls. And Lola’s a traditional nickname for Dolores, which is Marian, which is always a great Catholic thing to do in naming.

What formal name would I suggest for Lola, you ask? Not Dolores, don’t worry! I have a few ideas, kind of quirky in that they’re not traditionally used as formal names for Lola, but they all strike me as hitting a right note somewhere in the Patton naming scheme. Basically, I tried for names/name combos that had L’s and long O’s so that Lola could be understandable as a nickname. Something like:

  • Violet Louisa (or vice versa)
  • Caroline Lucia (or vice versa)
  • Lourdes (do note that Madonna’s daughter is Lourdes nicked Lola, a surprisingly beautiful choice compared to other [life] choices she’s made)

Or maybe a Mary- double, like … Mary Aloysius. (Kidding!) (Sort of …) Or Mary Olivia, Mary Ophelia, Maria Lauren, even Marie Lorelei (if Lorelei had a better story, it would have been one of my top choices for the nickname Lola for the Pattons … as it is, doubling up with Mary makes nearly every name okay) … they could even do hyphens like the fancy French (probably Marie or Maria would work best?): Marie-Olivia or Marie-Olive, Maria-Ophelia, Maria- or Marie-Lauren, Marie-Lorelei.

If the Pattons like Lola, I know they’ll come up with an amazing formal name for it. Even if they hate Lola, I think Violet, Caroline, Louisa, Lucia, Lourdes, and Mary+[something amazing] are all pretty fab all on their own and fit well with their other kids’ name.

(Just for fun: Lulu also struck me as a fun nickname for them … like fashion designer Lulu Guinness [who was actually born Lucinda, also a possibility] … and I know of a friend-of-a-friend’s recently born baby named Lulu … really cute as a nick for Louisa or Lucia. Also, I love Lucy as a nickname for Louisa, so there’s that too.)

(2) Elisabeth

Elisabeth is long like Sebastian and Theodore, but classic and Biblical like Julia and Phoebe. The Z spelling is fine, and the one I’d likely use if I were to name a daughter this, but I’m loving the S spelling for the Pattons. (I’ve also been reading Elisabeth Leseur’s diary, what a wife she was.) It’s lovely just as it is, but you know I’m a big nicknamer and, again, thinking of Bash and Theo, I love the idea of Tess as a nickname for Elisabeth for them. Of course there are loads of other Eliz/sabeth nicknames that are awesome: Liddy, Libby, Bets(e)y, and Ellie are all favorites of mine.

Another name I almost had as one of my final suggestions for the Pattons is Esme, and I love the idea of making it a nickname for, say, Elisabeth Maria? It totally works!

(3) Felicity or Stella

I had a hard time with girls names for the Pattons, and I found coming up with a third suggestion was so hard I couldn’t decide between Felicity and Stella. I really like them both as sister names to Julia, Sebastian, Theodore, and Phoebe. I even really like Felicity following Phoebe — both starting with an F sound, but having different first initials makes it totally different to me. Felicity’s an amazing saint and it’s one of those names that just has a lot of Catholic cachet. And Stella — you all know how I feel about Stella. So Marian, so classy. I think I’ve been pushing it on nearly everyone who I’ve offered suggestions to. But yet again, I feel like it works here so well. Julia, Sebastian, Theodore, Phoebe, and Stella. Some parents prefer all their kids to have different first initials, which I do understand, and it certainly makes it easier to initial what’s whose (but harder too in a big family to find a whole lotta names that have no first-initial overlap), but like how Phoebe and Felicity both have their own first initial (even while sharing a sound), Sebastian and Stella seem so different to me because of the S- and the St-. That little T makes a difference to me, like S and St are totally different letters. (It’s a little weird here inside my namey head.)

(I also just can’t not leave here some of the names that I thought felt really close to being perfect but ended up deleting them for one reason or another: Penelope, Imogen(e), Genevieve, Iris or Ivy, Lydia, Corinne, and Liv.)

Boys

(1) Maximilian nicknamed Miles

I had a much easier time coming up with three boy names than I did with girl names. Sebastian and Theodore say to me: long, sophisticated, gentlemanly, and the very first name that I thought of was Maximilian. I love Maximilian (as is evidenced by the pseudonym I chose for my boy #5); St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of my very very favorites. I have my boy’s pseudonym nickname listed as Mac, which is an attempt at paralleling his actual nickname in real life, and was previously my favorite nickname for Maximilian, but then I read somewhat recently that someone was considering Maximilian with the nickname Miles and I thought I was going to die of name happiness. I just love an interesting nickname, and Miles is so perfect in my opinion! (If it’s helpful to any of the rest of you, that person considering Miles as a nick for Maximilian was also considering Milo, which I also adore … but not as a brother for Theo.) For the brother of Bash and Theo, I think Miles is awesome. For the brother of Sebastian and Theodore, I think Maximilian is awesome. And not that I’m suggesting middle names (okay I guess I did for Lola) (and for Elisabeth), but I would love a short middle for this long name and right now I’m loving Maximilian James. So handsome.

(2) Francis nicknamed Finn

Yes, I know, me and the nicknames. But the Pattons do nicknames for their boys! Really cool ones! And Francis nicked Finn is one I considered for my own boys, and I felt oh so cool when I thought of it. I’m just not a huge fan of the full Francis for everyday wear or the traditional Frank or Frankie (though my husband kind of loves Frankie, so Pattons, if you prefer Frankie, you’re in good [and normal] company). Francis is, of course, getting lots of Catholic attention because of il Papa, and it strikes me as also fitting right in with that upper-crusty Brideshead feel.

(3) Gregory nicknamed Rory or Gus

This is another one I considered for my boys. I mean, Gregory. As the BNW book puts it, “Popes, saints, and Gregory Peck! Can a name get any more distinguished?” Right? I totally one thousand percent agree. But then the BNW goes on to say, “Except you know he’ll go by Greg, which may conjure up Greg Brady’s bell bottoms instead.” Well we certainly don’t want that (unless such pants are the newest fashion, and if anyone would know, Grace would), and I really really think Rory can work as a nickname for Gregory. I love Rory anyway, and if the Pattons like it but not Gregory, I can also offer Robert nicked Rory. It’s got a formal Brit feel to me right now because of Downton Abbey, which totally works with the other kids’ names, and St. Robert Bellarmine was pretty cool, so that’s covered too. My personal preference would be to pair a name like Robert with a kicky middle, and my first thoughts here were Robert Benedict, Robert Kolbe, or Robert Bosco (Grace mentioned that she once considered Bosco for a first name for a boy).

And Gus? My personal thought is that any name that starts with a G could have the nickname Gus. Oh my, do I love Gus. An S- middle name could help make more sense of it, like Gregory Stephen or Gregory Solanus or Gregory Simon (great way to name after Dad!).

Well! Those are my thoughts on names for Camper #5! What do you all think? Have I hit the target or sailed into the trees beyond? Please leave suggestions — I know I would love to see your thoughts, and i’m sure Grace and Simon would too!

(Apologies if I used the word “cool” too many times in this post.)

Pearl is Marian!

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Remember when I posted about whether or not the name Pearl is Marian? I said, “I couldn’t find any title/appellation referring to Our Lady that included “pearl” anywhere (if any of you can prove me wrong, I’d be beyond delighted!).”

I’ve been proven wrong! And I’m as beyond delighted as I could possibly be! A reader noted in a recent email to me, “I think pearls have been associated with the Virgin Mary — they’re used in art work of the Madonna to symbolize her purity” (thanks Laura!), so I looked it up and lo — she’s right!

“Pearls, Unicorns, and Lilies: Symbols of Feminine Purity in the Renaissance” discussed this explicitly, with lots of good sources:

“The pearl was imbued with many of its implications in the context of paintings of the Madonna. Through representations of the Virgin Mary pearls came to be associated with faith and chastity. The pearls used to adorn the Virgin were not necessarily the pearls one would see in everyday life. These were larger, perfectly round, and flawlessly white with a beautiful luster, while normal pearls may have irregular shapes and lack the Virgin pearls’ snow-white sheen. The perfection of the pearls served to mirror the Christian perfection of the Virgin Mary.[4]

“Mary’s virginity is one of her most frequently discussed attributes. Her purity was highly contested, and supposedly confirmed by Pope Pius IX in a declaration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Even Mary’s own conception was highly debated, in regards to whether she was immaculately conceived by Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.[5] In short, Mary’s virginity and purity are her main attributes, and the items used to adorn her serve to further this message.”

Do you know what this means? If Pearl can be considered a Marian name, then Margaret can as well, since Margaret comes from margarita, the Latin word for pearl! That same post quoted above connects Mary and Margaret as well:

“In addition to the Virgin Mary, one saint in particular became associated with pearls. Saint Margaret—whose name is markedly similar to the Latin word for pearl,margarita—was known for her purity and chastity, as well as for being the saint invoked most frequently during childbirth … It is not a coincidence that the chaste saint is named for a pearl … Jacobus de Voragine described Saint Margaret as being “named after a highly refined white stone known as margarita, small and filled with virtues. Thus the blessed Margaret was white due to virginity”.[9]“

I mean, I suppose it seems somewhat of a stretch to suggest Pearl and Margaret could be considered Marian names, but I don’t know … if the intention is there — the intention to name a little girl after Mary and focusing on her purity as represented by pearls, which is also translated as Margaret — it doesn’t really seem that much different from naming a little girl after Mary and focusing on her purity as represented by the name Virginia, or Lily, or Rose.

What do you all think? Do you agree that Pearl and Margaret/Marguerite/Margarita/Mairead can be considered Marian, in light of this info about pearls?

Wee lassie’s debut!

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Theresa’s name dilemma kicked off Irish month as she was scheduled to have her eighth baby, a little girl, on St. Patrick’s Day. She emailed me an update and a photo of the new little lady!

“Everything went well, we’re back home with ::drumroll:: Rosary Brigid Elise! She was 6lbs. 14oz, 18.75 in, and has been a wonderfully happy baby with siblings who fight over getting to hold her. 

About her name, there’s always that moment when you’re faced with filling out the Birth Certificate paper and you wonder if you chose the right name. But I’m confident we did. The consultation helped us to look deeper into other forms of Elizabeth, my sister’s middle name, since I liked Eilis, but my husband didn’t care for it. We came across Elise, which seems to still flow nicely.
 
So, thank you for the inspiration and input!! We have a beautiful name to go with a bonnie wee lass! 😉 “
 
So wonderful!!!! I just love her name!!! I never in a million years would have considered Rosary for a little girl, but because of Theresa and her beautiful baby it’s totally on my radar as a viable Rosie name. Nice work Heckamans! And I’m ever so grateful for the update!
 

Rosary Brigid Elise

Baby name consultant: Baby Girl Wendt

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Shannon Taylor Wendt, of OrganicMamasShop.com (lots of beautiful things for mamas and Catholic ladies and First Communicants!), and her husband Arnold Zachariah (“Zach”) (I love that!) are expecting their sixth baby and fifth girl within a couple of weeks. Shannon writes:

“Our last name is Wendt, it has a hard sound to it, so the first name has to be flowy, without hard consonants at the end, a pretty name like Jacinta doesn’t sound right to my ear when paired with Wendt, too many hard T sounds … I, of course, want a very Catholic name, but it has to be a little different … I would like our kids to have a cool story when someone asks them where they got their name. A little way to witness. And a cool saint to be connected to! … We also don’t like nicknames.”

Their other children are:

Trinity Rose

Isabelle Grace

Veronica Lily

Gabriel Michael

Seraphina Claire

Gorgeous, right? Shannon further noted that “so far our kids are either blonde (Isabelle and Seraphina) or red heads. And I feel like some names fit a red head better than a blonde, and vice versa. 🙂 ”

Shannon also provided the names that are on their “possibilities” list, but said none of them are really sticking out: Evangeline (Shannon’s favorite, but Zach has never liked it), Arianna or Adriana (Shannon prefers the former, Zach the latter), Anastasia (Zach’s favorite), Katrina, Kateri (but maybe too popular in their circle of friends), Felicity, Marielle, Edel or Quinn  (though Shannon’s worried that “neither of these names sound Catholic. I think Quinn is a fun name, but the popular trend of choosing last names as first names might over shadow this cool Catholic name… And Edel, pronounced like Adelle, will be pronounced wrong all the time and when pronounced correctly might get confused with the singer“).

After thinking about their already-named kids’ names, and the names on their list of ideas, and their last name, and their preference for no nicknames, and Shannon’s so-well-worded hope that “I would like our kids to have a cool story when someone asks them where they got their name. A little way to witness. And a cool saint to be connected to!” I think I came up with some good suggestions/ideas. As always, I shoot for three suggestions:

(1) A meaning name (Charis or Felicity)

Shannon’s other kids’ names are just beautiful, and full of faith-y significance, which really binds them together nicely. Even still, Trinity struck me as an outlier of sorts, and though I really try not to let my personal preferences sneak (much) into my ideas for others, I admit my first thought was to find a name that would be a little closer in style to Trinity, to kind of balance out the sib set. My very favorite suggestion in this vein of thinking is Charis (pronounced CARE-iss). It’s feminine and pretty, like all of the other girls’ names, but it feels like more of a “meaning” name to me, like Trinity. It’s Greek for “grace,” and is contained within the word Eucharist. Merriam-Webster explains the Charis-Eucharist connection thusly: “Middle English eukarist, from Anglo-French eukariste, from Late Latin eucharistia, from Greek, Eucharist, gratitude, from eucharistos grateful, from eu– + charizesthai to show favor, from charis favor, grace, gratitude; akin to Greek chairein to rejoice.” Such great Catholic meaning, and beyond that — such a beautiful meaning for a baby girl! I know they already used Grace as Isabelle’s middle name, but I think Charis and Grace are different enough in sound/appearance (obviously), and one is a first name and one is a middle, that it would be totally fine and not weird.

Additionally, Anastasia’s on their list as Zach’s favorite, and though I don’t know how Shannon and Zach choose the middle names (and I rarely offer suggestions for them, since it’s impossible to know family names, etc.), Charis Anastasia is really popping for me as a gorgeous combo.

The other thought that rose to the surface in the “meaning name” vein was Felicity, which was already on their list. It means “happiness,” and I particularly liked it with the middle name Edel (there I go with middle name suggestions again!). Felicity Edel. Beautiful! Putting Edel in the middle also solves the pronunciation and not-so-obviously-Catholic issues Shannon mentioned in regards to Edel.* And Edel is a short middle, like the other girls’.

Some other names that might also work in this category are Stella, Roma, Gemma, Vesper, and Verity.

(*As a side note, I looked up Ven. Edel Quinn to see if there was anything else offered about her name that could provide inspiration, and I thought these bits were interesting:

— “Edel was accidentally but providently named ‘Edelweiss’ because the Priest who baptized her had bad hearing and thought her father said Edel when he said her name would be Adele.” (source)

— She took the names Josephine Eucharia as her Confirmation names (source) (I wasn’t able to find much on the name Eucharia, but I assume it’s connected to Eucharist, which is a nice connection to Charis, if they want to think of it that way)

— Her middle name was Mary and she belonged to the Legion of Mary (so … Mary) (source)

— “Her mother meant to name her Adele, with an “e” at the end, but the priest associated her name with the diminutive form of the flower Edelweiss, and so the name Edel somehow stuck.” (source) (I liked this specifically because Shannon was worried about the name being misheard as Adele – it’s cool that Adele is still kind of an honor name for her!))

(2) Long and feminine (Christiana or Genevieve)

There are so many really gorgeous long feminine names on their list of considerations, as well as their other daughters, that I headed in that direction for my second idea. Shannon loves Evangeline but Zach doesn’t; he loves Anastasia but Shannon isn’t sure — I wondered what they’d think of Christiana? It’s my very favorite of the Christ- names, and of course the fact that Jesus Himself is the Honoree makes it uber super duper Catholicky Catholic. Christiana also contains “ana,” which is my favorite part of Anastasia. Christiana Quinn? This is definitely a swoon-worthy name to me!

The other name that I thought fit this bill really well is Genevieve. It has similar sounds as Evangeline, with all the V’s and N’s and the soft G, and she’s the patron saint of Paris, which is just so cool. Genevieve Edel?

(3) Giselle

I know this probably seems somewhat out of left field, but Giselle showed up several times in the Baby Name Wizard book as related to names they’ve already used or like: Trinity (via Genesis), Arianna, Adriana, and Quinn (via Xavier). It’s also got the -elle ending like Marielle, and Bl. Gisella of Ungarn is pretty cool, so … maybe?

I also thought these two previous consultations I did might be helpful to the Wendts, as I feel like there’s some overlap in their style and these others: Stark Family and Penny Family.

What do you all think? Do you think I’m in the right ballpark or miles away? Do you have any other suggestions to offer the Wendts? Please also remember to consider OrganicMamasShop.com for gifts for First Communion, Mother’s Day, Confirmation, or what have you — there are some really gorgeous things on there!

Spotlight on: Bridget/Brigid

sanctanomina Spotlight , , ,

If I wanted to write a really great post about Bridget/Brigid, this wouldn’t be what I’d write, but I’m tired and I wanted to post something Irishy today in anticipation of Tuesday! So this is what I got for you tonight:

“… The cult of St. Brighid [which this author says is pronounced “BRY-id” in “modern Irish”] was very popular in England as well as in Ireland. In English she was usually called Bride or Bryde, which represents the Irish Brighde, the genitive case of Brighid … it does not seemto have come into common use in Ireland until the 17th or 18th C. St. Brighid was known as ‘the Mary of the Gael,’ and it is possible that her name, like that of the Blessed Virgin, was considered too sacred for ordinary use. It is significant that Mary came into general use in Ireland at about the same time as Brighid. They are now and have long been the two commonest names in that country. The common pet-form Biddy displays the same process of formation as Fanny from Frances, Kit and Kester from Christopher. The name of the Swedish St. Brigitte or Birgitte (1303-73), which is usually translated Bridget in English, was an independent Swedish name. French and German Brigitte may represent either the Irish or the Swedish name, as the cults of both saints had a considerable extension.”

~ The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, by EG Withycombe, 54

Stay tuned for more fun next week, including another celebrity guest on Monday!

Mary the Dawn

sanctanomina Including Mary ,

My mom and I were talking more about Anastasia and Salome, and Jesus’ Birth in general, and the conversation moved onto the account of the Nativity in Ven. Mary of Agreda’s Mystical City of God that reader Irish Nannie referenced, and Mom read the passage to me and particularly wanted me to take note of the fact that Mary is referred to as “the resplendent Aurora Mary” to Jesus the Sun:

The “most poor and insignificant hut or cave, to which most holy Mary and Joseph betook themselves … was the first temple of light (Malachi 4, 2, Psalm III, 4) and … the house of the true Sun of justice, which was to arise for the upright of heart from the resplendent Aurora Mary, turning the night of sin into the daylight of grace.” (no. 468)

How beautiful is that? I knew aurora was Latin for dawn, and I knew that Mary has been referred to as the Dawn, but I’d never seen Aurora and Mary together like that. Just lovely.