Nicknames

Baby name consultant: Kolbe’s little brother

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Happy feast of St. Dominic!! 🙌🐕🐾🙏 It’s a special one too, because this year is the Dominicans’ 800th annivesary of its founding!!

(Off topic but on topic, that link brings you to an interview about this Jubilee Year with Fr. Cassian Derbes, OP. Cassian!)

Being a lay Dominican, today is always a special day for me, and I’m feeling celebratory 🎉🎉🎉 so not only do I have this consultation for you today (I LOVE the Monday consultation posts!), but I have a special treat for you all tomorrow, which is also the feast of St. Edith Stein AND my No. 2’s tenth birthday! I can’t wait for you to see it! What a great couple of days!

But first! Tori and her husband are expecting heir second baby, a second boy! She writes,

“Our oldest is Kolbe Daniel. Daniel is my husband’s name and we both really love St. Maximilian. We were considering naming him Eli Augustine which we still like. Other names that were thrown around were:

Lucas
Xavier

And if he was a girl we were thinking Stellamaris.

For this baby we are really liking Blaise … not sure about middle names and that’s the only name we’ve seriously talked about. If he was a girl we were thinking Azelie.”

Well I just love this family’s style — I’m a huge fan of all these names!

I so much enjoyed working on this not only because I love their taste in names but also because it’s pretty fun that they have, in a sense, a pretty clean slate with only Kolbe’s name and a few names they like to use as inspiration.

I was interested to note that Xavier, Blaise, and Azelie all share a prominent Z sound, but I couldn’t think of others that I thought Tori and her hubs might like– I’d be interested in any ideas you all had for Z-sound boy names that would fit with Kolbe.

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, but it’s not always helpful for those who love Catholicky Catholic names as this family does—Kolbe, Azelie, and Stellamaris aren’t included in the book, for example. But never fear—I was able to come up with quite a few ideas for based on the names that *are* in the BNW (Eli, Lucas, Xavier, Blaise, Stella) as well as my own ideas.

So! All that said, I did also want to just say that starting with a saintly surname (Kolbe) presents a somewhat of an interesting situation in that most of the names that I would say are most similar to Kolbe’s style are other saintly surnames (I did a post on them a while ago), but if Tori and her hubs choose another saintly surname for their second baby, will they feel like they’ve cornered themselves into a particular style?

I spent some time thinking about that and decided that I think going with another name that seems obviously surnamey—like Vianney or Bosco—for their second baby might very well create that boxed-in feeling. For some reason, it feels different to me than if they named their first two babies with names beginning with K—in general, I would say that a theme hasn’t been created until three or more babies are so named, but the last-name-as-first-name thing is tripping me up!

I decided, though, that I think Xavier is the kind of surname that would be totally fine to use for their second baby because of the fact that it’s been used as a first name for so long that a lot of people (especially non-Catholics) don’t know it started as a surname.

I do think that if they have a bunch of kids, there’s no problem at all with having some with saintly surname names and some with regular first names as long as they’re all interspersed, does that makes sense? Eli and Lucas are both great options that would help mix it up (I’d also love it if they wanted to move Augustine from the middle spot to the first name spot. Or August? Or Ambrose? Ooh — Ambrose has a prominent Z sound! At least the way I say it … maybe that would appeal? I love the nickname ideas Sam, Bram, and Brody).

Of course if Tori and her hubs hate all of what I’m saying, then I hope they know I expect them to completely disregard it! My only hope is to be a help, not to add stress! In the end, giving your children names you love is a great gift.

Okay! So these are my other ideas for this little guy:

(1) Fulton
As with Xavier, I feel like Fulton would be a fine choice for Kolbe’s little brother, since it started as a last name but most people know it as Fulton Sheen’s first name.

(2) John Paul, JohnPaul, Johnpaul, John-Paul
John Paul (or however they’d want to spell it) is such a great match for Kolbe in my opinion! It’s obviously faithy and thought it’s two names together, they’re short names so the whole thing is only two syllables, which seems the length that Tori and her hubs are drawn to.

(3) Bennett
I almost listed Benedict, but Benedict doesn’t seem quite right to me for this family—a bit clunkier maybe than I think they might like—so Bennett seems a great option. It’s a medieval diminutive of Benedict, and it’s got a surname feel (and of course some usage that way), as well as the awesome nickname Ben.

(4) Leo
Leo is an awesome little package of a name—masculine, traditional, and saintly (Pope St. Leo the Great!).

(5) Gabriel
Gabriel’s a style match for both Lucas and Xavier, and I consider it to be a Marian name as well (for the Annunciation). It’s one of my favorite names for boys—full of faith significance, and the friendly nickname Gabe is great (I’ve also seen Gil, which I looove).

(6) Jude
Finally, Jude, for our beloved St. Jude Thaddeus. Awesome name, awesome patron. I did a spotlight on it here.

What do you all think of these ideas? What other name(s) would you suggest for Kolbe’s little brother?

Baby name consultant: Baby No. 11 (girl) (no repeating initials!)

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Martha and her husband are expecting their eleventh (!) baby — their fourth girl! This Little Miss joins big sibs:

David Zachary
Caleb Daniel
Jesse Robert
Ethan Wyatt
Kathryn Cecilia
Aaron Mathias
Tobias Xavier
Bridget Darling
Phoebe Noelle
Levi Thaddeus

I looooove these names, each so great! You can see that the boys all have biblical first names, though the girls don’t follow suit. I really love sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe — such great sister names, so chic!

Martha writes,

“All first names must be saints … Middle names do not have to be saints though. No first name can start with the same letter as our other children. None of the children can be named after anyone we know, family or otherwise. We don’t want a name that is very common, but nothing way out there. We prefer traditional spellings … Dh loves Maewyn or Willow. I don’t think Maewyn fits as a saint name and am not keen on naming my girl after a tree … Our last baby was called “Poor Little No Name” until just weeks before he was born, so I hope you can help us avoid last minute naming stress this time.

We have some names we both like, but for some reason they just aren’t feeling like her to us.

We both like Sophia and Isabel or Isadora, but not as first names because they have become so popular lately.  Also, we do not like potential nicknames of Izzy or Dora.
My husband is suddenly leaning towards using variants of either my first name or middle name, Martha Lee.  I have no idea why.  I’ve never liked either myself.  But we were both sorta okay with the “lee” sounds in Leah or Lily (as a middle). And Iliana, which is not a saint.

The husband is still pitching hard for Maewyn Willow or Xena Isabella. (XI = 11) I am not even slightly fond of either.

I like Helen or Zelie Sophia, he does not like Helen at all and doesn’t like Zelie because he likes a name with clear pronunciation and thinks people will be confused about whether it is ZEL-ee or Zay-lee.  He also quibbles that if I dislike naming our girl after a tree, it makes no sense to be okay with naming her first name after a flowery bush. Got me on that I suppose. lol

I was telling the husband the other day that I like Seraphina but it is a hard one to find a middle name for!  He likes Danae, but I think that sounds harsh and too close to deny.  I like Roux, but dh says he isn’t naming her after sauce starter.”

Did you chuckle as much as I did when reading Martha’s dilemma? She and her Mister sound like quite the funny pair!

This was a lot of fun to work on—big families with lots of naming rules/restrictions are seriously so fun for me!

So first off, regarding Zelie, yes, its pronunciation isn’t set—they can choose their own and as long as they’re firm and consistent I don’t think it (or any name with various pronunciations) is an issue. (I wrote about Zelie’s pronunciation here and here.) I also wanted to point out that Lindsay’s daughter at My Child I Love You who’s named after St. Zelie has the spelling Zellie, which makes their desired pronunciation really obvious — maybe that spelling would be a good idea for this family?

And good news! (Maybe?) Iliana *can* be considered a saint’s name! I don’t know how exact it has to be for Martha and her hubs (some people are okay with variants of saints’ names and some aren’t), but my trusty go-to source for name meanings (behindthename.com) says Iliana is a variant of Elias (which is a variant of Elijah), and the spelling Ileana may be a variant of Helen. Cool right?!

Maewyn is interesting to me as a first name as well—I’d never heard of it so I looked it up and learned that it was St. Patrick’s birth name!! Wow! It does strike me as more feminine for our modern sensibilities—it has a really pretty sound, and I keep seeing the “Mae,” which on its own is generally considered a variant of Mary (which I love—Marian names are my favorite!).

And Xena Isabella for the XIth baby?? Pretty genius!! 😀 I looked it up and discovered it’s a variant of Xenia, which I actually do quite like, and she’s revered as a saint in the Eastern Church, but as far as I can tell she’s not recognized in ours? BUT I did a little more digging and discovered St. Xantippa, who *is* one of our saints—feast day Sept. 23 with St. Polyxena (Xena could work for Polyxena, no?)—both first-century Spanish martyrs. So they definitely have some options if they  want to use an X name! If they used such a long name as Xantippa though, I might suggest going shorter than Isabelle for the middle? Maybe Ivy or Iris?

Regarding Helen, I wonder what they’d think of Nell or Nellie? Maybe Martha’s husband would like them better than Helen? They’re traditional nicknames for Helen, so St. Helen can still be patron; they’re also style matches (according to the Baby Name Wizard which lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity) for Mae, which is one of the names I looked up for inspiration (since Maewyn wasn’t listed).
Regarding Willow, it’s important to note that this is only a middle name contender, and though I really loved the idea of changing it to Willa for a first name, as a nod to any of the Sts. William, William variants are on the no-go list.

And Seraphina! It was a later addition to Martha’s list, and one I’d written down for them before I’d known they were considering it! Woo! I love it, such a gorgeous name! For a middle name, Ruth has a similar sound to Roux and loses the cooking element (haha! 😂 ). I love Ruth in the Bible. There’s also Rue, like the awesome + tragic character in the Hunger Games and/or the Golden Girls’ Rue McClanahan (whichever they prefer!). (Rue was an actual given name for McClanahan—her given middle name, not a nickname for another name.)

I really like the rhythm of Martha’s husband’s middle name idea of Danae with Seraphina, and tried to think of others that a similar rhythm (two syllables with stress on the second) to appeal to him (and hopefully Martha might like them too):

  • Seraphina Mairead (Mairead is the Irish for Margaret, rhymes with parade)
  • Seraphina Therese
  • Seraphina Corinne
  • Seraphina Pilar (a sneaky Marian name!)
  • Seraphina Renee
  • Seraphina Celeste

And other unusual one-syllable names like Martha’s Roux might be:

  • Seraphina Wren
  • Seraphina Lark
  • Seraphina Vale
  • Seraphina Paige
  • Seraphina Tru(e)
  • Seraphina Viv
  • Seraphina Liv
  • Seraphina Greer

Regarding the idea of using a variant of Martha’s name, I was intrigued by connecting to it somehow. There really aren’t any variants of the name itself other than Marta, which is sweet and I do like it, but if they didn’t like that I thought of some others that might do the trick. Like Margaret, which has the same first three letters of her name. Maite has the same first two letters as Martha and  the same total number of letters—it’s got French and Spanish usage and is a contraction of Maria Teresa so it’s used both as a nickname and a given name (I’ve heard it said MY-tay).

Okay! So those are my comments on the names they’re considering, and I have new ideas for Martha and her hubs as well. As I mentioned, I used the Baby Name Wizard and relied heavily on its suggestions of names similar in style/feel/popularity to the names they’ve used and like, but I also added in some ideas of my own:

(1) Susanna(h)
I love that Susanna(h) is biblical, like the boys’ names; I love that if it’s spelled Susanna it loses a little of the biblical feel and fits in really well with the older girls’ names. Zuzu is a Susanna nickname I’ve been crushing on lately, and Anna, Annie, and Susie are all possibilities, as well as the full Susanna just on its own. St. Susanna’s also an early saint, and the American Catholic Church in Rome is St. Susanna’s.

(2) Faith or Hope or Mercy
Faith is a style match for Levi, and as soon as I saw it I loved it as an idea for this little girl. It does repeat the sound of Phoebe’s name but not the initial … I also know a little Faith Immaculata and I just die over her name, soooo gorgeous.

Hope’s a match for Leah, and I think it’s a really sweet name that, like Faith, can take a nice long middle name (lots of fun possibilities there!). And Mercy has been on my radar for months because of the Jubilee Year of Mercy—if they didn’t like Mercy as a first name, I love it as a middle for them.

(3) Nora
I love love love Nora—it’s a traditional nickname for both Honora and Eleanor, and there’s a Venerable Honora Nagle, and Eleanor has often been taken as a variant of Helen, but there are some quibbles about that, so it can also refer to Bl. Archangela Girlani whose birth name was Eleanor.

(4) Zoe
I recently discovered that St. Catherine of Laboure’s birth name was Zoe, and I’m really loving it! Especially since Martha and her hubs have been discussing names that begin with the end of the alphabet (Willow, Xena, Zelie), they might be interested in this Z name, which is also a style match for Phoebe.

(5) Inessa, Ines, Inez
At a certain point I just started going through the alphabet and trying to come up with names for the letters that haven’t used yet, and when I got to I, I thought of this family who has a daughter named Inessa, which is a form of Agnes. So pretty right?! Ines and Inez are more familiar variants — I’m interested to hear feedback on them because I can’t tell if they’re revival ready or still a bit too old?

(6) Genevieve
Genevieve is such a long gorgeous name, and has a similar feel to Seraphina, I love it and its nickname options Evie and Vivi and Neve, beautiful!

(7) Rosalie or Rosaleen
Rosalie is fast becoming one of my favorite names, and I love it as a sister to Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. And I was thinking about Rosaleen the other night and how it has such a similar sound to Rosalie, but Irish-ed up. Very sweet name!

(8) Rowan
I suspect Rowan is too unisex for this family, but it’s another nature name (like Willow) with a Celtic feel and a [male] saint’s name (like Maewyn), and it begins with the as yet unused letter R.

(9) Verity
I’ve totally been digging Verity recently — I love that it means “truth,” and is definitely one of the more underused virtue-esque names. So pretty!

(10) Zara
Having Z for an initial is so cool, and Zara has a really sophisticated feel to me (like Brit royal Zara Phillips Tindall) — I can see it being awesome with sisters Kathryn, Bridget, and Phoebe. At first I wasn’t going to include it because I didn’t think there was a saint associated with it, but I loved the idea of it so much that I did some digging and discovered that it’s a diminutive of Zaharina, which is the Bulgarian feminine form of Zechariah. Wow! Zechariah makes me think of St. Elizabeth and the Joyful Mystery of the Visitation, which is all kinds of wonderful to me.

(11) Zephyrine
My last idea (eleven ideas for the eleventh baby! 😄 ) is a little out there, but there’s a Pope St. Zephyrinus, and Zephyrine is a French feminine variant of the name (I just read that a sister of French Kings Louis XVI and XVII and Charles X was Marie Zephyrine, so named because she was born on the feast of Pope St. Zephyrinus). It’s long and lovely and elegant and saintly, and — fun fact! — I had a great-great Aunt Zepherine (I think that was how she spelled her name) and she went by Zee. So. Cool. (My only hesitation for this family is — are the endings of Kathryn and Zephyrine too similar? )

And those are all my ideas for this sweet little Baby Eleven! What do you all think? What would you suggest?

Baby name consultant: No. 5 after four girls

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Laura of the blog B is for Bissonnette and her husband Chris are expecting their fifth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown) 🌱after four girls! Big sisters’ names are:

Kayla Cecilia
Elise Marianna (“we pronounce it Mari (rhymes with starry)- Anna (rhymes with sauna)”)
Ava Chantal
Sophie Rose

Beautiful, right?? So feminine and pretty, each one! (Laura actually blogged about the thought process behind the selection of each name—be sure to check it out!

Laura writes,

“We love names that are not quite classic and not at all crazy.  We tend toward shorter names since our last name Bissonnette (Bih-Suh-Net) is quite long already, but we aren’t married to the idea that they MUST all be short, per se.  Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.  We love a Saint name to be somewhere in the name though it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the first name. As you can see, we have rather inadvertently chosen  first names that are quite popular at this time.  This wasn’t done on purpose, but we have a hard time agreeing on girl names that we both like so we just go with what we can both agree on now instead of worrying about popularity and whether they’ll end up with 15 friends who share their name….”

(I just have to insert here that one of my original suggestions for Laura, which I was feeling really good about, was Colette. Totally forgetting, of course, that she’d explicitly said, “Obviously saints that end with -ette are out because we aren’t into rhyming.” Gah!)

As for boys,

“My husband’s family has a tradition that the first born son in the family uses his first name as a middle name for his first son, and my husband is the first boy in his family, so his first name, Christopher would be our son’s middle name if we have a boy … Damian/Damien is a name we’ve had on our maybe list for boys for a while. And I’m not sure if it gives you a help just style-wise, but I like the sounds of names like Aiden and Liam (we just don’t do the Irish thing) … Names that fall into that general style of sound (not the language origin) might be names we’d go for.”

Additionally,

“[W]e sort of went with a bit more French (which didn’t really start until our 2nd child, but has been a theme with either the first or middle names of the other 3 girls…) but we also aren’t married to the “theme”, we are very much a couple who just read through baby name books/lists over and over until something hits us just right, which makes us difficult, I know. I’m currently reading tons of St. Therese, so that name as a middle is a huge consideration, but again, we aren’t married to anything at all as of yet. That’s the closest that I’m “in love” with at the moment is that as a middle.  We are still struggling with much for a first that we just LOVE.

… we generally start with Saint names, come up with a list that we like and then categorize them in First, Middle, or Either.”

Saints they love/have particular devotions to include:

Therese
Katharine Drexel/St. Catherine of Siena
Kateri
Faustina
Gemma Galgani
Chiara
Agnes
Felicity
The Blessed Mother

Joseph
Francis de Sales/St. Francis of Assisi
John Paul II
Maximilian Kolbe
Josemaria Escriva
Damien of Molokai
John Mary Vianney
Dominic
Pier Giorgio Frassati
Sebastian
John Bosco

Names that they can’t use for first names because of being part of a big family with lots of nieces and nephews:

Fiona
Siobhan
Liam
Seamus
Kellen
Finian
Sorcha
Eilish
Declan
Grace
Gianna
James
Sarah
Lily
Benjamin
Dominic
Lucy
Logan
Christiana
Xavier
Emiliana
Roisin
Therese
Paul

(What a family! Some ah-mazing names in there!)

Also these have been nixed by the Mister:

Rosalie
Edith
Rita
Names with a similar “old lady” feel are probably going to be vetoed by him as well, including my initial suggestions of Margo and Greta 😦

Okay everyone! Let’s rub our hands together and jump right in!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and those they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in style/feel/popularity. Patterns often emerge and it becomes clear what kinds of names the parents tend towards, but I was initially having a hard time pinning down exactly what Laura and Chris’ style was because there wasn’t any real overlap in the few names listed for each entry. Then I started noticing that their girls’ names (firsts and middles) came from the same four lists of names in the book (in the back the author lists all the names according to style): Bell Tones (“freshness with a clean, light touch”—e.g., Kayla), Antique Charm, French, and German/Dutch. Once I figured that out, so many names jumped out at me as ones I thought they’d like! I have a lot of suggestions for each gender, as I found it hard to narrow it down further:

Girls
(1) Chloe or Zoe
Chloe was the name that jumped out at me at first, being biblical and with good French usage. I did consider it may seem too rhymey following right after Sophie? I said the names all together as a set and that was my first thought. But otherwise I like it a lot for this family. And I kept wanting to cross Zoe off the list—Chloe kept seeming like a better fit—but each time I went to delete it I stopped. Something about that zippy Z that’s just really fun, and it’s meaning of “life” is such a great one. It was also the birth name of St. Catherine Laboure, and I’ve heard of a family using Zoe as a nickname for their little Catherine because of St. Catherine Laboure!

(2) Siena
Siena’s for St. Catherine of Siena of course, and it’s really sweet as a first name. I even know of a little one who would have been Siena Catherine if he’d been a girl, which I thought was a neat twist.

(3) Kateri
I loved seeing both St. Catherine of Siena and St. Kateri on Laura’s list of saints because one of my favorite things about Kateri’s name is that Kateri is the Mohawk version of Catherine—she took the name Kateri at her baptism for St. Catherine of Siena specifically! So I kind of think of Kateri as a dual honor name, and I love that it can take the traditional Kat/Kate/Katie nicknames of Catherine.

(4) Corinne
I initially wanted to suggest Cora but, as Laura pointed out to me, it rhymes with her own name, which could be a little weird. Corinne is a great alternative though, a beautiful but not over-the-top French name.

(5) Haley or Halle
There are a trillion ways to spell Haley (like Hayley Mills the actress, or my relatives Haleigh and Hailey, or actress Hailee Steinfeld or ……..!), but no matter which one, it immediately hit me as a name Laura and Chris might like. But then I wondered if it was too similar in sound to Kayla? Depending on how they say it, maybe … especially if they really emphasize the first part as “Hay” … if they said it more like “Hail” maybe it’s okay … but that thought process made me think of Halle, like Halle Berry, which bypasses the potential rhymes-with-Kayla while still having a lot of Haley’s appeal. I posted ideas for NFL quarterback Philip Rivers a while ago, and his wife responded to it and explained how they chose each of their kids’ names, and their oldest is Halle, which is a name they loved, but when she was at Mass once when she was pregnant and realized “Hallelujah” contains “Halle” within it, she took it as a sign. I love that!

(6) Lena or Mina or Mila
Lena is one of those names that can be a nickname for some great names like Magdalena and Helena, but it can also stand on its own as a variant of them, so a little Lena could have St. Mary Magdalene or St. Helena as a patron. Mina is similar in sound, but is connected more to Wilhelmina, which would be a great way to honor a William, if Laura and Chris have one in their family. I could also see it possibly being a nickname for Magdalena, so they could still choose that saint as patron if they wanted. And I discussed Mila recently as the best way to honor St. Ludmila, who was a great lady.

Pronunciation-wise,  I say Lena as LEE-nah, but I’ve also seen LAY-nuh. Mina is MEE-nah, and Mila can be either MEE-lah or MY-lah or even MILL-lah I think. My son had a MEE-lah in his class this year. How about the rest of you? How do you say these names?

(7) Gemma
St. Gemma’s on their list of favorite saints, and I love love love the name Gemma. So it definitely had to be listed here as one of my suggestions! It leans more Italian (in origin and usage) or British (in usage) rather than French, but it’s a short, sweet, saintly ends-in-a name that fits in well with the big girls I think.

(8) Zelie
St. Zelie’s not on their saint list, but it’s French and sweet-and-spunky like the big girls’ names and is connected to St. Therese—a great option!

(9) Vianney
I’ve suggested the girls’ names from the blog My Child I Love You so many times, as I think they’re just so inspired, and Vianney is one of them. I think most people think of naming a boy after St. John Vianney, but Vianney is so pretty on a girl. (I was going to suggest another of their girl names — Clairvaux — but decided not to. Maybe I should have?)

(10) Ruby
I spotlighted Ruby a while back, and I came up with a lot of great faith connections for it. It’s such a sweet name, and I love it on its own or as a nickname (check out that spotlight post for ideas!).

(11) Tessa
Finally Tessa, a name I went back and forth on suggesting, and here now at the last minute, as I’m putting together this post for today, I’m just doing it. I’m not sure why I hesitated, because I love it with the older girls’ names. Though Therese is on their can’t-use list for first names, I’ve seen Tessa chosen specifically for Sts. Therese or Teresa, and I thought Tessa was different enough that it might be okay. Therese as a middle name would be out, but I quite like the idea of Tessa Catherine, Tessa Claire (for Chiara), Tessa Frances (for Francis), and Tessa Vianney.

Other girl names that didn’t make my final cut, but that I think still might be ones they’d like, include: Nora, Mia, Cassie, Isabel(le).

Boys
(1) Blaise
Blaise tops my list of suggestions for Laura and Chris—it’s super saintly and French, and I’ve always loved that it evokes image of speed and superheroes with its “blaze” pronunciation—great name for a little guy!

(2) Jude
Jude is short and light like the big girls’ names, but definitely heavy hitting—who doesn’t like St. Jude??

(3) Oliver
Though Oliver has a really Irish/British Isles feel to me, Olivier, which of course is just one letter difference, is all French, and in my weird way of thinking, it made Oliver seem like a really good fit for this family.

(4) Cam (Campion?)
I’m kind of swoony over my recent discovery that Cambridge was named after the River Cam—Cam! I really love Cam for a boy! This revelation totally makes it doable as a first name on its own, without being a nickname! I really really like that idea, but I know it’s even better if it’s connected to a saint, and St. Edmund Campion is a great way to get there.

(5) Cole (Nicholas, Colman, Kolbe)
Cole is one of my favorite nicknames for a boy. Certainly it can stand on its own as a first name, but I love it as a nickname for Nicholas (so many great Sts. Nicholas! You know my fave is St. Nicholas Owen!), or Colman (an Irish saint; I feel like Colman is kind of unexpected but feels familiar, a nice combo), or even Kole for Kolbe (and St. Max is on Laura and Chris’ list of favorite saints).

(6) Bosco
St. John Bosco’s on the saint list, and I loved when Grace Patton named her youngest Bosco (and my love for it grows every time I see his sweet little face on her blog/Instagram).

(7) Milo or Miles
Milo is described on behindthename.com as an Old Germanic form of Miles, whose origin doesn’t seem to be clear, but I’ve seen it connected to Michael (and I think Milo or Miles could totally work as a nickname for Michael) and the Latin miles, which means “soldier.” A fun tidbit is that Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (from their saint list)’s middle name was Michelangelo, so Milo/Miles could be a nod to him in that way.

At first I thought Milo was more Laura and Chris’ speed than Miles, being that Milo has that Germanic edge, but the recent brouhaha surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos’ permanent suspension from Twitter made me wonder if Milo is going to be a name to avoid for a while (what are your thoughts on this?). Miles is great, and can be considered a legit Marian name for a boy as both Miles and Milo are used as anglicizations of the Old Irish Maolmhuire, which means “devotee of Mary.”

(8) Bram or Abram
These might be totally out there for Laura and Chris, but Bram’s been one of my favorite names for a long time. It’s an English and Dutch short form of Abraham, and my husband and I have also talked about using it as a nickname for Ambrose. I say it to rhyme with “gram,” and I’ve heard it said that way; it can also be said like “brahm,” which I believe is how Bram Stoker said it.

Abram never used to be on my radar at all, but when I was at the doctor’s office recently I heard a mom calling her son Abram, and he was this adorable little guy with blond curls and I immediately loved the name.

(9) Grady, Brady
Both of these were listed as similar to the Bissonnette style in the BNW and while they skew more Irish than anything else (and are the last names of two of the Irish martyrs), I thought I’d include them because I think they’re both really handsome and go well with the girls’ names.

(10) George (or just Geo?) or Jerome
These are 100% inspired by Laura and Chris’ devotion to Pier Giorgio Frassati. I’ve read that he never went by Pier, only by Pier Giorgio or Giorgio (or Georg when he was writing in German), and since Giorgio/Georg is George, I thought that could work. I especially love love love the nickname Geo! So cool! It might even be able to stand on its own as a given name? Or is that too weird? Geordie (Jordy)’s another option that I really like, it’s a traditional nickname for George. And Pier Giorgio took Girolamo as his religious name when he became a Third Order Dominican, which is the Italian for Jerome, so that’s an option too.

As with the girls, there were some boy names that were swirling around the right area for me that didn’t end up making my final cut, but I wanted to mention them just in case: Adrian, Henry, Keegan, Kian, Rylan, Tobias.

A fun last-minute question Laura added was that she’s “especially interested in nicknames/variations of Joseph, Sebastian, Damien, Francis, and John Bosco.” You all know nicknames are my jam!! My ideas for these are:

  • Joseph: according to behindthename.com, Jozo (Croatian), Pepe (Spanish), Sepp/Seppel (German), and Zef (Dutch) are all short forms or diminutives of Joseph. I’m especially intrigued by Sepp, Seppel, and Zef (I think Zef is my favorite!)
  • Sebastian: not to mention Grace Patton’s amazing name style twice in one post, but another of her sons is Sebastian and he goes by Bash. I know he’s not the only one, but he’s the first Sebastian I’d ever heard of going by Bash and I was immediately besotted. Such a great nickname for a little boy! There’s also Seb/Sebby, Bax (especially for Sebastian Xavier, for example), and Baz. I’ve even seen Ian used as a nickname for it!
  • Damien: I’ve had Damien on my own list for a long time, and my nickname idea for it has been Denny, and I’ve felt pretty clever about it. 🙂 Using that same thought process, I think Danny would be great for the Damian spelling.
  • Francis: I’ve suggested Finn a bunch of times as a nickname for Francis—I love that it allows for a super-saintly given name and an on-trend (and Star Wars!) nickname. Frank/Frankie is traditional, of course (and Frankie for a little guy is so cute!), and I’ve also known guys who went by Fran and the Italian Cici/Cic (“Chee-chee”/”Cheech”). Some non-English options that are cute include Chico (Portuguese), Franz (German), and Pancho or Paco (both Spanish)
  • John Bosco: Certainly Bosco, as I’d mentioned (I might have seen Grace’s Bosco referred to as “Boss”? Sooooo cute!), and all the John nicknames (Jack, Jake, Johnny), and even Don for Don Bosco. There are loads of John variants of course, if they’d prefer to go that direction (Evan, Hans, Ian, Ivan, Sean, Shane, etc.). I also just discovered that his middle name was Melchiorre—the Italian for Melchior, which is the name traditionally given to one of the three Wise Men, how cool!

Whew! Those are all my ideas for the little brother or sister of Kayla, Elise, Ava, and Sophie! What would you suggest? What other nickname ideas do you have for the saints Laura was asking about? How do you say Lena, Mina, and Mila?

Baby name consultant: biblical or Irishy for a little boy!

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Our trip to St. Anne’s Shrine yesterday was just about as pilgrimage-y as pilgrimages go — lots of grace coming to you all!! 😀 I’ll write more about it tomorrow, and I have more pictures to share beyond the ones I posted to Instagram yesterday.

I’m delighted to have this consultation to post today, on my second blogiversary (!!), because of what this mama wrote about her daughter’s sweet name, Riley Ann:

“Our daughter (22 months) is Riley Ann — we loved the meaning of “courageous” of Riley … and Ann for both our Mother’s middle names and of course a personal favorite, St. Anne. We liked that Riley is Irish (both have a bit of Irish in our heritage and love our shared alma mater Notre Dame but don’t want to go overboard with the strong Irish names).”

Woo! St. Anne for the win!! ❤

So this mama and her husband are expecting their second baby, a boy! She writes,

“Don’t want them to be too popular but are less inclined to go totally unique with boys names (tried for a few weeks to get my husband on board with Joachim but failed when I couldn’t even decide how I preferred to pronounce it).”

(What’s that?? JOACHIM?? Ahhh!! 😀 And I consider that another hello from St. Anne!)

“Steering away from S and C names that cause a super slur with our last name … And as I’ve been thinking about all the names we’ve used/like, it seems as though we most frequently go for two syllables a lot! I like a good nickname and 2 syllables is not a set criteria … but more often we tend to just shorten to the first syllable of any name and that works for me. “Ry” for Riley … Or, better yet we find a totally different word and call them that 🙂 So, I guess I do actually like a name to be the name and am less inclined to have dueling formal vs nickname thing if that makes sense.”

(That’s a really good articulation: “am less inclined to have dueling formal vs. nickname thing.”)

For reference, they love the name Leah for a girl, and names on their current list for this little boy include:

Evan Thomas (“love the meaning and has been at top of our list for the longest … would love to hear any saintly connections you can make to Evan“)

Thomas John (or Michael or Charles) (“My wonderful father’s name is Thomas and I love its traditional/Catholic roots without being overused. John, Michael and Charles are all possible family names that seem to pair well. Thomas Aquinas and the sentimental value of the name are pushing it forward but as a standalone name, we aren’t in love with it.“)

Joshua Thomas (“A recent addition to our list of biblical, traditional names that we love. But I honestly haven’t done my research and don’t know a ton about the Catholic roots of this name.”)

Jude Thomas (“The most recent name that caught our eye — as long as we distinguish it as representative of Judas the apostle as opposed to Judas Iscariot, right?!?“)

Robert (“We considered Robert (family name) with the idea to call him “Bo” but we really don’t love Robert, mostly just think the nickname Bo is super cute.”)

“We’ve been really into “J” names lately if you can throw some of those into the mix (Jude, Jonah, Joshua and such).”

Okay! First my thoughts about the names on their list:

Regarding saintly connections to Evan — Evan is a Welsh form of John, so any of the Sts. John can serve as patron. Evan Thomas is a great combo, and seems to me to hit that sweet spot of being Celtic but not going overboard with it. I also like that it’s biblical (John) like Leah, and Celtic like Riley—a nice bridge name!

Thomas John/Michael/Charles is a great name. No quibbles at all. Though if they’d like to jazz it up a little, they might consider pairing it with a more unusual middle name. Maybe a family surname? Or Thomas Joachim, to go back to Joachim?

Joshua Thomas is a great name too. As for its Catholic roots—it’s Jesus’ name! Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua (Yeshua), which is Aramaic. Amazing right?! I wrote more about Jesus names, including Joshua, here.

Jude Thomas is also amazing, love love love. It’s so funny this mama should point out the Judas the apostle vs. Judas Iscariot bit! I wrote a little bit last summer about how, to me, even though Judah, Jude, and Judas are all variants of the same name, they all have very different feels: Judah is almost exclusively Jewish; Judas is not okay to use; and Jude is ultra Catholic (or maybe Jude Law). I also spotlighted Jude a few months ago (be sure to check out the comments too!). I just skimmed it again and was reminded that it can be used as a nickname for Julian—I wouldn’t have thought of Julian as the kind of name this couple likes, but it does start with a J!

Robert nicked Bo is such a cute idea and made me laugh because my brother and sister-in-law were considering something similar! I posted a consultation for them in November, with lots of possible ways of getting to the nickname Bo. It is super cute!

Re: their question about J names, one I really like is St. Isaac’s last name Jogues. That’s probably too unique though? Jasper, Jacob, and Joseph are favorites, and Jack totally seems like this family’s style—a little Irish without being too much so, and it’s a variant of John so, like Evan, it could take any of the Sts. John. But it would also knock Evan out of consideration for the future. I have some more J- ideas below that I think are more their speed.

Okay! So you all know I almost always start with the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did so here for this couple. Between its suggestions and my own mental files these are my ideas for them:

(1) Colin or Cole
I think Colin’s my biggest suggestion here—it’s Irishy but not too much so, and its English usage stems from its use as a medieval diminutive of Nicholas. So any of the Sts. Nicholas would be good for a Colin! Cole was listed as a style match for Jude, and it also can be related to Nicholas. I prefer the KAHL-in pronunciation for Colin, rather than COLE-in (like Colin Powell), but even with the KAHL-in pronunciation I think Cole could still work as a nickname for Colin if they wanted.

(2) Owen
Owen has the same feeling to me as Evan and Colin—Irishy but not overly so, and I’ve been over-the-moon about St. Nicholas Owen recently—great patron for a little guy! Also, my brother and sister-in-law who were heavily considering Bo ending up naming their son Owen!

(3) Joel, Jared, Jonathan, Justin
It’s funny, I originally had Seth as my third idea for this couple, as it was listed as a style match for both Leah and Evan, which I thought was pretty great, but then I remembered that they preferred not to have an S- name and that they’ve been loving J- names, and Joel is a match for Leah and Seth so it was the perfect swap-in. I love what the BNW says about it: “Joel’s not flashy. It has been steadily popular for many years, but not in the top 100. It’s biblical, but unlike the Isaiahs and Ezekiels of the world, Joel doesn’t shout the fact from the rooftops. It’s quiet and warm, and you’ll never tire of it.”

Jared was listed as a style match for Joel, and I love that too! It’s two syllables and it begins with a J … it’s not Irish but it is biblical!

Jonathan is another John-type name in that it would probably knock out Evan for the future (though it’s not actually related to John, weird right?), and it’s got a heavier biblical feel.

I’ll be interested to see what they think of Justin! I know a lot of people feel like it’s still a bit too 70s/80s, a bit too much of a “dad name,” but St. Justin Martyr is just such a cool guy (and I actually love that combo, “Justin Martyr”—is it too much? 😀 ), and I feel like the name Justin is cool guy name. He may be a dad in a lot of people’s minds, but he’s a cool dad. Haha!

(4) Caleb
Finally, Caleb. I had it on my list for this family, and then I took if off, but at the last minute made the decision to put it back on again. I just love the name Caleb, it’s so sweet and biblical and it can take the amazing nickname Cal, which I just love. It’s also two syllables.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for Riley’s little brother?

Article on saints’ names up at Nameberry today! And that St. Anne!

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I have a new piece up at Nameberry today! Usually I try to stick to low to zero Cathtasticalness in my Nameberry pieces, but Pam asked me if I’d write an article on cool and unusual saints’ names, which was awesome of her and exciting for me, and I’m really pleased with how it came out: Best Cool, Unusual Saints’ Names.

nameberry-screen-shot2-06.24.16

(It goes without saying, of course, that I don’t actually think these are the*only* best cool, unusual saints’ names — there’s an invisible “Some of the” before “best” in that title.)

And that image! Pam chose it — a peg doll of St. Zelie! — and included the bit at the bottom about the SaintAnneStudio on Etsy — can it be mere coincidence that she chose a shop named after St. Anne without any knowledge that St. Anne is our patroness?? That St. Anne! Up to lots of good!! 😄❤😄❤😄❤

Speaking of St. Anne … my second blogiversary is Monday (I know! What!) and we all (my hubs and I and the kids and my brother-in-law) are taking a mini pilgrimage to a St. Anne’s Shrine on Sunday (different one than we visited last year), during which I’ll be thanking her for her intercession and patronage, and praying for all of you and your intentions! If you’d like to send me your intentions, whether in the comments below or via email (sanctanomina@gmail.com), I’d love to take them with me. This will be a mighty efficacious trip, since “traveling with the kids” is no where on my Things I Love About Motherhood list, so you can be assured the graces will be a-raining down upon you! 😁

I’d love to hear what you think about my Nameberry piece, and don’t forget to send me your intentions!

Baby name consultant: “Cute, pretty, creative, professional” name needed for a little Southern Belle

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I hope all the dads in your lives had a great Father’s Day yesterday!! We had a great day here — got a lot of house cleaning done, which is seriously one of my hubs’ favorite things. 🙂 Also some good food and lots.of.golf. Also that basketball game. St. Joseph, you who understand husbands and dads so well, please pray for all the Sancta Nomina dads!

Today’s consultation is for Lily and her husband, who are expecting their first baby — a little Miss!

Lily writes,

“I am expecting our first child and I am due in July … being from the south I love monograms and this little girl needs a name so I can start monogramming!

My Name is Lily Irene, and I love love love my name. I had a hard time dropping Irene when I got married and moving in my maiden name of Kelley. I want my child’s name to have a similar feel to mine, but my Husband has very different naming taste than me. However one thing we have agreed on is her middle name will be Twiggs after my father. I would like to call her Twiggs, and I am slowly working on that with my husband. His fear is she will be made fun of at school, and come home crying. But with today’s different names I doubt that will happen. I am open to moving Twiggs to her first name if we can come up with a more feminine name to accompany it.”

I was intrigued right away when I read about Twiggs and — to go back to the Southern names post of the other day — it immediately felt like a Southern name to me. Am I right? A family surnamey name for a girl?

Names that Lily loves but her husband hates (her words!) include:

Emmeline
Lucille
Adelaide (Lily’s favorite)
Mae
Annalee

Her husband’s favorites include:

Anna
Emily
Emma
Charlotte

And names they can’t use for various reasons:

Charlotte
Caroline
Carolyn
Gracie
Birdie (“love this name”)
Catherine

Alrighty, regarding Twiggs, and it sounds to me like Lily’s husband would really feel more comfortable with it in the middle rather than as a first name. It’s really pretty great of him to even agree to it in the middle! He makes a fair point of worrying that she’ll be teased for it, but Lily also make a good point that with today’s different names it’s less likely to happen than it used to. I also thought I should point out that there’s that singer FKA Twigs — I don’t think she’s hugely popular? But she’s currently dating (or engaged to?) Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame, so there’s that. (Her birth name is Tahliah.)

If Lily and her hubs decide to keep Twiggs in the middle spot, I could definitely see Lily calling her Twiggs whenever she wants to, as parents do — all sorts of fun nicknames that are mostly used at home/with family. So if they were to ask my opinion, I’d say the middle spot is the best place for Twiggs, no matter whether they end up calling her that or not. And I think it would be great and fine for Lily to call her that! But with a different first name her husband would have a name to call his little girl that he feels most comfortable with, and she’d have her “normal” name for school, etc. Does that make sense?

I also feel like, since Lily’s husband’s already agreeing to Twiggs, which sounds like he’s not 100% thrilled about, it might be nice to weight the first name choice a little closer to his taste. Which I don’t think should be very hard, because they’re really close on a few names! Lily’s Emmeline and Mr.’s Emily and Emma are so close! Emily Twiggs and Emma Twiggs are both lovely combinations, and balance out the unusualness (and masculinity, since it’s Lily’s dad’s name) of Twiggs nicely. If Mr. could get on board with Emmeline, Emma and even Emily could be nicknames for it that he could call her if he wanted. I’m actually laughing at the idea of Emmeline Twiggs who goes by Emma with her dad and Twiggs with her mom and Emmeline at school — hilarious! And awesome!

Similarly, his Anna and Lily’s Annalee are really close as well. Mr.’s middle name is Lee, and if Lily thought of adding the Lee as a nod to her husband, because of his middle name, it’s such a lovely gesture! I could see it also being a nod to Lily as well, since Lily ends in the “Lee” sound as well. Anna Twiggs and Annalee Twiggs (called Anna by her dad) are both great.

It seems that though Mr. likes Charlotte, it’s not a possibility because of other considerations, but I’m glad Lily listed it as a name he likes, because it gives me a better sense of his taste in names, which was helpful in coming up with new ideas for them.

On Lily’s list, I was interested to see Mae, and while it’s sweet as it is, I wondered if her husband would be more interested in it if it was a bit longer? Mabel and Maybelle came up in my research, and I thought they might fit the bill. Mabel can be a Marian name in that it originally comes from the Latin amabilis, which means “lovable,” and is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis (Mother Most Amiable/Lovable). Maybelle is similar in sound to Mabel, and can also be Marian, but in a different way — Mae and May are sometimes considered nicknames/diminutives of Mary, and the month of May is Mary’s month, so Maybelle is a sweet nod to Mary. “Belle” means “beautiful,” which is just lovely for a little girl. When Lily said she wants her daughter’s “second name to be a happy joyful name,” I felt like Maybelle kind of fits that.

I was also interested to see that Lily said she loves the name Birdie, and also that she listed Gracie as a name they can’t use, which makes me think she might like to use it if it wasn’t off limits. So based on Birdie and Gracie, I came up with a list of similar names — sweet, girly, and nicknamey:

  • Sadie
  • Daisy
  • Bess/Bessie
  • Nellie
  • Mamie (which is a traditional nickname for Mary, so also a Marian name)
  • Katie
  • Sophie (a full name in its own right, but it felt similar to these other nicknamey names)
  • Rosie
  • Molly (started as a nickname for Mary, so also a Marian name)
  • Ivy (ditto to Sophie)

All of these could be a really sweet, feminine first name before the middle name Twiggs. But, there’s also something to be said for preceding a name like Twiggs with a more formal first name, just so she’d have options (and Sophie, Lucy, Molly, and Ivy from the list above would fit that also), so I’ve come up with a few here that Lily and her husband might like:

(1) Josephine
You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard the names parents like as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. It can be uncannily accurate! And I especially like finding names that are listed as similar to more than one of the names Mom and Dad like, *especially* if it’s a name similar to a name both Mom AND Dad like. Josephine is such a name! It was listed as a style match for Adelaide, Charlotte, Caroline, and Catherine. Wow! St. Joseph is an awesome patron saint for a little one, and the nickname Josie is so darling—I would absolutely have included in the list above if I didn’t already have Josephine on the list to recommend.

(2) Lucy
Similar to Josie, I would have included Lucy in the nicknamey-type names above if I wasn’t planning to include it down here. It’s actually a style match for Emma, and since they have Lucille on their list already, I wonder if they’d be willing to go with Lucy instead. Lucy’s such a sweet name, and Lucy Twiggs is pretty adorable.

(3) A double name
My comment about Lucy Twiggs being pretty adorable made me think that maybe a really feminine first name plus Twiggs with the intention of using them together might also be a nice compromise for Lily and her hubs. I think Emma Twiggs and Lucy Twiggs are well suited for that, as are several of the nicknamey names above (my favorites for them include Sophie Twiggs and Molly Twiggs). Sara(h) is also great for that—Sarah Twiggs or Sara Twiggs—and Sarah was a style match for Anna and Emily, so I think there’s a good chance Lily’s husband will like it. Mary is also always great for a double name, and Mary Twiggs sounds like a lovely Southern belle to me.

(4) Leah
Leah is solely out of my own thoughts, based entirely on Lily’s husband’s middle name and the “lee” sound at the end of Lily. Leah would be a nice subtle nod to both of them, while also being very feminine and biblical, and it flows really nicely with Twiggs.

In an added twist, Lily’s initial response to my thoughts was that she loves Lucy, but her husband wasn’t sold, and she wrote again saying,

“I finally got out of him some characteristics he wants in a name and his criteria are: Cute, Pretty, Creative and Professional. He says Lily fits those characteristics, but I don’t want her to be Lily Twiggs or Lillan Twiggs. He doesn’t like it that people have to ask him do you prefer [a traditional nickname for his given name] or [his given name] so he wants the name to also just be what she would be called (does that make sense) … when you have a free moment can you see if you can come up with Cute, Pretty, Creative and a Professional name.

Oh and No “S” names because the monogram looks awfully close to a not so nice four letter word!“

As it happened, I did have a free moment, and spent a little time trying to come up with “Cute, Pretty, Creative, and Professional” names. A tough task! When I think of “Professional” names for women, I tend to think of names like Margaret, Katherine, Elizabeth, Victoria, Deborah — longer names with weight and history and, honestly, nothing too creative about them. If someone told me they wanted a name with Lily’s husband’s criteria, I’d probably suggest something like Elizabeth with a funkier nickname for everyday use, like Libby, or maybe Deborah nicknamed Dorah. But Mr. wants her given name to be the name she goes by all the time, so nothing longer with a short and spunky nickname. Gah! So hard!

From their original lists, I really think Anna, Emmeline, and Adelaide fit this criteria. I think those three names could be seen as cute, pretty, creative, and professional. Of course, this is all very subjective as well, so what I think fits those criteria might not be at all what someone else thinks of as cute, pretty, creative, and professional. You know?

Regarding Lucy, I think I can see what Lily’s husband means. Lucy has a long history of use across cultures and ethnicities, so it should work as pretty and professional, but the –y ending can come across as nicknamey (even though it’s not), and that is really what I think kills it for her hubs’ criteria, because cute and professional just do not go together, generally. But if they were to change it to Lucia, that might work better? It loses the cutesy/nicknamey feel that Lucy’s –y ending can project, and it feels a bit more sophisticated, but it’s still pretty and I think it could come across as creative (unlike Lucille from Lily’s original list, which I think feels a little more staid). If Lily wanted to continue trying to win over her husband, however, the women listed here might help; I think Lucy Liu particularly comes across as a very strong woman.

Here are some other names I thought could work for “cute, pretty, creative, and professional” — I basically just went through one of my name books and wrote down any name that struck me as having the right feel, so it’s very very subjective! I like each of these paired with Twiggs:

(1) Cora
This is probably my #1 suggestion for them. It reminds me a lot of Lucy in length and sweetness, but it’s also got sort of an Old World, “Great Lady” feel to it.

(2) Margo
Actually, Margo might be tied for #1 for me — this Margaret variant is a bit cuter and funkier — definitely has more of a creative feel to me than Margaret — but I could also see it on a Supreme Court Judge.

(3) Livia
Wait! I love Livia too. Okay, that makes three names tied for #1 in my opinion! Livia is really similar to Olivia in sound and appearance, but it’s actually a totally different name — an old Roman name, the name of the wife of one of the Roman emperors (Augustus). It’s also got a separate use as a personification of the River Liffey in Dublin — it’s been used in Irish literature as the name of a woman who represents the River and Mother Ireland.

(4) Lydia
Lydia’s a biblical name, the name of a women who sold purple cloth and was converted by St. Paul. I’ve always loved that a little Lydia can have purple as her very own color!

(5) Maren
Maren is on the more creative end I think, and maybe not as cute, but I actually do think it’s creative and professional at the same time.

(6) Cecily
Even though it ends in a –y, I think Cecily’s longer length makes it not cutesy/nicknamey. It’s a sweet name, but I could also see it on a Supreme Court Judge.

(7) Corinna
Corinna is lovely and feminine, but also kind of weighty and sophisticated, a beautiful name.

(8) Junia or Julia
Junia might be a bit too out there? But it’s a biblical name, which automatically gives it gravitas, and it’s unexpected and pretty rare, which I think often comes across as creative. (Read about a real-life Junia here.)

Julia is so similar to Junia, but more familiar. It’s absolutely a name that gives a woman respect and it’s a really pretty name at the same time.

(9) Laurel
In the family of Laura names, I think Laura feels the most old-fashioned, and Lauren feels modern and youthful (which can come across as not professional). But I think maybe Laurel has the right feel — creative but sophisticated.

(10) Claudia
Finally, Claudia. It was actually the first name I thought of for Lily and her hubs as creative and professional! I don’t think it’s as cute or pretty as some of the others, but it’s a substantial name and pretty uncommon. Like Livia, it’s an old Roman name.

Whew! There’s a lot here to think about! What suggestions do you all have for Lily and her husband for their little Southern Belle, based on all this?

Baby name consultant: No. 3 green bean needs Southern Catholic/biblical name

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It’s such a sad Monday morning after the shooting in Orlando this past weekend. So many people are grieving, what a tragedy — the loss of human life is always a devastation. I read through the list of the victims of the shooting and was struck by the amazing collection of patron saints represented by the names of the deceased — so many holy ones to implore for intercession. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace, and please bring peace to our country. 🙏❤

As I felt in the wake of Paris, it seems almost inappropriate to continue on with this fun, joyful work of naming babies in the wake of death, but at the same time, it’s important work, and this wee one on the way might be the very person that brings the begged-for peace to our hearts, our country, and our world. Babies=hope, thank you Jesus. ❤ ❤ ❤

Babies=hope, and such joy! With gratitude for the gift of new life, I’m happy to post today’s consultation: Katie and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little green bean! 🌱 He or she will join big sibs:

Asher Henry
Margaret Elizabeth (Margo)

Such cool names, right? Asher and Margo is such an awesome sibset!

Katie writes,

“I have always loved names, but I’m at a loss with this one. We are team green for this baby … Asher was chosen because I liked that it was biblical, unique (in 2008), yet a “real” name. It also means “happy” which I love. Henry is in honor of my grandfather, Patrick Henry.

Margo was named in honor of my great aunt Margaret (Margie for short) who was an all-around awesome lady. I went back and forth between Greta and Margo, for the nickname to choose but eventually settled on Margo. Elizabeth is my middle name, my mom’s middle name, and in honor of my grandmother Betty.

I definitely struggle more with boy names than girl names …”

Katie and her hubs have some guidelines they’d like to follow:

-“I would prefer a name that can make a nickname especially for a girl. I’m just Katie. Not Katherine or Kathleen. I always kind of wished I had a “real” name.
-Bonus points for Southern
-Bonus points for Catholic/Biblical
-I’m not sure if it’s just me but I worry about names that end in the –en sound with our last name [which ends in -ins]. It feels too sing songy. Am I being neurotic?
-It has to pass the senator rule. If it doesn’t sound good with Senator in front of it, it doesn’t pass muster.”

Names that they’re considering include:

Girl
Camilla (Millie)
Cora
Eloise
Cecily
Blanche
Greer
Estella (Stella)

Boy
Edward (Teddy)
Grant
Lawson
Reid
Hayes
Joel
Seth
Sean
Blaise (“Not sure if I’m ‘brave’ enough for this one!“)

Great list of names! I love the names on their girl list—Greer and Stella are personal faves of mine, and the others are beautiful and feminine, and I can’t believe Blanche is on there! I’ve never seen it on anyone’s list ever! (Though this past winter I heard Fr. Gaitley talk about his book 33 Days to Morning Glory, and he told quite a bit of his personal story, which involved a former girlfriend from France named Blanche, except he pronounced it the French way, not rhyming with ranch (which is how I would say it) but like blah+sh with that almost unheard French between blah and sh. It was the first time I could picture Blanche on a young person!)

Anyway! They gave me a good sense of Katie and her hubs’ taste in girl’s names, and when I did a little research into Southern naming traditions, it all made sense, because I found Blanche and Greer on one particular list I found from Southern Living.

Their boy names are also very consistent with the Southern theme, and they’ve also got some good biblical names in there. By far my favorite name on the list is Blaise! I think it’s ah-MAZ-ing with Asher and Margo! I personally would consider Blanche to be the most daring name of them all, so if they’re good with Blanche they should totally be brave enough for Blaise!

Okay! On to my ideas. You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like in the Baby Name Wizard, as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Using that research, as well as my own mental files, and the research I did on Southern-type names, these are my suggestions:

Girl
(1) Annabel(le)
I didn’t do the research on Southern names until after I’d looked through the BNW and picked through my mind, so I was delighted to see that one of my top ideas for Katie and her hubs was listed in that same link to southern baby names! Annabel is a recent favorite of mine, as it can be considered a Marian name! It’s actually a form of Amabel, which comes from the Latin amabilis, meaning amiable/lovable, and is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis. How cool is that! It’s got the great nickname option of Annie, which I love; the Annabelle spelling is particularly southern; it’s got the Catholic angle covered; it doesn’t end in –en; and I think it passes the Senator Rule just fine. All their requirements!

(2) Eve, Eva, Ava, Evelyn
Eve is a totally biblical name, obviously, but it strikes me as also having a really sophisticated, distinguished feel, kind of sparse and chic, very Senator-like. I like that it fits with Asher’s biblical-ness and Margo’s coolness; Evie is one of the sweetest nicknames ever imo; it can also be considered Marian because of Mary being the New Eve (I’m a sucker for a Marian name!); and while I don’t know if Eve comes across as particularly Southern, every time I see Evelyn I hear Jessica Tandy saying it in a Southern accent in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, which was set in Georgia, so I feel like Evelyn could be a good option that retains a lot of Eve’s charm. Eva and Ava were also variants that showed up in my BNW as being similar to names this family likes.

(3) Caroline
Caroline is a great style match for Margaret, and it’s got some great nickname options like Carrie, Caro, Lina, Lola, Callie. It passes the Senator Rule, and a lot of people have been using it recently in honor of St. John Paul II. And it’s on that list of Southern names!

(4) Mary+
I don’t know a huge amount about Southern names, but I do know that double names are pretty common, and that double names for girls often involve a normal-ish first name with a family lastname as a middle, and that going by both names together, or just the middle name, is a tradition. That fits in exactly with the Catholic tradition of naming girls with the first name Mary, to be used in conjunction with the middle, like Mary Kate, Mary Grace, Mary Ann, etc., or to go just by the middle. Those kinds of names—Mary Grace etc.—have a really Catholic feel, but I think putting Mary in front of any name makes the middle name very do-able for a girl, no matter what, and casts a Catholic shadow as well. I might encourage Katie and her hubs to look through their family tree and find some last names that might work, for a really southern feel. Looking through the BNW, one of the girl names that was similar in style to some of their boys’ lastname ideas was Tate—Mary Tate is sweet!

Boy
(1) Brooks
I kind of love the name Brooks! Asher and Margo have kind of a preppy feel to me—in the best way! I love them together!—and Brooks so much fits in with that. It’s similar in style to Grant, Lawson, Reid, and Hayes, and reminds me of Blaise as well because of being one syllable and starting with a B. It doesn’t have a Catholic or biblical feel, unfortunately, but I feel like a great middle name could fix that. Like Brooks Nathaniel or Brooks Benedict.

(2) Beau
Beau is such a Southern gentleman to me. I think immediately of Melanie Wilkes’ little Beau from Gone With the Wind, which is a sweet and obviously very Southern reference—and it’s on that list of southern names I linked to above! I did a consultation for my sister-in-law last year, and one of her favorite combos was Francis Beau called Beau—that combo also seems to have a particularly Southern flair to me! And Francis is so Catholic.

(3) Elliott or Emmett or Everett
I had both Elliott and Emmett on my list for this family before I read that southern-names article, and was excited to see they’re both on there! Elliott was originally an English last name derived from a medieval diminutive of Elias, which is the Greek form of Elijah, so it’s technically biblical. And Emmett was originally an English last name derived from a medieval diminutive of Emma! I love that they were both originally last names, which I assume is one of the reasons they were on the list of southern names, and I love that Elliott is biblical, as it ties in so nicely with Asher (though not obviously). If they didn’t care for either of these for a son, I would totally suggest considering them for a daughter! Especially as Mary Elliott or Mary Emmett, even if they called her Elliott or Emmett on a daily basis (and Ellie and Emmy are great nicknames) — doing so seems more in keeping with the Southern tradition of putting last names or masculine names in the middle spot, rather than the boys-names-for-girls trend. (I’d be interested to hear what Katie’s husband thinks of this line of thinking—in my experience, most men don’t care to consider names for their sons that might also be do-able for their daughters.)

I’m including Everett in this group because it’s got a similar sound and rhythm to Elliott and Emmett, though it wasn’t on the list of southern names. It was, however, listed in the BNW as similar to Cora and Estella. I also wouldn’t be as inclined to suggest it for a daughter, which Katie’s husband might like better.

(4) Ethan
I thought getting at least one explicitly biblical name on the list was important, and Ethan seemed like a great fit. At first I was thinking it had a specifically southern feel as well, but when I looked it up to see why I felt that way, I realized I’d been thinking of Ethan Allen, who was from Connecticut. Oops. But then the BNW said that Ethan’s been particularly popular in the heartland in recent years, which includes Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, so I guess I was right in feeling that it’s popular in the south. This is the only name that ends in the –en sound that I included in my suggestions for Katie and her hubs, but I’ve said Ethan out loud a bunch of times with their last name (Ethan Jenkins is a good stand-in) and I think it sounds pretty fab. I actually tried a bunch of –en names out loud with their last name, to see which ones might not work, but honestly I thought they all sounded fine!

And those are my ideas for this family! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a little brother or sister for Asher and Margo?

 

Baby name consultant: Baby #4 to add more joie de vivre

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Thank you all for your patience and kind words and prayers last week! The wake, funeral, and burial for my mother-in-law all worked out so well and beautifully, may she rest in peace.

Though I’d said that I’d be able to finish up the consultations for those waiting for them, I didn’t end up being able to spend much time on the computer, so I’m a couple of days backed up. I should be able to catch up this week though, so if you’re waiting for a consultation or an email reply of any kind, don’t despair!

Now on to our regularly scheduled Monday consultation post!

Lisa, of the blog Joie de Vivre (hence my totally corny post title), and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, gender unknown! This wee babe will join older sisters:

Evangeline Grace (Evie)
Audrey Noelle
Heidi Josefina

And names they’ve talked about for girls include:

Isabel (“maybe more for a middle name?“)
Margaret (“husband really likes…I’m not quite there“)
Juliana (“has been a top choice every pregnancy…I’m ready to take it off the list, though, since the boss of my boss is named Heidi and my boss is named Julianne!“)
Mariette (“husband not on board“)
Faith or Hope
Jane
Teresita (“my confirmation saint is Ven. Teresita but my husband feels it’s too much of a nick name, womp, womp“)

For boys, Lisa says,

“My husband Tim and I have each had a strong devotion to St. Jude since before we met each other and considered that as our ‘front-runner’ for a boy’s name with the 1st pregnancy, however good friends of ours, who had a baby around the same time, also had Jude as their boy-name first choice and did have a boy *and* have the same last name we do, so we’ve sort nixed it but may consider it now that both families have more kids/ their Jude is older?“

Other names they’ve discussed/considered for boys include:

First names
Nicholas
Jude
Christopher
Nathaniel
Kolbe (“I LOVE- Tim says it evokes thoughts of Colby Jack cheese“)
Ethan

Middle names
Scott
Bonaventure
Frederick
Casimir

(“I know the last three are really wild cards but I kinda like that they’re unexpected, and the last two are the middle names of my grandpa’s that I would totally use as a middle name for a boy.”)

And names that can’t be used for various reasons include:

Ava
Anna
Charlotte
Clara
Rose
Sophia
Zelie
Kathryn
Therese
Michael
Charles
Seamus
Samuel
Daniel
Christian
Isaac
Andrew
Eleanor
Olivia
Leo

I really enjoyed working on this because I found that Lisa and Tim’s style wasn’t easy to pin down — I love a good name challenge!

Their girls’ names are each so lovely … and so different! I love each one. I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names that the parents like and have already used for their other children in the Baby Name Wizard book as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and then I look for names that show up in more than one of those lists. It was so interesting to see what names would be found to be similar to more than one of Lisa and Tim’s girls’ names or the names on their list! I’ll explain more in my suggestions below.

I love Jude, and I love that both Lisa and her hubs have a devotion to St. Jude—how weird that they have friends with the exact same last name who also have a Jude! I agree that as there are more children and the ages are more spread out that it doesn’t matter as much as it might have once. It’s a great name.

As for the names she and/or her hubs like(s), Isabel, Faith, Hope, and Jane are all beautiful … I think they’re probably right to take Juliana off the list because of the Heidi/Julianne boss issue, but maybe not forever … Margaret and Mariette are so similar in appearance and beginning and ending sounds, it’s funny that Lisa loves one and Tim loves the other! And Teresita is beautiful — I wonder if they would consider Teresa with Teresita as a possible nickname? Especially since Tim already thinks Teresita sounds more nicknamey? Or maybe Tessa would be more their speed? I like them both with the other girls’ names, and I like trying to find a connection to Ven. Teresita for Lisa in a way that maybe her husband would be okay with.

Their boys’ names are very consistent stylistically! Nicholas, Christopher, and Nathaniel especially have a lot of the same names listed as style matches. I’ll discuss more in my suggestions below.

As for the middle name ideas, they’re all very handsome, and I was particularly struck by the combo Jude Frederick — I think it has such a great flow! BUT – I’m love love loving the idea of Frederick as a first name for them!!! I love that it’s long and sophisticated like Evangeline; it’s got a German feel like Heidi; and it’s really classic like Audrey and all three of them really. It’s got the great traditional nickname options of Fred, Freddie (so cute!), and Fritz, and I know a little Frederick who goes by Erick. I love it! Frederick Jude would be very handsome.

I love Kolbe too, great name and great saint! Colby Jack cheese is hilarious and such a bummer!

Okay, so I have a bunch of suggestions for Lisa and Tim:

Girl
(1) Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn or Madeleine
This was influenced at first by Margaret on their list, as I sometimes find that people who struggle with Margaret but love the nickname Maggie are open to considering Magdalen(e)/Magdalyn with the nickname Maggie. I love it! But as I was doing my research, I discovered that Madeleine is a style match for Evangeline and Isabel, and Madeleine is the French version of Magdalen(e), so I thought it definitely deserved a mention.

(2) Clairvaux
I know Clara’s on the list of unusable names, but Claire is a style match for Audrey and at first I dismissed it … but then when I was thinking about it some more — especially the style of Kolbe (saintly last name) — I wondered what they’d think of Clairvaux? Lindsay at My Child I Love You has a little Clairvaux, after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and I believe they call her Clair sometimes.

(3) Victoria
Victoria is a style match for Juliana, Nicholas, and Nathaniel, and I love that it’s got that longer length like Evangeline. I love that it could be considered Marian (Our Lady of Victory), or a Jesus name (Victory!), and I love that it has a bunch of nickname options: Vicky, Vicka, Tori, Vee, Cora, Ria.

(4) Samantha
Samantha’s a style match for Nicholas, Christopher, and Nathaniel! I know Samuel isn’t usable, but maybe Samantha’s different enough?

(5) Camille or Camilla
Camilla is a style match for Juliana and Jude, and Camille for Hope. I really like it with their other girls, and I love the nickname Cammie.

Boy
(1) Luke or Lucas
Luke was all over the place for this family! Luke is a style match for Audrey, Jude, Ethan, and Faith, and Lucas matches up with Isabel. Wow! I’ve heard Jude described as the “Luke less traveled,” so I wasn’t surprised to see that it’s similar to a bunch of other names they like.

(2) Owen
Owen was also a big hit for them, being similar to Audrey, Isabel, Juliana, Ethan, and Faith. It’s a great name, and its patron is the amazing St. Nicholas Owen, a martyr who built hiding places for priests.

(3) Conrad
It’s funny, when I was first reading your email and saw Heidi, I immediately scribbled down Conrad, and then later discovered it’s a style match for Frederick! My husband and I considered Conrad for our youngest—I’ve always liked it.

(4) Bennett
Being that Kolbe is a saintly last name, I was trying to think of others from that category that Lisa and Tim might like (like my suggestion of Clairvaux above), and when I saw Bennett listed as a style match for Hope, I knew that was the one. Bennett is a medieval form of Benedict! So it’s got great saint cred, but it feels more like a last name (and of course is one, as in the Bennet sisters of Pride and Prejudice).

(5) Thaddeus or Theodore
Finally, I wondered if their love of St. Jude could transfer from the name Jude to the name Thaddeus? It’s long, like Evangeline, Christopher, and Nathaniel, and can take the nickname Thad, Tad/Taddy, and Ted/Teddy. Ted/Teddy made me think of Theodore too, which I suspect might be more their speed, and indeed it’s a style match for Frederick; they could also use the great nickname Theo.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a brother or sister to Evangeline/Evie, Audrey, and Heidi?

Baby name consultant: Finn’s little brother or sister

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I’m popping back on to post today’s scheduled consultation, and thank you for your kind words and prayers for my mother-in-law and our family!

Kate and her husband are expecting their second baby! Their older son is:

William Finn, who goes by Finn

Love love love. I adore Finn, and it’s SO cool that it’s a middle for William.

Kate writes,

“Finn’s first name was a no-brainer because it’s a meaningful family name on both sides … [however we] could not agree on a nickname for William (I like Bill or maybe Will, he liked Liam but I didn’t) so we decided to just call him by his middle name. I don’t even remember how we came across Finn, but [my hubs’] family identifies strongly with their Irish heritage and I thought it was cute, so it was a winner.

This baby is probably a girl (per an early ultrasound), but we’re looking for both a girl and boy name in case he/she changes her mind at the anatomy scan. 😉

My husband and I have very different naming styles — and personalities altogether — which made it a miracle we decided on Finn’s name and is making it very difficult this time around … my style is a little more “hipster”, his is a lot more plain-Jane (his words, not mine!) We are both leaning towards a French name for a girl this time around (my family is French and Polish.)“

For girls,

“our top contender for Finn was Geneva Eloise. Geneva is a family name on Jeff’s side, a great-grandmother he was very close to. I still like it, but I’m not sure I love it. We were/are considering the nickname Vivi or Gemma.

For middle names with Geneva, I like Stellamaris and Azelie, but am open to more ideas. I’m not sure they sound quite right. I/we are also open to new first name ideas though Jeff says he’s very attached to Geneva. Other family names are Margaret (my side), Aileen (my side), Helen (his side.)“

And for boys,

“we have literally zero ideas. I love Francis and Walter, my husband does not like either. We have no new ideas. Anything would help.”

Okay! Not to fear! I can always come up with ideas! 😀 I love Geneva Eloise with the nicknames Vivi or Gemma, so sweet! I also love Stellamaris and Azelie as middle names. I have nothing more to say, they’re just great ideas.

For those who don’t know, I almost always start my consultations by looking up all the names the parents have used and liked in the Baby Name Wizard book as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that match the entry in terms of style/feel/popularity. It’s uncannily accurate! Between that research and other, and my own namey head, these are my suggestions for boy and girl names (I tried to be heavier on the boy names but ended up with seven suggestions for each gender!):

Girl

(1) Genevieve or Vivienne
Geneva made me think of Genevieve right away, so Kate and her hubs probably won’t like it, since Geneva’s a family name and Genevieve loses that, but I had to suggest it. Or maybe it could be seen as a nod to Geneva while giving the baby her own name? St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris, which is great! And Vivienne also has the strong V sound and the French spelling, and both Genevieve and Vivienne can take the nicknames Vivi or Evie. So cute!

(2) Juliette
Juliet’s one of my very favorites, and Juliette’s a beautiful French variant. Lovely!

(3) Sylvie
When I saw Sylvia pop up in my research, I immediately thought of Sylvie and thought it was a great suggestion for this family! It’s got the V of Geneva, and it’s kind of like Sophie but not nearly as popular. This reader named her baby Sylvie Regina, which I just about died over! It sounds so like the Marian hymn “Salve Regina,” so cool!

(4) Beatrice
This also showed up in my research, and it reminded me of the family I did a consultation for recently whose mom is from France, and all the girls have French names. Beatrice made me think of it because it’s the mom’s name, and Bea is one of my favorite nicknames for a little girl.

(5) Clementine
Clementine is actually a style match for Eloise, I love it! Not least because it’s a “mercy” name — perfect for a baby born during the Year of Mercy!

(6) Helene
I wondered what they’d think of Helene? Kate said that Helen and Aileen are family names, and Aileen is sometimes considered an Irish variant of Helen, and Helene is the French variant. That same French family I mentioned above has Helene as one of the girls’ middle names, it’s a beautiful name, and St. Helena is great. Nell is a great nickname for Helene, a la little Helen Borobia, who sometimes gets called Nellie Peg (for Helen Margaret! I die!)!!

(7) Magdalen(e) or Madeleine
Magdalen(e) just seemed like a name Kate and her hubs would like, and I have no real reason except my gut feeling! The French variant is Madeleine of course, but I don’t know, I was just feeling Magdalen(e) for this family. I love that you can get Maggie as a nickname, which is always so darling. But I’d be 100% happy with Madeleine too, and if they liked the combo Madeleine Sophie,after St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, I’d be even happier!

Boy

(1) Robert nicked Rory
I was really excited to get into the boy names! William Finn is just the greatest combo, so I feel like it has some big shoes to fill. The first one I thought of right off the bat was Robert as a first name with the nickname Rory. Robert is a style match for William and Rory is a style match for Finn and I just totally love this option.

(2) George nicked Geo or Geordie
Can you all see that I’m going for a solid, traditional first name with a more offbeat nickname? I love that! I love the nickname Geo for George, so cool! Another possibility, which is really fun, is Geordie (pronounced Jordy), which I believe is a Scottish diminutive of George. (Fun fact: I have ALWAYS been in love with the nickname Jordy and tried to get my husband on board. I was never successful.)

(3) Theodore or Leo
Theodore matched up with Geneva and Francis style-wise, so of course I had to suggest it, and I’d actually already scribbled Leo in my notes for this baby before I’d even started doing research, because my brother and SIL — whose taste seems to me to be pretty similar to Kate and her husband’s — named their son Leo. Theo and Leo share sounds, so I’d say it might be a matter of do they prefer short (Leo) or long with a shorter nickname (Theodore/Theo)?

(4) Jude (Julian?)
Jude and Finn are amazing brother names in my opinion! Jude also has that Catholic cachet that’s so great. I’ve seen Jude used as a nickname for Julian, and the Beatles’ song Hey Jude was written for Julian Lennon, so there is precedent for doing so, and I thought Kate and her hubs might like that option.

(5) Owen
This is another one informed both by the style of Finn, and by my brother and SIL, who named their Leo’s little brother Owen! St. Nicholas Owen is an awesome patron for a little Owen.

(6) Conrad or Connor
Conrad probably seems a little bit out of left field, but it’s a style match for both Geneva and Eloise, so I thought it deserved a mention. I love the name Conrad, and my hubs and I actually considered it for our youngest! I could also see Conner used as a nickname, which is pretty cool and pretty similar to Finn. Or maybe Connor as a first name? I love it!

(7) Arthur nicked Archie or Abe
Arthur is totally because they like Francis and Walter! And Archie and Abe are nicknames I’ve recently seen used by parents of Arthurs, who were total hipsters. I love Archie, I think that’s brilliant for Arthur; the Arthur who’s Abe has a B middle name, so it makes sense, so perfect.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of William Finn?

Baby name consultant: Less common, meaningful name for third baby boy

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Shannon, from the blog We, A Great Parade, and her husband are expecting their third baby and third son! This new baby boy will join big brothers:

Alyosha Daniel
Moses Emmanuel

Amazing, right? Handsome, unusual, and full of faith significance, love them. 👌

Shannon writes,

“Our first son was adopted at 11 months old from Uganda … We chose Alyosha because of the main character in The Brothers Karamazov and also loved that it means “defender of mankind”. We chose Daniel because we wanted a solid, simple Biblical name to balance out the unusual first name. At the time we were Protestant, but now that we’re Catholic I like that his name is somewhat related to St. Aloysius.

Our second son (first biological baby) is named Moses Emmanuel … We chose Moses obviously because of the Biblical character but also because we just really liked the name. And I’ve kind of loosely made St. Moses the Black his patron 🙂 We chose Emmanuel because he was born during Advent.

So… we love names that are less commonly used but that also bear significance because of a person (even fictitious) that they represent. While we do love saints names, we couldn’t just pick a random one simply because we liked it. We would want the person to reflect a trait that is particularly dear to us, OR for the name meaning itself to do so.

We are devoted to the teachings of the Catholic Worker, so people like Dorothy Day or Peter Maurin are ones we have kept in mind in addition to saints. We’re trying to steer away from Biblical figures at this point since we already have a Daniel and a Moses. Additionally, since our oldest son is adopted and a different race than the rest of us, we ideally would like to avoid using the letter M in the first name … since that would subtly group together the biological boys and leave him out. That may be something we change our minds on, but is where we’re at right now.”

I really enjoyed thinking of Shannon’s three boys and her and her husband’s lovely desire that Alyosha not feel left out name-wise. I also enjoyed having the opportunity to learn more about Servant of God Dorothy Day, one of the four Americans Pope Francis mentioned in his Address to Congress in September, and Peter Maurin, neither of whom I’d known much about before Shannon’s email. All in all, this was a really great dilemma to work on!

Names that are currently on their list include:

Oliver (“I think it’s super cute, we love that it symbolizes peace, and my family is Irish so naming after St. Oliver would be a kind of homage to that… BUT we don’t know anything about him really.”)

Theodore (“Again a really cute name, great meaning (gracious gift), but again don’t know much about the saint“)

Brien (“only as a middle name… my maiden name is O’Brien and I’d like to pass it on“)

Maurin (“after Peter Maurin… we both love this one but we run into the problem with the M. Peter is just too common for our tastes. Any creative ideas for a nickname maybe?? We’ve also thought about Day for Dorothy Day, maybe too short and awkward though. Or Aristide which is Maurin’s first name, but my hubs says Aris is too weird“)

Basil (“my husband likes saint Basil, and favors this name, but I’m afraid it would come across as hipster to the majority of the world, along the lines of Sage, Juniper, Willow, etc“)

Tevye (“the Yiddish version of Tobias, another person we don’t actually know much about. My husband likes this one too but I’m not sold because it doesn’t mean anything special to me“)

Okay, a quick comment on some of the ideas on their current list before jumping into my ideas:

I love Oliver, and I totally agree that it’s super cute. St. Oliver Plunket is a great saint for a boy, especially an Irish boy, and one of the things I’ve learned about him recently is that he wrote about Divine Mercy — what a meaningful tidbit for a baby born during this Jubilee Year of Mercy!

Theodore’s a great name too, but it feels a little tame for this family’s taste. I could see them liking the variant Fyodor more, but is that too much Karamazov Bros.? At the same time it could be really great — Moses and the new baby have the biological connection; Alyosha and the new baby would have a Russian/Karamazov name connection.

I was interested by Maurin. If it weren’t for the M, it seems like it would be a perfect name for Shannon and her hubs — offbeat because of it being a last name, and the name of a man they admire. Shannon asked about a nickname — Maury and Manny were the first two that came to mind. But that pesky M — I agree that maybe an M name wouldn’t ideal for this baby (unless they change their minds on that, and then of course I’d support their decision 100%!) … then I thought of Aury, which is a little bit of a stretch but not THAT much of a stretch. I looked it up to be sure it wasn’t considered a girl’s name (since I know how fussed any of my boys would be if they had what they consider a “girl’s name,” especially if the other brothers had explicitly masculine names), and though I couldn’t find much about Aury, what I did find (babynamewizard.com had an entry for “Aury Estela,” a girl’s name, and behindthename had a user-submitted entry saying Aury is a boy’s name … babycenter.com had Aury listed as a boy’s name as well, but no other info) leads me to think there’s enough evidence that it’s not overwhelmingly considered to be feminine and therefore could easily be used for a boy. I kind of liked the idea of a given name Maurin — starting with an M like brother Moses — being called Aury on an everyday basis, which starts with an A like brother Alyosha. I thought that could be a really nice subtle connection between all the brothers, and not so obvious that they’d feel locked into anything if they were to have more children.

I like the idea of Day, and I saw it used recently as a middle name for a girl (for Dorothy Day) — so cool! As a first name it’s certainly short, but so is Todd, for example, so I don’t think that’s problematic. I guess I’m having a hard time thinking of it on a boy, since the two people I associate with the name are Dorothy Day and that little girl I know with the middle name Day … but of course last names are a great source of first names for boys … I’d love to know what the rest of you think of Day as a first name for a boy! I would love it as a middle name.

I have similar issues with Basil as Shannon does — I love it, and I think it’s a great, underused saint’s name, but I hate that most Americans would only think of the herb. I looked up its alternate versions in other languages, and wondered what Shannon and her Mr. would think of one of the Eastern European variants like Vasil or Vasyl? I assume they’re pronounced to rhyme with Basil, and the V and B are so similar that it’s almost exactly the same name sound-wise, but it loses the herb/hippie feel.

I was surprised by Tevye because it’s a biblical name and Shannon had said they wanted to stay away from them. So then I assumed she meant they wanted to stay away from biblical names that *sound* biblical to Catholic Americans, which I think is easier to work with than “no biblical names,” and I employed this in one of my ideas below.

Okay! So onto those ideas! You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names that the parents have used and the ones that they like in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Taste like this family’s, which is more creative and offbeat, tends not to be served as well by the BNW, but I did get some ideas from it, as well as from my own mental archives:

(1) Julius or Julian/Julien
The BNW actually came through in a big way with this first suggestion—Julius was listed as similar to both Moses and Theodore! And Julian is a style match for Oliver! So of course I had to suggest these names. But then—I was researching Peter Maurin a little bit and discovered that he was born in the village of Oultet within the community of Saint-Julien-du-Tournel! What! I got goosebumps when I read that!

(2) Ciar(an)
I was thinking of various ways of naming Shannon’s third boy that would make sure Alyosha didn’t feel left out in any way, and one of the ideas I had was to make sure this baby boy had a name completely different from either of his brothers’ names in terms of first letter and linguistic origin/variant, just like Moses and Alyosha are totally different. It’s one of the reasons I like Oliver—it’s Irish/Celtic/British, which is totally different from Alyosha and Moses. But then I was also thinking that—and I hope this doesn’t seem insensitive at all—both of her other boys share the color black—Alyosha in his skin and Moses in his patron saint of Moses the Black. So I kind of loved that Ciar means black in Irish—it ties into the really subtle shared black characteristic of her boys while still being its own name totally different from the other two. Ciar is a name on its own (said like KEER), and the more familiar Ciaran (KEER-in, more commonly spelled Kieran) is technically a diminutive of Ciar.

(Along with this same line of thinking, it’s pretty cool to know that Maurin is related to Mauritz/Maurus/Maurinus, all of which mean “dark skinned,” so if Shannon and her hubs do decide to go that route, that have that connection between all the brothers.)

(3) Jasper
Jasper was listed as a style match for Oliver, and it’s also a gemstone that can be black, tying into the idea I presented with Ciar(an) above. Black jasper is not very common, but it was cool to read that the “name blackstones refer to any number of stones, including jasper, that are dyed black and polished for jewellery.” Jasper is the name traditionally given to one of the Three Wise Men (you might also see its variants Casper and Gaspar given for that same Wise Man—they’re all the same name).

(4) Form of Peter
This is the idea I mentioned that Tevye, being biblical but not obviously so to most English speakers I think, inspired, as well as Peter Maurin of course. Shannon said they’d considered Maurin’s first name Aristide and its variant and possible nickname Aris, but I wonder if they’d considered any of the Peter variants? They aren’t obviously biblical to English speakers, but would still honor Maurin pretty explicitly. Pierre would be a great one, since Maurin was French; Piers is an English variant; Peadar is Irish and is said more like PAD-der (patter).

(5) Clement
Clement was inspired both by the Jubilee Year of Mercy, as it means “merciful,” and I’m a big fan of the idea of naming babies born this year with some element of mercy in their names!, and also by the fact that Shannon’s due in May, which is the month devoted to Our Lady, and Clement can be considered Marian (as she’s described as clement [=merciful] in the hymn/prayer Salve Regina, for example).

But after I’d already decided to suggest Clement to them for those reasons, I came upon this quote of Dorothy Day’s in regard to the Catholic Worker: “Our rule is the works of mercy,” and one of its tenets is “daily practice of the Works of Mercy.” What a meaningful name Clement would be for this family on so many levels!

(6) Cyprian
Along the same lines as the “black” idea above, I thought maybe the name of an African saint would be cool, and I immediately thought of Bl. Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi. Cyprian’s a cool name and unusual, I really like it for this family.

(7) Roman or Tiber
I liked Roman as an idea for this baby initially because it has a long O like Aloysha and Moses, another subtle connection between the brothers, and the reason I liked that particular name-with-a-long-o is because I always think of Roman as a Catholicky Catholic name, as it calls to mind (for me) the Vatican, the Pope, Roman Catholic, etc.

Thinking along those lines also made me think of Tiber, which is the name of a river in Rome, and the phrase “crossing the Tiber” refers to someone converting to Catholicism. It’s a really cool name with a really cool meaning for convert parents. (Check out an adorable Tiber here. 🙂 ).

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for Alyosha and Moses’ little brother?