Nicknames

Birth announcement: Marielle Elise!

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

Julie writes,

“Hi Kate!

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

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

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

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

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

marielle_elise

Marielle Elise

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

 

Baby name consultant: Baby #8, gender unknown, not popular name please, and girls end in -a

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Happy Valentine’s Day y’all!! I hope you love and are loved today! (Let me remind you, in case you’re having a hard time remembering: You’re always loved, always, even if people let you down — you’re loved intensely and without end. ❤ ❤ ❤ )

Before jumping into the consultation, I just want to let you know that I’ll be mostly off the blog for the coming week — my kids are home from school and we’ll be vacation-ing it up together! 😀 I’ll still be moderating comments and answering emails, and I’ll post my February CatholicMom column on Wednesday, and I’ll be back to cracking on Monday Feb. 22.

The mama whose consultation I would normally have posted tomorrow made a special request to have it post today — what a lovey day to talk about a lovey baby! ❤

Jenn and her husband are expecting their eighth baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown). Their older kiddos are:

Joseph Albert III, called Joey
Theresa Rose, called TT
Michaela Grace, called KK
Nicholas Daniel, called Nick
Hannah Faith, called Hanni
William Thomas, called Liam
Gianna Marie Noelle, called GG

The one name they’ve discussed is:

Vincent Michael

Alrighty, so I’ll start with their boy idea of Vincent Michael: I love it. It’s one of those names that, weirdly, says “Irish+Italian” to me, which is funny that Jenn’s hubs is 50/50 that exact mix. But of course it works with all ethnicities because of it being a saint’s name — I love that the saints’ names are used everywhere, in every country. My only hesitation with Vincent Michael is that they already have Michaela, but I’m sure they thought of that and if it doesn’t bother them it doesn’t bother me either.

So as you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up all the names that have already been used and that are liked 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. Doing so, and picking through my own namey head, I came up with a few suggestions for each gender that I think fit Jenn and her hubs’ taste and criteria (including girl names ending in the –a sound):

Girl
(1) Sarah, Julia
Sarah was a big winner for this family, and it’s my top suggestion. It’s Biblical like Joseph and Hannah but it totally holds its own with the other kids’ names, which are all classics. Sarah used to be quite popular, but it’s dropping quickly — it was #5 in 2000 but has dropped each year since and was at #50 in 2014 according to the Social Security baby name stats. So I don’t think Jenn and her husband need to worry that it’s too popular. They have great nicknames for their girls too, and the traditional Sarah nickname Sadie would fit in well I think.

I grouped Julia with Sarah because it’s also a biblical name, and I think it goes great with the big sibs, I just wasn’t sure they’d want to follow Gianna with Julia — too much J sound? It’s on a downward popularity arc, at #86 in 2014. Following their nickname style, I could see something like Leelee, and I’ve also seen Jilly for Julia, which I think is adorable. Or JJ?

(2) Clara, Eliza/Elisa
St. Clare is always a great patron for a little girl, and at first I was going to suggest Chiara, which is the Italian version of it and goes really well with sister Gianna … but it just seemed too Italian — Clara seemed a better fit to me. (#108 in 2014) Not sure about nicknames though? Kiki seems like it would work because of the hard C- beginning of Clara, but they already have KK. Maybe Clari, in the style of Hanni?

Eliza is because Elizabeth was a big style match for their name taste but it doesn’t end in –a. Eliza has the same sweet classic feel as their other girls’ names. A similar option in this same vein is Elisa, which is also really pretty and gets closer to the style of Gianna. (Eliza: #212; Elisa: #498) (I considered Isabella and Elisabetta as well, but Isabella seemed too popular [#4], and Elisabetta too Italian. Both gorgeous though! And I read recently about Ven. Elisabetta Sanna …) Ellie would be a great nickname with their other girls (and Izzie for Isabella, or Lizzie/Lissie and Betty [!] for Elisabetta).

(3) Maria, Olivia
I know they used Marie for Gianna’s middle name, but if they’re okay with using Michael as a middle even though they have Michaela, maybe Jenn and her hubs would be okay with Maria as a first name? It was the first idea I had for them after reading their email. All the other girl’s have names that could be considered Marian — Rose, Grace, Faith or Hannah (with Hannah being a form of Anne and Anne being Our Lady’s mom), and Marie — so it makes sense to have a Marian first or middle for another girl. And Mimi totally rocks as a nickname, and totally fits in with the other girls; Mia’s another great option as a nickname, a la Mia Farrow, whose given name is Maria. (Maria’s #115)

I wouldn’t have thought of Olivia for this family on my own, but the Baby Name Wizard said it was a style match for them, and it reminded me that one of our mamas named her daughter Olivia after Our Lady under the title Our Lady of Olives — a title I’d not been familiar with, but how great is that? And Livi! One of my favorite favorite girl nicknames! (Unfortunately Olivia’s the most popular of my suggestions—#2 in 2014! So maybe I should have included Isabella in my official suggestions, since I included Olivia …)

(4) Cora, Cecilia
Cora is totally drawn from my own life, because I know a family with a Michaela and a Nicholas, and they also have a Cora. I love it for this family because it ends in -a and we’ve had some discussion of Cora on the blog recently as a name for the Sacred Heart or the Immaculate Heart of Mary — or both! (Check out the comments on this post, as an example.) A Marian and a Jesus name in one! (#103) Coco would be a really fun nickname, or Cori.

I’m including Cecilia with Cora because both are my own ideas (i.e., not listed in the BNW). I thought of Cecilia mostly because of the nickname option of Cece, which so fits what they’ve already done with their other girls, and isn’t too popular (#206). And actually, CC could work for something like Cora Cecilia or Cora Clare or Clara Catherine. I’m loving that!

Boy
(1) Francis nicknamed Finn
I had a harder time with boy names for them! Joseph, Nicholas, William/Liam, and Vincent are all great, classic names, but the names that matched style-wise didn’t seem to work for them for one reason or another (Thomas has already been used as a middle; James is a great name but would they want to repeat the J of Joseph, especially after Gianna? Edward just didn’t seem … right, even though it’s saintly and masculine). But the fact that William goes by Liam made me think of one of my favorite suggestions, which you all know I’ve tried to push on lots of people (haha!): Francis with the nickname Finn. I think it totally works! And: Pope Francis! (Francis: #234, Finn: #234, though sure to rise because of Star Wars. Which I don’t think is a terrible thing. At all. 😉 Especially with Francis as the given name.)

(2) Dominic
Dominic is another name that says “Irish+Italian” to me, like Vincent. I actually did a post a while ago about non-Italian Dominics, because I’d heard some people say Dominic didn’t work for a fair-haired boy. I don’t know what Jenn’s kids look like, but, as I noted in my post, I first fell in love with Dominic in Kindergarten Cop — he was the little blond boy. 🙂 I’ve seen Nick used as a nickname, which obviously won’t work for this family, since they already have Nicholas, but I’ve also heard Dommy for a little boy, which is adorable. The full Dominic is really my favorite though. (#69)

(3) Andrew
Andrew seems the most likely to be a name Jenn and her hubs would like, I think. It’s classic and biblical, and has the great nicknames Andy or Drew. Or even something like Ace, if they paired it with a C middle name (Andrew Charles? Andrew Christopher?). (#22)

(4) Charles
Speaking of Charles, it’s my last suggestion for them — I’ve been seeing it a lot in honor of St. John Paul (birth name Karol=Charles), and the day before I did this for Jenn was the feast of St. Charles Borromeo (and I read that JP2 was actually named for St. Charles Borromeo! Can anyone verify that?). Charlie is a great nickname, but they might not love it with their last name, so there are some other fun ones too, like Cal, Hutch, and Huck, among others. (#51)

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for a little brother or sister for Joseph, Theresa, Michaela, Nicholas, Hannah, William, and Gianna?

+ xoxo ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ xoxo +

Baby name consultant: Baby #4, awesome initials please

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

Ava Lilian
Sophia Elizabeth
Caleb Augustin

Love. Love. Love.

Dianne writes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

For this baby, their top name contenders are:

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

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

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

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

Basically, it all boils to these three things:

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

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

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

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

As for the names on their current list:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birth announcement: Josie Rosalyn!

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

She writes,

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

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

Aidan James
Maren Patricia
Sadie Elizabeth

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

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

josie_rosalyn

Josie Rosalyn

Birth announcement: Reuben Dominic!

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Our wonderful, loyal reader eclare, also known as Emma in real life, has had her fifth baby—her fifth boy!!

She writes,

“We have good news to share! Our baby was born this past week!

Reuben Dominic T________
Born January 14th, 9:51 pm
8 lbs 10 oz, 21.75 in. long
Our 5th son, and our 3rd birth at St Isidore Acres 

We have always loved the name Reuben, and nearly used it previously for middle names, but each time decided to save it for a first name. This pregnancy we discovered that it fittingly means, “Behold, a Son!” (As if we were surprised to produce a 5th male heir, ha!)

Dominic means “Blessed by the Lord,” so Reuben Dominic’s name altogether means, “Behold, a Son Who is Blessed by the Lord.”

Another amazing name connection that we discovered during Reuben’s pregnancy, is that my namesake Great-Great Grandma Emma had a son Reuben. So we are the 2nd Emma-Reuben mother-son pair in the family tree! And I just got an email from my genealogist aunt who discovered at least 3 Reubens in my mom’s family tree 200 yrs ago… so it’s actually on both sides of my family– so cool.”

Soooo wonderful!!!! If all that wasn’t amazing enough, she and I emailed a bit more and she shared this as well:

“First of all, I am still so excited about our mini-consultation that determined that I could use Ione to honor my grandma Joan… except we had a boy!

Secondly, we go back and forth about considering the Patriarchs to be patron saints, so we are always happy to discover a canonized/beatified person who also bears the name (St Abel the Abbot, for our Abel, and now Blessed Reuben of Jesus, for Reuben).
The discovery of Blssd Reuben was doubly interesting, because he was martyred with another priest, Blessed Arthur (not Blessed Arthur Bell of England, our Arthur’s patron, but another one)! A cool link between our youngest two sons.

Thirdly, for some reason this middle name was the hardest for me. Suddenly the two-syllable accent-on-the-first pair sounded all wrong, despite choosing that pattern for all our other sons. For example, Reuben Michael just sounded wrong. I wanted something more the pattern of Reuben Alexander (except I don’t even like Alexander, and the initials would be unpleasant). I was willing to live with the two-syllable pair if the middle was something more unusual, like Reuben Oscar… but that had the unpleasant initials problem as well. So Reuben Dominic was really an answered prayer!

Finally, perhaps the most nerdy connection I am excited about: his two patrons have back-to-back feast days! St Dominic on August 8, Blssd Reuben on Aug 9. (And then my own birthday on Aug 10– 8-10, which was also his birth weight– followed by my patroness, St Clare, on 8-11). Connections, connections!”

But wait, there’s more!

“I’ve always loved the nickname Ben, but have never liked Benjamin. When I first heard of Bennett/Ben I swooned… but then it was very clear that we were supposed to use it as [one of the older boys’] middle name. So I gave up on ever having a Ben… until it occurred to us that Ben could be a nn for Reuben! Only half our boys use nicknames, so not sure if we will use it, but it’s nice to have the option.

The other thing is that we were calling our naming theme “old German farmer” until #4, which sort of still fits, but also gives us a 2nd category “British gent” (#3 and #4). Also, the boys each have a family name and/or part of their godfather’s name, plus their patron is a martyr. But Reuben actually fits in every one of these categories!”

And finally, two things which I’m so delighted by:

“You are the one who convinced me that a blondie can wear the name Dominic … and of course he comes out with dark hair!” and, as Emma wrote in a comment on my Ruby spotlight the day I posted it, “Kate, you and the Holy Spirit did it again: a post on Ruby/Reuben on the very day we named our son Reuben. Amazing!“

I know you’re all loving this info like I did when I first read it! So I know you’re all dying to know the big brothers’ names, and I’m so excited Emma agreed to share them with you all—I’ve loved them ever since she told me about them! (Alt characters used for privacy.)

M@rk 1sidore
Ab3l Benne++
$imon-Pe+er C1ement
Ar+hur 3dmund

Amazing, right? Such great taste!!

Congratulations to Emma and Donal and their four big boys, and happy birthday Baby Reuben!!

reuben_dominic

Reuben Dominic

Baby name consultant: Little Miss after 5 boys, and rethinking the planned name

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Genie, who blogs at Barefoot Abbey, and her husband are expecting their first girl after five boys! She writes,

“Our moniker muddle is that after 5 boys we are expecting a girl (in the middle of February) and are now rethinking the previously intended girl name philosophy from our courtship.

Being Anglo/celtophiles and my husband’s pride in his Scotch-Irish heritage have been factors in our sons’ names. We also try to use repetitive or similar sounds in each child’s name as a whole. For girls, our original philosophy was for our first daughter to have a Mary inspired name and then saint names (many my patronesses) for any subsequent daughters.

We have had “Moira Immaculee Clare” as our first girl name for 10 years. [Clare is a family name] … I like Therese in that spot as well.

We know about 5 Moiras over the age of 5 … Also concern was voiced that Moira did not match the other future girl names on our list.”

It’s an interesting dilemma, having had the same name chosen for ten years and five other babies, only to be unsure when it actually comes time to use it!

Genie shared the other girl names on their list, so we could see if it’s true that Moira doesn’t match the other names:

Moira Immaculee Clare
• Moira – Irish/ Scottish variant of Mary, we like the possible nickname of Molly – we just aren’t “Mo” people.
• Immaculee – obviously Marian name, we love the sound but don’t think it will work for us as a first name, coincidentally Ladybird’s (our baby) due date is near the feast of OL of Lourdes.
• Clare – family name, saint

Josephine Felicity Marie – “Josie/Jojo”
• Josephine – for Bl. Josephine Leroux martyr of the French Revolution.
• Felicity – love the meaning of the name and Ss. Felicity & Perpetua
• Marie – Marian

Genevieve Imelda Faith “Gigi”
• Genevieve – patroness, my baptismal but not legal name
• Imelda – patroness, confirmation saint at my reception into the Church from Anglicanism in ’11
• Faith – meaning

Margaret Gemma Therese – “Meg” (Little Women)
•Margaret – patroness, Ss. Margaret Clitherow & Margaret of Scotland, my 3rd baptismal name.
•Gemma – love the modern saint’s story
• Therese – love the simplicity of her little way.

Lucy Elinor Hope
• Lucy – St. Lucy day is one of our family’s favorites in Advent, Lucia of Fatima, C. S. Lewis, Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Elinor – my husband was born in the Feast of St. Helena, Austen spelling (Sense & Sensibility)
• Hope – meaning

Emmelia Magdalene Rose – “Emmie/Mila”
• Emmelia – patroness, mother of saints
• Magdalene – love that she was the first follower to see Jesus after the Resurrection, first son was due on Good Friday and was almost “Moira Magdalene Clare”
• Rose – Marian

Elizabeth Azelie Jane – “Eliza Jane” (Little House)
• Elizabeth – patroness, St. Elizabeth of Hungry, my legal middle name
• Azelie – patroness
• Jane – my husband’s grandmother & aunt, Jane Eyre

Beatrix Evangeline Hope/Anne – “Beasy”
• Beatrix – St. Beatrix of Nazareth
• Evangeline – love the sound of this, I want to say there is an obscure connection to Mary here?
• Hope – meaning
• Anne – St. Anne (Mary’s mom) & St. Anna Maria Taigi, Green Gables spelling

Aren’t they each gorgeous? I love all the meaning behind each one! The faith significance, the literary references, the nicknames (Beasy!) — wonderful job all around!

Some further info about girl names:

“Our sons are pushing for Charlotte but that’s most likely due to their love of Charlotte’s Web, and not the martyr of Compiegne. Lol!

The other philosophy we are currently considering is forgoing Moira or a Marian first name. For that theme, we would go straight into girl saint names but have a Mary connection in each daughter’s name. Unfortunately, we’re having a hard time being that creative with Marian derivatives.”

Genie’s little Miss will be joining the following well-named brothers:

Malachi Benedict Aquinas
• Malachi – first canonized saint of Ireland, “Carrots” is one of his nicknames
• Benedict – St. Benedict was a big part of our pre-marriage prep, Pope Benedict XVI
• Aquinas – Our courtship began on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Noah Oliver Francis
• Noah – my husband liked the sound & justified it as being close to the Gaelic word for saint
• Oliver – last canonized saint of Ireland, he usually goes by “Noah Oliver” or the Gaelic pronounced “Ollibear”
• Francis – the patron of the parish we’d attended all our marriage. He took me there after the pub on our first date.

Liam Michael Damien
• Liam – Bl. Liam Tirry one of the 17 Irish martyrs, his nickname is the Scottish term of endearment “Ducky”
• Michael – St. Michael is one of my husband’s patrons along with St. Thomas Becket & St. John the Baptist.
• Damien – St. Damien of Molokai, my dad used to go build for the remainder of his colony.

Aelred Dominic John (this is the son we lost)
• Aelred – St. Aelred the English St. Bernard, Spiritual Friendship author, one of our sons’ favorite lullabies is Robert Burns’ “A Red Red Rose” – he was due in June. http://youtu.be/y8R1kmcoQZk
• Dominic – St. Dominic, OL of the Rosary, meaning (belonging to God)
• John – my husband’s brother (has all daughters), patron, meaning (God is gracious)

Henry Andrew James
• Henry – St. Henry Walpole & Bl. John Henry Newman
• Andrew – St. Andrew of Scotland, my husband’s middle name, he was conceived the day after praying the St. Andrew Christmas Novena
• James – St. James the Great, my grandfather’s name, his nickname is “Camino” (he’s the path God chose for our family)

And the names they’d considered if this baby had been a boy:

George Ignatius Eliot
Charles/Maximilian Joseph Louis

Just sighs of happiness all around! Great great names.

So, to start, I love Moira Immaculee Clare, a really lovely name. I’m so surprised that Genie knows multiple Moiras! I don’t think I’ve ever met any in real life, being more familiar with Maura, which is my first suggestion — perhaps they’d consider changing to Maura Immaculee Clare? I know a little Maura who goes by Molly. Maybe that would be different enough to distinguish from the other little Moiras they know, but close enough to still feel like that got to use their beloved name? Secondly, when it comes to Irish and Scottish names, I tend to not worry about, for example, sisters Moira and Josephine not matching in style — especially in Ireland, which is what I’m more familiar with, families often have a mix of super-Irish names and others, usually saints. I know a family with a Kevin, Michael, and Dermot, for example, and another with Mary and Padraic, and another with Robert and Maeve. So I think it’s totally fine.

I know Mary isn’t as exciting as Moira, but I wondered what they’d think of that? Mary Immaculee Clare is wonderful, and Molly can still be used as a nickname. Or maybe Molly Immaculee Clare? My sister is just Molly and my sister-in-law is Molly and I grew up with multiple girls named Molly/Mollie — just that, not as a nickname for Mary or another variant. Maria is also quite well used in the British Isles/Ireland (you could even pronounce it like Mariah if you wanted to be really British and confuse everyone! 😀 I have a friend who gave her daughter the middle name Maria, with Maria pronounced Mariah). Or Mariah itself? I’ve always loved it.

I posted the other day about the idea of reserving names for future babies and something one of the commenters said that has really stuck with me — and I think might be helpful here — is “which name would I be sadder not to use?” In that example, a family had chosen Felicity for a girl, only to discover they were expecting a boy, and someone had suggested Felix, which would mean they couldn’t/wouldn’t use Felicity if they ever had a girl. Would they be sadder to never get to use Felicity? For Genie, would she and her hubs be sadder/would it bother them more to cross Moira off their list, or to use a name that might bother another family and potentially be seen as not fitting with future sisters?

Regarding Evangeline as having an obscure connection to Mary, I don’t know of any official (though obscure) connections, but I think one could make a case for it, since Evangeline means “good news” and Mary was the first hearer and the bearer of Good News — perhaps she could even be thought of as the First Evangelist? I’ve often said that intention matters the most, more than a name’s actual meaning etc., so if one’s intention is to honor Mary with Evangeline and you feel you have a good way of making it all connect, I say go for it!

I didn’t know about the martyr of Compiegne, Sr. Charlotte of the Resurrection! I did a post a while ago on patrons for Caroline/Charlotte, and my heaviest focus was on the male saints (JP2, Borromeo, etc.) — I’ll have to add this new Charlotte! It’s actually a really strong style match for a lot of the names Genie and her hubs like, and with the new baby princess being Charlotte, they’ve got a great Anglophile connection there!

As for Marian derivatives, there are so many! They’ve done a great job already with Moira, Immaculee, Marie, Hope (OL of Hope), and Rose. Others that might interest them include Grace; Marian (always makes me think of Maid Marian, not a bad association!); Maureen/Mairenn; Miriam; Perpetua; Assumpta and Carmel, both of which are used in Ireland; Regina and Caeli, as well as some others I include below in my “official” suggestions.

So now, onto those suggestions! Not that I think they really need any, their list is amazing! But I thought these might strike the right notes:

(1) Annabel
Given Genie’s husband’s love of all things Scottish and her hope for a Marian name, Annabel was one of my very first thoughts for them! Behind the Name says Annabel is a “Variant of AMABEL influenced by the name ANNA. This name appears to have arisen in Scotland in the Middle Ages” … Amabel is a “Medieval feminine form of AMABILIS,” who was a fifth century (male) saint, but Amabilis is a “Late Latin name meaning “lovable”” — the very name used in the Marian title Mater Amabilis — Mother Most Amiable (where amiable=lovable). How great is that?? A pretty specifically Scottish Marian name! I love Annabel (could also spell it Annabelle), mostly for its Marian meaning, but also because visually it connects to St. Anne, one of my personal patrons and of course the patroness of this blog.

(2) Eva or Eve
I was thinking of Aoife for them, and I do love it, but I suspect they’d want something a little easier to work with, and Genie’s idea of Evangeline made me think of it. Eva can be pronounced EE-va or AY-va and goes back to Mary as the New Eve. They could also consider just Eve — I had a convo on the blog recently with a mom who was considering Eve, for Mary, but worried it wasn’t Marian enough and asked for any ideas for a middle that would help remedy that … I suggested Eve Immaculata, which just has a beautiful, meaningful ring to me, and the mom responded that she also really liked Immaculee, and given that Immaculee already features prominently in Genie’s girl list, it seems a great idea. They might also want to consider Evangeline for a first name?

(3) Rosemary/Rosemarie, Rosary
I had a friend in Ireland years ago named Rosemarie and I loved it. I also love Rosemary. Nicknames for both can include Romy or Rory/Rorie, which are the kinds of nicknames I love — a little offbeat, but with a great, solid, traditional given name. And Rosie/Rosey are of course really great nicknames.

A reader on the blog actually named her daughter Rosary! I love love love it! That family had some Irish names for their other kids, so I thought Genie might be interested in checking them out. Little Rosary herself has the full name of Rosary Brigid Elise, and her mom recently said that she often calls her Rose.

(4) Lourdes
One of the great things about the Irish (and I know I’m focusing a lot on the Irish, but I’m just not as familiar with Scotland — I hope my thoughts are transferable!) is that they use holy names of all kinds, ethnicities, languages, etc. I know of Irish girls named Jacinta and Philomena and Gemma — especially in the old days I think, they just used a lot of names of our faith, no matter where they came from. So Lourdes (as with Carmel above) strikes me as just the kind of name they might use, if they wanted to use a Marian name. I’ve written a bit about the family at the blog My Child I Love You, because the parents have scrumptious taste in names, and their youngest is Lourdes Marie Talbot. I could see Lulu and Lola working as nicknames for Lourdes, and I even think Lucy could work! Especially with a middle name like Cecilia — Lourdes Cecilia has all the sounds of Lucy. And Genie’s baby is actually due right around the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes! (The Lourdes I mentioned above was born on that same feast day!)

(5) Stella
Finally, Stella. It’s one of my favorites — I feel like I suggest it to everyone! It’s from the Marian title Stella Maris — Star of the Sea. Stella on its own is a lovely nod to Our Lady, or perhaps they’d prefer to use Stella (first name) with Maris (middle name). Or, Haley from Carrots for Michaelmas has a daughter Gwen with the middle name Stellamaris (all one word). And a reader of my blog named her daughter Maristella, which is a totally legitimate variant of the Marian title (birth announcement here, and I posted a pictureposted a picture of Our Lady, Star of the Sea on my Instagram that had “Ave Maris Stella” underneath). I kind of love the connection of the sea to Ireland and Scotland! My grandfather was born and raised in Ireland, in a coastal town, and he worked his way to the U.S. on a ship; the UK’s Apostleship of the Sea has “Stella Maris Masses” said for the seafolk in places including Aberdeen and Glasgow. So cool, right?

And those are all my thoughts and ideas for Genie’s little baby girl! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest?

March for Life: Comfort and confidence in the Holy Name of Jesus

sanctanomina Holy Name of Jesus , , ,

I really wanted to write about the March for Life today, I feel like my heart’s right in D.C. with the marchers who are braving the cold and snow and ridicule and hatred and silent media all for the babies. And I thought — what better way than by writing about the Holy Name of Jesus? I found such comfort in the Holy Name during the height of the Planned Parenthood Videos expose, even writing about it in my August CatholicMom.com column: Planned Parenthood vs. the Holy Name of Jesus. I also looked into devotion to the Holy Name a little more, and was delighted to discover that the saint my alma mater was named after, St. Bernardine of Siena, was THE promoter of the Holy Name! And then yesterday my mom and I were talking about Jesus’ different names and what they mean, specifically Christ, Emmanuel, Jesus, and Messiah. So I thought I’d do just a small bit of info about each:

Christ
From Behind the Name: “Means ‘anointed’, derived from Greek χριω (chrio) ‘to anoint’. This was a name applied to Jesus by early Greek-speaking Christians. It is a translation of the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (mashiyach), commonly spelled in English messiah, which also means ‘anointed’.”

There are a lot of names connected to Christ that are familiar, like Christian, Christopher, Christine/a, and some that are unfamiliar, like (according to the DMNES): Christophera, Christred, Christwin, and Christwina! I think my favorite version is Christiana.

Emmanuel
From Behind the Name: “From the Hebrew name עִמָּנוּאֵל (‘Immanu’el) meaning ‘God is with us’. This was the foretold name of the Messiah in the Old Testament. It has been used in England since the 16th century in the spellings Emmanuel and Immanuel, though it has not been widespread. The name has been more common in continental Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal (in the spellings Manuel and Manoel).”

I know you’ll laugh, but ever since seeing Manny the Mammoth in Ice Age, I’ve though Manny was a pretty great nickname for a boy, and I love the meaning of Emmanuel. It would be great for a Christmas baby! I love the feminine variants Emmanuelle and Emmanuela as well — lots of good nickname options! Emma, Ella, Nell(a), and even Manny (my husband’s godmother’s name was one of the Emmanuel variants [I’m just not sure which] and she went by Manny).

Jesus
From Behind the Name: “English form of Ιησους (Iesous), which was the Greek form of the Aramaic name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshu’a). Yeshu’a is itself a contracted form of Yehoshu’a (see JOSHUA). Yeshua ben Yoseph, better known as Jesus Christ, was the central figure of the New Testament and the source of the Christian religion. The four Gospels state that he was the son of God and the Virgin Mary who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. He preached for three years before being crucified in Jerusalem.”

“Yeshua ben Yoseph” always jumps out at me — it’s equal parts so cool and also so common. Does that make sense? I always think of Him as Jesus, which equals God in my mind; seeing Yeshua ben Yoseph makes Him seem so “normal.” Which of course he was, both, God and Man, fully. What an awesome mystery.

This is the Joshua bit: “From the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshu’a) meaning “YAHWEH is salvation”. Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent into Canaan by Moses, as told in the Old Testament. After Moses died Joshua succeeded him as leader of the Israelites. As an English name, Joshua has been in use since the Protestant Reformation. The name Jesus comes from a Greek translation of the Aramaic short form יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshu’a), which was the real name of Jesus.”

Messiah
See Christ above. The entry at Nameberry references that Tennessee judge who ruled that parents couldn’t name their son Messiah “because there’s only one” — it was overturned, and in fact the name Messiah was #298 in 2014!

I was delighted to discover recently that the month of January also happens to be devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus! I’m sure it’s no coincidence — even if the organizers of the March for Life didn’t realize that in the beginning, we all know Heaven did.


So I have a small giveaway today! I have three copies of Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, O.P.’s book The Wonders of the Holy Name, and how I’d like to do it is offer them first to any of you readers that might be at the March for Life today. I know you’re probably not reading this if you are! So I won’t choose the recipients until Sunday evening, in hopes that gives enough time to get home, thaw out (!), and catch up on your blog reading. 🙂 Second, if none of our readers are marchers, I’d like to give them to any of you who personally know a marcher, who can pass it on to that person. Finally, if there are no marchers and no friends of marchers, I’ll pick randomly from those who comment on this post. It’s a powerful little book! And I love the dedication: “This booklet is lovingly dedicated to the Sweet Mother of Jesus. No one loves the name of Jesus as she does.”

“Therefore God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth …” (Philippians 2:9-10).

From the footnote in my bible (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Second Edition RSV): “heaven … earth … under the earth: The three principal realms in the worldview of ancient Israel (Ex 20:4). Homage will come from all creatures great and small — the angels and saints above, the family of man and beasts spread over the earth, and the dead and the demons of the underworld.”

(You might also be interested in reading my post from the summer: I would imagine Planned Parenthood fears names, which doesn’t mention the Name of Jesus but totally should. It does reference Call Him Emmett and the 50 Million Names project.)

Ann or Anne?

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , , ,

I posted some photos of a beautiful stained glass window depicting St. Ann(e) on Instagram earlier this evening (here and here), and found it notable that “St. Ann” was written beneath her image, and then “In memory of Mrs. Anne Quinn” — both spellings on one window.

So I asked how many prefer Ann or Anne and have gotten several responses (Anne by a landslide, which was my grandmother’s spelling, and the one Anne Shirley vastly preferred, and the spelling I always unconsciously default to, though I’m delighted that one follower let us know her middle name is Ann, which is the spelling of my best friend from growing up’s middle name, and she’s an amazing person, so — good company!). I also posted a poll to Twitter and so far everyone’s voted for Anne (three people).

I looked them up, and Anne is the “French form of ANNA. In the 13th-century it was imported to England, where it was also commonly spelled Ann.” Indeed, Ann is described as the “English form of ANNE (1). In the English-speaking world, both this spelling and Anne have been used since the Middle Ages, though Ann became much more popular during the 19th century.” I checked out the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources to see if there was additional info, and discovered the name Tanneken! It’s a diminutive of Ann(e) — I’m loving it! It’s totally the kind of nickname/diminutive that I go nuts for.

Any of you who haven’t yet commented on IG or voted on Twitter — which spelling do you prefer and why?

Baby name consultant: Baby #5 from across the world

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , ,

Though I’ve done consultations for parents living outside of America, today’s the first time I’ve gotten to post one on the blog! Today’s mama is Chelsea from New Zealand, editor of Restless Press (which posted an interview with me last week) and blogger at Grow the Roses.

She and her husband Joseph are expecting their fifth baby on earth, little brother or sister to:

Zelie Rose
Gianna Beryl
Theodore Ignatius Tutonga
Dominic Joseph John

All of which are so my taste, I love them all!

Chelsea writes,

“With all of them we have a modern saint (last hundred or two hundred or so years, relatively recent canonisation). Zelie is named for St Zelie, Gianna for St Gianna Beretta Molla, Theodore for Blessed Theodore Romzha and St Ignatius (husband loved the name, and wouldn’t let it go so he got two saints), and Dominic for St Dominic Savio and St John Houghton (whose feast day he was born on, so that got added in as we couldn’t let that slip for a Houghton baby!).

For middle names we have done a family connected name, but we both come from huge families, with ancestry from all around the world so no shortage of options. Joseph’s grandmother comes from the Cook Islands (hence Tutonga). But there are also Scottish, Irish, Jewish (all old testament prophets), English, Polish, French … in the family. So chances are we find a name and its somewhere in the family tree! Girls we have seem to have gone with more romantic old fashioned names and boys with strong saints.”

I asked Chelsea about Tutonga, as the Cook Islands are completely unfamiliar to me, and I loved her response:

“The Cook Islands are in the middle of the Pacific. My husband’s grandmother was born there, raised in the Rarotonga royal household, but descends from the King of Atiu, an island about an hours flight from Rarotonga (the capital and biggest of the many islands). His grandfather was sent over to Rarotonga in the 1950s as the postmaster, when there weren’t many non-islanders over there, married his grandmother and brought her back to New Zealand and they’ve lived here ever since. My husband and I went over to Rarotonga and Atiu with his grandparents in 2007 for a big family reunion and learnt much of the history of the area and family. Atiu is where he proposed.

Names are passed down or given in their culture. My husband was never given a Cook Island name as a child, and while we were there his grandmother looked for a name for him … He was given the name Tutonga (which we gave to Theodore), who was the scout on the war boats as the Atiuans went from island to island.”

How cool is that? I love learning about new cultures, and learning about them through the lens of names is my favorite.

These are the names/saints Chelsea and Joseph are considering for this baby:

Antonia nicked Annie, for Blessed Antonia Mesina
Chiara, for Chiara Badano
Elodie, for St Alodia (Chelsea loves “french names, but not sure if fits with others or not”)
Marietta

Gabriel
Kolbe (but her hubs doesn’t care for it)

First off, my thoughts about Chelsea and Joseph’s current ideas:

I’d not known about Bl. Antonia Mesina until their email — what a girl! Definitely a great patron, and Annie as a nickname is awesome.

Chiara is one I would have suggested for them if they didn’t already have it on their list, I love her.

I think Elodie’s a great name for this family! It’s French, as is Zelie, and Theodore has some French usage, so I think it fits in fine.

Marietta surprised me! It’s a pretty name, and a pretty rare Marian variant currently, as far as I know — at least here in the U.S. — but not it’s not unknown. It also made me think of Majella — I wonder what they’d think of that? It’s used a decent amount as a girl’s name, after St. Gerard Majella. The pronunciation I believe is most prominent is mah-JEL-la, and it’s an anglicization of the Italian Maiella (my-EL-lah), which is also a really pretty option (though less recognizable as connected to a saint I think?).

I love Gabriel, I think it’s a great fit for this family.

Kolbe is great too, but since Chelsea’s hubs doesn’t care for it, I wonder if they would be interested in Colman? It’s totally different from Kolbe in that it’s not related to St. Maximilian and it’s not a surname, but the Kol- reminded me of Colman, and St. Colman is an Irish saint. Maybe?

I’m always a little less confident when doing a consultation for someone who’s not from America, as I have no idea what’s popular/common/outdated/ugly in New Zealand, for example. Also, I rely pretty heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book for inspiration about what names are similar to others in terms of style/feel/popularity, but it’s all based on American stats. Fortunately though, Catholic saints belong to the whole world! So hopefully these ideas are helpful. I came up with five for each gender (besides Majella and Colman listed above):

Girl

(1) Kateri
I’ll start with the girl name that I think might be least interesting to Chelsea and Joseph, as St. Kateri Tekakwitha is a Native American saint. But it’s one of the first names I thought of for them because here, families who have girls named Zelie and Gianna often have Kateri on their lists. Despite it being a Native American name, I don’t know of any other usage than by Catholics. Additionally, Kateri chose it when she was baptized because it was a variant of Katherine/Catherine and St. Catherine of Siena was her patron. So lots of good stuff going on with the name Kateri! Pronunciation is always an issue — I don’t know if there’s one particular way New Zealanders might say it, but here there are a few different acceptable pronunciations; I wrote about them (and Zelie and Gianna too!) here.

(2) Jacinta
Jacinta also has the same feel to me as Zelie, Gianna, and Kateri — I don’t know many people in English-speaking countries besides Catholics who use it. It’s one of my personal favorites, and my Confirmation name, love it.

(3) Madeleine, or Sophie, or Madeleine Sophie, or Magdalen(e)
Madeline was listed as similar to Dominic in the Baby Name Wizard, as was Sophia, and Sophia was listed as similar to Gabriel as well, all of which made me think of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat. I love both Madeleine and Sophie (I guess she went by Sophie, and her feast day in France is known as St. Sophie’s Day) and could see either/both working for this family. I like that it’s French, but not prohibitively so, if that makes any sense.

Madeleine made me think of Magdalen(e), as all the Madeline/leine names are variants of Magdalene. I think Magdalen(e) comes across as more obviously Catholic than does Madel(e)ine, and it allows for Maggie as a nickname, which is sweet, and reminds me of Chelsea’s idea of Annie for Antonia.

(4) Edith, Teresa, Benedicta
This was mostly inspired by the “relatively recent canonization” theme they have going on. St. Edith Stein is one of my favorites, and Edie is a really sweet nickname. If they didn’t care for Edith/Edie though, her religious name was Teresa Benedicta, so either Teresa or Benedicta would be great as well (and Teresa is also the spelling Mother Teresa used, which is great for a baby who will be born in the year she’s canonized; it’s also the spelling of St. Teresa of Avila. Lots of great Teresas!).

(5) Faustina (Faustine?)
Faustina is also inspired by the “recent canonization” idea. St. Faustina’s given name was actually Mary Faustina, which I also love for this family, especially since they don’t yet have a Marian first name for their girls. Since Chelsea likes French names, maybe they’d like to consider Faustine instead? The family in this post has a Faustine, so lovely!

Boy

(1) Xavier
As soon as I saw Kolbe on Chelsea’s list, I thought of Xavier. It’s a surname, and it’s Catholicky Catholic! Also, as a fun connection, after I’d already scribbled down Xavier as an idea for them, I looked up saints connected to New Zealand and discovered that St. Francis Xavier is its patron saint! I mean, come on. How cool and relevant!

(2) Edmund, Campion
I was particularly interested to find name ideas that went with the style/feel of Theodore, as I thought it struck me as just a little different than the other kids’ names, and I’m not even sure why. Edmund was listed in the BNW as a style match, and I thought it was a great suggestion because of St. Edmund Campion, such a great saint and patron! And he was canonized recently, in 1970.

St. Edmund, and Kolbe from their list, both made me also think of Campion as a first name idea. I’ve seen it used as a first name for boys, in honor of St. Edmund, and I’ve always liked the nickname Cam for a boy.

(3) Sebastian
Sebastian has a really gentlemanly feel to me, which reminds me of Theodore (Grace totally nailed it with naming two of her boys Sebastian and Theodore!), and of course it’s super saintly. The original St. Sebastian is definitely a favorite with the boys I know — they are all delightedly horrified by the images of St. Sebastian pierced by arrows. 😀 But he’s a pretty old saint, so I looked to see if there were any of more recent canonization, and discovered Bl. Sebastian Obeso Alario, beatified by Pope Benedict in 2012 — he was martyred during the Spanish Civil War.

(4) Blaise
St. Blaise is pretty old, but I think it’s a great name for a boy, since it sounds so fiery and speedy. Apparently, it’s also a French name, which I hadn’t realized, though Blaise Pascal makes sense of that. All of which means I had to suggest it, despite it not fitting into the “modern saint (last hundred or two hundred or so years, relatively recent canonisation)” parameters!

(5) Jasper, K/Casper/Caspar, Gaspar
Jasper was a surprise for me — apparently it’s a style match for Theodore and Edmund, which I wouldn’t have thought. I do love it — it’s the name traditionally associated with one of the Three Wise Men. K/Casper/Caspar and Gaspar are variants of it, so sometimes you’ll see those names given as the Wise Man instead of Jasper. Either way, I think they’re all great names! There are some recent Blesseds and Saints Gaspar/Caspar.

And those are all my ideas for Chelsea and Joseph’s littlest one! What do you all think? If any of you are from New Zealand or are familiar with the names in common use there, I’d be particularly interested in knowing if your impressions of the names are different from mine — are there any here that make you say, “Absolutely not!”?

Spotlight on: Judith

sanctanomina Spotlight , , ,

Kerri and skimac both recently asked for a spotlight on Judith, which surprised me at first, and then as I thought about it I got a little excited about it — I’m a big fan of underused or undiscovered biblical names, and while Judith is certainly not undiscovered, I feel like these days it’s definitely underused.

Judith reminds me of Ruth, being biblical and with the -th ending that’s an uncommon ending for a girl’s name, and I’ve been loving Ruth lately, so that association automatically makes me warm to Judith. Kerri called it a “sturdy” name, and I do think it has that feel — it definitely holds up to any variation of the Supreme Court test (i.e., you can definitely picture a woman named Judith as a judge, Judge Judy notwithstanding). (And really, I think Judith is better for a judge than Judy.) (Actually, now that I think about it, and in a weird coincidence, former New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye has been on my mind because she died yesterday, yet I’d scheduled this post for today earlier this week and wasn’t even thinking of her when I started writing this, nor when I mentioned the “Supreme Court test.” She’s actually a great example of what I think of when I think of Judith — she was “the first woman named to the highest court in New York and the first to serve as the state’s chief judge — a job she held longer than any of her 21 male predecessors.” Successful, professional, perhaps a little bit stern.)

Judge Kaye was also Jewish, and I think that’s an association many have with the name Judith as well (in fact, the name’s meaning is given as “a woman from Judea” or “a Jewess”), though it’s certainly not inappropriate for those who are not Jewish — I also know Catholic and non-Catholic Christians named Judith. But the ones I know are grown-up women “of a certain age” — I don’t know any little girls! According to the SSA, it was most popular (in the top 100) from 1934 to 1964, peaking at #4 in 1940, which make it a popularity contemporary of names like Carol and Barbara — both of which we’ve talked about before as perhaps ready for a comeback. (Carol: here and here and here; Barbara: here and read subsequent comments too.) It’s been on a downward trend for years, coming in at #952 in 2014. So it can truly be considered an unusual and fairly rare choice, which is pretty exciting.

The Book of Judith in the Bible provides us with a pretty great role model in Judith — as one of my bibles says in its intro to the Book of Judith:

“The Book of Judith is a vivid story relating how, in a grave crisis, God delivered the Jewish people through the instrumentality of a woman … The beautiful hymn of the people honoring Judith (15, 9-10) is often applied to Mary in the liturgy.”

This is the hymn:

“When they had visited her, all with one accord blessed her, saying:

‘You are the glory of Jerusalem,
the surpassing joy of Israel;
You are the splendid boast of our people.

With your own hand you have done all this;
You have done good to Israel,
and God is pleased with what you have wrought.

May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty forever and ever!’

And all the people answered, ‘Amen!’“

I’m not sure I could go so far as to saying Judith is a Marian name, but the ties of the name Judith to Our Lady as revealed in this passage are beautiful — I could easily see someone choosing Judith as an offbeat homage to Mary.

There are also several Sts. and Blesseds Judith, several European royal women (including an empress and several queen consorts), and another association that I came across recently is that in the Protoevangelium of James, which is not canonical, but is nevertheless considered authoritative enough to give us the names by which we remember and honor Mother Mary’s parents, Judith was given as the name of St. Anne’s maid-servant. How cool!

Behind the Name gives several variants of Judith (Jutta, Judyta, et al.), but you know it’s the nicknames I get most excited by! Judy is super cute, but maybe still feels a little dated? It has its own history as a given name, peaking a few years later than Judith but dropping out of sight quicker, so it might have a little more of a date-stamped feel, but it’s not the only option: Jody/Jodie are possibilities, according to behindthename, which makes me also think of Jo and Josie (especially, maybe, with an S middle name? Judith Siena, for example, could easily be Josie) … or maybe pair it with an N middle name for Junie or Juno? Maybe Judith Noelle? Even Julie for something like Judith Louisa? Am I scaring you yet? Haha!

What do you all think of Judith? Would you consider it for your daughter, or have you? Do you know any little Judiths? Do they go by a nickname, and if so, what? Or older Judiths as well — I’d love to hear of non-Judy nicknames.

Updated to add: Howwww could I forget Jude as a nickname?? The spotlight I did on Jude was really the impetus for this spotlight! Thanks to Mary-Agnes for the reminder! Jude as a nickname definitely modernizes Judith I think, do you agree?