Nicknames

Nicknames: Boethius/Boëthius

sanctanomina Nicknames , , ,

Someone I know was musing about the name Boethius for a boy, and she was trying to think of nicknames besides Bo.

At first I thought it was said “BO-thius,” so Bo seemed like the most natural nickname. I thought perhaps also something like Boze?

Then I saw online that Boethius (aka St. Severinus Boethius) was sometimes spelled Boëthius, and that means the “e” is pronounced, right? I’d verify that except my boys are asking for lunch, so I’m just going with the idea that it’s supposed to be said “bo-EE-thius,” and Bowie immediately came to mind. I also thought something like Boethius David could lead to Bede (I’m always trying to get Bede in there as a nickname! Haha!). Or, maybe something like Boethius Nathaniel for example could be Ben.

Finally, I thought Theo would work, which I thought was really cool.

What about all of you? Can you think of any other possible nicknames for Boethius besides Bo, Boze, Bowie, Bede, Ben, and Theo?

Baby name consultant: Baby Girl B #4

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , ,

Sylvia (middle name Maria) of the blog Tales from the Mommy Trenches and her husband are expecting their fourth baby girl this month! Their last name is one syllable and starts with B, and their other girls are:

Gloria Ruth

Victoria Rose

Elena Wren

So beautiful! All three girls go by their middle names, and Sylvia wrote, “I am Cuban, so we like to have a Spanish/Latin flair in there, along with a Catholic name, of course. The other three are all called by “R” names, but we might need to forego that tradition for this one. Rita is currently my husband’s frontrunner.”

I had such fun coming up with name ideas for this family!

Okay, first off I love the theme of “R” middle names that the girls go by, and I would hate to see them have to move away from it, so the first thing I did was come up with possible R-ish names (you’ll see what I mean about the -ish):

Reina/Reyna — I love this one, as it means queen=Our Lady
Roma — like Rome, where the Pope is!
Ruby — I almost didn’t include this one, because of it’s closeness to Ruth, but I just love it
Risa — I’m a little rusty on my Spanish, but I think this means laughter, right?

Risa inspired Marisa, which I also quite liked as a middle name option — it’s a way of moving away from an R given name (which they’ve already started to do with Wren), but they can still call her Risa.

And Sylvia’s husband’s thought of Rita made me think of Margarita, which would also be a good middle name — a way of moving away from R while still allowing her to go by an R name (Rita). Choosing a middle name like Marisa or Margarita could open up M possibilities if they were to have more children, which would make a really nice seemingly seamless transition from the R middles of now to something different later.

As for first names, I was a little less sure. I love Spanish/Latin-type names, but I’m just not familiar enough with Cuban culture, for example, to know if what I’m suggesting would make someone of Cuban descent wrinkle their nose because it’s only an “old lady name” or a “trashy” name, etc. Do you know what I mean? So I’m sorry if this aren’t on point! But I liked each of them for this family, for the reasons I’ll explain (I usually shoot for three, but I couldn’t narrow it down any further than I did here):

(1) A Marian name
With the baby due in May — Mary’s month! — and Sylvia’s middle name being Maria, it made a lot of sense to me for them to consider a Marian name. I thought maybe Maria as a first name, or Carmela/Carmen, or Lilia. All would be beautiful first names with really nice spiritual and familial significance.

(2) Cristina
Mary- names made me think of Jesus names, and Cristina was one of the first names I saw when I was perusing a list of Latino/Latina names. I love all the Christ- names, and Cristina is particularly lovely to my eye.

(3) Sofia
I have no reason I liked this other than it felt right with the other girls! It is a beautiful name.

(4) A papal name
My favorite ways to name a little girl after one of our recent popes are Francisca or Francesca (for Pope Francis of course!) or Carolina/Karolina (for Pope John Paul II — birth name Karol) — I thought any of those would work nicely for this family. Joanna could also be for JP2, which I also quite like.

(5) Jacinda/Jacinta or Lucia
I was only going to suggest Jacinda or Jacinta here — Jacinta’s one of my very favorite names — and then it made me think of Lucia as well, which is also gorgeous.

(6) Ana
St. Anne is Mary’s mother, and she often pops up in my name thoughts. 🙂 I love Ana, and I thought a short name like it could offset a longer name like Margarita quite nicely if they decided to go that route.

So those are my ideas! What do you all think? Do any of them seem like they might hit the right note? What names would you suggest for Baby Girl B #4?

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

Initials as names

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Nicknames ,

Similar to the “Acronames” post of the other day, I was thinking today about nicknames I like that could conceivably be from initials … specifically I was thinking about Edie, and how much I like Edie, and how it would be really interesting to have Edie be a nickname for Elizabeth Dolores, for example. E.D.=Edie.

One of the commenters on the BNW Acronames post said she knows a little girl named Isabelle Verity who goes by Ivy (from her initials: I.V.). So clever!

I’m particularly interested in initials that sound like a recognized name, and then the nickname is actually spelled like that name, instead of using the initials. Like Edie instead of E.D., Ivy instead of I.V. I tried to think of some others and came up with:

M.E. — Emmy

L.E. — Ellie

S.E. — Essie

F.E. — Effie

J.C. — Jacey

K.C. — Casey

O.D. — Odie

L.C. — Elsie

A.D. — Adie

B.B. — Bebe

D.D. — Didi

C.C. — Cece

G.G. — Gigi

A.V. — Avie

E.V. — Evie

V.V. — Vivi

V.N. — Vienne

D.M. — Diem

D.O. — Deo

G.O. — Geo

T.O. — Teo

V.O. — Vio

I.C. — Icy (haha just kidding!) (unless you love it)

And Amy from the Baby Enloe consultation says she loves that her initials spell her name: A.M.E.

I’d love to see what others you all could come up with! It could be a really fun naming exercise to start with a nickname like this, like Ellie for example, and back into what L.E. combos could work. It just seems to open up a whole lot more options! You could feel free to go a little more nuts with the given names, knowing that an easier nickname is available, or it could make you feel easier about an unfavorite family name you feel bound to use.

Can you think of other examples like this? How about full names for the initials? Do you know anyone who has a name/initials/nickname like this?

Nickname: Gil (a tribute)

sanctanomina Nicknames ,

Did you all see that Jonathan Crombie, the actor who played Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables, died this past week?

My heart breaks to hear this news! He brought Gil to life for me and a million others who love Anne, he was a true heartthrob. ❤

I love the nickname Gil, because of Gilbert Blythe, but Gilbert is not a name I’ve been able to warm up to. I’ve thought many times about ways to get to Gil without using Gilbert. Not so easy! I’ve come up with:

Gabriel

Gamaliel

A hard G name with an L middle name or a middle name that ends in -il, like … Gideon Louis or Gregory Emil or Gallagher Lee. (I’m particularly loving Gideon Louis nicked Gil — I love Gideon, but its lack of natural nicknames is hard!)

(Also Gilroy, but I’m not feeling Gilroy.)

What about all of you? How would you get to Gil, if you didn’t want to use Gilbert? Anyone else devastated by Jonathan Crombie’s death?

Spotlight on: Joachim

sanctanomina Spotlight , , , , , ,

A reader asked me if I would do a spotlight on Joachim, and I’m very happy to do so, because it’s one of my very favorite names in the whole entire world. Yes, it is.

I’ve tried to convince my husband that Joachim is a perfect name for one of our baby boys for years. Years! I just love it — it’s oozing all that Catholic cachet that I love so much and that my other boys have; it’s offbeat and unusual; it’s Mother Mary’s dad for Pete’s sake! And Jesus’ grandfather! It’s also got a pretty pan-European feel, as every European country seems to have a version of it:

joachim - Copy

(From behindthename.com/name/joachim)

Currently there’s Joachim Löw, a “retired German footballer and current manager of the German national football team,” and “retired Irish sportsperson” Joachim Kelly, and Joaquin is probably the most recognizable thanks to actor Joaquin Phoenix …

Joachim is a GREAT name!

But you know why my husband doesn’t like it? Besides the fact that no one ever seems to know how to say it?*

Joakim Noah.

Ask me if I care that there’s an NBA player with the name Joakim? (Answer: not even the tiniest of tiny bits. MAYBE if I was considering “Dennis Rodman” as a first name-middle name combo, but otherwise — no.)

Because of the name’s unusualness in America, “Every guy who watches basketball will think we named our kid after him,” he says. (A decent argument I guess.) Also, given Noah’s African roots (his grandfather was a formal professional footballer from the Republic of Cameroon), he thinks it will seem strange to those who only know the name through Noah that we of northern European descent decided to use it.

Which drives me bananas, because, first of all, I’m pretty sure the reason Noah got his name is because his mom is Swedish! Northern European! She was, in fact, Miss Sweden 1978! Joakim’s even the Scandinavian spelling — and my husband and children are Scandinavian!

As far as I can tell, the only reason the name is unusual in America is because it’s never been common in England. According to behindthename, through St. Joachim’s “popularity in the Middle Ages, the name came into general use in Christian Europe … [but] it was never common in England.” Withycombe concurs: “Joachim is recorded in England from the 13th C, but has never been in general use.” Do you agree that this is likely why it was never common here? Because it was never common in our “parent country”? Every other country — yes. But not here. I think these are great arguments in favor of us using this name — America needs to have more Joachims!

Still he says no — no no no — but when I remind him of the nickname I came up with for it (not Joe, though this would be an amazing way to get to the nickname Joe without using Joseph, if for some reason you couldn’t use Joseph), his face always softens, his mouth invountarily turns up, and he says, “That is a great nickname.”

Aren’t you dying to know?! For a boy named Joachim, I would totally use the nickname … Jake.

Jake! I love love love Jake! My husband does too! We actually considered Jacob for our firstborn, but have since moved into heavy Catholicky Catholic saint territory and Joachim seems a better fit than Jacob. AND if we had a little boy named Joachim and he hated it — he wouldn’t have to ever tell anyone! He could be Jake always!

This is a perfect name for us. I think I’ll be trying to convince my husband of it til the day I die.

Abby at Appellation Mountain has actually mentioned it a bit, including this delicious tidbit:

“Speaking of greatness, the new Danish prince is set to be baptized later today. Dad is Prince Joachim. He has two sons from his first marriage – Nikolai and Felix. The new prince is Joachim’s first with second wife Marie. Royal watchers are betting on Albert for the baby’s name. Tradition dictates that the baby’s name is not revealed ’til the baptism, so we’ll have to wait and see.” (from July 2009) (It seems the baby was named Henrik, and was later joined by sister Athena.)

And she profiled its Spanish form Joaquin (in which she mentioned St. Joachim), and referred to a Swedish hockey player named Joachim (which caused me to jump right over to Google to find out who this was and found that “Swedish hockey player Joachim” yielded Wiki pages for Joachim Nermark, Joachim Rohdin, Joakim Lindström, and Joacim (sic) Eriksson, as well as “NHL players born in Sweden” which included two more, all on the first page of results).

Abby also linked to Roses and Cellar Doors “It’s Big Overseas” post which notes that “there are some name families that aren’t really used in the US at all. Their variants can be found in many other languages, but are practically unheard of in English (sometimes just American English). Weird,” and includes Joachim as one of them.

It causes me pain that this name is not known more here, and used. We know and love St. Anne — whyyy is St. Joachim neglected??

What do you all think of Joachim? Do you like it? Hate it? Find that the ah-MAZing nickname Jake (or the equally friendly and accessible Joe/Joey) makes it seem that much more attractive? Do you know anyone (especially any little ones) with this name? Does he go by the full Joachim or a nickname? What are his siblings named?

______________________________

*We would use the English pronunciation JO-ah-kim, but there are these other possibilities:

joachim - Copy (2)

(From behindthename.com/name/joachim)

(In case you can’t tell, I only recently learned how to do screen grabs, something I’ve wanted to know how to do for ages. I don’t know … are they cool? Are they not? Helpful? Annoying?)

New CatholicMom.com contributor (me!)

sanctanomina CatholicMom.com writer , ,

I’ve been holding onto this exciting news until it was okay to tell you, and today’s the day!! Starting this month, I’ll be writing an article every month for CatholicMom.com, and my first one is up today: Patrick vs. Polycarp!

Photo: Gabriel by JDPotter (2009) via Flickr
Screen grab from CatholicMom.com; photo: Gabriel by JDPotter (2009) via Flickr

Some of you may recognize some of the content, as I drew from and combined a couple different posts I did a few months ago in putting the piece together. Please click on over to CatholicMom.com — I’d love to hear your thoughts on the questions I posed!

Little Miss SHAN-ick!

sanctanomina Update , , , ,

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

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

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

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

THANK YOU again! Your help was really wonderful.”

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

Baby name consultant: Camp Patton’s newest camper

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

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

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

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

Julia Grace

Sebastian Xavier nicknamed Bash

Theodore Augustine nicknamed Theo

Phoebe Annika

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

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

Girls

(1) Nickname: Lola

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

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

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

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

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

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

(2) Elisabeth

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

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

(3) Felicity or Stella

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

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

Boys

(1) Maximilian nicknamed Miles

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

(2) Francis nicknamed Finn

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

(3) Gregory nicknamed Rory or Gus

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

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

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

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

Baby name consultant: Nicknames for Carmela

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Nicknames , , ,

A reader, whose baby girl is named Carmela, wrote asking for help coming up with good nickname options. She didn’t care for Ella or Carmen, and was stumped as to what other options there could be. I thought I could come up with some good possibilities, and this is what I ended up with:

My first thought was Carmie. I actually know one, and her given name is Carmela.

Another thought is Cara (said like “car” … or I guess you could change the pronunciation to “care” for the nickname if you wanted), which is nice because I believe it’s Italian for “dear/beloved.”

Or Caro (a traditional nickname for Caroline).

Or maybe Melly a la Melly (Melanie) Wilkes in Gone With the Wind, or just Mela (like Ella but not).

Or:

Cammie

Callie

Carly

Carrie/Cari

The middle initial could also help — if Carmela’s middle initial is S, maybe Cassie? If a T, maybe Cat? If a D, maybe Caddy?

What do you all think? Do you know anyone named Carmela, and if so does she go by a nickname? Do you have any other ideas besides the ones I listed here?

Spotlight: Xavier

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Spotlight , , , ,

I started this post back in September, but was a bit overwhelmed by the depths of my emotion while writing it that I kept putting off finishing it, and putting it off and putting it off …

But I’m feeling energetic today, and I’ve got the Journey channel playing on Pandora, and I’m giving my older five haircuts, which is always a task that I sort of dread (even though I’m always happy at the outcome, and oh my are they looking shaggy right now), so I’m happy to have an interesting something to do in between shearings (they go right in the tub after, so I have a few minutes between each while I’m just letting them soak. So this post is an all-morning endeavor).

So: Xavier. Awesome awesome name. There is no cooler first initial than X, first of all, and St. Francis Xavier is just an amazing patron saint (side note: do you know the CCC saint movies? My boys love the Francis Xavier one — there’s fighting and swords and samurais and it just cannot get any better for a boy). It’s a bit trendy right now, but who cares when it’s got such deep Catholicky Catholic roots?! Also: trendy saint name=evangelization! Woo!

Xavier’s got great nicknames too — X, Xave, Xavey. There’s a little Xavier in my life who started out going mostly by Xavey but has recently declared that he prefers Xave. (He’s five.)

I know you’re wondering, so what’s the big deal? What’s with the “depths of emotion” that I mentioned in the beginning? Why on earth did I put off finishing this post for six long months?

One word: PRONUNCIATION.

Ohmyword, the conversations about the “proper” or “correct” or “only right” pronunciation of Xavier hit my very last name nerve.

This is the deal, this is *the only* thing anyone needs to know about the proper pronunciation of Xavier: There are more than one. Period the end.

Please don’t anyone feel offended if you believe there is only one right way to say it — I’m very sorry if I’m coming across too strong. I used to feel as you did, before I read (and read and read and read) America’s opinions about the pronunciation of Xavier.

For you linguist-types (which I’d like to include myself in, but I think a real linguist would laugh at me) I can give what I think is a pretty decent academic argument in favor of my position that both the ex-ZAY-vyer and ZAY-vyer pronunciations are valid.

Okay, to start: Yes, in American English, the basic rule is:

1. If the /X/ is between a vowel and consonant sound then it is usually pronounced as /KS/

2. If the /X/ is between two vowel sounds then it is usually pronounced as /GZ/

Of course, there is always an exception to every pronunciation rule in English.  If the letter X is at the beginning of a word, then it is sometimes pronounced Z.

Do note that “usually” and “sometimes” are used throughout that quote, and not once does it say “always” or “never”; this tells more about the exceptions to the “rule.”

Then there’s this:

“Xylophone is from the Greek xylon, which is … pronounced with an initial [ks]. Many words borrowed from Greek via French developed a [gz] pronunciation along the way, which was reduced to [z] word-initially when adopted into English.”

and

“English, like some other languages, systematically reduces certain consonant clusters; but it has a conservative spelling system (which incidentally often reminds us where a word comes from).

The clusters we reduce are mostly in borrowings from other languages: particularly initial clusters /ks/ (‘x’), /pt/, /pn/ which are generally from Greek, but also for example /hr/ (and in fact /h/ anywhere but initial) as in “Tahrir square”.

This reduction happens in some native words as well: initial /kn/ as in ‘knave’ is pronounced /n/ in modern English, though the related word ‘Knabe’ in German still has the /k/ pronounced; and words like ‘night’, old English ‘niht’ (with the /h/ pronounced), cf German ‘Nacht’.”

Which I quite like, both because I’ve always wondered how it was that Xavier-pronounced-ex escaped the basic American English rule that x- words are pronounced with a z, and because it points out the “ks” idea, which I think is the key.

Here’s my hypothesis: What people variously call the ex-ZAY-vyer or eggs-AY-vyer or ig-ZAY-vyer pronunciation is really the evolution of an original ks-AY-vyer pronunciation. It’s pointed out in the Greek example above, and I was reading the other day a book called Polish First Names by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab and Ksawery is the Polish version of Xavier. There’s that Ks-!

But so many seem SO RELUCTANT to admit that both pronunciations are valid! And it doesn’t seem academic — it seems personal, empirical, subjective. Despite the fact that any name source that provides pronunciations always provides both (behindthename, babynamewizard, and nameberry are three examples [although Nameberry’s entry also includes this annoying and incorrect tidbit: “Note that though that the initial ‘x’ does have a distinct appeal, the correct pronunciation has it beginning with a ‘z’ sound”), people still insist that only one or the other is the *only* correct one (usually the ZAY-vyer pronunciation), usually based on their own experiences.

In my experience, ex-ZAY-vyer was the only pronunciation I knew, and I therefore thought it was the only one and certainly the correct one. As I learned more, I suspected it might be that the ex-ZAY-vyer pronunciation was more common in Catholic circles; even the Baby Name Wizard book had in its first edition that ex-ZAY-vyer was the “Catholic and X-men” pronunciation.

But then as I learned more, I discovered that that wasn’t watertight either — and even the BNW book, in its most recent edition, changed it to ex-ZAY-vyer being only the X-men pronunciation.

This discussion thread and this one too on the BNW forums suggested variations in pronunciation might be regional (and some also pointed to the idea of ex- being a Catholic pronunciation), but there were some commenters whose location and Catholicism seemed to dispute that. In fact, some of them pointed to the (Catholic) Xavier Universities as the benchmark for how to say the name … with a z:

“the press in towns around the American Xavier Universities (one in Ohio, one in Louisiana) enjoy making fun of non-locals who do the “egg” pronunciation, even writing that when they quote the people, like during NCAA basketball tournaments, a time when these Catholic schools are more likely to be in the national spotlight”

and

“I spent 25 years in New Orleans, and I dare say the universities know how to pronounce their names“

But then this, in the same thread, seemed much more balanced:

“I’ve heard the Xavier University argument before, but I don’t find it convincing as far as what the English pronunciation of Xavier is *supposed* to be — all it says to me is the two universities chose ZAY-vyer as their pronunciation so yes, anyone who calls them ex-ZAY-vyer University would be incorrect, because that’s not their chosen pronunciation. I know other Catholic entities named after the saint that pronounce it ex-ZAY-vyer.”

I recently heard someone refer to the ex- pronunciation as an Americization (?) (by which she meant “incorrect”) of the proper pronunciation. A commenter on one of the threads linked to above said this:

“This issue is SOLELY an anglophone problem for this Basque-origin name. Other languages, such as French and Spanish, have clear, single ways of pronouncing the name. And none of them try and and say “X,” whether that means “eks,” “eeks,” or “equis.” It’s solely from the British English and their anglicization of a foreign name, not part of the name’s origins. As I always tell people, you don’t pronounce “eks” to start xylophone, Xerxes, Xena, Xanadu, or Xanax, either.”

which sounds very fancy and educated, but she’s incorrect in that (1) I’ve already shown that both Greek and Polish say “ks” when beginning at least some x- words/names, which is what I argue the ex- pronunciation is really doing, and (2) while the examples she offers of various x- words and X- names are ones that are only said with a z sound, she didn’t include yet another exception to the “rule,” which bolsters my argument: Xenia.

Are any of you familiar with the name Xenia? It’s Greek, and also used in Poland and Russia, and while the ZEE-nyah pronunciation is used, it seems the ks-AYN-yah pronunciation is more prevalent. It’s even spelled Ksenia sometimes. (Also, how fun to know that several Sts. Xenia are revered in the Orthodox Church!) The BNW book includes it as an entry, so it must be used *enough* in the U.S., and yet there was no discussion of the “proper” pronunciation beginning with z, or that the ks pronunciation is wrong.

So what does this all boil down to? Both pronunciations are fine and acceptable. ex-ZAY-vyer is not incorrect, though I might be more inclined to call it the k-SAY-vyer pronunciation. I will absolutely support your right to pronounce your child’s name any way you wish (since, when it comes to proper names, no one has the market on the “correct” pronunciation, so say the Sisters that taught my mom) — but I will also argue tooth-and-nail with you if you try to tell me that the ex/ks pronunciation is wrong.

There. Glad to have that sorted.

I did try to come up with a list of names that are pronounced in such a way that don’t follow American English pronunciation “rules” and thought of Thomas (the Th pronounced T) and Camille (the i pronounced ee) and Padraig (no one bats an eye at saying PAW-drig instead of PAD-rig) and Siobhan (not easy for a lot of people to remember how to say, but I don’t hear anyone saying shi-VAUN is wrong) and Nathalie (the French spelling but as far as I know no one fusses and insists on saying the th as th rather than T like Thomas), also Rene(e) and Desiree …

One last thought: I saw someone online say once that the disagreement over the pronunciation of Xavier was enough to make her not want to even consider using it for her son. PLEASE do not let that be your takeaway from this post. It’s an AMAZING name with an amazing patron  saint. All that’s required when people wonder about the pronunciation or say your version is wrong is to state simply which pronunciation you use and that both are considered acceptable, just as you would if you named your daughter Lucia or Lara or Corinne. If they tell you you’re wrong, send them this link.

What do you think of all this? Have I lost any readers over my strong opinion that both pronunciations of Xavier are valid? Can you think of other proper names, used here in America, whose pronunciations don’t follow the “rules” and yet they’re accepted as fine?