Nicknames

Baby name consultation: “Light,” “mercy” good meanings for baby no. 5, plus some other rules

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Happy New Year!! I hope you all saw my Year In Review post yesterday — so many thanks to all of you for a wonderful 2017!!

Erin and her husband are expecting their fifth baby — a little green bean! This little one joins big sibs:

Caleb Michael
David Joseph
Isaac Matthew
Lucilia Faustina

I really love these names! Old Testament names are some of my favorites, and brothers Caleb, David, and Isaac are just so pleasing! As for Lucilia — how pretty! How unusual! So unusual, in fact, that I’ve never heard it before!

Erin writes,

“Names we have considered for this baby:
Eloise or Eloisa Josephine, Magdalene/Magdalena– We like Eloise right now but I’m starting to have second thoughts. Not really sure why. Maybe not girly enough? My husband likes Josephine because he wants to honor his sisters Jean and Steph and he thinks this name works. And I’m not opposed to it.

Jude, Francis, Blaise (Probably leaning towards Francis for middle name). We love the name Jude. However, I don’t like its only one syllable. I would prefer 2 or more for a first name. We both like Blaise but it feels a little too unique for us.

Names on our no list:
Margaret, James, Theresa, Rosemary, no direct family names (Francis is ok), Sara, Jenna, Alicia, Alana, Louisa (we think its too close to Lucy), Heather, Paula, Dianna

People to honor:
Girls maybe a something honoring both Ellen and Evelyn without using either name or Jean and Steph again without using their actual name. I also am growing closer to St. Therese but my husband works with many Terry’s so he says that is out as a possibility.

Any saints or biblical characters. I am particularly connected with Light in particular. I love to say let your light shine or be the light as it means a lot to me. Which is why we decided on Lucilia (Loo-seal-ya). We didn’t like Lucille because it seemed too old and not feminine enough. Also strong devotion to Divine Mercy.

Requirements: Prefer 2 or more syllables (more than 4 letters). Girl I want something very feminine. Either ending in -a, -lyn- ette preferred. I think.
Saint or bible related. We like vintage names. Unique but not too bold. We like Ignatius and Blaise but we are afraid they are too bold. Oh and pronounciation can’t be too difficult. My husband wants Blaise to be pronounced Blay-ce not Blaze. Oh and nicknames. We are big on nicknames. We have Ca, D, Ike/Ikie, and Lu or Lulu. So preferrably names that we can shorten the beginning of to have a nickname. (This is our issue with Magdalene because although tons of nickname possibilities we’d probably end up nicknaming Mags and I don’t like Maggie/Mag etc) We are leaning towards Josephine for girl middle name and Francis for a boy.

Family names:
Evelyn Gerada
David Lee
James
Jerry/Gerald
Scott Michael
Andy Thomas
Chad Garette
Valerie Nicole
MaryAnn Elizabeth
Lyle Francis
Pam
Jennifer
Steve
Ellen Jean
Michael Ralph
Jean Elizabeth
Stephanie Ann
Nataniel/Nat
Noah
Jenny
Grayson
Olivia
Owen
Zach
Tyler
Dennis
Molly
Brian
Amy
Ava
Maxwell
Adam
Lauren“

I had fun working on this! Eloise, Eloisa, Magdalene, and Magdalena are all lovely. I’m also really interested in Josephine to honor Jean and Steph! That’s pretty clever! Because they used Joseph for David’s middle name, I thought I’d give some thought to some other possibilities to honor Jean and Steph (I assume Steph is Stephanie?), and came up with Jeanie (the “anie” from Stephanie), Phoebe (a stretch, visually, but I thought it could be for the “ph” in Steph plus the long E sound in Jean plus and ending all her own, resulting in a biblical name), and Fiona (similar to Phoebe with the “ph” sound from Steph and the long E sound from Jean; Fiona was a style match for Jude, which is what put it on my radar. But it’s not a saint’s name as far as I know). But I love Josephine too.

Ooh wait a minute, maybe Photine/Photini could be perfect! It’s the name traditionally given to the Samaritan woman (John 4:7), it means “light” (!!), and the “Ph” could be for Steph and the “ine/ini” (which I believe is said “eenie” in Greek) could be for Jean because of the long E? I know it’s unusual, but in the middle name spot anything goes!

Jude, Francis, and Blaise are great names for boys too! Regarding Jude being only one syllable, I had two ideas. One is that I’ve seen Jude used as a nickname for Julian, so that’s a possibility; the other is to use Judah, which is a great style match for Caleb, David, and Isaac. Or, I wonder what they would think of switching Jude to a girl and using it as a nickname for Judith?

Also, I know Erin said she prefers names with more than four letters, but since Blaise is only one syllable, I wonder what they’d think of Boaz? Blaise and Boaz are kind of similar in that they start with B and end with the Z sound (I do think Erin’s husband’s preference for “blayce” is an uphill battle, and I love the “blaze” pronunciation for them anyway because of the light connection!), and Boaz is Old Testament like their other boys. It was high on my list of suggestions for Erin and her hubs until I remembered they don’t want four-letter names! Also, Lucilia was given to only 11 girls in 2016, while Blaise was given to 236 boys and it was in the top 1000 (no. 903), so it’s definitely not too unique for them! AND — I was just researching St. Therese a little, specifically because Erin said she’s growing closer to her, and I discovered that she was born on Rue Saint-Blaise! Wow! That could be a really neat way to nod to St. Therese with a boy’s name!

I also really tried to think of a good way to honor Ellen and Evelyn — I kept feeling like the perfect answer was within reach, I just hadn’t found it yet, but I never did end up feeling like I’d found it. For what it’s worth, the ones I scribbled down were Evangeline, Elena, and Avila.

As for St. Therese, I was immediately like, “Tess is the perfect answer!” and then I remembered again the four letter thing. But a few thoughts here: One is, it’s strange to me that Terry would turn Erin’s husband off of Therese — these days, I’d be shocked if anyone defaulted to Terry upon meeting a Therese. Terry’s definitely a nickname of the past, and I don’t believe it’s ready for revival just yet — I think it still feels pretty dated to most of today’s parents. Today’s Therese/Teresa nickname is Tess, which would be so great for this family! Secondly, if Erin’s husband just won’t go for Therese but they like the Tess idea, maybe they could do something like Marie-Tess? Marie is actually Erin’s middle name, so it would be a really nice nod to her, and also — St. Therese was Marie-Therese! Thirdly, what about Tessa as a given name? It’s such a sweet name, it’s more than one syllable and more than four letters; this post gives a lot more great info.

Regarding nicknames for Magdalene/a, I do get it that if they prefer to just use the beginning sound of a name as a nickname and they don’t like Mags/Maggie, then Magdalene/a would be difficult for them. But there are other nicknames they could consider, like Mae, Maddie, Magda, or Lena (though that’s using the end of the name, which I’m guessing they don’t want to do). Or maybe Meg? Maybe it’s different enough from Mag that Erin and her hubs would be okay with it? If Margaret can be Meg, than I think Magdalene could too.

Okay! On to my suggestions! You all know that I always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. I did so for this family, looking up Caleb, David, Isaac, Lucia and Lucy as stand-ins for Lucilia (I thought the matches for Lucy and Lucia seemed closer to what I perceive their style to be than the matches for Lucille), Eloise, Jude, Francis, and Blaise, and since Magdalene/a doesn’t have its own entry, I looked it up in the Name Matchmaker. Based on the results of all that, and my own ideas, these are my ideas:

Girl
(1) Clara, Claret (Clarette? Clairvaux?)
When I read Erin’s email and saw that she has a connection with light, I immediately thought of the Clare family of names. Clare comes from the Latin for “clear, bright,” which, while not exactly “light,” is close enough! In fact, this mama named her daughter Claire (the French spelling) because of its connection to light. Because Erin doesn’t care for one-syllable names, I thought Clara was an easy fix. If they wanted to be a bit more unusual, I also thought of Claret, as in St. Anthony Mary Claret, which made me think of Clarette, which I think I like even better for this family. It has the -ette ending Erin said she might like. Or Clairvaux! We see it a bit here on the blog (Lindsay’s girl and Amy’s girl), and I wasn’t sure if it had the “light, bright” meaning, but the Wiki entry for Clairvaux Abbey in France said its Latin name is Clara Vallis, which translates as “clear valley,” so I do think the Clair part is synonymous with the Clare family of names. Clare and Clair(e) are easy nicknames for Claret(te) and Clairvaux, like their other kids’ nicknames.

(2) Clementine
I had scribbled Clementine down for Erin before I did any research, because of her love of Divine Mercy. “Clement” means “merciful,” and Clementine is a style match for both Eloise and Magdalene! Clem and Clemmie are cute nicknames too.

(3) Mercy, Mercedes
These were also inspired by Erin’s devotion to the Divine Mercy. During the Jubilee Year of Mercy, I saw both of these names considered by families, and I think they could both be beautiful for this family! And in fact, Mercedes is a style match for Magdalena.

(4) Faith
Mercy made me think of other virtue-type names, especially those with a Puritan-type feel, as I think the Old Testament names of their boys fit in well with that style and I could see Lucilia doing so as well. Faith is actually a style match for Caleb, so I thought it needed a spot on this list! (And this just made me think of an addition to the Clara entry above: Clarity!)

(5) Estelle, Estella
Estelle is a match for Magdalene and Estella for one of Eloise’s matches, and since it means “star,” I thought it was a nice tie-in to Erin’s love of light-meaning names. It can also be Marian, for Our Lady Star of the Sea!

Boy
(1) Gabriel
Erin’s due in March, so I love the idea of Gabriel for this baby because the feast of the Annunciation is March 25! Gabriel’s also a style match for Caleb and Isaac, and he’s mentioned in both the Old Testament (Daniel 8:16) and the New (Luke), so it would be a good pick if they didn’t want to feel locked in to Old Testament boy names going forward.

(2) John Paul (John-Paul, JohnPaul, Johnpaul)
John Paul is inspired mostly by Erin’s devotion to Divine Mercy — I went to a Catholic Women’s conference in October, and Fr. Gaitley was the keynote speaker (the 33 Days to Morning Glory guy), and he spoke all about how amazing Poland is in salvation history, and of course St. John Paul the Great is one of the reasons. He spoke about how, when JP2 was cardinal, he worked on getting a better translation of St. Faustina’s Diary (because the previous one was full of translational errors that caused it to be temporarily banned by the Vatican). Then of course he canonized St. Faustina, and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday, even dying the evening before it, after the Vigil Mass was celebrated. He is a huge Divine Mercy guy! And the fact that his papal name involves two biblical boy names, and that each one on its own would break Erin’s rules but together they’re okay, is pretty amazing.

(3) Jonas, Jonah
Jonas is simply the Greek form of Jonah, and it was listed as a style match for both Caleb and Lucia (standing in for Lucilia), so I definitely had to include it! I like what the BNW has to say about it: “Jonah is the form of this name that you’ll hear most often today, but the Greek Jonas has historically been the preferred English version. That gives Jonas a double punch: it’s less common and has a throwback pioneer style.” Although, I think Jonah Francis sounds better than Jonas Francis.

(4) Tobias, Tobiah, Tobit
Like Caleb and Isaac, Tobias has a heavy Old Testament feel (David has been so historically popular that I feel like it doesn’t come across as super biblical to many people), and like Jonas/Jonah, Tobias is the Greek form of Tobiah. I love that Tobias/Tobiah is a character in the Book of Tobit, which was removed from Protestant bibles after the Reformation, so it’s a rare bird: heavy-duty Old Testament as well as (within Christian circles) sort of specifically Catholic. I also like the name Tobit itself. Tobiah Francis and Tobit Francis both flow well.

(5) Abram, Abel
This last idea is mostly inspired by the nickname Abe, which I think is one of the best. I considered suggesting Abraham, but I like the shorter Abram better with Caleb, David, and Isaac — especially with Isaac. Or maybe Abram is even too much as a brother to Isaac? If so, I wonder what they would think of Abel? But it’s four letters! Gah! Maybe Abram *is* the better option?

And those are all my ideas for Erin and her husband! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Caleb, David, Isaac, and Lucilia?

Birth announcement: Oscar Xavier!

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I posted a consultation for Lisa and her husband just a week before Christmas, and Lisa let me know her little guy has arrived and been given the awesome name … Oscar Xavier!

Lisa writes,

“We’re happy to announce the early and unexpected arrival of our little babe, Oscar Xavier, born 12/20 at 36w5d. Our little Ox wasn’t doing so well, so it was time to meet him. As we prayed for his safety and health, we realized we needed some strong intercessions. Upon seeing his face, he was most certainly an Oscar. It took us a bit to decide on a middle name, but found Xavier was the perfect fit. He has some very active saints (and soon-to-be saints) in his corner, and we’re sure God has big plans for our little Ox.”

Ox! I love it! 😍😍😍 Not only does this little guy have Bl. Oscar Romero and St. Francis Xavier watching out for him, but Ox reminded me right away of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was called The Dumb Ox by his classmates — I feel like it’s come to feel affectionate to the Dominicans (if you google “the dumb ox,” you get some pretty amazing results!). So this baby boy is SET!

Congratulations to Lisa and her husband and big sibs Eliette, Margot, and Quentin, and happy birthday Baby Oscar!!

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Oscar Xavier

Baby name consultation: Help needed to continue the French+family theme

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Lisa and her husband are expecting their fourth baby — and second boy! Little Mister joins big sibs:

Eliette Clare nn Elie or E Clare (“after my French maternal grandmother Eliette, and Clare because my husband proposed on St. Clare’s feast day“)

Margot Kateri nn Maggie (“after my husband’s paternal grandmother and St. Kateri“)

Quentin Louis nn Q (“for the “fifth” member of our family, and Louis for my husband’s maternal grandfather and St. Louis de Monfort“)

I LOVE THESE NAMES! How pretty is Eliette?? The boy name Elliott has been getting some recent play for girls, but Eliette is so lovely and feminine! And the fact that it’s Lisa’s grandmother’s name is amazing! I had to look it up to see what its derivation is, and behindthename has it basically as a feminization of Elijah (which Elliott is derived from as well) — SO cool! Eliette has officially become one of my new favorite names!

Margot Kateri and Quentin Louis are also both amazing! Lisa and her hubby did an amazing job!

Lisa writes,

“We’ve tried to include names honoring our family and/or saints. We tend towards a French theme (my French grandmother was the matriarch of my maternal family until her passing). We also like unique names, and with this one, I’m all about fun nicknames. But, with this babe, we’ve struggled finding a name that grabs us. We were trying to find a family name on my dad’s side, but there aren’t any that we like. We’re at such a loss for a name this time, we’re willing to break from our French/family theme.”

Names they’re considering for this baby include:

Oscar (“hat tip to Bl. Oscar Romero”)
Samuel
Simeon
Henry
Milo (“likely as a middle name; I adore this name, after seeing one of your consultations, plus it was the name of one of my husband’s favorite bands. The huz isn’t sure we can pull it off as a first name“)
Xavier
Sebastian (“as a middle name, it sounds too heavy as a first name with our last name“)
Becket (“as a middle name, too similar to Bennett [see below] for a first name“)

Names that they can’t use include:

Bennett
Lucas
Anthony
Alexander
Declan
Paul
John
Phillip
Christopher
Dennis
Max
Wendell
Brannon
Isaac
Charles
Jude
Matthew
Raymond
Richard

And names they don’t like or don’t agree on include:

Bruno (“husband likes, but I don’t“)
Bernard (“husband likes, but I don’t“)
Dominic (“I like but my husband doesn’t“)
Jasper (“I like but my husband doesn’t“)
James, Gregory, Gilbert (“my paternal family names, but we’re not fans“)
Ian
Brian/Ryan
Stephen
Blaise
Francis
Martin
Peter
Thomas
Edward
Oliver
Daniel
David
Jack

Alrighty, so not only do I love all the names they’ve given to their older kiddos, but I love all the names on their list too. Oscar, Samuel, Simeon, Henry, Milo, Xavier, Sebastian, and Becket have each been on my own list at one time or another. I’m surprised that Lisa’s husband isn’t sure they can pull off Milo as a first name? I’m trying to figure out why, and I can’t! It’s been in the top 1000 almost every year since 1900, and is currently at no. 248 — a really great place to be in that it’s familiar but not overly common. Even then, it’s currently more popular than all of their other kiddos’ names: Eliette has never been in the top 1000, Margot is no. 433, and Quentin is no. 486. Popularity-wise, Milo is one of the best fits of all those on their list. Henry, Samuel, and Sebastian are top 25 names (though I think Sebastian specifically — maybe with the French spelling Sebastien? — would be great for them). Oscar’s a bit more popular than Milo, Xavier’s top 100, and Simeon and Becket aren’t in the top 1000. Not that any of this matters — if they like/don’t like a name, then they like/don’t like a name — but I often find it’s helpful to see where in the U.S. naming landscape the names parents are considering land, and also how they match up to the names they’ve already chosen.

Also, you all know that I always use the Baby Name Wizard when doing consultations as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity; for Lisa and her hubs I also used the Name Matchmaker, and interestingly, Milo kept showing up as a style match for them! Not that I’m pushing Milo on them at all, I just want to reassure them that, as far as I can see, there isn’t any reason they can’t pull it off.

I was interested by their list of names they don’t like or don’t agree on —
Dominic and Blaise specifically were names I had on my final list of suggestions for them until I double checked it against Lisa’s email. Dominic because it’s a style match for them per my research and because they could use the nickname Nico, which I thought might fit their openness to fun nicknames for this baby; Blaise because it’s also a match for their style and it’s specifically French. But again, if Lisa and/or her husband don’t like them, they don’t like them! I was surprised by Bruno and Bernard on Mister’s list — those are some pretty old school names! I did try to take that sensibility into account when coming up with ideas, as well as Lisa’s taste of course.

I’m also sorry that their family names are problematic for them! Of James, Gregory, and Gilbert, I think James is the easiest one to figure out an acceptable way to use. Jacob is the Hebrew variant of James, and names like Jacoby and Jacobson could also be cool ways to work that in in a way they might like. Diego is a Spanish form of James, which actually showed up a lot in my research! I could see it being too much for a first name, but maybe as a middle? Jameson/Jamison, Jamie, Iago, and Seamus are all James variants as well, but I thought for Lisa and Paul the French variant would be best: Jacques. You can say it like ZHOCK, which is the authentic French pronunciation, but I’ve seen it said like JACKS and JAKES by Americans who have it as a surname. I probably wouldn’t recommend Jacques as a first name to them, but putting it in the middle would satisfy their desire for family + French names, and might hopefully also circumvent whatever it is about James that they don’t care for.

The only suggestion I have for Gregory is Gregor, which isn’t that different but is maybe different enough? (If they thought they might have more children in the future, Greer is a feminine variant of Gregory that I love, that I could see fitting in with their kiddos’ names!) And re: Gilbert, I love the nickname Gil, and I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time over the years figuring out ways (besides Gilbert) of getting to Gil. If Lisa and her hubs like that idea (they seem to be open to crazy suggestions, which is fun for me!), my two main ideas are Gabriel with the nickname Gil, and Gideon + a middle name with a heavy L sound to lead to the nickname Gil. (Gilead also works, but I’m not sure that’s their style.) Both Gabriel and Gideon showed up in my research as matches for this family, but not as much as the names I’ve included on my final list below, so I’m happy to mention them here as possibilities. I especially like Gideon for them — maybe Gideon Samuel would make sense of Gil as a nickname? I like Milo too much as a first name idea for them to suggest Gideon Milo, though that could work too. Gideon Luke? Gideon Leo? This is assuming of course that the nickname Gil would be sufficient as a nod to their family member Gilbert …

Alright, based on all my research and my own namey mind, these are my ideas for Lisa and her hubs’ little guy:

(1) Tristan
I love Tristan for them! It’s actually an Old French name, and when I saw it in my research for them, I knew I had to include it. I’ve actually been loving it recently as a nod to Our Lady of Sorrows, since Tristan has a connection to the Latin for “sad.” That might not sound like a great meaning for a little guy, but Dolores is from the Spanish for Our Lady of Sorrows, so the idea is quite traditional. And Tristan is just such a cool name! I was trying to think of cool nicknames for it (Tris isn’t great, since there’s that girl character in Divergent named Beatrice/Tris), and I just recently got an email from a mama who wanted to share with me that one of her favorite names, which had been vetoed by her husband, was Tristan Peter, and that she’d intended the nickname Tripp! She loved it so much that she wanted me to know about it specifically so I could pass it on to any other family that might love the idea. So funny that I was in the middle of working on this for Lisa and already had Tristan on my list! Tripp is often used as a nickname for a Third (James III, that kind of thing), and I know another Third who has only ever been known as Tripper, which is also super cute. Since Lisa and her hubs used Quentin for the “fifth” member of their family, I thought they could think of Trip(per) as perfect for the “third” boy in their family! (Husband, Quentin, and new baby.) Any middle name with a strong P could work: Tristan Patrick, Tristan Jasper, Tristan Rupert.

(2) Tobias
Continuing with the T names, I really like Tobias for them as well. It doesn’t seem to have much French usage unfortunately, according to behindthename, but it was a style match for them nonetheless. I love that it comes from the book of Tobit in the bible, which isn’t included in Protestant bibles, so it has a little extra Catholic cred I think.

(3) Porter
Porter’s a name that I’ve never given much thought to until recently — our newly blessed Solanus Casey was a porter (the doorman at his monastery), and I suggested it here as a possibility for honoring him, so when I saw it in my research as a style match for this family, I was happy to include it! I looked it up on behindthename.com to find out more about it, and get this: it’s “ultimately from Old French porte ‘door’”!

(4) Roman, Remy
I love the name Roman, and I love it for this family. The French variant Romain is cool too, if they prefer. Cate Blanchett has a Roman, and so does blogger Kate Rhodes, both of whom are great examples of great naming. Roman also made me think of the name/nickname Remy, which I thought could be great for them too. Remy is a great French name! Such a cool name for a little guy! It’s a variant of Remigius, which is the name of several saints. One caveat is that I’ve seen some girls named Remy, but the Social Security stats show it’s almost twice as popular for boys as it is for girls.

remy

I recommended it to this family, who seems like they might have some overlap with Lisa and her hubs style-wise, and this family has a Remy, and Lisa might also like their style.

(5) Damien
Damian and Damien are both good matches for this family, but I love the French Damien for them, and also because it’s the spelling of St. Damien of Molokai, who’s awesome.

(6) Felix
Felix is a cool, saintly name that’s been getting increased usage among Catholic families recently (here and here, for two examples), and it’s a French name! I love the story of Felix and Elisabeth Leseur, and there are a bunch of Sts. Felix, including popes!

(7) Rocco
Finally, Rocco is a great connection between Lisa’s husband’s Bruno and Lisa’s Dominic, as it’s a style match for them both. There’s a St. Rocco who was a Frenchman — he’s also known as Roch and Rock — so that provides a cool connection for them and some fun nicknames.

And those are all my ideas for Lisa and her husband! What do all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother of Eliette, Margot, and Quentin?

Birth announcement: Matthias Victor

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I did a spotlight on Matthias back in the spring for a reader who’d requested it, and lo and behold the reader has let me know that she’s given birth to a little boy and given him the fantastic combo … Matthias Victor!

Laura writes,

“I just wanted to let you know I had my baby about a month ago. Thanks again for doing the Matthias name spotlight. We did in fact name him Matthias … Matthias Victor. He is a very sweet baby and we are all doing well.”

When I asked her if I could post a birth announcement, she provided this additional information:

“My children’s names are as follows:

Jude Thaddeus
Augustine Thomas (nn Augie)
Matthias Victor

Andrew and I have dubbed our naming-style as “old school Catholic”. We love the meanings behind our children’s names as we feel they proclaim that this child belongs in our family. So far, with each of our boys, we have been able to honor a family patriarch and an apostle. This pattern might be hard to maintain in the future if we keep having boys, but it has worked for us so far.

Jude Thaddeus – My husband, Andrew Thad, was named after his grandfather Thaddeus. We like that Jude is named after the apostle, but also after his father and great-grandfather. We don’t know any other Jude’s in our circle, but we definitely feel the name is due for a comeback.

Augustine Thomas – Our second boy was named after my grandfather August who went by Augie. We modified it to Augustine to honor St. Augustine of Hippo and we chose Thomas after the apostle. We also love that Augie’s initials match my husband’s initials. Like Jude, Augie is named both after his father, an apostle, and a great-grandfather.

Matthias Victor – We chose Matthias (pronounced ma-THIGH-us) because we simply loved this apostolic name, but as it happens, it was first brought to my notice because “Mathias” is an ancestral name on my side. We ultimately chose to spell his name with two t’s as we felt this was the more common spelling that is seen in terms of our Catholic faith. Victor was chosen to honor my grandfather, Victor, but it is also my father’s middle name and the first name of my brother, who is both a priest and this child’s godfather. His two names together mean, “a gift from our victorious Lord”.

Since this is a name blog, we have silly pet names for our boys too. We often refer to Jude as Juderbug, Augie as Aug-Dog or Augie Doggie, and Matthias has recently been dubbed MaTiger.”

I love all this! What a great set of brothers! I love the reasoning behind all of the names as well, and also Laura’s articulation of their style as “old school Catholic” — right up my alley!

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

 

Matthias Victor and his big brothers

Birth announcement: Gregory Conrad!

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I posted a consultation for Amanda and her hubs a couple of months ago, and she’s let me know her little guy has arrived and been given the amazingly perfect name … Gregory Conrad!

Amanda writes,

“Gregory Conrad was born yesterday, the feast of St Cecilia (patron saint of musicians) and the anniversary of when this sweet little guy’s daddy asked me to marry him 13 years ago.

Our Little “Rory” is named after Pope St Gregory the Great, who was also a wonderful musician and created the Gregorian Chant, and his daddy, Vincent Conrad, who was named after a grandfather Conrad as well. 🙂

I thought you would also like to know that on the way to the hospital, we looked up male patron saints of musicians and Gregory was at the top of the list. That kind of made up our minds, even before we saw his face, because Gregory and Sylvester were our top two at that point!! If that’s not a sign from Heaven, I don’t know what is 🙂

We let [daughter] Ellie pick his middle name when the kiddos met him, giving her the choices of Lucas, Conrad, or Jonah (because it means stubborn!). She was pretty tickled to get to help. We will also shorten it to “Rory” or even ‘Gregor’ … but not ‘Greg,’ as I’m just not crazy about one syllable. Please keep baby and I in your prayers, as it was a very long and difficult labor and delivery. So thankful he is here and healthy!“

Gregory with the nickname Rory was on Amanda’s initial list this time around, and it’s an option I’ve long loved and suggested on the blog! I love it! There’s so much meaning in this little guy’s name and birth, from the connection to music (Amanda’s a musician), to his birthday being the anniversary of the day Amanda and her hubs got engaged, to his name being a five-syllable combo, just like his big brothers and sister, wow!

Please do keep Amanda and her baby boy in your prayers! Congratulations to the whole family, including big sibs Oliver, Elizabeth, Theodore, Henry, and Adrian, and happy birthday Baby Gregory!!

Gregory Conrad with his mama and big brothers and sister

Spotlight on: Stanley and Stanislaus

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!! Today’s the last day of a novena to St. Anne I’ve been praying, in which I included all of your intentions; your children both living and deceased; those of you who are hoping for babies and those of you struggling with your motherhood; and in thanks for all of you. ❤ Be sure to check in again on Friday — I’ll have a special Black Friday gift for you all!!

Meghan asked for a spotlight on Stanley in light of the recent beatification of Bl. Stanley Rother, and Natalie had previously mentioned considering Stanley because of that same Blessed, and Annie said she *couldn’t wait* for this spotlight, and I heard Bl. Stanley mentioned quite a bit in the press for Bl. Solanus’ beatification this past weekend including in this article (in which my sister is also mentioned! Nbd), so! I think we need a Stanley spotlight!

I’m coupling it with Stanislaus because of their shared first four letters and nickname; because Stanislaus is another name and holy man I’ve had on my mind for a while because of the JP2 story included in this post; and because Stanley has been used as an anglicization of Stanislaus/Stanislaw (but they’re actually two totally separate names).

First, Stanley: from an Old English surname meaning “stone clearing” (according to behindthename). According to the SSA it was a top 100 name from 1900 until 1960, peaking at no. 34 in 1915, 1916, and 1917. I did some brief research into what might have inspired that peak, and found this comment on this post:

“Stanley was extremely popular among Polish-Americans at the turn of the century. It was used as an Anglicization for Stanislaw. In fact, it was so common among them, that some areas refered to any Polish guy as Stan or Stanley.”

I looked for events in 1914 that might have contributed to the first year of the Stanley peak of popularity and found the 1914 naval Battle of the Falkland Islands that involved its capital, Stanley, and the 1914 Stanley Cup Finals, which is described as “the first officially sanctioned series for the Stanley Cup between” the champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association. I don’t know enough about either historical battles or hockey to know if either/both of these events might have really inspired the peak, though. Do any of you?

One of the interesting things about Stanley is that, until Bl. Stanley, it wasn’t a holy name — not the kind of name Catholic parents might have considered (unless it was a family name, or a nod to Stanislaus, etc.). It reminds me of this sentence from this post by a Canon Lawyer on whether today’s Catholic children need to be given saints’ names:

“Perhaps if we all raise our children as committed Catholics, names like ‘Ashley’and ‘Jennifer,’ ‘Curtis’ and ‘Todd’ may some day in the future indeed be the names of saints.”

And now Stanley! (It’s important to note that his middle name was Francis, which satisfied the then-requirement for a Christian name; this article about him noted, “When he arrived at the mission, the Tz’utujil Mayan Indians in the village took to calling him Padre Francisco, after his baptismal name of Francis.” So if Stanley isn’t your style but you love Bl. Stanley, Francis is a good alternative. Or Rother, if you prefer more unusual names? I’ve heard RO-ther, is that how you say it? Or RAW-ther?)

Now for Stanislaus: “Slavic stan ‘to stand, to hold, to become’ + Slavic sława, slava ‘glory, fame'” (according to the DMNES), and also known in variants Stanislav, Stanislaw, and Stanislas. Besides the St. Stanislaus of the JP2 story I linked to above (St. Stanislaus of Cracow, patron saint of Poland), another one that I love is St. Stanislaw of Jesus and Mary, also known as Stanislaus Papczynski, founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception of the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA (they call him Father Founder) who was canonized in 2016. I’ve also seen Kostka used as a name in honor of St. Stanislaus Kostka. There are a few other holy men with this name, and I even included Stanislaus in my CatholicMom article Unmistakably Catholic Boy Names.

Whether Stanley or Stanislaus, Stan is an easy, natural nickname. It’s funny too, because before I’d ever heard of Bl. Stanley or had Stanley/Stanislaus on my radar anywhere, my husband told me he kind of likes the nickname Stan! At first I was like Stan?? But I’ve been thinking about it, and I can totally see it! Stan is a familiar, friendly nickname — easy to say and spell and with that old-man feel that’s currently so appealing. In fact, when I was researching this name, I saw a couple different places online where people likened Stan to Max and Gus, so clearly it’s the next Big Thing. Like Max and Gus, it also has usage as a given name on its own — Stan was a top 1000 name from 1933 to 1973. If Stan isn’t your thing, there are other nicknames that are traditional to Stanislaus that are kind of cool, like  Stas and Stane (I’m assuming it’s not actually said to rhyme with rain — Forvo has the Czech pronunciation more like “stah-NEH” — but rhymes-with-rain is do-able here in America I think). (I might advise American parents to stay away from the traditional Stanko though).

Stan- has some pop culture references that may or may not be interesting to parents, like Stan Lee (stealth way to name for a Blessed AND your comic book obsession!) and Stannis on Game of Thrones (which is a [nick]/name I would find SO COOL if it wasn’t for GoT), and the Stanley Cup mentioned above (holy+hockey!). I’ve always been interested in the fact that Obama’s mom’s given name is Stanley, and by her name story as presented on Wikipedia: “According to [her], she was named after her father because he wanted a son, though her relatives doubt this story and her maternal uncle recalled that her mother named Dunham after her favorite actress Bette Davis’ character in the film In This Our Life because she thought Stanley, as a girl’s name, sounded sophisticated” (in that movie, Bette Davis’ character was Stanley and the character of her sister, played by Olivia de Havilland, was named Roy!).

You all know about my devotion to St. Anne, and because I have all boys, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of ways to honor St. Anne with a boy’s name — I’ve known a couple of parents who have also wanted to do so, and the ideas they and I have had have revolved mostly around the “Ann” sound — Anselm, Anthony, Anton, Anson, Ansel. But more recently I’d thought that the Stan- names could do it — you know, ST ANne! So Stanley/Stanislaus could nod to her as well. (I love getting lots of saints into one name!)

What do you all think of Stanley and Stanislaus? Would you consider either one for your son, or have you? Do any Stanleys or Stanislauses that you know like their name? Do they go by a nickname other than Stan? Do you think Stanley is the next Big Thing, both secularly and Catholicly?

Birth announcement: George Curtis!

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Kendra from Catholic All Year‘s been on my list to hound about posting a birth announcement for her littlest guy, but then last week she posted his birth story! So it’s a perfect time to post his birth announcement! 😀 I did a birth announcement for her no. 8 two years ago, and I’m delighted to do so for no. 9!

I probably could have posted it back when he was born — on the 4th of July no less! — since Kendra grammed it all, but it works out better this way because birth story! I love birth stories!

Little man’s name is George Curtis, and as she explained in that initial IG post,

“George is a family name on both sides, and the boys all love St. George and the dragon, plus with the July 4th bonus of George Washington and Bl. Pier Georgio Frassati, it seemed perfect! The only thing missing is a nickname, all the other brothers have one. 🤔”

So of course I had to offer some ideas:

“I love the traditional George nickname Geordie, and I’ve seen Geo a few times, which is also cool. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!“

And then Charlotte jumped in — she is the QUEEN of nickname ideas!

“I like George on its own, as well as the usual Georgie. (I also think @sanctanomina ‘s suggestion of Geordie is pretty cool!) If neither of those feel right, though, I think a really neat possibility for your George is the nickname Jet. It’s got the same beginning sound of George immediately followed by a T for Tierney, and what would make it really special and fun is the connection to his namesake – if I remember correctly from your blog, wasn’t your dad a pilot?! I’m sorta loving the idea of “jet” as a nickname for a baby named after a pilot!!! :)”

To which Kendra responded,

“yes! He’s named after a fighter pilot. 😎”

If I remember correctly, I’ve seen Georgie a time or two in some of Kendra’s posts? But in his birth story he’s firmly George, and there’s also this, which I’m dying over:

“… we had two different names picked for a girl, one if she was born on July 4th, one for if she was born on other than July 4th, so I needed two different blankets. A boy baby was going to be George either way“

Two different names picked for a girl — a 4th of July name and a non-4th of July name. Is anyone else DYING to know what they were? Will we ever know?? I totally respect parents’ right to keep their name ideas secret. No one will die over the not knowing. Not literally anyway. #offeritup 😉

Congratulations to Kendra and her hubs and all of his big sibs, and happy birthday Baby George!!

Baby name consultation: Sophisticated and saintly for baby no. 3

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Allison and her husband are expecting their third baby, a little green bean! (=gender unknown) This little one joins big sibs:

Caroline Constance, called Cece (“We loved the name Caroline and it happened to be my great great grandmother’s name. Constance was my husband’s grandmother”)

Gerard Patrick (“My husband calls him Jerry, but pretty much everyone just uses Gerard. Patrick is my husband’s middle name and we liked how they sounded together”)

I love these names! Sophisticated and homey at the same time, if that makes any sense.

Allison writes,

“I feel like we have a French sounding first name thing going on, but aren’t tied to it. Matt would really like an easy to pronounce and recognize name. Gerard gets a lot of ‘Jarod’ and ‘Gerald’ and it can be frustrating … We do like the names that have some type of meaning or family tie. We also like heritage. Matt is Irish. I’m mostly Greek and Italian. We also like some family last names as middle names. Also nice to have at least one saint in there! All that said—we are open to new names, too!”

The names they’re currently considering for this baby include:

Maria Elisa (“too many vowels?”)
Marie Elisa
Mary Elisa (“Mariel nickname?”)
Teresa
Mary Teresa (“Tess?”)

John Finelli (“Finn?”)

Family names that might be inspiring include:

Linda
Leta
John (“My dad is John George, and his dad was George John, and his dad was John George. We’ve heavily considered both John and George over the years. I’m one of 2 girls, so no boys got to carry it on”)
Kevin (“Kevin definitely could be a strong contender in the middle name spot”)
Megan
Kathleen
Brendan
Sean
Mary
Colin
Molly
Ella
Thelma
Elisa
Margaret
Marian
George
Roger
Brian
Thomas
Stephen
Maria
Carrie (Calliope)
Severino (Sam)
Deserina (Des)
Rosemarie
Virgie

So! Many! Great! Names!

I love the names Allison and her hubs are considering for this baby—you all know I’m a huge fan of the Mary+ names, so Maria Elisa, Marie Elisa, Mary Elisa, and Mary Teresa are all up my alley! I do love Allison’s idea of Mariel as a nickname for Mary Elisa—really, it can work for any of those combos. Those combos also remind me of an idea reader skimac left in a comment once: Marielise, as a mashup of Mary/Marie/Maria and Elise. Or Marielisa/Marelisa, to use Allison’s family member Elisa’s name. So pretty! The Marelisa idea might especially help with Allison’s worry that Maria Elisa is too many vowels.

Teresa and Mary Teresa are both great, and I love the nickname Tess. Really, I think all of these ideas are great for a little sister of Caroline/Cece and Gerard. I wonder, though, what they’d think of Therese? You all know that I always start a consultation by looking up the names that the parents have used and like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity, and Therese is a style match for Gerard! St. Therese’s given name was Marie-Therese, so pairing Therese with a Mary name can be a pretty great nod to her as well.

And just like I love the Mary+ names, I love John+ names! Using a family surname in the middle, with John as the first name, and an everyday nickname from the middle name is SO my style! John Finelli is so handsome, and I love the nickname Finn!

That said, though, I do have to make a case for John George! I don’t think I’d suggest George John, since Gerard and George share so many of the same sounds AND letters, but John George would be so meaningful to Allison’s dad, I’m sure! They could even consider something like John George Finelli with the nickname Finn, if they didn’t want to lose that.

Going through their family names, there were a few others that I thought might do well for them as well, including:
— Margaret: Margaret seems like a slam dunk with big sibs Caroline and Gerard! Not only did Margaret show up as a strong style match for them in the BNW, but so did Margo(t), which would be a great nickname. I love nicknames Maggie, Meg, Maisie, and Daisy as well.
— Marian: Marianne was another strong style match for this family, per the BNW, and since Marian’s a family name, I wondered if they might consider either Marian itself or tweak it to be Marianne?
— Kathleen: Caroline always makes me think of Catherine, like these sisters, and my sister-in-law’s nieces are Kathleen and Caroline, so I thought Kathleen might be a good name to consider! Kate is also a style match for Tess, so Kathleen called Kate seems extra perfect here.
— Rosemarie: I totally had Rosemary on my list for this family before I even saw that they have a Rosemarie family member! I love Rosemarie, I think it’s a great option.
— Virgi(nia): Virgie’s such a sweet name—I assume it’s a nickname for Virginia? I rolled Virginia around in my mind a few times and thought it might work here nicely.
— Thomas: Thomas is solid, saintly, and serious, just like Gerard. It would definitely be a good fit for this sib set.
— Stephen: Stephen was another style match according to my research, and having it also be a family name is such a bonus!
— (Sam): Samuel showed up a few times for them in the BNW as well, and I could totally see a little Samuel/Sam being a nod to Severino (Sam) … or even Severino nicknamed Sam itself? So cool!

I really don’t think Allison and her hubs have to look any farther than their family tree, with all those amazing names! But of course I came up with a bunch of other ideas that I thought might appeal to them. 😊 Based on my research and my own namey head, perhaps they’d like:

Girl
(1) Bernadette
Bernadette was actually the first name I scribbled down for them while reading Allison’s email (Rosemary second)! I absolutely love it with Caroline and Gerard, and it’s got some fun nicknames like Benny, Betty, Netty, and Birdie, all of which are great sisters to Cece imo.

(2) Julia
This is 100% based on the BNW—it has Julia listed as a style match for Caroline, Maria, and John, which I thought was pretty solid! I did a spotlight on Juliet(te) a while ago, which included all the saintly connections for Julia—there are loads!

(3) Victoria
Victoria was a style match for both Caroline and Maria, and I feel like it has the same sophistication I get from Caroline and Gerard. Certainly Vicky/i and Tori are well-known nicknames, but they could also get creative like they did with Caroline Constance/Cece and consider nicknames like Cora, Via, and Ria.

(4) Holly
Holly surprised me! It’s a style match for Rosemary and Margo, which I’d already thought would be a good fit for Allison and her hubs, and then I was thinking that since this baby is due in January, maybe they’d like the Christmas connection?

(5) Monica
Finally, what about Monica? The more I think about it, the more I think it’s spot-on for this family! Caroline, Gerard, and Monica are such a smart, saintly bunch!

Boy
(1) Lawrence
I actually felt like I had a bit of a hard time with girl names, but there were so many boy names that jumped out at me that I thought would hit the right notes! Lawrence is one—it’s a style match for Gerard and Therese as well as Constance (Cece’s middle name) and Marianne (which I mentioned above). My 7yo had a Lawrence in his preschool class—he was always and only Lawrence, and it was so unexpected, I loved it.

(2) Paul
Paul was a pretty great match for them, being listed as similar to Mary, Teresa, John, and Carolyn (similar enough to Caroline for this purpose, I thought). It certainly fits Allison’s hubs’ desire for “an easy to pronounce and recognize name”!

(3) Russell
Russell was another name that surprised me—it’s a style match for Carolyn, Theresa, Constance, Rosemary, and Lawrence (and by extension Gerard and Therese)—wow! Russell is such a solid name, and I love the nickname Russ. I’ve also seen Sully considered as a nickname for it!

(4) Louis
I’m listing Louis here simply because it *feels* like it would be a good fit imo. Do you agree? Easy to spell/pronounce, solid and saintly—love it!

(5) Martin
Finally, Martin has just the same feel to me as Gerard. They seem like perfectly matched brothers to me! And Marty is such a cute nickname!

There were a bunch of other boy names I considered including that didn’t make the final cut for one reason or another, but I thought I’d list them here just in case they’re helpful: William/Liam, Robert, Oliver, Leo, Jasper (could be great for a baby born on the Epiphany!), Francis, Gregory, and Raymond.

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Caroline/Cece and Gerard?

Spotlight: Callixtus

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I really wanted to post a name spotlight today, and could not for the life of me think of a name to spotlight! I have a running list of names I’d like to feature, but I can’t put my hand on it at the moment (and if any of you are waiting for one that I’ve promised, maybe shoot me an email to remind me! So sorry!). So I asked my oldest, who I had to pick up early from school because he wasn’t feeling well, what some of his favorite names are, and was surprised that Callixtus was in the mix! So that’s today’s name!

My son was like, “I’m not sure you’ve heard of this name,” and I was like, “Do you even know me, boy?!”, but beyond being a collector of Catholic names (although I admit I’ve been surprised a time or two by new-to-me names), I knew a friar/professor in college with the variant Callistus (his religious name), and I’ve actually given it some thought, mostly because of the nickname Cal, which I love (the friar went by Fr. Cal).

Behind the Name gives Callixtus as a variant of Callistus, “the spelling perhaps influenced by Latin calix ‘wine cup.'” Callistus is from the Greek Kallistos, meaning “most beautiful,” and the feminine name Callista is from the same. I just said to my son, “Callixtus is from the Greek for ‘most beautiful'” and he said, “Oh! I thought it came from ‘chalice.'” What a smartie! Our “chalice” comes from “calix,” so he really did know more about the name than I did!

There are a bunch of Sts. Callistus, including two Popes (Pope St. Callistus I and Pope St. Callistus II), and funny enough, when I searched CatholicSaints.info for Callixtus, only Pope St. Callistus I comes up — he’s got an interesting story. I kind of like the X spelling — X is a hot letter right now, and I really do like the connection to “chalice.” I also looked up Calix because I thought I’d remembered seeing that name on a child before, and it does seem to be mostly given as a short form of Callixtus, though a calyx is also the “chalice-shaped” part of a flower. I’m loving all these connections to the chalice! Callixtus is such a meaningful name!

What do you think of Callixtus (or Callistus)? Would you name a boy so, or have you? What nickname would you tend toward (Cal or Calix), or would you use a different one?

Birth announcement: Samuel William!

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I posted a consultation for Meghan and her husband back in April, and I’m delighted to share that Meghan has let me know her little boy has arrived and been given the so-handsome name … Samuel William!

She writes,

“[H]ere he is, Samuel William 😍. Yes, I said no names that started with S and no top 25 but I couldn’t get Sam out of my head and your advice and also seeing comments from your readers helped us along in the decision. Thank you! I lost out on the middle name selection but the boys (Dad, William and son, Benjamin William) wanted to have a shared name like the girls and I do (we all have the middle name Elizabeth). Oh and Ben and Sam share a birthday along with a common middle name so how cool is that?! Thanks again for everything!“

I have such a soft spot for Samuel/Sam, and I’m so happy they went with it! I also love the shared William between Dad and his boys (and the shared Elizabeth between Mom and her girls, so great!). Great job Mom and Dad!

Congratulations to Meghan and her husband and big sibs Benjamin, Mae, and Rose, and happy birthday Baby Samuel!!

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Samuel William and his big brother and sisters