Personal stories

Birth announcement: Clare Meryt!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , ,

A mama who’d emailed me a month or so ago with a very near due date just let me know that her baby has been born! She writes,

“Just wanted to update you that baby has finally arrived! Her name is Clare Meryt. We chose the name Clare from St. Clare of Assisi — I think i mentioned in my original email choosing this name due to our devotion to St. Francis of Assisi. Her middle name, Meryt, is an Egyptian derivation of Mary (meaning cherished and beloved). She is the 4th generation to have a form of Mary in her name. We heard this name in a movie and did lots of research to make sure it is a variation of Mary. In all of our research we found it to be the origination of the name Mary. We particularly liked that it was something unique… And it wouldn’t sound like a magazine title 🙂 Thanks again for all your help and suggestions!! I really do appreciate it!“

Isn’t that a beautiful name?? It’s not often people can surprise me with a Marian name I’d never heard of, but such was the case with Meryt. I’m totally loving it!! Congratulations to Baby Clare and her family!!

Names for miscarried babies

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty , , ,

Mandi over at A Blog About Miscarriage posted today about the names she and her husband gave the four babies they lost to miscarriage. They chose to use gender neutral names, as they don’t know if their little ones are boys or girls. She told me, “When we were trying to name the babies we lost, I tried googling “gender neutral Catholic names” and “gender neutral Saint names” and didn’t come up with much,” so she also listed a bunch of the gender neutral names she thought of, in case it’s helpful for other parents like her “who don’t like naming a baby a gender specific name without knowing the gender for sure,” and she wondered if I had any further ideas?

It was hard to come up with more! Mandi listed so many great ones already … the only ones I could come up with off the top of my head without spending three days poring through name books/sites were:

Mary/Marie/Maria — of course these are girls’ names, but men such as St. Clement Maria Hofbauer and St. Anthony Mary Claret used them as well.

Angel — I once knew a girl named Angel, and the main male character in Tess of the d’Urbervilles is Angel Clare (what a beautiful combo itself!)

Clair — speaking of Clare, Clair (that spelling) is actually the male form of Clare. It also makes me think of Sinclair, which is a male name that literally means “St. Clair” — to me, then, Clair and Sinclair could be used for either boys or girls.

Sidney/Sydney — Sinclair makes me think of Sidney, which could refer either to St. Denis or the “Holy Winding Sheet of Christ” (Shroud of Turin).

Rosario — means “Rosary” and is feminine in Spanish and masculine in Italian

Guadalupe — from Our Lady of Guadalupe, and is used for both boys and girls

Sam — this could work nicely for a boy or a girl

Nicola — it’s masculine in Italian but feminine in German, Czech, and English

Luca — it’s masculine in Italian, Romanian, and German, and feminine in Hungarian and Croatian (and English sometimes too — I know a girl named Luca)

Clairvaux, Vianney, Majella, Liguori — I’ve seen these last names of male saints used for girls

Another option, which is what we did, was to give the baby a first and middle name, and have one name be masculine, and one be feminine.

Do you have any other saintly names that would be suitable for either a boy or a girl? Have you named a miscarried baby, and if so, did you use a gender neutral name?

Wee lassie’s debut!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Birth announcement, Update , , , , ,

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

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

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

Rosary Brigid Elise

Parish directory

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, Personal stories, Real-life naming , , ,

I was looking through an old parish directory recently and enjoyed these sib sets (alt characters used for privacy):

R0salie, T3ssy, Soph!a, and El!za

Br!an, S3an, Cas3y (g),* Col!n, and Mara

M0lly, Grady, and Cla!re

Gr!ffin, T3ss, and N3ll

B3n, Sara, and N0ra

Just!n, Isab3lle, and Al3ssandra

Ke3gan (b),* Qu!nn (b),* and Ol!via (I’m always interested to see how families handle it when they use androgynous-ish names* — generally it seems only one gender gets the unisex names while the other gets an unquestionably masculine or feminine name)

Have you heard of any well named sib sets you’d like to share?

———————–

*Just to clarify — I’m not making a judgment about the names Ke3gan, Qu!nn, and Cas3y by calling them “androgynous-ish” — just pointing out that they’re currently used for both boys and girls. I say “ish” because I personally still consider Ke3gan a boy’s name, though I know a girl with it, so I wouldn’t call it androgynous, but others might. The other two names I’ve heard equally for boys and girls, and I might even say they skew feminine in my experience.

Jessie’s girl!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Birth announcement, Update , , , ,

Back at the end of January Jessie wrote asking for help naming their fourth baby, a girl. She has wonderfully provided us with an update, and a photo!

“Kate! I’m so sorry for not updating you sooner! Our little girl was born on Valentine’s Day and we have just been so caught up in her that I forgot to write … [My husband] decided he would really like to honor his Great aunt, who was like a grandmother to him and to who he was very close to without directly using her names. Her middle name was Mary so I searched all your posts for Marian versions. We ended up with Liliana (lil-ee-ah-na) Grace. Lily for Mary, Ana for St. Anne, Jesus’ grandmother, since he always thought of his Aunt as his grandmother, Grace because I still liked it 🙂  We both love it and I never would have thought of it without your posts which included so many original ways to include Mary/saints in names. Thank you so much! I’ve attached a picture for you in case you want to use it in an update … we did truly love your suggestions. I’ve called dibs on Louise Philomena for next girl!!!“

How wonderful! Something that had really jumped out at me when Jessie first emailed was how she said, “I’d love something that matches the feel of both Eleanor/Ella like my first little girl but by the time I weigh everything else, I can hardly think about that too.” I totally think Liliana fits the bill! Nice job, Jessie and Hubby! And thanks so much for the update — it’s so fun to read the end (but really beginning!) of the story!

DSCN4981

Liliana Grace

Birth announcement: Simcha’s baby!!

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , , ,

Baby Fisher is here!! And her beautiful name is:

Cornelia Roxanne

Cornelia Roxanne!!!

Neither Cornelia nor Roxanne were part of my suggestions for the Fishers,* and even after knowing that Simcha said the name they chose might lead one to think of “a vegan stripper, or possibly a British lady-in-waiting for Persian nobility,” I still didn’t come up with either name.** But I love it! Cornelia totally sounds like one of their kids to me, and — just picturing her and big sis Benny buddying around like my two youngest sisters — I’m just loving Benedicta and Cornelia as sisters … and, not saying they *should*, but if they go for a nickname … and if that nickname happens to be Nell … ohmygoodness. Benny and Nell???? It’s like a storybook, with fields of sunshine and little girls in pretty dresses with crowns of flowers in their hair.

Even though Simcha and Damien didn’t choose one of my suggestions, I do feel pretty good about the fact that I spotlighted Cornelius a while ago, in which I discussed Cornelia.  So even though it was totally not on my radar for them, and I’m not sure I’ve ever really considered Cornelia much at all for anyone, I suppose there’s the tiniest chance they saw my little Cornelius post and were inspired by it.  🙂

But probably not. In all likelihood not. They are pretty fab namers, those Fishers. Welcome to the world Cornelia Roxanne!!

———————–

* My suggestions for a girl were Stella, Esther or Miriam, and Hannah

** On Rebecca Frech’s Virtual Baby Shower for Simcha post, before I knew about the “vegan stripper/British lady-in-waiting” thing, after my initial suggestions of Stella, Esther or Miriam, and Hannah, I suggested Pearl Emmanuelle and Martha Frances. After discovering that new bit of info (vegan stripper/Brit LIW), I decided Edith Esther and Althea Kyrie were my top two predictions.

Reading round-up

sanctanomina Reading Round-up , , , , ,

Swistle posted an update today to a fun dilemma that could easily have fit in here: Baby Boy or Girl Seewald-without-the-S, Sibling to Urban, Charles, Levi, and Matthias. Those are some great Catholicky names! I especially like how there are the more unusual, like Urban, Levi, and Matthias, right alongside the more common, like Charles and new baby Thomas. That’s Catholic naming for you — all part of one big family. 🙂

I liked this article over on CatholicMom.com: The Power of Names. Totally agree with this: “But I find it a daunting prospect each time, to name another person. To shape the beginning of identity by vowel and consonant. To help mold their life by the meaning of what they are called.” But totally disagree with this: “Sometimes I wish the perfect name would be dropped in our laps, so we wouldn’t have to worry about choosing the right one.” (Um, no. The list-making and sometimes-heated “discussions” and worrying that the baby will never have a name are some of my favorite parts of choosing a name. For real.) I also love considering that “Mary and Joseph probably had their own pet names for their young son.” That’s a mind blower.

Then there’s this article, from Pamela Redmond Satran: The Pope, My Catholic Girlhood, and Baby Names. Some fun points, like: “Nuns got to pick new names for themselves when they entered the convent. That itself was appealing enough, but what was really amazing was that their choices were not confined by ethnic background, historical period, or even gender,” but in general a sad bummer of an article:

  • “I couldn’t wait to hear who the new pope was going to be, not because I’m a practicing Catholic any longer or because I cared which Cardinal got elected. No. As usual, I was in it for the name”
  • “… sites as Catholic Online, Which sends out a Saint of the Day newsletter that I get for — what else? — the names”
  • “What was most appealing about Catholicism was the ritual of renaming, which extended far beyond the nuns to include pagan babies, popes, and even yourself … The only thing more exciting than naming the pagan babies was getting to pick our own Confirmation names. Not strictly a renaming, this meant adding a second middle to our own lineups. My choice, I’m chagrined to admit, was the pedestrian Mary, but for very name nerdish reasons: Combined with Pamela Ann, it made my initials P.A.M. Brilliant!”

I’m pretty sure we all here get the excitement she’s talking about when she swoons over Sr. Miriam Gervase’s and Sr. Jacinta’s names, but please, Catholic namers, be in it for more than the name. As Jen commented over on our FB page, “There’s more to a saint than just his/her name. But I thought everyone knew that.” Amen sister.

Baby name consultant: Baby Girl Stark

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

Angela and Tim Stark have two little ones already, Paxton Anthony and Gabriella Tiffany, and they’re expecting their third, a girl. Angela writes,

“Our first (boy) was easy for us: Paxton Anthony Stark. Paxton is not very catholic but Pax is Latin for peace… so kinda sorta? But we love his name. We LOVED Maximus but Maximus Stark sounded too much like a transformer. But once Paxton was mentioned we agreed right off the bat, it sounded very strong … Our next (girl) we struggled and argued the WHOLE pregnancy. It wasn’t until we were about to sign the birth certificate where I said “Let’s just do Gabriella” and he replied “I guess I’ll get used to it”. I was only okay with it because I LOVE the angels, I threw in the extra L to make it more unique. I was hesitant on the name because I didn’t want anyone to call her Gabby or Ella. Tim liked the name but was hard pressed on Julianna which I refused and he was grumpy about it. We love her name now, and no one has called her Gabby yet. Her middle name is Tiffany after my husbands sister who passed away.”

For this new little girl, Angela says,

“I have been a devout Catholic my entire life and I want a saint name but a unique one. When I say unique I don’t mean anything crazy off the wall… but different. If it were up to me her name would be Augustina Christi Stark (Call her August). I also like Faustina, Constantine, Lucia (pronounced looSEEa), Noelle (not a saint but still like), Aurea and a few others but that’s the gist of it. My husband (recent convert/baby catholic) on the other hand is obsessed with “princess” saint names like Victoria, Alexandra, Anastasia, Julianna, Isabelle, Sophia, Teresa. He shoots down anything different or unique and I shoot down anything that sounds too common (for lack of better words). The names we somewhat agree on are Lucia, Cecilia … and that’s about it but neither of us are sold … bonus points if the saint has an awesome story and has a latin feel/sound to it.”

I love Angela and Tim’s other kids’ names — I think they did a great job. I absolutely agree that Paxton Anthony is quite heavy-hitting with the Latin-for-peace bit, and Gabriella Tiffany is so pretty and feminine — I love the Gabriel names anyway, and recently I was reading about the origin of Tiffany — it’s very Catholic itself! It comes from Epiphany (read more here and here), and finding that out gave me appreciation for the name that I didn’t have before.

For this baby, I do love Lucia and Cecilia, but I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to help the Starks find a name they feel might be a better fit. I always try to find overlap between differing styles, to see if there’s some common ground. As you all have probably figured out by now, I rely heavily on the Baby Name Wizard book to do this, as it lists, for each entry, other boy and girl names that have a similar style/feel. Hubby Tim’s style is very consistent — he likes Alexandra, Victoria, Anastasia, Julianna, Isabelle, Sophia, and they both agreed on Gabriella for their first daughter, and those names are basically all listed as similar to each other in each respective list. Angela’s is more eclectic, but not too different from Tim’s in the sense of very feminine names ending in -a — Augustina, Faustina, Lucia, Aurea.

One of the names that immediately came to my mind for them was Thaïsa. It’s so similar in look and sound to Teresa, which Tim likes (it’s said tie-EE-sah) while still being really unusual and distinctive that I thought it might be a good fit. Alas, though she’s revered as a saint in the East, her actual existence and details are disputed (I spotlighted it here), so it didn’t make my final cut, but I thought i’d mention it anyway.

The suggestions I came up with for little Miss Stark (I shoot for three) are categories with names within, as a way of trying to get to those names that have overlap between Mom and Dad’s two styles:

(1) Frilly/lacy/feminine names with a boyish nickname

When I read that Angela’s very favorite first name is Augustina with the nickname August (and I love love Augustina Christi!), my immediate thought was “sophisticated and feminine with a boyish nickname.” That might not have been Angela’s intention, but I like it, and I had two ideas that might fit in with that idea, thus marrying Tim’s “princess” style and Angela’s spunkier mindset: Elisabetta nicknamed Eli (like EE-lie, the boy’s name, not Ellie), and Michaela nicknamed Michi.

Elizabeth is certainly a great saintly name, but I looked for some of its non-English variants to get at that “Latin feel/sound” Angela said she hoped for, and thought Elisabetta fit the bill. It’s gorgeous to look at and say, in my opinion, and patrons could be St. Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist or St. Elizabeth of Hungary, or my recent favorite is Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur, who secretly prayed and offered her sufferings until her death for her atheist husband’s conversion; after she died he found her journal, which detailed all she’d done for him, and he converted and became a Dominican priest who once led a retreat for Fulton Sheen. Such a great story, such an amazing woman. As for Eli as a nick — Elizabeth and its variants have a million great nicknames, but I hadn’t heard Eli used until recently. I know an Elizabeth who goes by Eli, and though I thought she was a he for the longest time (I only know *of* her — a friend of a family member), Angela runs the same risk with August, so I suspect that’s okay with her.

My other suggestions, Michaela, is a favorite of mind. I know a little one with this name whose mother’s first language is Spanish, and they call her Michi (MEE-chee), which is just one of the cutest names, and I think it works fine for a non-Spanish-speaking family as well. The Starks could use that pronunciation, or MITCH-y, which is also really cute. And of course St. Michael is a great patron and protector, and Angela did say she loves the angels (I would understand though if they thought it was a bit much with sister Gabriella).

(2) Last name of a saint

Angela said she wants “a saint name but a unique one. When I say unique I don’t mean anything crazy off the wall,” and using the last name of a saint seems a really good way to do this. On the blog My Child I Love You, two of the little girls are named Clairvaux and Vianney, and both those names jumped out to me as ones that the Starks might like. Especially Clairvaux, since it can be shortened to the sweet Clair. I’ve also seen Majella used as a first name for girls, which is another option, and one of my very favorites is Avila, which is connected to Tim’s love of Teresa.

(3) Princess-y names that are also unusual/unique

This is similar to #1, but I didn’t focus on nicknames as much as femininity and unusualness. I found quite a few that I think would work: Karoline or Karolina (said like the state or care-ah-LEE-na), Lydia, Magdalena, Reina, Sabina, Gemma, Charis, Christiana, Clementine, Juliet or Juliette, Roma, Natalia, Jacinta, Simone, Seraphina, Evangeline, Penelope, Georgiana, Zelie, Dominique. They’re all either saints/blesseds/Biblical (Lydia, Magdalena, Sabina, Gemma, Juliet(te) [from Julia], Natalia, Jacinta, Penelope [original name of St. Irene], Zelie [St. Therese’s mom and a Blessed herself]), or female versions of male saints’ names (Karoline/a for JP2, Christiana for Jesus, Clementine from Clement, Simone from Simon, Georgiana from George, Dominique from Dominic), or otherwise Catholic (Reina is a form of Regina, Charis means “grace” and is contained within the word Eucharist, Roma for Roman Catholic, Seraphina for the angels, Evangeline means “good news,” like evangelist). I love each of these names.

One saint that seemed especially meaningful in light of Angela’s love of Augustina is St. Agostina Livia Pietrantoni. I was reading about her recently — Agostina is actually the name she took when she became a Sister of Charity, but the snippet I was reading referred to her as “Livia” throughout, so I thought I’d suggest it. I have long loved Livia — I love that it feels familiar because of Olivia, but it’s not Olivia — it’s an old name in its own right, going back to ancient Rome, and rarely used. And there’s the amazing nickname Livvy, which I think is just the sweetest. Livia Christi? I love it.

What do you all think? What suggestions do you have for Angela and Tim’s little girl-on-the-way?

Birth announcement: Lourdes Marie Talbot

sanctanomina Birth announcement , , , ,

I posted once about the beautiful names of My Child I Love You‘s blog mama Lindsay, before I knew her #9 was on the way. I’d been eagerly anticipating the birth and name reveal, until I learned that the baby had an omphalocele and that “this tiny, innocent baby will suffer from pain her first early days.” Then I was eager to pray and for a good outcome, and it seemed inappropriate and selfish and heartless to even think about the baby’s name. I know you know.

But when the baby’s name was revealed my first thought was that there couldn’t be a more perfect one, as she was born on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and she was named … Lourdes. Lourdes Marie Talbot. If anyone needed Mother Mary to be extra close, it’s this tiny baby and her mama and her whole family, and I could not imagine a more perfect name.

I can barely think about baby Lourdes, can barely imagine what it must be like to be in her mama’s shoes right now. I’ve been checking the blog for updates so that I can keep praying and rejoice with them when the tide turns, but at the same time I feel like I’m peeking at the posts out of the corner of my eye, hoping to get the gist without being consumed by the sadness. I know you know.

Added to the baby’s situation is that Lindsay’s mom is being treated for cancer. It’s too much for me to think about, really, so I’ve been praying to Our Lady of Lourdes and Bl. Matt Talbot and Fr. Emil Kapaun for their intercession, as Lindsay requested. It seems there was some progress, and then some sliding back. Please join me in praying for this tiny baby and her sick grandma and her beautiful family so full of love and faith.

Baby name consultant: Baby Enloe #2

sanctanomina Baby name consultant , , , , ,

Marty and Amy Enloe and big sister Kristy Marie will be welcoming baby #2, gender unknown, around Easter. Amy’s explanation of how they chose Kristy’s name is one of the most beautiful naming stories I’ve heard: “In short, she is named after after the two greatest people I could think of — Christ and Mary, giving honor to God first (and in our 1st born) and my love/connection to Mary. It [also] connects to family names, and the tradition of naming after and/or handing down.” How lovely!

In trying to come up with ideas for the new baby, she writes, “I like family names, or naming after someone, even if it is not family, but just one who has character that you want your children to aspire to or that have a connection with/to … for our own children we tend to go more for traditional/’real’ names that are obviously a common name … We want a name to carry them through life, respectable, not just cute. Something they could be a business person with or a grandma, or a little boy … I would love a Catholic name/connection somewhere as it’s huge to me … An Italian name might be cool, I love that part of my heritage … I love John Paull II and wanted to name after him some how … boy or girl but we weren’t finding a version we liked best. Closest we came was maybe something like Gianna/Giani, which my husband wasn’t totally feeling.”

For a girl, Amy knows she’d really like to use Victoria as a middle name, for her mom (see below) and also because it “makes me think of purple, vintage, scrolls, pretty, traditional” (I love that! Beautiful mental image!), but since they’re “totally feeling boy,” they’ve given more thought to boy names:

“For sure there are 4 middle names I like for boys — Kane, Lincoln, James and Joseph … Kane because Kristy has my middle name, so our first boy could have his dad’s middle name, traditional, hand me down. James and Joseph are Biblical/Catholic and I am really liking Lincoln this time. One night Marty said the first name that popped into his head and it was the first time I didn’t immediately say no to something. It felt the same way as Kristy’s name, a surprise and I couldn’t explain why it stuck with me a while. Calvin. Calvin Kane Enloe. Hmmm… the flow works well, but maybe the two n sounds run together. Kristy was an easy baby, I am expecting this one to be harder, but do I want a Calvin and Hobbes boy?? 🙂 … It’s a boy’s name, but a man’s name at the same time. A normal name but not seen much now (like Kristy). The sounds match but not the same letter. Both 6 letters, 2 syllables … I want sibling names that match some how … I still don’t mind the idea of Martin as a first if I find a middle I would want to use/go by, or Samuel (maybe the two L sounds run together) … We were close to our priest Fr. Vince (Vincent — Italian) and he has moved out of state … I am due pretty much Easter weekend (April 6th) so maybe an Easter related name. Pascal? I always pair that with Blaise though in my mind. I considered it for Kristy … You don’t really hear Pascal here in the states, but I did know two boys that had these names.”

Amy also mentioned that she really liked how her initials, AME, say her name when said out loud, and even little Kristy gets called by her initials sometimes (KME, said K-Me). Marty’s named for his dad, Martin, but his dad goes by his middle name, so giving a boy the first name Martin but having him go by his middle would be a nod to family tradition. Finally, their parents names are Victorian Lynn and James John (Amy) and Martin Craig and Kathleen (Marty), and some other family names that might inspire include: Elva, Betty, Donald, Lincoln, Joseph, Phillip, Mildred, Katherine, Mary, Joan (pronounced Joe-Anne), and Karl.

As I do, I aimed for three suggestions for each gender for Amy and Marty, though I ended up with four for boys, mostly because I loved their existing thought of Calvin Kane so much and had a much harder time coming up with boy ideas that I thought were as good that I overcompensated!

Girl

(1) Amanda Victoria Enloe (AVE)

My very hearty #1 recommendation for a girl is Amanda Victoria Enloe. Amanda is six letters! And with Victoria in the middle, after Amy’s mom, the full name makes the initials AVE, which makes it Marian! (So sneaky!) Amanda fits a similar popularity profile as Kristy (peaked in the 70s/80s), and it means “beloved” or “able to be loved” (Latin), which is an amazing meaning for a little girl. Amanda is totally do-able on its own, but I do love the nickname Mandy, and Mandy and Kristy sound like adorable sisters to me. Another natural nickname for it — which I do not recommend of course, is Amy, and I love that it makes Amanda kind of an honor name for mom Amy. So sweet! My runner up for my first suggestion is Angela — also similar in popularity and feel, also giving the amazing initials AVE, and being named after the angels is lovely, or even Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, for an extra Marian touch. (But I just love love love the lovable Amanda. :))

(2) Monica

When I was looking through lists of names that seemed to match Kristy, Monica jumped out right away. I love the Catholic connection — St. Monica is one of the very best saints, and it has six letters! (Not that I’m fixated on that, but I was pretty psyched that some/a lot of my ideas have six letters.) I think Monica can pair well with a lot of middle names: Monica Mary, Monica Pascale, maybe Monica Lynn (Amy’s mom’s middle name, instead of using her first name Victoria), maybe Monica Martine (for her husband Martin). (I also like the idea of Martina as a first name).

(3) Joanna P___

Joanna was inspired by both Calvin (see below), as Joanna’s listed in the Baby Name Wizard as being similar in style and feel to Calvin, and also by Amy’s love of John Paul II. I once heard of a little girl named Joanna Pauline, after JP2, which I thought was amazing, and as soon as I saw Joanna in the list for Calvin, I thought it seemed perfect. I’m not wedded to the combo Joanna Pauline, though I do like it; I actually think Joanna Pascale would be my preference. Amy said she’d considered Pascal for a boy, since she’s due around Easter, and I love the feminine form Pascale. I love it as a middle name — so interesting and unexpected and chic — and Joanna Pascale gives the initials JP, just like our beloved Papa. Amy also said they have a relative Joan (pronounced Joe-Anne), which could make Joanna an honor name if they’d like. (And — six letters! Ahh! :))

Boy

(1) Calvin Kane

This was Amy’s idea, and I just love it. Calvin is so cool paired with Kane, just great. Amy had mentioned being worried abotu inviting trouble by connecting a boy to Calvin and Hobbes but I have to say, as the mom of six boys, I actually find the connection quite endearing! My boys are all variations of mischievous, but all pretty adorable, which is my memory of Calvin and Hobbes (I haven’t read the strip in years, but I used to paste them on the paper-bag cover of my textbooks in high school, that’s how much I loved them!).

(2) Martin [Something]

I really liked Amy’s idea of Martin as a first name with a middle name that the baby would actually go by — it’s a great family tradition in her husband’s family, and it’s a nice way to have a namesake for her husband without having a Junior. I like Martin James, Martin Joseph, Martin Derek (see below), Martin Samuel, and Martin Blaise. I particularly like the last one, Martin Blaise, and while I can see why Amy thinks Blaise and Kristy are too far apart style-wise, I actually can see them working really well together. Kristy is for Our Lord after all, and Blaise is a great saint, so that automatically makes them go together to me — it’s all the same family. 🙂 Besides, Blaise’s real first name would be Martin, which I think goes with Kristy quite nicely. Martin Blaise Enloe is so handsome!

(3) Samuel Vincent

I think this is a great combo. Samuel because Amy had mentioned liking it, and Vincent after the priest she and her husband were close to. I like the initials too — SVE, kind of reminds me of “Save” — and it’s six letters!

(4) Aaron or Derek or Jason

As I mentioned, I had a hard time coming up with other boy names besides the ones Amy and Marty had already thought of. But when Aaron came to mind, I thought that it really worked. Aaron Kane, Aaron James, Aaron Joseph all sound pretty good to me, and I like how Aaron Enloe sounds and looks (lots of vowels!). Maybe some would be put off by the -on ending of Aaron running into the En- beginning of Enloe, but it doesn’t bother me — quite the opposite, I think it flows really well.

Derek also struck me as a good fit. Derek James, Derek Joseph, Derek Martin all sound good to me; Derek Lincoln not as great but not terrible either, and I like Derek Enloe. And Jason Enloe. Jason James, Jason Joseph, Jason Kane, Jason Blaise — all pretty cool. A friend recently named her son Jason, which was pleasantly unexpected. AND I just read recently that Jason is a name in the New Testament — a man who sheltered Paul and Silas. I don’t know how I’d never noticed that before! I included Aaron, Derek, and Jason in the same numbered suggestion because they’re my attempts to come up with something new for Baby Enloe #2, but really I just like Amy and Marty’s existing thoughts on boy names!

One name that I didn’t really address, though Amy specifically said she was thinking about it, is Lincoln. I do try to limit myself somewhat when making suggestions, otherwise I could just go on and on and on ……. which I don’t really think is that helpful to the parents (too many ideas!), and too stressful to me. But I do like Lincoln a lot — both the president (best president ever) and the nickname Linc (Prison Break anyone?). I don’t know what else to say about it though, so I’ll just leave it at that.

So that’s what I got! What do you all think? What other ideas or suggestions can you offer to the Enloe family?