Last month my CatholicMom spot was devoted to sharing the first-place winning essay of the writing contest I instituted this spring at my alma mater; this month I’m delighted to share the second-place winning essay, which posted today! Be sure to hop on over and read it! I’m so proud of the two winners, they did such a great job. 🎉
(As a bonus, you can even catch a sneak peek of me in the background of the photo. 🙂 )
(I explain all about the contest here.)
In May I posted a consultation for Christina (who has an Etsy shop called The Rushnyk Room), as she and her husband were expecting her third baby boy. I’m excited to share that her little guy has arrived and been given the awesome and meaningful name … Fisher Gray!
Christina writes,
“We actually put the scripture from Matthew 4:18-22 on our birth announcement we sent out to people which is the ‘fishers of men’ scripture … I actually am calling him ‘Fish’ or ‘Fishy’ a little bit and it doesn’t bother me like I thought it would. Ha!“
If you remember, Fisher’s middle name Gray is the same as his dad’s, and Fisher itself had been at the top of their list, both for St. John Fisher and for all the fishermen references in the Bible. Nickname possibilities were worrying though, so I’m really glad that Fish and even Fishy (soo cute!) have naturally arisen and that Christina’s okay with them. 🐟
Congratulations to Christina and her husband and big brothers Shepherd (Shep) and Becket (Beck), and happy birthday Baby Fisher!! To see his sweet little face be sure to check out this newborn photo on Christina’s IG as well as the more recent ones she’s posted (this family one is so great!).
I posted a consultation for Kate and her husband back in March — they had decided on Molly as a first name for their baby girl and were looking for a middle name. Kate’s let me know that her little lady has arrived and been given the beautiful first+middle combo … Molly Amelia!
Kate writes,
“I wanted to let you know that baby Molly has arrived. Although your suggestions gave us a lot to think about, we went with Amelia for her middle name. It has nice family ties for us as it was my great grandmother’s name and one of my closest cousin’s middle name.
We are happy to be home and her big sisters and brother already adore her. She’s such a sweet and easy going baby so far. We are really very blessed.
Thank you for your help with the naming process!!“
I’m so so glad they went with a middle name that has such meaning for them! Molly Amelia is a gorgeous combo!
Congratulations to Kate and her husband and big sibs McKenna, Emily, and Benjamin, and happy birthday Baby Molly!!
Molly Amelia at 12 hours old and 5 days old
A year ago I posted the names of the Saintly Heart boys — the sons of Maggie from the Saintly Heart shop (peg dolls and books), and not too long after she had a baby girl! I’m thrilled to share that her name is … Gemma Rose Katherine!
Maggie wrote an awesome IG post about her little girl’s names and patron saints, as well as one about her baptism day saint, which you should definitely check out, and if you scroll through her feed you’ll find some pretty cute pics of that sweet little lady, including this gorgeous one from her baptism!
Congratulations to Maggie and her husband and big brothers Blaise and Savio, and happy birthday Baby Gemma!!
Be sure to enter the blogiversary giveaway I posted about on Tuesday!
I posted a consultation for Joanne and her husband back in April, in which they needed help with girl names for their green bean 🌱 (they were all set with boy names), and specifically they preferred longer names to shorter. Joanne has let me know their little one has arrived — a GIRL! — and she’s been given the gorgeous (and short!) name … Clare Cecilia!
Joanne writes,
“Kate – Just wanted to let you know that our green bean turned out to be pink.
Clare Cecilia was born last weekend.
I’m still a bit surprised that we have a single syllable named but her middle name definitely makes up for it. We picked this name last year and I know several babies this year named Clare or Claire so she’ll be in good company it seems. Thanks for your suggestions and we’ll certainly be keeping those in our back pocket for any future siblings.”
What a beautiful combo Clare Cecilia is!! And I love how well it fits in with her big siblings, all of whom have matching first+middle initials:
Elizabeth Esther
Rebekah Rachel
Monica Magdalene
Andrew Athanasius
Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Clare!! Be sure to hop on over to Joanne’s blog Our Amazing, Beautiful, Crazy Life to read her birth story and see more pictures of her sweet little face!
Clare Cecilia
Be sure to enter the blogiversary giveaway I posted about yesterday!
I helped Allison out with some thoughts for boy names before her baby was born, but she ended up having a girl! She and her husband named her … Verity Ann!
Allison writes,
“We can punt our boy name dilemma another couple of years 😉 … What if it’s a girl next?! I will need an official consult from you and your readers on what to do with all these V names … lol.”
I love love love the combo Verity Ann!! And indeed they love their V names — check out her big sibs’ gorgeous combos:
Blaise Vincent
Victoria Beatrice
Vivian Marie
I’m loving the idea of doing a V name consultation in a couple years — sounds like fun! 😉😍
Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Verity!! (Who’s not such a baby anymore! We all know how fast those baby months go!)
Verity Ann
Be sure to enter the blogiversary giveaway I posted about yesterday!
A few weeks ago I posted a consultation for Sara and her husband to help name their twin baby girls. Sara’s let me know the little ladies have arrived! And they’ve been given the gorgeous, perfect names … Caroline Rose and Evelyn Pearl!
Sara had actually emailed me to let me know the girls had arrived, and Caroline Rose was easily given to one of them, but they still couldn’t decide on a name for the second. So we chatted about it a little more — turns out the Rosalind/Rosalie idea was one her brother and sister-in-law were hoping to use for their own daughter someday, so Sara and her husband decided not to use it. There were a few others that they were considering, like Elizabeth/Ella, Amelia (and I suggested Emilia too, for JP2’s mom), and Evelyn, and I offered that the only one I would recommend crossing off the list was Evelyn, because the name they would have chosen for a boy is Everett and I thought they might want to save Everett for a future boy — though I also said that if she loves it, she should use it anyway. Funny enough, my comments were actually helpful! Sara writes,
“We’re so happy to welcome Caroline Rose and Evelyn Pearl!
It really helped me to see your comments on Evelyn because it made me realize just how much I do love that name and it’s been on my girl list forever … once you said if I love it, use it, I realized I really do love it. Especially because I loved the name Evie from Genevieve but felt it was too short to use alone with Caroline and Genevieve was too long and a different style to use with Caroline. So now I have my little Evie! Also, my MIL Linda said she was called Linney as nn by her brother which could also work with Evelyn if we wanted to use that instead. And because I’m 39 and most likely these are my last babies (so sad!) it didn’t seem like it was worth trying to save the name Everett if we probably aren’t having anymore.
Lastly, I looked into the meanings of many of the names you wrote back about and although I thought your idea of Emilia was absolutely wonderful, I didn’t like its meaning being “rival” for a twin. Amelia also had a less than desirable meaning of work, striving, industrious. When I saw the meaning of Evelyn a long time ago I melted a bit at “wished for child.” That just felt so true for me.”
What a great name story!! And when I was thinking back to how I thought the kinds of names they were looking for could be described as “pearl necklace names,” I really feel like both Caroline and Evelyn fit that perfectly. I also love how both grandmothers are represented in both names — Carol and Lyn for Sara’s mom (Carolyn), and Lin (the spelling) and Lyn (the sound) for her MIL (Linda) — so fantastic!!
Congratulations to Sara and her husband and big brothers Landon and Brooks, and happy birthday Baby Caroline and Baby Evelyn!!
Evelyn Pearl (left) and Caroline Rose (right)
I had the great blessing of instituting a writing contest at my alma mater this spring, the middle/high school where my dreams of being a writer were encouraged and supported by wonderful teachers, and which provided a great springboard for my studies of writing, literature, and language in college and grad school, all of which led to me actually being able to call myself a professional writer. I’m so pleased to be able to encourage the current student writers in the way that I was! ❤
I named the contest for St. Francis de Sales because he’s the patron of authors, the Catholic Press, and writers in general, and he’s one of the saints I’ve chosen as patron of my own writing — I’m constantly asking for his help and intercession, that my writing serves God in the way it’s supposed to. For sure, this blog and all that has come out of it has been an answer to that prayer!
This is the first of what I hope will be many years of this contest, which will focus on the intersection of faith and writing through the topic chosen. For this, its inaugural year, the topic was: What Confirmation name did you or will you choose, and why? You might remember I’d written an article for CatholicMom.com last year providing guidelines on choosing a Confirmation name, which included a quote from my bishop, Bishop Scharfenberger, and the students were directed to read it before writing their essays.
Setting a high bar for a writing contest includes having good judges, and I was so thrilled to have secured Ms. Kate Blain, editor of my diocese’s newspaper The Evangelist; Mr. Giovanni Virgiglio, Superintendent of Schools for the Albany Diocese; and Fr. James Ebert, current pastor of Mater Christi parish in Albany and former chaplain of my alma mater, as well as a 1999 graduate. The contest was open to tenth and eleventh graders, and they should all be proud to know that the judges commented to me on what thoughtful teens they are, and what a hard choice it was.
Two winners were chosen, with the first-place winner receiving $100 and publication of his essay on CatholicMom.com; the second-place winner’s essay will also be published on CatholicMom.com. Ms. Blain at The Evangelist has also expressed interest in publishing the essays! All in all, the contest turned out just as I’d hoped — a true encouragement of faith and writing.
I’m so pleased to present the first-place essay, which posted today on CatholicMom!
I posted a consultation for Rachel and her husband back in April, and Rachel’s let me know her little green bean has arrived — a little GIRL named … Zelie Gianna!
Rachel writes,
“I wrote you a few months ago for a baby name consultation, on June 5th we welcomed our little girl, and we named her Zelie Gianna. Her brother, Albie is loving his new sister!
In the end, I felt like I had been praying for these 2 saintly mommas in heaven so much during my pregnancy (and continue to even more now!), when we found out the baby was a girl after she was born, it just seemed like we couldn’t name her anything else!“
Zelie Gianna! What a great name!! And I love it with big brother Albert Francis (Albie) — what a great, saintly pair!
Congratulations to the whole family, and happy birthday Baby Zelie!!
Zelie Gianna
I’m working on today’s consultation post — I should have it up later this morning — but first, I’m so excited to share that Grace at Camp Patton has had her baby!! A handsome little BOY who has been given the fantastic name … Abraham James!
As with Phoebe and with Bosco, I’ve again been surprised with the new Patton baby’s name — and I love being surprised!! Abraham has that nice long length that Sebastian and Theodore have, and his nickname Abe is SO DARLING! Abe Patton. That is such a fun and friendly and perfect name for a little guy. (I’m also kind of tickled that I was *sort of* swirling in the right spot with my suggestions of Isaac and Nathaniel. 😊)
Congratulations to Grace and Simon and big sibs Julia, Bash, Theo, Phoebe, and Bosco, and happy birthday Baby Abe!! Be sure to check out his sweet face on Grace’s blog or her Instagram!
Sancta Nomina 