Happy belated feast of the Epiphany! And today is a new-to-me feast day: Our Lady of Prompt Succor! I’m very familiar with Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Succor), and now OL of Prompt Succor — she’s such an immediate and everlasting help, that Mother of ours!

Today’s consultation is a tender one as it’s for a mama who’s expecting a baby after losing her previous youngest to a tragic accident. I think you’ll be as moved and inspired by this family’s story as I am! (I also wanted to give a little heads-up to anyone who might not be up for an emotional story today, which I totally get — sometimes [especially when I was pregnant] I just can’t spend the day crying, you know?)

First off, the name info: Jill and her husband, who are expecting their seventh born baby, a little green bean (=gender unknown🌱)! This little one joins big sibs:

Graham Stephen (“Graham is my maiden name. In addition to being my husband’s middle name, Stephen is also his father’s first name“)

Lucas Patrick (“We call him Lucas and Luke. I always loved the name Lucas. Patrick is Tim’s uncle, who he lived with a bit in college and thinks highly of. St. Patrick’s was also our church at the time. St. Patrick has been a favorite Saint of many of our kids over the years“)

Raymond Browning (“We call him Raymond and Ray. Ray is Tim’s maternal grandpa. Rae is also Tim’s mother’s middle name. We didn’t know it when we named him but St. Raymond Nonnatus is the patron of expectant mothers and midwives because he miraculously survived his mother dying in childbirth. I have spent my entire nursing career in the NICU and Women’s Services so learning this felt very divinely orchestrated to me. Browning is my father’s middle name [and his father’s and grandfather’s]“)

Titus John (“We came across the name Titus when we were pregnant with Raymond and searching for Catholic or Biblical boys names. We chuckled a bit about it because it felt so… I don’t know… Roman, but it stuck with us. By the time Titus was born, I loved the book of Titus and I felt sure we were supposed to use the name for him. It fits him well. It’s fun that he shares a feast day with his dad. During this time, I had also fallen in love with the Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved and couldn’t imagine not naming one of my boys after him“)

Leo Joachim (“The only baby who’s gender we knew was Raymond’s. So, we’re pregnant with baby #5 and already have 4 boys. I had zero idea what we were going to name this baby if he was a boy … Titus’ name had felt so divinely orchestrated that throughout pregnancy #5 I prayed that God would make it obvious to me what we were supposed to name this baby. Occasionally I would suggest boy names that I thought were ‘okay’ and Tim would say, ‘meh.’ Tim suggested Leo over and over again. Leo is his maternal great-grandfather. I knew a few toddler Leos at our church so I thought the name would be too common and didn’t really want to use it. The morning Leo was born, after we moved into our post-partum room, we started trying to name him. My mom was on the way with our boys and we joked that if we didn’t name him by the time she arrived, she would name him. I had a list of about 10 boy names that I thought were okay and Tim didn’t like any of them. He still wanted Leo. I said, ‘Well, let’s just see who the saint of the day is. Maybe it will be someone we haven’t thought of yet. Maybe it will spark a name we haven’t thought of yet.’ I pulled it up and started laughing out loud. Pope Saint Leo the Great. I said yes to Leo right then but in case I needed more reassurance God sent more. My sister in law sent me an e-mail with a reflection from the day and said, ‘Leo would be a great name!’ Then, my co-worker, who isn’t Catholic, and didn’t know what we had named him, went to the gift shop to buy me something before she came to our room to see us. [She was on the lactation team with me.] She brought us a stuffed Lion. [Leo stems from the Latin word for lion.] It was settled. We liked Leo Joachim and Leo Joseph. [Joe is my father’s name.] I am always a fan of different names so since Tim was up for the name Joachim, I picked that. In addition to being a great name for Mary’s father, Joachim is also a family name on Tim’s paternal side.”)

(Sorry, I just have to interrupt to say JOACHIM!! And also, how about this story of allllll the signs that Leo was clearly the right name for this baby??!! 😍😍😍)

Augustine Joseph (“When we were pregnant with baby #6, I felt like Titus was a bit of an outlier, as far as being a name from the earlier years of Christianity. So, I was looking at names from the Roman Canon and the earlier saints. Tim’s sister and brother in law had lost a baby at 19 weeks who they named Gus [Augustine James]. St. Augustine of Hippo fit my search for older saints. I asked them how they would feel if we used it and they said they’d be honored. We weren’t settled on it by any means when we asked them but I don’t remember much about the rest of our name considerations or discussions. Born in January of the year of St. Joseph, we named him Augustine Joseph. I mentioned earlier, Joe is also my dad’s name [and his father’s and grandfather’s]. Augustine went by his full name but also Gus, Gus Gus, Gustin, and Auggie. At 18 months old, he choked on a sandwich and after I did CPR on him he was declared brain dead two days later. Saint Augustine of Hippo’s writings occur constantly which I see as a beautiful way God would frequently remind me of my saintly son and his patron saint. We like to say St. Gus, pray for us! Or Saint Augustine Joseph, pray for us. My sister in law and brother in law had not buried their Gus yet because they couldn’t find a spot that felt right (they live far from family). So, we buried the two of them next to each other in the baby section of our Catholic cemetery. It’s great because I can visit, pray at, decorate and care for Augustine James’ grave as I do Augustine Joseph’s. There are more details on some of the many ways God has worked miracles through Gus’ short life and death at https://breezybreastfeeding.com/how-to-grow-your-yes-to-god/ and in some of the links I placed in that article.”)

What a cross this family has been asked to bear! What a blessing that they’ve been given so many comforting signs like the frequent occurrence of the writings of St. Augustine and the miracles Jill’s been able to see come about through the loss of their beautiful boy.

“Throughout these babies, we’ve also had four miscarriages named John, Sammy, Josephine, and Gemma.”

This family has experienced so much loss! It’s always a privilege for me to work with families on choosing names for their babies, and I was feeling that privilege extra much when I was working on this. I’m so grateful for all the ways God uses my funny little interest in names to help others!

Jill continues,

“My favorite names are ones that people have heard of but are not common. Augustine was a bit tricky for me because so many people pronounced it like the town in Florida instead of like the saint. If they pronounced it like the town in Florida, then they would often think he was a girl because of the Christine-like ending. Though I care less about people being able to pronounce my kid’s name over the years and am open to more obscure Saints and Biblical names. 

Tim’s preferences lean more toward common names … He’s grown a lot though to consider many other names but he still learns more toward common names than I do. If a name is listed in the top 10, I consider that a negative but we still have used some common names I love. And my oldest ended up having three Grahams in his grade at our parish so you never know! If we had named him Luke like we originally planned, he’d be the only one. As it is, our Lucas is one of many (maybe 6) Lukes in his grade at our parish.”

Names they’re considering for a girl include:

• Clara (“always our front-runner, we visited Assisi after Gus died and I fell in love with St. Clare. I used to think she was too intimidating to name a child after. Who can live up to Saint Clare?! While we were in Assisi, I realized she simply said yes to God and his plan for her. His plan for me will look different. But my goal is to say yes to his plan for me, however it looks, and I pray that my kids will say yes to God’s plan for them. I love the tweak of Clara. We live in a town with an active, Catholic, homeschooling community which means there are a lot of Clares. Clara is definitely not uncommon either. Clara Faye has been our front-runner. Leena Faye was my paternal grandmother’s name, though she went by Faye. My maternal grandmother’s name was Marjorie May and we have also considered May for many girl middle names“)

• Cecilia (“I had a dream last year that we were pregnant with twin girls named Clara and Cecilia and I have loved the name Cecilia ever since. Our Cathedral is Saint Cecilia’s. Our parish, St. Wenceslaus, has St. Cecilia in stained glass in the chapel where we have daily Mass. I love to sing. Though I don’t have the talent or training to share it outside my home and Mass, my kids know that I may break into song at any moment. I have a few kids who insist we use Marie as a middle name for our first girl, since we used dad’s middle name for our first boy. I do think Cecilia Marie is beautiful“)

• Ivy (“I just read my boys the story of Holly and Ivy. I loved this book as a kid and even though it’s about a little girl and a doll, my boys were very engaged with it. I loved the name and I checked your Marian naming book afterwards to see if Ivy was in there. I was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful writing about Ivy in there and her roots to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was first introduced to our Lady of Sorrows years ago when my friend had a 16 week miscarriage [actually two friends on the same day at 16 weeks]. My friend was reluctant to invite Our Lady of Sorrows into her life but Our Lady pursued her and my friend finally gave in. She now has a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was able to witness this process of hers so when Augustine died, I knew I wanted to learn about Our Lady of Sorrows. When Tim and I went to Italy after Augustine died, the one thing I had in mind to look for was an Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary. We were in Orvieto, Italy on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15, and they have a powerful statue in their church of Mary holding Jesus after he was taken down from the cross. Our priest, who walked with us through all the Gus things, gave a homily about Mary’s thoughts while she stood at the foot of the cross. His contemplations about Mary’s thoughts were identical to my conversation with God throughout Gus’s last brain function test. Then I realized that my thoughts, prayer, and mindset during his last test (the one that would declare him legally brain dead or not) was not of my own making but a gift from Our Lord or from his mother. The next day, a fellow pilgrim said she had something for me. She said, ‘I didn’t mean to bring this to Italy, but I found it in my pocket. It’s an Our Lady of Sorrows Rosary that I made years ago. The colors remind me of the church we were at yesterday, in Orvieto, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and I feel like you’re supposed to have it.’ I still chuckle at her words. I replied, Yes! I think I am supposed to have it! ;)”)

And names they’re considering for boys include:

“We are strongly considering the name Augustine for a middle name.”

• Daniel (“love the old testament Daniel“)

• Nicholas (“Tim has never been a huge fan but I’ve always come back to this one as a possibility“)

• Simon

• Anthony (“My maternal uncle’s name. His story wasn’t unlike St. Augustine’s. From reluctant to great disciple of Jesus. He died about ten years ago in his early 50’s. Naming a child after my Uncle Tony would be great but I’ve never loved the names Anthony or Tony. I do like AJ“)

I really love the names Jill and her hubby have given their kiddos! I’m so glad her husband came around on Graham — I think it’s so fantastic when Mom’s maiden name is doable for a first name! Lucas, Raymond (“Raymond Browning” is such a great combo!), Titus, Leo (I love all the signs from heaven that his name should be Leo!), and Augustine are all wonderful, too, and I love how they have a fairly eclectic group of names — it allows them to do pretty much anything they want going forward since they’re not tied to any one style.

And of course you all must know how absolutely STARRY EYED I am over Leo’s middle name!! I LOVE Joachim!! It’s so cool that it’s a family name on Jill’s husband’s side! That’s so awesome!

The names they gave their miscarried babies are also wonderful. I’m interested by their reusage of names — John and Josephine as first names, and John and Joseph for middle names, as well as the possibility of using Augustine as a middle name for this baby. In my experience, it’s a rare practice, but not unheard of, and can really create lovely connections between your children. We named the baby I miscarried sixteen years ago Ignatius, and my 15yo — the boy born ten months after I lost Ignatius — was just Confirmed and chose Ignatius as his Confirmation name, in large part because of that baby. It’s given me more joy than I would have thought to think of my baby in heaven and my son on earth sharing a special connection through their name.

Okay, I’ll start by offering my thoughts on the names they’re considering for this baby, in case they’re helpful:

• Clara: I love it, it’s a beautiful, saintly name and has long been a favorite of theirs, never mind Jill’s meaningful realization about St. Clare. Clara Faye is lovely! To me, this is the name to beat.

• Cecilia: The song in Jill’s voice (no pun intended, haha!) when she wrote about Cecilia would totally have put it at the top of my list for them if it wasn’t for Clara! Twins Clara and Cecilia would be perfect; otherwise, Cecilia is my favorite name for a second girl for this family.

• Marie as a middle name: I’m with Jill’s kids — I love the idea of using Marie as their first girl’s middle name since they used Hubby’s middle name for their first boy! I’m also wondering what they’d think of Marie as a first name?

• Ivy: This is such a sweet name! I love the connection to Our Lady of Sorrows, too, and was so interested to read Jill’s connection to her. What a cool story about the lady who gave her the Our Lady of Sorrows rosary!! This post on my blog about Theresa’s devotion to OL of Sorrows is a good one to link to here — I love this quote especially regarding the Catholic view of sorrow: “It is hope, instead of despair, in the face of tragedy. It is fortitude in the face of upset and chaos. It is trust in the midst of darkness. And it is gratitude in the midst of hardship.”

• Daniel: Jill’s love for the Old Testament Daniel inspired one of my name ideas below! Also, a more familiar name like Daniel would pair really nicely with a middle name like Augustine.

• Nicholas: You’ll see in my Appellation Mountain consultation that Nicholas was a name my husband and I talked about a LOT! We could never figure out how to make each of us comfortable with it … we talked about the nickname Cole (or even as a given name), and the variant/short form Colin is a style match for this family according to my research; I love the nickname Nico and the similar formal names Nikolai and Nicodemus (Nicodemus is another name I pushed for with my husband! It was always a hard no from him!).

• Simon: I love it! It’s a big style match for this family per my research.

• Simeon: I love Simeon, too!

• Anthony: I feel similarly to Jill about Anthony — a great name and a great Saint, but I can see why it doesn’t appeal to her. I saw Antonia in my research for them (style match for Cecilia) — I wonder if they would be interested in flipping the honor of Uncle Tony from a boy to a girl? Antonia would be a pretty middle name; I also have a friend Antoinette and am often struck by how pretty and feminine her name is. It would be really nice as a middle for a short first name — Ivy Antoinette maybe? (Not Marie Antoinette!) Or Marie Antonia? The an-to-NEE-ah pronunciation would have a nice flow with Marie.

Okay, on to new ideas! I really love working on challenging consultations, which I consider this one to be because of Jill and her hubby having already named so many boys. It was fun to try to come up with ideas that I thought fit their style while not being names they’ve already used or considered or are on their “no” list! But no worries — I can always come up with more ideas! So as mentioned, I did my usual research in the Baby Name Wizard (affiliate link), but I also had some ideas of my own that I added to the list for gut-feeling reasons (which aren’t always on point, but sometimes are). I was reluctant to add any that are in my Mary names book, since Jill’s already familiar with it and I feel like she would have included ideas from it on her own list (besides Ivy and Simeon) if they appealed, but sometimes making a strong argument for a name gives it a sparkle it didn’t have before, so there are a few on my list below that are also in my book.

Girl

(1) Susanna, Annabel(le)

When I read that Jill loves the Old Testament Daniel, I immediately thought of Susanna, who is a virtuous woman in the Book of Daniel and saved by Daniel from death due to a false accusation. There’s also a Susanna in the New Testament who had been healed by Jesus and accompanied Him on his journeys and provided for Him. And there’s St. Susanna, whose feast day is the same as St. Clare! This is in my book of Marian names because it means both “rose” and “lily” in Hebrew (one in ancient Hebrew, one in modern Hebrew).

Annabel/Annabelle is also in my book, and Susanna made me think of it, as well as the fact that Anna and Hannah are both style matches for this family per the BNW. Annabelle is also a style match for Juliet! It’s a variant of Amabilis, which is part of the Marian title Mater Amabilis. So pretty!

(2) Phoebe

I never would have come up with Phoebe on my own for this family, but I was so interested to see it listed as a match for both Graham and Titus — I thought that was too cool to ignore! One of my fave Catholic mamas, Grace Patton, has a Phoebe — see all her kids’ names here; here and here and here and here are other families that have a Phoebe in case you’d like to see what a Phoebe’s siblings are named.

(3) Elise or Eliza (or the full Elizabeth/Elisabeth)

Elise is a match for Graham and Simon, and Eliza for Clara and Cecilia — that’s pretty amazing! They could use the full Elizabeth (or the spelling Elisabeth) to use either of those, or bestow one of the shorter forms as the given name.

(4) Lydia

Lydia also did quite well in my research, being listed as a match for Titus, Simon, and Simeon. I’ve always loved that Lydia in the bible was a seller of purple cloth, which means a little Lydia has her very own color!

(5) Natalie/Natalia

Natalie is a match for both Nicholas and Anthony, and it’s also in my book of Marian names because of Our Lady’s role in Jesus’ Nativity (Natalie refers to Christmas), as well as that word being attached to her through her own Nativity. Natalia feels like a more current version and closer in style to Clara and Cecilia. Natalie and Natalia are both pretty!

Boy

(1) Benjamin, Bennett, Benedict

I think one of these is my favorite idea for this baby if a boy! Benjamin is a style match for Lucas, Daniel, and Nicholas, and the nickname Ben is in the same friendly category as Ray, Leo, and Gus. Additionally, Jill and her hubby have two biblically named boys so far and four that aren’t, so it would be cool to loop in another biblical name.

That said, however, Bennett is really appealing to me — it’s a match for Juliet and as soon as I saw it I thought Yes! It just felt right, and the fact that it’s a medieval short form of Benedict made it seem extra cool. (Interesting to note that Austin is a medieval short form of Augustine.) I also feel like Bennett Augustine is an easier combo than some of the longer options, like Benjamin or Benedict.

Which, of course, brings me to Benedict. It’s got the same heavy “monastery” feel as Augustine, and Ben lightens it up just like Gus does for Augustine. You’ll see in the Appellation Mountain consultation I really wanted Benedict as a first name for my youngest! We couldn’t use the nickname Ben, but I really liked Bear. (Hubby was a no.)

(2) Dominic

Dominic is inspired by Augustine and Benedict (I always think of those three names as the “monastery” names). Nic(k) and Nico can be nicknames for Dominic! Maybe that’s how they can work in Jill’s affinity for Nicholas?

(3) Zechariah

Zachary is a match for Nicholas, but that didn’t feel quite right to me. It did make me think of Zechariah, though, which I love because of his connection to St. Elizabeth and further to the Visitation. Zeke is my favorite nickname for it, which feels a lot like Ray and Gus to me! (That “old man” vibe, which is so cozy and sweet!)

(4) Oscar or Owen

I’m not convinced that Oscar is a good fit here, but the BNW says differently! It’s a match for August (standing in for Augustine, which doesn’t have its own entry), Gus, and Clara, and I know of three sweet little boys with the name: here and here (Oscar) and here (Oskar).

Another O name that showed up in my research is Owen, which is a match for Lucas and Ivy, and my nephew Leo’s little brother is Owen. Also, St. Nicholas Owen is one of my faves! I’m not sure how that fits in with Nicholas on their list, but I needed to mention it!

(5) Tristan

Finally, Jill’s devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows made me think of Tristan. I love the name anyway, but knowing of its connection to the word “sad” — and therefore to Our Lady of Sorrows — gives it a really nice and unexpected faith connection. (I’m a big fan of “unexpected” in naming!)

And those are all my ideas! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little brother or sister of Graham, Lucas, Raymond, Titus, Leo, and Augustine?

---

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation here.

For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!