Posted on 05/17/2016 5:50:33 AM PDT by NYer
Once upon a time, Catholic families had a girl named Mary, without fail. Maybe “Elizabeth” or “Rose” made its way into the mix, but you had to have a Mary — or Marie, or Maria, or at least a Regina. Even boys often had some form of “Mary” as a middle name.
Now the name “Mary” has sunk below the top 100 names in the U.S., and the hunt is on for something new to name the baby — or something so old, it sounds new again.
“I’m seeing a lot of vintage/retro/throwback names,” says Kate Towne, who writes Sancta Nomina, a blog devoted to Catholic baby names. “This follows the taste of American society as a whole. Those names are due for a resurgence in popularity.”
Old is the new new
American parents are returning to names that were popular when our grandparents were in diapers. Emma, Olivia, Sophia and Ava top the chart for girls, and Jacob, William, Michael and Alexander are holding strong for boys.
Catholics take names and their implications seriously, so they’ve always been ahead of this nostalgic curve, borrowing names from scripture, from Church history, and even from virtues. It’s only icing on the cake if a beloved patron saint brings some hipster cred along for the ride.
Edie/Edith is all the rage, and it sounds even edgier if you’ve encountered that edgiest of Carmelite nuns, philosopher, martyr, and Jewish convert Edith Stein. Likewise, Leo and Sebastian have that sought-after retro sound, with the bonus of some spectacular saintly backstories. Jude and Blaise sound bold and fierce, but their hagiographies are even more thrilling.
What other old-fashioned names are back in style with Catholics and non-Catholics alike? Ask the question on Facebook, and Lucys abound. Veronicas and Josephines are blooming everywhere. Gaggles of Dominics, Georges, Henrys, and Theodores fill public and parochial kindergartens.
But some retro names are enjoying a heyday mainly around the baptismal font, and are less likely to catch on in the secular world. Ambrose and Augustine, Pia and Pio, Kateri, Philomena and Felicity are very hot right now, and Caeli is inching up the Catholic charts.
The last shall be first
Another trend, and a dashing one, is to give a child a surname for a first name. For Catholics, it’s a stealthy way to honor a holy man or woman while still enjoying a little creative cache: Kolbe/Kolby/Colby works for Maximilian Kolbe; Siena honors Catherine of Siena and Avila sends a nod to Theresa of Avila. Some parents drop the “John” and just name their son or daughter Vianney. If Thomas is too common, Becket is a strong name, especially for parents who value religious liberty. If “Edward” isn’t exciting enough, maybe “Campion the Undercover Jesuit” sounds a little fresher.
And oh, those nicknames! It sounds so hip when your son answers to Iggy, Nacho, Nash, Nat, or Ace — but to his altar boy pals, he’s Ignatius Athanasius.
When the brand new saints go marching in
Towne says, “I receive requests for name consultations all the time, and almost all of those families want ‘a super saintly name that’s not too weird.’” Luckily for these families, the last few years have brought a spate of canonizations, and with them, a surge of new (or newly-remembered) saint names:
Zelie/Azelie is exploding in popularity, because so many mothers have lost their hearts to the newly-canonized Zelie Martin, a working mother who didn’t breastfeed all her kids and who somehow managed to raise St. Thérèse of Lisieux. St. Zelie Martin worried about her children, groused about fasting, loved her husband passionately, couldn’t handle all the housework, and prayed for her kids incessantly.
Venerable Fulton Sheen’s canonization is still in the works, but 37 years after his death, he’s nearly as popular as he was when he was on TV. Little Fultons are popping up everywhere, reminding us that (as the name of Sheen’s popular show said) life is worth living.
St. Gianna Beretta Molla, beloved of pro-lifers, physicians, and working women, was canonized in 2004. St. Gianna was a joyful and courageous woman who has come to the aid of many a pregnant mother both before and after her death, and now she is lending her name to countless Catholic girls.
The Jubilee Year of Mercy has put the spotlight on Divine Mercy visionary St. Faustina, and her name is surging in popularity as parents meditate on God’s mercy. The name “Faustina” has that perfect combination of, as Towne says, “Catholicky, but not too weird.”
The name family of Chiara/Ciara and Claire/Clare/Clara is enjoying a renaissance (with a boost from Doctor Who) in honor of the lovely and valiant Bl. Chiara Luce Badano, as well as the magnificent St. Clare, companion of St. Francis, who stood firm against the Saracens and whose thick blonde hair is on display in a reliquary in Assisi.
Are patron saints mandatory?
Towne points out that the Church used to require parents to choose a name of a saint or a Christian virtue or mystery, but that “the new naming requirements are not so strict.” Now we must simply avoid names that are “foreign to Christian sensibility.”
“Basically,” says Towne, “most names are totally fine.” If you choose a name mainly for its sound and it happens to be a saint’s name, she says, “I think is sometimes a way of saints choosing us! I love that, no matter what your taste in names is, you can find ones you love that hearken back to amazing patrons and role models.”
And then there’s Gemma. Why is this name suddenly all the rage? Maybe parents like the idea that, when St. Gemma herself was baptized, her mother reportedly feared that the child would never get into heaven without a saint’s name. The priest reassured her, saying, “Let us hope that she may become a gem of Paradise.”
So if mom and dad adore a name, but there’s no saint attached to it, maybe it’s just a matter of time.
I have a boy in my Cub Scouts den named Mars.
We Jews use a lot of (Old Testament) Biblical names, so Miriam (Moses’s sister) is very popular.
I knew a family like that: Mary Margaret, Mary Catherine, Mary Elizabeth, Mary Anne, and Mary Augusta.
They were known as Margaret (Maggie), Catherine, Elizabeth (Betty), Annie, and (just because her mom liked how it sounded), Mary Augusta.
Regards,
PS: We stuck with the classics (William and John). But I know a few folks who have gone off the beaten path (Finbar, Blaise, Magdalena, Becket, Edmund..)
He should be glad it wasn't Uranus....
Heh. At least, when your name is Mars, you’re probably the only one in your class.
And most (pre-Vatican II) Frenchmen have “MARIE” as a middle or confirmation name.
My son in law says his French grandparents always caused confusion when they’d go abroad. Her name is Claude and his was Jean-Marie. In France, those are female and male names, respectively, while it’s reversed in the US and English speaking countries.
My grandchildren with Biblical names:
Hannah
Ella Grace
Abigail
Isaac David
Elianna (Eli) (Anna)
Stephanie (after Stephen)
David
**Blaise, Magdalena, Becket, Edmund**
These are all saints’ names.
Mohammed Abdullah bin Jihad ...
Mine is “Daniel”. Kind of hard to go wrong with “God Is My Judge”
Oh yes, I know. But they are a bit off the beaten path from, say...James, Andrew, and Mary.
That’s all I meant.
Best,
heres to our 8
I remember Brother Joseph Mary, CPPS., from college. He ran the book binding room in the library.
Charlotte is a beautiful name; even the Royals chose to name their daughter Charlotte.
Great story ... love it!
So do I! And he's tall, dark and handsome.
No, there is no official list. However, I think that someone presenting their child for baptism with the name 'Apple' or 'ESPN' (yes, there are children named for tv networks), 'Satan' or some other bizarre name, would be challenged to provide some more recognizable name, even if it were not that of a saint.
There are some odd naming trends in contemporary society. Consider, for example, the names British chef Jamie Oliver and his wife, Joos, have given their children: Daisy Boo Pamela Oliver, Poppy Honey Rosie Oliver, Petal Blossom Rainbow Oliver, Buddy Bear Maurice Oliver Then there are these parents who named their child ...
That is just downright cruel.
I enjoyed reading this and glad the old saint names are making a comeback!
My kids are “normally” named, Irish or Viking as are their parents. I wanted to call my daughter “Bridget” but mama wasn’t having any of that. My professional patron saint is Saint Gabriel, the Patron Saint of Messengers. Gabriel is therefore the patron saint of Radiomen.
We knew about it being moses sister name. Looking it up we found that Miriam was merely Mary in the original Hebrew and Aramaic so we count her as being named after both.
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