What's in a name?

[CB_Catholic]

I want to name my daughter Magdalena Marie but only because I love love love Mary Magdalen and Our Blessed Mother.

I prefer the names Tyler, Aiden, Hagen, Hayden, Jadon etc… for boys… none of those are Christian names… that I know of.

If you ever did a Saint’s name search, or a name search that included variations, you’d be surprised at how many names are variations on a Saint’s name. My grandaughter is named Audrey, and I just thought it was an old-fashioned English name, not connected with a Saint. I looked it up in a Saint’s name index and to my surprise there was a St. Audrey, which is the diminutive form of Ethelreda, an Anglo-Saxon princess who became a Saint. So your favorite names just might well be connected with some less-well-known Saint, but be a diminutive form of their name, or maybe a foreign translation.

And of course, when you baptize a baby and give him or her a name, that name becomes a Christian name, because it belongs to a Christian now.

 

[Apryl]

Years ago a Catholic named their child after a saint. If you look at your older realtives, you can see this custom was followed because you will not find 60 year olds named Willow, Summer, Misty, Tiffany etc.

Since there are more than 30 or so saint names… where did they get their names from?

I’m sure that Scholastica wasn’t named for another saint… and I’m sure that there haven’t been an awful lot with that name since, either

Some folx are named for virtues, names for plants and flowers, seasons…

And while there may not be a lot of people with a name, that has more to do with culture than it does religion.

Did you know that Shirley Temple was named for her UNCLE? Prior to her, most ‘Shirleys’ were male. Try naming a boy ‘Shirley’ now… try finding many ‘Shirleys’ under the age of 30, while you’re at it!

 

[Mintaka]

Tyler – Blessed Robert Tyler, martyr.

Jadon – One of the guys in Nehemiah who rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls.

Actually, “Tiffany” is Theophane, which is French for Theophania. It’s a name for girls born on Epiphany or the Baptism of Our Lord. There was a Byzantine empress saint named Theophania, if I recall correctly.

Summer and Misty, I can’t help you with. Unless you want Blessed Thomas Somers.

Though of course there’s the Spanish girl’s name Nieves, after Our Lady of the Snows.

 

[Apryl]

I also knew what Bishop Sheen’s given name was - thought everyone did. He will be a Saint but I doubt if he will be Saint Fulton.

If the practice was/is that if a child is ‘given’ a name that is not-Catholic (enough), they may be Baptised with a name that is more fitting of the Baptism, so that child may have been Baptised ‘Margaret’, although the family always refers to the child as ‘Peggy’, for example.

Couldn’t that mean that Bishop Sheen was baptised as Peter John, but his LEGAL name, and the name he used for everything, was Fulton?

Why do you say simply ‘nickname’? Esp if that is how he was publicly addressed?

 

[Apryl]

We have family members who have five first names.

 

[Mintaka]

Because Fulton wasn’t his birth name. Peter was his birth name and his baptismal name.

He was never given the name Fulton, according to his autobiography, until he was old enough to go to school. He cried all the time, so people called him “Fulton’s baby”, and then just “Fulton”. When his grandfather on the Fulton side enrolled him in parochial school, he said the kid’s name was Fulton.

That’s what he says. Sounds like a nickname to me.

John was his Confirmation name.

 

[aicirt]

Re. five first names. The family is Dutch. Not too odd if you remember the royals have a whole slew of first names.

 

[aicirt]

Tyler – Blessed Robert Tyler, martyr.

Jadon – One of the guys in Nehemiah who rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls.

Actually, “Tiffany” is Theophane, which is French for Theophania. It’s a name for girls born on Epiphany or the Baptism of Our Lord. There was a Byzantine empress saint named Theophania, if I recall correctly.

Summer and Misty, I can’t help you with. Unless you want Blessed Thomas Somers.

Though of course there’s the Spanish girl’s name Nieves, after Our Lady of the Snows.

If “Tiffany” comes from Theophane or Theophania, where does “Monet” come from?? These were the names of two sisters in my neighborhood. Their Mom was honest about her intentions…the girls were to have the best.

If Wilhelmina is the feminine name for William, than I think Willow must find a male counterpart.

I envision “Willow” as a lithe slender creature struting down the runway during NY’s fashion week. A modern Audrey Hepburn. But life can throw some curves. She could grow up to snatch the shot put trophy away from the Russians at the Olympics.

Shirley Temple…no, didn’t know she was named for her uncle but I would know back then that Shirley wasn’t Catholic. Might have been some exceptions but it was the usual rule including that of the fictitious Scarlett who’s Catholic parents named her Katie (Catherine) Scarlett O’Hare. (Wonder why it was necessary to have the family Catholic?)

Anyone remember the Texas girls who were named Ima and Ura? Last name was Hogg. Died spinsters. Wonder why?

 

[cheese_sdc]

Willow was one of my favorite characters in Buffy… so I’m cool with it.

 

[AnotherChance]

Reminds me of when I witnessed a baptism last year that was done during the regular Sunday Mass. The parents were naming their son “August”. The priest repeatedly said “Augustine”, and the parents kept correcting him!

 

[Apryl]

Re. five first names. The family is Dutch. Not too odd if you remember the royals have a whole slew of first names.

But how can they all be first??

There can be four MIDDLE names, imo, but only ONE first.

See what I’m talking about now?

 

[Sarabande]

Re. five first names. The family is Dutch. Not too odd if you remember the royals have a whole slew of first names.

This was the case for many people who come from Europe as well. Mozart’s complete baptismal name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. His saint’s name was “Johannes Chrysostomus” since he was born on the feast day of St. John Chrysostom. It was part of the culture of in his time and area to give the baptismal name of the feast day of the saint the child was born and not meant to be used in everyday life. His parents then used Wolfgangus (Wolfgang as they would have used in German) after Mozart’s grandfather which was meant to be used as his first name in everyday life. Theophilus was to name him after his godfather, and “Amadeus” was the familiar Latin form of Theophilus which means “lover of God”.

Part of my mother’s heritage is Spanish and the Spaniards in her family have a long list of first names. I have two first names and one middle name (mother’s maiden name - also another tradition). Having more than two first names would not have flown here in the States and some people still give me a hard time about having more than one first name, even though I hardly, if ever, use the second part of my first name, “Maria”…

Edit - Not rolling eyes at “Maria”, but those very few people I’ve met who get so uptight about two first names and make comments about it being so “un-American”.

 

[Phemie]

Re. five first names. The family is Dutch. Not too odd if you remember the royals have a whole slew of first names.

This is a question of how you define ‘first name’. For some people “first name” means “all given names” and “second name” means surname/family name.

Realistically, you can only have 1 first name, then it’s a second, third and fourth name ending with your surname – or you have a first name, a last name and several middle names.

My first name is Marie, as was the first name of almost every girl in my grade 1 class. We were all known by our middle name.

 

[Apryl]

Shirley Temple…no, didn’t know she was named for her uncle but I would know back then that Shirley wasn’t Catholic. Might have been some exceptions but it was the usual rule including that of the fictitious Scarlett who’s Catholic parents named her Katie (Catherine) Scarlett O’Hare. (Wonder why it was necessary to have the family Catholic?)

Anyone remember the Texas girls who were named Ima and Ura? Last name was Hogg. Died spinsters. Wonder why?

An exception would be if the family were not Catholic… I agree that we are forgetting that there are other people than Catholics, and PRACTICING Catholics in this world.

I thought the Hogg sisters were in Nevada or something… but the woman in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was Truly Scrumptious!

 

[peary1]

I know a young woman who is expecting a child in March; the baby is a female.

This young woman plans to name her child “Willow.” Am I the only person who has a problem with this? The mother is a Catholic and I always thought her to be level headed but this is such a fanciful choice of name I am bewildered.

Will a Priest even baptize a Catholic child Willow?

Need some help here because this woman is bound to ask me what I think of her choice of name for her baby.

Well, the child will probably kick her mother or one day tell her how stupid she was to give her such a ridiculous name. Can’t say I wouldn’t blame her, either. I don’t know if the priest would baptize the child with that name. Priests will baptize anybody these days it seems. It used to be a Catholic custom to baptize a child with a saint’s name. The priest might tell her that she would have to include a scriptural name along with the tree name.

 

[AnotherChance]

If you ever did a Saint’s name search, or a name search that included variations, you’d be surprised at how many names are variations on a Saint’s name. My grandaughter is named Audrey, and I just thought it was an old-fashioned English name, not connected with a Saint. I looked it up in a Saint’s name index and to my surprise there was a St. Audrey, which is the diminutive form of Ethelreda, an Anglo-Saxon princess who became a Saint. So your favorite names just might well be connected with some less-well-known Saint, but be a diminutive form of their name, or maybe a foreign translation.

And of course, when you baptize a baby and give him or her a name, that name becomes a Christian name, because it belongs to a Christian now.

We picked Benjamin Xavier for our youngest child. Both names are saints’ names. But I was suprised when the priest said something about using the middle name as the saint’s name and asking us which saint in particular we were thinking of for that name. He just assumed Benjamin was not a saint. I didn’t correct him, but ran home and rechecked our saint book!

I agree with those on this thread who prefer continuing the Catholic tradition of using saints’ names for babies. It is a way to distinguish them as Christians in general and Catholics in particular, and it gives honor to God in a way that blatantly secular or invented names do not. As a convert I read “Catholicism for Dummies”, and it convinced me on this point.

 

[Phemie]

Well, the child will probably kick her mother or one day tell her how stupid she was to give her such a ridiculous name. Can’t say I wouldn’t blame her, either. I don’t know if the priest would baptize the child with that name. Priests will baptize anybody these days it seems. It used to be a Catholic custom to baptize a child with a saint’s name. The priest might tell her that she would have to include a scriptural name along with the tree name.

But he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if he did, since the Church requires no such thing. Willow is not offensive, even if it’s not traditional.

 

[Apryl]

This is a question of how you define ‘first name’. For some people “first name” means “all given names” and “second name” means surname/family name.

Realistically, you can only have 1 first name, then it’s a second, third and fourth name ending with your surname – or you have a first name, a last name and several middle names.

Precisely!

In my own family, my mother’s ‘first name’ is actually two words… like Betty Jo… but if she ever has to complete a government document, her ‘first name’ is ‘Betty’… even though no one would EVER call her ‘Betty’ if they know her

There are some people who address me by my first and middle names, but I only have the one first name

We can’t all be first (Like having 6 Maids of Honor… ONE is ‘of Honor’… the rest just are )

 

[Phemie]

Precisely!

In my own family, my mother’s ‘first name’ is actually two words… like Betty Jo… but if she ever has to complete a government document, her ‘first name’ is ‘Betty’… even though no one would EVER call her ‘Betty’ if they know her

I would have dealt with that at registration time by making it a hyphenated name. My baby brother is “Jean Louis”. I always hyphenated it when I wrote it but I noticed that he doesn’t. Not sure what’s on his baptismal & birth certificates, although it could be hyphenated on one and not on the other.

 

[aicirt]

But how can they all be first??

There can be four MIDDLE names, imo, but only ONE first.

See what I’m talking about now?

Got it! Phemie explained it all. I’ll go with her/him.