Maybe it's because I'm a new parent, or because many of my friends are becoming parents, but one of the biggest trends I see is all things baby. Baby names, specifically. You can't shake a stick at the Internet without finding some sort of website touting the year's hottest and cutest baby names. (Or my personal favorite–sites making fun of the year's hottest and cutest baby names.)
Naming your child is a big deal–it's something that will stick with them the rest of their life. You don't want to mess it up. You might even want God on your side. Then I came across this site this week that promised "trendy, cute, fun Christian/Catholic Saint names for girls. They're cool, old fashioned and bring history, virtues & meaning."
After rolling my eyes at the preciousness of it all, I read on, only to be pleasantly surprised at some of the saintly suggestions for naming your little XX. Then I rolled my eyes a little more. For instance: "Adele (cute!): Like a cross between Addison and Isabelle!"; or "Juliana: Almost Julia, but with a little more life." Tell that to Julia.
But I see where they're going. We Catholics love naming our kids after biblical characters and saints, but some names have perhaps been, how shall we say…overused. (How many Marys are in your family? I count seven.) I can understand the desire for today's generation of parents to pick fresh, new names from the Bible or the Book of Saints (ironic, when you think about it). Just look at the U.S. Social Security list of popular baby names: Jacob (# 1) is in. Peter (#191) petered out.
I named my own son Benedetto after his beloved great-grandpa (who was rumored to have been named after Mussolini). And while I didn't intend on naming Benny after the pope or the saint, he's got a good solid Catholic name regardless. That makes me happy. That makes my family happy. And that makes God happy. Maybe I'll name my next child Dorcus.
