Your Favorite Saint Names

Oops, spelled it wrong

Zozimos.

One of the few reasons we hesitate is becuase our priest and others pronounce it Zaw-zee-mahs. We want it pronounced Zo-zee-mos how it (at least seems) should be pronounced with a long "o". The other pronunciation sounds like a cheesy american version... like when people pronounce "tortilla" as "tor-til-ah" rather than "tor-tee-yah" as it should be LOL

Boy: Photios, Melchizedek

Girl: ...Melchizedekia?

Hehehe. I really do like Photios, but I don't think I would make that a given name.

I like archangel names, especially Gabriel, and apostles' names too, especially James and Paul (I lurrrrrve Saint Paul).

For girls, I like Mary, Irene, Catherine, and Pelagia.

Just a note about giving your child their saint name as a middle name-

we did with our daughter and now regret it. It would have been much easier to just have her first name as her saint. People are constantly getting confused as to which one to call her and if I have to explain it even one more time I'll scream. I believe DavidBryan said something similar, that it's been a headache and he wished he would have just made her first name her saint name.

LK

kamikat said:

I always wanted a girl and would have named her Sophia. There's also Monica, Angelina, Brigid, Daria, Elana (a variation of Helen), Dorothy, Gabriella (feminine form of Gabriel), Jennifer (Anglocized version of Genevieve), Irene (we called my aunt "Renie" as a nickname), Julie, Juliana. If you don't mind your girl having a male patron, you can use Andrea (fem version of Andrew), Michelle (fem version of Michael), Justine (fem version of Justin), Romona (fem version of Romanos, Joan (fem version of John), ect.

Click to expand...

Daria is a beautiful name. I would consider it too... however, i do remember a Daria girl in my class and people would bully her and call her diarrhea.

Girls:
Marina
Zoe (Would celebrate on the feast of the zoodohos pigi or life giving fount of the theotokos)
daniella
theodora
isidora

I also particualrly like these girl names but they are more ethnic:
Elpida (Hope, but it sounds so much nicer in greek)
Evangelia (Eva for short, celebrate on the Annunciation)
despina (celebrate on any of the feast days of Our Lady)
paraskevi

Boys:
Mark
Theodore
Philip, Anthony
Sebastian
Elias

ethnic:
Haralambos
Xenophon
Damianos
Cosmas
Stavros (on the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross)
kyriakos

Grand_Duchess-Elizaveta said:

You know, I've been wondering if it's okay to name a child after a special feast or something, but it seems weird if they don't actually have a Saint's name, KWIM? I love the name Evangelia or Evangeline, but there are no Saints with that name. I also would love Magdelena, in honor of St. Mary Magdalen, but thing is, Magdala was the name of the place she was from, not her actual name, so I don't know if we could use it.

I'm truly surprised at how many of you North Americans are okay with the really unusual ethnic-sounding names. Maybe I'm just a wimp! Of course, I also know that our very anti-Orthodox inlaws will likely refuse to call our child by something too exotic or Orthodox-sounding.[rolls eyes] They'll just have to get over it...

Click to expand...

It's actually quite common to name people after a feast day or a title given to a saint in some Orthodox cultures. Then you celebrate the nameday on the feast day, so instead of having a patron saint, your name commemorates a Holy Event.

I know quite a few Evanglias who celebrate on the annunciation (Which is called Evangelismos in Greek)

Despinas (It means lady, and they celebrate on August 15th on the Dormition)

Anastasis (celebrate on Pascha, which is Anastasi in Greek)

Chrysostomos (After St. John Chrysostomos)

Stavros and stavroulas (celebrate on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross)

and I know a Theophania (celebrates on Epiphany day)

We have a Magdalena in our parish.

Mary

What's wrong with a name being somewhat common, and who cares who is currently in your church? You could end up moving next week. I guess you just don't like the names, but there's nothing wrong with being common. There are a lot of Johns and Marys and Matthews and Nicholas', and that's a good thing.

"This is Nick, Nick, Nick, Nikki, and Nick"

Magdalena is an Orthodox name. I dont think I could name a kid with more than 5 syllables.



John-----It is Zosimas, if you are talking about St. Zosimas, the priest who encountered St. Mary of Egypt. And I believe you can have open O sounds in Greek, not only long Os. Z-(open O) see-mahs is, afaik, the way to say it.

I also love the name Magdalena. I remember when I took Spanish, the teacher assigned us each a name by which we would be called in class, and I was jealous of the girl who was called Magdalena.

Go with a name you like, and assume that he/she won't mind being one of many Johns, Jennifers, or Sarahs. Most people don't.

There are 4 John's within immediate family on ONE side of my family. It's perfectly ok.

choirfiend said:

There are 4 John's within immediate family on ONE side of my family. It's perfectly ok.

Click to expand...

Yes, we have a whole lot of George's in my family. And it works out fine. (actually it's kinda nice because when we're with extended family everyone calls my dad Georgy, and I get to tease him.)

My only two cents on the subject are before sticking your kid with a name like Zosimas, sit down and think, "would I have enjoyed taking all the crap he's going to get for this name when I was a kid?" Being a kid is hard enough without everyone taking the micky out of you for having a weird name. Probably a lot of parents think they're doing something really cool or unique by chosing exotic names for their kids, the reality is they're mostly just making them a target for jokes. I'd rather be one of 20 Peter, Joe's, Mark's, or Steve's than the lone "Jarvis Red Wine" (yes, I went to grade school with someone named Jarvis Red Wine). I'm certain he lived up to his promise that the moment he turned 18 he was going to start the process of changing his name.

E, I think you should reconsider OT names. I'm a huge fan of Samuel. Then there's Micah, Jeremiah ("Jeremy"), Nathaniel, Methuselah (well maybe not that one...)

If we're blessed with another son, he'll be Isaac (though after the Syrian)

There are a few OT names I like for girls, not many.... Ruth. Or Naomi.

How about Veronica, the woman of the Holy Napkin? That's pretty and not too common. It's what we'll name another daughter. I'm with you all the way about not liking names that are TOO common. In fact, I'd ALWAYS wanted to name a daughter Emma, after my grandma, but within the last 10 years it's gotten crazy common, so we scratched that. In fact, we used http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/ to make sure any names we chose weren't TOO high. Sam is little higher than I like, but we just couldn't think of anything else. Johanna was in the 400's (We had the 2004 list, it's now up to 2005)


Have fun! This is such an exciting time, to be making these choices. MM HATED the name Samuel, up til the day we saw the Level II u/s...then it just clicked... we had a decent view of his face, and he just LOOKED like a Sam. Still does.

LK

Magdalena is an Orthodox name.

Click to expand...

I love that name... it was on our list, I wanted to call her Maggie for short. But my uber-Baptist MIL screeched that it sounded waaaay "too Catholic" Rather than having our child deal with snotty comments from her grandma her whole life, we just chose to scratch it off the list.

Hey E... what about Nicole? Or Nicola? We had a Nicola at my old parish.

LK