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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Catholic saint names (boy)

59 replies

BoysNameHelp · 06/07/2024 21:33

Help!! Looking for Catholic saint names for a little boy.

Names we like:

Wilfrid (too popular?)
Oswald
Bartholomew (too similar to our son's name)
Herbert

I love Ambrose and Augustine but DH not sold for a first name, likes for middle name

Very open to suggestion!

OP posts:
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Gcsunnyside23 · 09/07/2024 22:53

Aidan
Jude
Maximilian (max)
Blaise
Fabian
Killian
Malachy

AliceMcK · 09/07/2024 22:47

LlynTegid · 07/07/2024 07:39

When your son is born, if it is the feast day of one of your shortlist of names, or perhaps the birth date of a pope who took one of the names, could that be the basis of your final choice?

This is a very good idea.

my dd is named after a saint, the name came about in a very meaningful way, we hadn’t planned on it as we had already settled on name we both loved.

Without being too outing as it’s a unique story I’ve told many times. A summary with a few changes, during a very heartfelt emotional visit to ancestral place I saw a sign, figuratively and literally. I wasn’t sure what it meant at the time, but the location of the sign had extremely significant meaning to my family. It as located on the same street named after one of the saints I listed above, a place my grandmother talked about all the time when I was little. We were on our way to a church my family all attended in their home country. Inside the church I learnt the sign was a saints name. There were so many connections to my family history and our family situation at the time to this saint including had I had a boy he would have definitely had a name relating to this saint, that was decided before we knew what sex we were having, regardless of the saint connection, it was an important family name. So that was it, I was hooked. I was 5 months pregnant at the time.

TheBottomsOfMyTrousersAreRolled · 09/07/2024 22:39

BoysNameHelp · 07/07/2024 07:20

Thank you - lots of great suggestions to consider! We almost went with Bede for our son and it's actually his middle name so not sure if it would be weird to use it for another baby's first name... We love all of the history of the Northern saints.

I think my new shortlist is:

Dunstan
Florian
Oswald
Ambrose
Cassian
Aidan
Augustine
Wilfrid

Is go ambrose from that list. Definitely not aidan.

mathanxiety · 08/07/2024 16:55

Eustace
Edmund
Henry
John
Richard
Alban
Ralph
Robert
(Among the 40 English martyrs)

Thomas / Becket

Cosmas
Faustus
Cornelius
Dismas
Erasmus
Titus (Biblical, but also Saint Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest martyred in Dachau)
Marius
Justus
Nicodemus

Damien
Adrian
Quentin
Lucien
Julian
Justin

Clement
Leo
Gregory

Ansgar
Benno
Casimir
Stanislaus
Isidore
Killian
Ivo
Jacoby
Jerome
Julius

I'd avoid Oswald because of Mosley.

I'd avoid names that are too obscure or any name Jacob Rees Mogg would bestow on his offspring (unless you're Mrs Rees Mogg of course).

3luckystars · 08/07/2024 16:22

Wilfrid too popular 😂that’s gas!!!

Gabriel Michael Raphael

Wild Card: Urban

user1492757084 · 08/07/2024 16:18

Columbus
Nicholas
Oscar
Hugh
Arnulf
Clement
Constantine
Coleman
Charles
Thomas

Lemonsole · 07/07/2024 10:05

Benedict

Abbreviates well, too, if they want to blend in more when older.

CurlewKate · 07/07/2024 07:49

Michael
Peter
Jude
Simon

Bunchesofhyacinths · 07/07/2024 07:42

MissyB1 · 06/07/2024 21:45

Patrick
Thomas
Francis

My 3 Favourites.

My grandfather and his two brothers. Great names.

Bigearringsbigsmile · 07/07/2024 07:40

Jude
Anthony

LlynTegid · 07/07/2024 07:39

When your son is born, if it is the feast day of one of your shortlist of names, or perhaps the birth date of a pope who took one of the names, could that be the basis of your final choice?

Copperoliverbear · 07/07/2024 07:37

Augustine,
Patrick,
Dominic,
Gabriel,
John Paul.
Bosco,
Joseph,
Benedict

BoysNameHelp · 07/07/2024 07:20

Thank you - lots of great suggestions to consider! We almost went with Bede for our son and it's actually his middle name so not sure if it would be weird to use it for another baby's first name... We love all of the history of the Northern saints.

I think my new shortlist is:

Dunstan
Florian
Oswald
Ambrose
Cassian
Aidan
Augustine
Wilfrid

OP posts:
BoysNameHelp · 07/07/2024 07:12

yoshiblue · 06/07/2024 22:57

Florian - Really suits our son, a real character

I had actually thought Florian and forgotten, thank you! Love it.

OP posts:
BoysNameHelp · 07/07/2024 07:11

shockeditellyou · 06/07/2024 22:42

Bede isn’t a saint, is he? Only Venerable, I think.
Malachy

He is a Saint in RC, and a Doctor of the Church 😊

OP posts:
CheshireCat1 · 07/07/2024 00:09

BoysNameHelp · 06/07/2024 21:57

Thanks for suggestions so far - lots are actually family names already.
We prefer something a little less popular.
I like Pascal, Bede and Dunstan.

Dunstan was the Abbot at Glastonbury Abbey, he was also a bishop and archbishop and served many kings of England. I read a book about him awhile ago, he had such an interesting life and achieved so much.

Fechin · 06/07/2024 23:56

Alexander
Christopher
Chrysostom
Damian
Heron
Hydroc
Jude
Magnus
Maximus
Orion
Petroc
Polycarp
Yared

(there are new-agey looking names that are old saints' names)

merryhouse · 06/07/2024 23:50

As for saints' names - practically any European name between 500 and 1900 would probably fit the bill, surely? Or by "Catholic" do you mean "something diehard Protestants wouldn't touch"?

because while Aloysius, Francis Xavier, Dominic, Santiago etc fit the brief; so do Peter Simon Matthew Mark Robert James Philip Martin Richard Jonathan Anthony Paul Thomas Edward George Charles

merryhouse · 06/07/2024 23:42

I think English people took to saying the Venerable Bede because (apart from sounding fancy and special) it kind of sets him apart from the potpourri of sainthood

AdaColeman · 06/07/2024 23:16

Fabian
Cassian
Leander
Ambrose

I like Bede very much.

Feichin · 06/07/2024 23:02

Barnabas
Brendan
Cosmas (Takeya)
Denis
Étienne
Joachim
Marius
Philip
Robert
Zachariah

Toddlerteaplease · 06/07/2024 23:01

@shockeditellyou I believe he's St Bede the Venrable.

Toddlerteaplease · 06/07/2024 22:58

If I ever have a boy, he will be Hugh, after St Hugh of Lincoln. My favourite saint.

yoshiblue · 06/07/2024 22:57

Florian - Really suits our son, a real character

Feichin · 06/07/2024 22:54

Ælred
Albert
Aidan
Aquinas
Bernard
Columba
Cuthbert
Dominic
Edmund
Francis Xavier
(Blessed) Henry (Suso)
Hilary
Ignatius
Irenæus
Jerome
Joseph (of Cupertino)
Kentigern
Laurence
Martin
Mungo
Raymond
Teilo
Thomas
Wulfstan