A couple of days ago, a reader named Christie mentioned in a comment that she’d named her first son after St. Maximilian Kolbe. Nope, her son’s name wasn’t Maximilian–it was Kolbe.
Her comment reminded me of Elisabeth’s post on names from French birth announcements. One of the baby boys on the list, Vianney, may have been named after 19th-century French saint Jean Vianney.
If you also happen to like saintly surnames, here are a few others to think about:
- St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170) of England.
- St. John Bosco (1815-1888) of Italy.
- St. Alexander Briant (1556-1581) of England.
- St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) of the U.S.
- St. Richard Gwyn (c.1537-1584) of Wales.
- St. John Rigby (c.1570-1600) of England.
- St. John Kemble (1599-1679) of England.
- St. Luke Kirby (c.1549-1582) of England.
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) of the U.S. The first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized, in fact.
For something more conspicuous, try St. Charles Borromeo, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (the first U.S. citizen to be canonized) or St. Aloysius Gonzaga.
Ven. Matt Talbot and Bl. Junípero Serra also have cool surnames, but they aren’t officially saints yet, so they don’t quite count.
What other saintly surnames would make good baby names?
Edit, Oct. 3: I just spotted the name Goretti Wulf in an article about the Samoan relief effort. Named for St. Maria Goretti, perhaps?
One Comment
I named my first son Thomas Becket Lastname. He goes by “Becket.”
I wanted to name subsequent sons Francis Xavier and Maximilian Kolbe, but my husband said no.
He was probably right.