We all know of baby names that come from Marian titles — names like Fátima, Lourdes, Dolores, Guadalupe, Carmel, Pilar, Milagros, Mercedes, Luz, Consolata, Consuelo, Corazón, Loreto, Remedios, and so on.
Well, I discovered three more the other day that were brand new to me.
The first was Chiquinquirá, which I learned about through a Gawker post (of all places). The name belongs to TV personality María Chiquinquirá Delgado Díaz of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Her name was inspired by La Virgen de Chiquinquirá, patroness of Colombia, of the Peruvian city of Caraz, and of the Venezuelan state of Zulia (which is where Maracaibo is located).
This discovery inspired me to seek out other rare Marian title-names (rare for the U.S., anyway). I ended up finding two more: Suyapa and Lasalette.
Suyapa comes from La Virgen de Suyapa, patroness of Honduras. (Suyapa is a suburb of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.) I found a few dozen instances of this name both on the SSA’s baby name lists and in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).
Lasalette comes from Our Lady of La Salette, a Marian apparition that occurred in France in the mid-1800s. I knew of the apparition, but I’d never realized La Salette was used as a name until I checked the SSDI and found three Lasalettes.
You learn something new every day, I guess. :)
