The Science Behind The Names

A reader asked me how the girls got their names, but was probably mostly wondering how we ended up with all of them having the same consonant sound a la familia Duggar. Surprisingly, we didn’t set out for all of our children to have “R” names. We like to fly by the seat of our pants and see where we end up. And in this case, we have ended up with all “R” names. Perhaps we should reassess this strategy, but it’s too late to turn back now!!

(Ruthie pictured with my goddaughter, Scottie.) During Ruth’s pregnancy we had a boy name all picked out that I now loathe. When we found out at the 20 week scan that she was, in fact, a girl, we were stumped. After months of deliberation, Scott’s twin suggested that we name her Gloria Ruth, and we loved that name. “Gloria” is the first name of both Scott and my grandmothers, and “Ruth” is Scott’s spunky great grandmother who was fortunately still with us when Ruth was born, but has since passed away. She is greatly missed. It has been a family tradition in both of our families to go by your middle name (both Scott and my dad go by their middle names, among numerous others), so we decided to call her “Ruthie.”

We bounced around a bunch of names when I was pregnant with my second, and I just really loved the name, “Rose.” My aunt’s name is Rosa Maria, and we all call her “Rosie,” so I liked that it was a family name too. Scott loved the name, “Victoria,” and he also is the kind of guy who really appreciates order and patterns (Ruth takes after him in that), so he suggested we name her Victoria Rose and call her by her middle name as well.  At this point, it was just a coincidence that both names started with “R.”

For my third child, we deliberated a lot as to whether we should keep this name formula going. Scott was predictably all for it. I figured we might as well because at this point the challenge of finding names that fit the pattern was becoming kind of fun. We decided to stop running name options by everyone because people had the tendency to ruin names we really loved that way. “I knew a Ruth in preschool, and she was the one always picking her nose and eating glue!”  Ooooook then. Good to know. Since we always found out the gender at the 20 week scan, it was nice to still have a surprise for everyone at the delivery. We decided to name the baby “Elena Wren.” She is named after another one of my aunts, Marta Elena, and we both just really loved the name “Wren,” and felt like such rebels since it didn’t begin with an “R” but technically still counted. Living la vida loca over here!

By our fourth pregnancy, much to Scott’s chagrin, we were out of one syllable “R” names for girls that we fancied. However, I have always been a huge Greek mythology buff, and I just loved Ancient Greek names. So, we settled on “Rhea” pronounced with a soft “e.” Now, the Cuban tradition is to name all eldest girls after their mothers. My great grandmother was Maria Matilde, my grandmother is Maria Matilde (“Matty”), and my mother is Maria Matilde (“Mari”). My mom broke tradition with me a bit, but kept the “Maria” for my middle name. I totally blew it with Ruthie, so I attempted to make amends by naming my fourth daughter after me, “Sylvia Rhea.” Family name + R name they go by = Scott’s happy place. (And I have to admit, I really love it too.)

I had always wanted to work a Marian name into one of my girls’ names, and with a very complicated and scary fifth pregnancy, this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Since Mary is the Queen of Heaven and all the Angels, naming this child “Regina” after Mary’s regal title seemed perfect. Both an “R” name and a Marian name. Two birds, meet one stone. Pow! As for the family name, I was going to name her “Matilde” after my mother, but neither my mother nor my grandmother is too keen on that name. Yet another of my aunt’s name is “Therese,” named after St. Therese of Lisieux. During that anxiety-ridden pregnancy, my grandmother had given me a relic of St. Therese. Her uncle had brought it back from France to Cuba when he had been touring there shortly after her canonization. It was a very precious relic and had proven efficacious on many occasions. It was very generous of my grandmother to share it with me. Hence, St. Therese became Regina’s patron saint and namesake and her constant intercession has proven invaluable to us. It was also a family name as I mentioned before, so it was truly meant to be. Scott has a great uncle Reggie, and I really adored that as her nickname, so “Reggie” she became!

Now, with baby boy, I think Scott and I want to keep the family name + R thing up, if we can. We might waver on the family name bit and exchange that part for a Saint’s name. I think we have decided on the “R” name, but we have no idea what his first name will be. With the girls, I loved honoring my Cuban heritage by naming them Spanish names, but I’m not sure if I can get away with that for a boy. Boy names are completely different in Spanish while girl names tend to be quite similar. What do you think? Thanks for bearing with me for this!

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7 thoughts on “The Science Behind The Names

  1. nancyo

    Love this. And it’s a good thing you didn’t keep the pattern of first names ending in “oria” because that might have gotten tough really quick!

    Reply
    1. sylvia.hobgood@gmail.com Post author

      Yeah, we were done after two 😂🤣. And Ruth and Rose get their first names confused all the time

      Reply
  2. Alana

    I was in the middle of a mall in Montreal when the email for your post came through and had to read it right away. I’m home now commenting.
    Love the family name + R sounding name history. And the joke about the Duggars because I’m sure you get refereneces to them occasionally. 😆👎
    Can’t wait to hear your sons name. Our names are steeped in Catholicism and are a tip of the hat to my Irish heritage where saints’ names reign supreme.
    Ours our Angelina Marie (Angela is my grandma’s name), Xavier Joseph (Xavier is my MIL’s grandfathers name but we didn’t know that until we chose it. My MIL and FIL were married at St, Francis Xavier in New Brunswick, Canada) and Rafael John (John is my FIL’s name and also carries heavy biblical significance as do the other middle names). And that’s my story even though you didn’t ask!

    Reply
    1. sylvia.hobgood@gmail.com Post author

      You should do a blog post!!! Or send me the link if you already have. 😂 Thanks for giving me this idea! I LOVE all of those names. Xavier is actually a really good one because the Spanish equivalent of “Javier” is very similar!

      Reply
  3. Julia Harrell

    All I want in life is to name a boy Santiago (which is clearly not an R name) but Trey says since we have no Spanish speaking heritage whatsoever, that is absurd. Let me live vicariously through you! 😉

    Reply
    1. sylvia.hobgood@gmail.com Post author

      I LOVE the name James AND I have been seriously thinking about Santiago!! My cousin has a half brother named Santiago and they call him “Santi.” So cute.

      Reply

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