Friday Post: Ebba’s Confirmation

A game at a museum to see how many words one could make from the word breathe, we managed 41 🙂

It’s Friday night, and I’m finally back from Wales. Traffic jams are the reason why I have a railcard. Either way, we’re doing a quick switcheroo between the Name Spot post and the Weekend Post of this week because I’m still feeling a little groggy. And my notebook is still likely to be in Wales, since it’s gone missing.

Let’s step back in time. One of my sisters – the self-professed social loafer – was confirmed earlier this year. Anyone who has been around long enough will know that she chose the confirmation name of Clotilde, since I based a whole post on the name many moons ago. Ebba is the first and currently only one of us to get confirmed, since I refused.

So, since we’ve already mentioned Clotilde to a rather in-depth level, what is left to mention? The names she almost picked, a list of which I found at the bottom of the bread bin of all places about an hour ago. She’s clearly the brioche-fairy who keeps spiriting away the favourite family breakfast treat.

We all know there was a St. Peter, a St. Paul and so forth, but there are some fantastic names of Christian Saints out there that are a little less expected. So many, I firmly prevented myself from mentioning any other names darling Ebba did not consider, they’ll have to wait for another day.

It’s an interesting bunch of almost-names, which demonstrates Eb’s firm belief that anything can work in the middle name arena. This list contains only the names she came up with herself, as I was asked for my own suggestions during the process from which the name Clotilde arose.

Amabilis, derived from the Latin word amabilis, which means loveable. It’s from this word that we get names such as Mabel and Annabel.

Endellion, the name of a Cornish Saint which means fire soul. Infinitely more useable since it was given to the littlest Cameron last year after her unexpected arrival in Cornwall.

Myrope, likely to be a variant of the name Merope, a Greek name of unknown meaning. Merope was, of course, Voldemort’s mother, which does tarnish the name somewhat amongst today’s Harry Potter generation, since she’s the first connection, not the other mythological characters who bear the name.

Philomena, from Greek elements, philos meaning friend and mennos meaning strength, thus the name means friend of strength. Ebs also considered the similar Menna at one point.

Pomposa, likely to be from the Latin word pomposus, which is the root of the English word pompous. It rather reminds me of the Spanish word for butterfly: mariposa.

Rhipsime, a Saint of Armenian origins who was also known as Hripsime. I couldn’t find a meaning, but I did read several times that she enjoys a reasonable degree of popularity in Armenia.

Romlua, this Saint came from near Rome, so her name could have been inspired by the city, or indeed by the name Romulus, who founded the city. To me, the name feels like it should be Romula, not Romlua but alas, it seems not.

I should mention now that there were several other names on her list which enjoy considerably more popularity than the names above. These include Beatrice, Ava and Kiara. In the end, she went for Clotilde – which the Bishop mispronounced as Clothilda.

I should, of course, mention at this point that Ebba wasn’t just considering the name for the sake of considering these names. Whilst having something distinctive was the preference, there was some serious googling behind the final top 3 of Clotilde, Beatrice and Cera.