Renowned baby-naming expert Jennifer Moss, the founder and CEO of BabyNames.com — the predicts the list of inventive and fairly new or unique baby names that might be used in the coming year. 2024. In 2024, she says unique names will continue their reign, while bedrock traditional names — reliable evergreens like Elizabeth and Michael — will keep trending out slowly. Parents are also trending toward gender-neutral and dictionary-inspired names, or deep into the obscure roots of their family tree in pursuit of a name that feels radically new, even if it’s radically old. So if Rutherford or Robinson was in your family tree as a maiden name, it might come back as a first name.
Dictionary names are in. Names like “Zodiac or Crimson or Winter” have “almost become the norm,” says Moss of the dictionary trend. More and more, parents are “choosing words… that mean something to them or that they think sound great.” In this vein, BabyNames.com predicts that names such as Willow, River, Indigo, Forest, and Calliope will grow in popularity.
Gender-neutral is in — especially traditionally masculine names for girls.
Mixed-gender names that are trending right now as in“Sage, Rowan, Willow, Finlay, Harper and Avery.” The names the site says are traditionally masculine but being given to baby girls are “Noah, Ezra, and Luca.” Other trending names are Story, Dallas, Cato, and Sunday.
Obvious gender names have been trending out which once were quite popular, such as Elizabeth and Michael, while John and Mary have been out now awhile.
For girls, though, old-timey names like Alice, Eleanor, Maeve, and Charlotte are holding strong.
Vowel-heavy baby names are reigning supreme.
There’s the up-trending appeal of shorter vowel-heavy names with a distinctive sound — names like Owen, Aurora, Opal, Cleo, Arlo, and Atlas are all short and sweet, they point to the ongoing vowel-centric trend in baby names.
I am thinking of baby names, because I was comparing a person I know to a tv personality from my childhood, who was Brian Keith from the Family Affair tv show of the 1970’s. In a stroke of surprise, the person I was telling it too just happened to have named one of her boys, Brian—first name, and Keith, middle name. We were wondering what the odds would be to have brought that up.
Jesus Name.
Yeshua.= God Saves. Here’s to Living Up to Your Name, Jesus!
It’s a name with some glorious past: Joshua. The Deliver, the One leading into the promised land. Now Jesus comes to “deliver us from evil, into the kingdom the power and the glory of God—in Heaven. It also has connection to the Name given to Moses, which is Jehovah.
Josh=Jesus. Jehovah is Salvation. Ya =God Shua=saves.
Jesus kept referring to Himself as the I AM (ex: I Am the Bread of Life).
Jesus’ Name is so powerful, just the utterance of it reverently has a spiritual realm effect.
People pray in Jesus’ Name. People speak personally to God as to the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was called Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. Christ was not his last name, but a title for the Messiah. He died on the Cross for claiming to be God in humanity, they asked: Are you the Christ? Jesus answered: I Am and you shall see Me coming on the clouds of heaven some day.
John the Baptist is in the readings today—John was popular Jewish name—John son of Zechariah. Jesus had an apostle named John. That apostle is so beloved that 23 popes have taken it, and JPII took it with Paul paired to John. John Paul the 2nd. Yet he was second, JPI had picked it before him.
In his baptism time with Jesus, John says he recognized Jesus as the long awaited Messiah. John was a Jerusalem priest’s son, and John says “Look, there is the Lamb of God.” He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I, John, are not as worthy to Him as to untie His sandals. Those lines are in John’s Gospel. We also make connection to John’s ministry at the Jordan as being his response to reading the scrolls of Isaiah, and remembering the home teachings of Zechariah and Elizabeth, in who both knew Jesus was miraculously born, with even John’s birth being a prophets birth to herald Jesus. Still, it was all so amazing how it unfolded that Jesus revealed Himself, at that Baptism event. He had revealed Himself to us at our baptism event.
Jesus’ Name saves even at the hour of death. On Saturday we had a hospital call for a man to be baptized a Catholic, receive Viaticum, and be anointed before death at Suburban Hospital. The man knew upon Who to call to be saved, and of the Church this Jesus founded.
Back to John the Baptist and Jesus: The name of Jesus attaches a personal identification to the prophecy of Isaiah, from the book that often convinced John he was living in the times of Christ coming. It is pointed out in Isaiah 7 that “Behold, a young woman [or virgin] shall conceive and bear a son, and shall entitle him as Immanuel” Thus, Jesus carries many titles with His Name, which we could pair up as Jesus of Nazareth the One who brings God with us. El=God. Emmanu=with us.
The Gospels and the Apostle’s Creed calls Jesus as the Word. “In the Beginning was pre-existing the Word (from Whom came all things created or living)…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14). Jesus is the Word, the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, true God and true man, who assumed our human nature, but had always been the Eternal Son of the Most Holy Trinity.
This Word spoke in chapter 3 of John’s gospel, or historically in the ministry of Jesus to a Jewish man named Nicodemus, and He told him “you must be born anew… of the water and of the Spirit.” It explains what John 1:12 says in that we could become “children of God…even to those who believe in His Name—that is, in Jesus.
Jesus is Lord. It is a phrase of the Victorious Son Who accomplished His purposes, and now awaits us to live in His Name. Jesus’ Name will be inscribed upon us, and His Life to our souls to indwell, and we shall be saved in Him. No word is more sacred, intimate, and laden with meaning than the holy name of Jesus. “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10).
Baby Jesus, or the Infant Christ, makes Jesus quite approachable. Most people love a baby when they see an innocent one, and best off when the wee one isn’t screaming, but a child is so vulnerable and needy, that we want to help it and pick it up, if we have a good heart in us. Thus, Jesus wants to come into us, into our hearts, and love us like a newborn, but the twist is—we are the newborn embracing Jesus, Who is now King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Christmas is our feast of His Birth, Who is there to bring us to salvation and deliverance into the Heavenly Realm.
Merry Christmas is too often said Crizz-muzz. It’s really Christ Mass. Or we could say Happy Jesus’ Birthday to you, for He is come as your present, to bring you eternal birth.
In our healing prayers, we use Jesus’ Name. In the Name of Jesus, be healed.
When arrested for healing a man, Peter and John are asked by the authorities, “By what name did you do this?” They understood that names had power, and they wanted to know what name had the power to heal. Peter boldly tells them that it is the name of Jesus that healed the man. But then Peter goes further: he tells them that salvation itself comes from this name. In fact, under no other name may one be saved. Salvation is intimately bound up with the Name of Jesus.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux.tirelessly promoted the holy name of Jesus, writing,
“The name of Jesus is light, and food, and medicine. It is light, when it is preached to us; it is food, when we think upon it; it is the medicine that soothes our pains when we invoke it… For when I pronounce this name, I bring before my mind the man, who, by excellence, is meek and humble of heart, benign, sober, chaste, merciful, and filled with everything that is good and holy, nay, who is the very God almighty—whose example heals me, and whose assistance strengthens me. I say all this, when I say Jesus.”
Devotion to the name of Jesus can be seen in the liturgy or prayer time as well. Traditionally, a priest (and altar servers) will bow when the name of Jesus is pronounced during the Mass. This demonstrates the great reverence we should have for this powerful name. When a rosary is prayer, some persons nod at each of the 53 mentions of Jesus’ Name in it. That’s a good practice. We say: Holy Mary…Blessed is the fruit of your womb (pause): JESUS. (pause).
Why does this name have such power? In our modern world, we don’t think much of names. They are functional, but not much else. But in the ancient world, it was understood that a name fundamentally represented the person, and knowing a person’s name gave you some level of control over that person—the ability to call on that person. This is why, when asked by Moses for his name, God simply responds, “I am who I am” (Exod. 3:14). Unlike the pagan gods, the one true God was not at the beck and call of men. He was in total control.
Yet with the Incarnation, we see God humbling himself to take on a name. Now, in a sense, he is at our beck and call. Christ tells us, “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14, emphasis added). God didn’t become a generic “man,” but a specific man: Jesus of Nazareth. By doing so, he infused the name Jesus with divine power.
Thus–the name of Jesus is intimately tied to salvation. Peter said it is the only name by which we can be saved. In fact, the name means “Yahweh is salvation.” Thus, it has a central role in evangelization. In this Christmas time of year, tell people of Jesus’ Name and His Gift of Salvation! Tell others that they need to get to know Jesus, believe upon Him, then join Him in Sacred Liturgy, as the Catholic Faith upholds and practices. Lead people to read the Gospels about Jesus, and then help them to know the star of the Gospels, Who is so beloved to you: Jesus Christ.