I did a baby name consultation a while ago for a family who had experienced a renewal of their faith and wanted a Catholic name for their baby girl on the way. Specifically, they wanted “someone to hear her name and just know she’s Catholic.”
I had fun coming up with names that I thought fit this criteria, as there are definitely names that are clearly, obviously Catholic to most people. Certainly there will always be those who just aren't familiar enough with Catholicism and its names to get right away that their daughter’s name is a Catholic name, and in other parts of the world these names might have different associations, but some that I think are pretty well known in the U.S. as predominantly Catholic names include:
- Benedicta
- Bernadette
- Caeli, Coeli
- Cecilia
- Immaculata, Immaculee
- Lourdes
- Magdalene/Magdalena
- Maria, Marie
- Mary
- Mary+[something]
- Philomena
- Regina
- Rosary
- Rosemary, Rosemarie
- Scholastica
- Therese, T(h)eresa
- Avila
- Azelie, Zelie
- Catherine
- Chiara
- Clairvaux
- Clare
- Elizabeth
- Evangeline
- Felicity
- Frances, Francesca
- Gemma
- Genevieve
- Gianna
- Grace
- Jacinta
- Josephine
- Karoline (that “K” points right to St. John Paul II)
- Kateri
- Lucy, Lucia
- Margaret
- Perpetua
- Pia
- Vianney
[tweet "What girls' names are most identifiable as #Catholic? Check @sanctanomina's list!"]
Do you agree with my lists above? What names would you add?Copyright 2017 Katherine Morna Towne
About the Author

Kate Towne
Kate is a writer, wife to a really good man, and mama to their seven boys ages 1 to 15. She shares her thoughts on Catholic baby naming at Sancta Nomina, and her first book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018) can be found at ShopMercy.org and Amazon.
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