As soon as it becomes clear that replenishment is expected in the family, parents begin to choose a name for the child. And often it turns out that everyone already has certain preferences for this: mother always wanted daughter Elizabeth, and father wanted Eugene, because that was his grandmother's name. Disagreements begin, to which older relatives often join.
Sometimes parents decide to give a name to the girl according to the holy calendar or to name a son in memory of some great man. What can be called according to the church calendar?
It turns out that every day in the church calendar of the Orthodox Church is the day of some righteous person. The lives of the saints are huge, heavy books with the mention of thousands of martyrs and saints. Usually, the memory of God who pleases is appointed on the day of death, that is, the end of the earthly life of a given righteous person and the beginning of heavenly life. For two thousand years there have been many righteous people, so not only one, but several saints are glorified daily.
To give a girl a name according to the holy calendar, you need to open the Orthodox church calendar and view the list of names of the righteous on her birthday. It is likely that there will be no holy women in it. In Orthodoxy, in general, there are significantly fewer of them than holy men. This is, of course, not due to the fact that there are more righteous males. It’s just that women are always less visible, their destiny is secluded monasticism, not priesthood, bishopric or missionary work. That is why not many righteous, martyrs and confessors are glorified. So with all the desire to give a name to the girl according to the calendar, the woman’s name may simply not appear on the calendar on the baby’s birthday.
This, of course, does not mean that we must abandon this idea or redo somehow male names. There are several traditions of naming: by birthday, on the eighth after birth (day of naming the name), on the fortieth (traditional day of baptism). Therefore, the name of the girl according to the calendar can be chosen from the three days mentioned. But it may well be that they all do not contain acceptable female names.
In this case, it is worth choosing the closest name that is celebrated after the baby’s birthday. For example, the names of girls according to the holy calendar September suggests the following: Thekla (September 1), Vassa (3), Anfusa and Eulalia (4). Then, for several days, not a single female name is mentioned, and finally, on September 8, mts is celebrated. Natalia. September 9 is glorified by mts. Anfisa, and then only on September 14th prep. Martha, who was the mother of Simeon the Stylite. Already from this list, given as an example, it is clearly seen that it is not so simple to choose the names of girls according to the holy calendar.
November, for example, provides even less common, simple female names than September. There are Matrons, Eudoxias, Stefanis, but not every modern parent dares to call the child an old and unusual name. Although in recent years the attitude towards exotic names has changed. If they scared them 20 years ago, now they are more likely to attract.
Choosing a name for a child is a responsible matter. After all, it is necessary to take into account not only the desire of mom and dad, two grandparents, but also to correlate the chosen option with the middle name and last name. And also find out how the home, shortened version will sound. Therefore, maybe it’s true, to give all this to God and to hope that the name that fell out on the holy calendar will suit the daughter best ?!