What's In A Name?

How did we choose the name Felicity? It's really a simple question and we have been long decided upon her name. When we first told the kids about the baby back in April, Isabelle suggested naming her Felicity. Felicity was on my short list, just after Anastasia, which David vetoed immediately. We could not think of anything we liked better and so it stuck. Literally, she has been Felicity since she was conceived, or even before (read the next paragraph).

Contrary to what some have suggested, we did not name her after Isabelle's American Girl Doll with the same name. Back in January, on Roe v. Wade day to be exact, the kids had a prayer service at school and were requested to spiritually adopt and pray for a baby (and the baby's mother) that would be conceived somewhere in the world on that day. Isabelle's baby that she spiritually adopted and prayed for was named Felicity. A month later, I was pregnant. It seemed like it was meant to be.

We actually named her after St. Felicity, of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity who were martyred in Carthage in 202. St. Perpetua was a 22 year old Roman noblewoman and mother of a nursing infant who converted to Christianity and St. Felicity, also a convert, was her slave, who was pregnant when they were arrested. St. Perpetua kept very detailed accounts of their arrest and time in jail, so we are blessed to know so much about their lives and the circumstances surrounding their martyrdom. Many myths and legends tend to surround the early martyrs, but we know that the accounts of their martyrdom are true thanks to the writings of St. Perpetua. St. Felicity was worried that she would not be able to be martyred with her fellow converts because of rules preventing the killing of pregnant women. She gave birth to a baby girl the day before they were killed. She and St. Perpetua had every reason to live and yet they paid the highest price for the love of Christ. On the day they were martyred, they were led into the amphitheater, where they were scourged by gladiators, then attacked by wild animals and finally stabbed to death.

St. Felicity is the patron saint of mothers of pregnant women. The name Felicity means joyful and "joyful" would not even begin to describe my emotion when we found out I was pregnant. Felicity is also one of the few female saints named in the Canon of the Mass.