Saintly Positioning

I have a friend who is somewhat distressed because she didn't name her son after saints. She picked a name she liked, which is not at all unusual, Tyler Carter, and now, I think she feels a little buyers remorse.

Now I have a confession, my daughter's first name has nothing to do with saints, her middle name, Clare, is for St Clare of Assisi, but her first name, Shelby, is about as secular as they come. I have no regrets about her name and it has nothing to do with the fact that her middle name came from a saint. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure of her name until I saw her. And I wasn't worried about what people would think.

Although it's no longer required, people still feel a tremendous amount of pressure to name their children after saints. I have even known people to name a baby a name they didn't really like and use a middle name because they were so afraid by being judged by their family, friends and parish members.

I have a problem with this. I like the idea of naming a child after a saint. Wouldn't it be nice if every Mary was as virtous and believing as our Lord's mother? But, I also feel as though God is not going to determine our entrance into heaven based upon our name or the names we give to our children. After all, if God loves us enough to know each hair on our head, a name seems awfully arbitrary.