SAVED BY BEAUTY, Named After Dorothy Day

By Izzy Frazza • September 26, 2023

by  Izzy Frazza


Becky Czarnecki is the mother of four-year-old Dorothy “Dory,” whom she describes as a sweet and sassy truth-teller. Dory’s parents named her after Dorothy Day—the social justice activist and convert to Catholicism who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement. Becky tells me: “It is one of the greatest honors of my life to have named my child after such an extraordinary woman.” Becky admires Dorothy Day so immensely that she chose to name her child after her! I was not surprised to learn that people were naming their children after Dorothy. Parents frequently choose names in honor of people they admire, and her life and legacy has been an inspiration to many. Still, I was not exactly prepared to learn just how many namesakes there are. Each time I talked about Dorothy’s namesakes with folks connected to the Guild, the list of children named after Dorothy Day grew! As I am writing this article, I know of 23 children named after Dorothy, and there are likely more out there. This list will only get bigger as more people learn about Dorothy and continue to find inspiration in her life and legacy. 

Naming one’s child after Dorothy Day is a clear example of the faithful’s devotion to Dorothy. Due to the importance of names in Catholicism and human society as a whole, this is a particularly special act of devotion. Names—both those we are given and those we choose for ourselves—are important. Our names help us connect with others. When we meet someone for the first time, we often say something along the lines of “Hello, my name is…” and share our name and/or nickname before anything else. Through surnames, we connect with our ancestors of the past and our family members of the present. Names are incredibly important in Scripture and Church tradition too. The names of Biblical characters, like Abraham, Sarah, Peter, and Paul, are given to them by God in times of transformation. When an individual undergoes confirmation in the Church, they choose a confirmation name to signify their transition into full members of the Church. Customarily, the confirmation candidate will choose the name of a saint or blessed person whose life of faith inspires them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Everyone’s name is sacred” (Catechism, 2158). A name is more than just a word we use to refer to someone; it represents, in part, who that person is.

Naming one’s child after Dorothy Day is a special devotional practice because of the importance of names and because of the unique power Dorothy’s namesakes hold. Those named after Dorothy Day continue to tell her story, all while writing stories of their own. Before I began my internship with the Dorothy Day Guild, I had a conversation with my aunt about Dorothy and the work of the Guild. It was through this conversation that I learned about her niece, who was a new mother to a child with the middle name Day. My aunt had no knowledge of Dorothy or the Catholic Worker movement until this little one’s parents named their child after Dorothy Day. Names tell stories, and this child’s name was able to tell my aunt the story of Dorothy Day. As these namesakes move through the world, the meaning behind their names will come up in conversation with others, and when it does, there is an opportunity for another person to learn about the more equitable world that Dorothy Day stood for. I am reminded of the little way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, something Dorothy wrote quite a bit about. Each child who is named after Dorothy helps to reaffirm her impact on the Church and the world, all while furthering that impact’s reach. Many of these children are little in age, and the name of just one child is little in the grand scheme of things, but the little act of devotion that is naming one’s child after Dorothy has a very big impact. 

Dorothy’s namesakes are able to tell her story, but they are also encouraged to write stories of their own. As I connected with the parents of children named after Dorothy for this project, I found that they shared in common their admiration of Dorothy for her willingness to stand up against the status quo. Claire Fyrqvist, the mother of five-year-old Teresa Day, is proud that her daughter “has Dorothy’s spice.” Dorothy Day emphasized: “One must follow one’s own Conscience first before all authority,” and throughout her life, she did just that. She consistently challenged authority figures of both Church and state when their actions did not align with the Gospel teachings of social-justice that guided her conscience. Dorothy wrote her own story throughout her life, as she tried her very best to follow the example of Christ, even when this meant breaking societal norms. Sarah Stanley, the mother of 19-month-old Dorothy “Dottie” said: “She made me feel like there was space for me in Catholicism when the different ‘sides’ disapproved of how I live my faith for one reason or another.” Dorothy inspires people of faith to follow God and their conscience, rather than popular opinion. Dottie’s mom is hopeful that Dorothy will play a similar role in her daughter’s life, so that she may “know she is welcome and loved in the Catholic Church no matter what charism/cause/etc she feels called to.”  

The name Dorothy is derived from the Greek word Dorethea (Δωροθέα), meaning “gift of God.” Day is an Anglicized version of Deagh , the Gaelic word and surname meaning “good.” Dorothy Day’s full name literally means good gift of God —how fitting is that? Dorothy certainly lived up to her name’s meaning. Nearly 43 years have passed since she departed from this earthly life and Dorothy’s spirit continues to give . Those who pray for her intercession receive comfort from Dorothy during difficult times. Some find her memory to be a gift of guidance, as they decide how best to move through the world in a way that emulates her witness. Ricky Klee, father of six-year-old Hannah Day, shared that he and his wife “would like their daughter to imitate her special holiness.” When a child is named after Dorothy Day, they are given more than just her name—they receive a role model who is never far away. 

Bibliography

Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Dorothy.” Behind the Name , 2021. https://www.behindthename.com/name/dorothy .

Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Dorothea.” Behind the Name , 2022. https://www.behindthename.com/name/dorothea .  

“Catechism of the Catholic Church.” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops . Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/522/ . 

 “Day Family History.” Day Name Meaning at Ancestry.com®, 2022. 2022. https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=Day .  

Day, Dorothy. The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day . New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1952. 

Horan, Daniel P. “Why Catholics Should Use Preferred Gender Pronouns and Names.” National Catholic Reporter, October 13, 2021. https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/why-catholics-should-use-preferred-gender-pronouns-and-names . 

“O’Dea Family History.” O’Dea Name Meaning at Ancestry.com®, 2022. https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=o%27dea .  

O’Neill, Eddie. “Changing Names: Simply Catholic.” Simply Catholic , July 12, 2023. https://www.simplycatholic.com/changing-names/ .

 

  •  Dorothy Marie “Dory,” 4; child of Becky and Andy Czarnecki

 

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  •  Lucy Day, 16; child of Stacey and Josh Noem

 

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  •  Dorothy Louise, 6; child of Kate Frommelt

 

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  •  Dorothy Emmanuelle, 19 months; child of Sarah Stanley

 

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  •   Dorothy Ruth Farah, 2, child of Margaret Nuzzolese Conway and Chris Conway

 

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  •   Brendan Day, 8 months, child of Dan Cosacchi

 

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  • Teresa Day, 5; child of Claire Fyrqvist (no photo)
  • Hannah Day, 6; child of Ricky Klee (no photo)

 

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Ninety-three years ago today!

By Casey Mullaney • May 1, 2026
Dear members and friends of the Dorothy Day Guild, Greetings to each of you in this fourth week of Easter and on the occasion of the Catholic Worker movement’s 93rd anniversary! On May 1st, 1933, Dorothy, her daughter Tamar, and several others sold the first issue of The Catholic Worker newspaper in Union Square for a penny a copy, and as Dorothy later wrote in The Long Loneliness, “It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on”! It is because of that faithful witness to the Gospel through Dorothy’s practices of nonviolence, hospitality, and voluntary poverty that we get to share in this joyful pilgrimage with you all these years later. Thank you, Dorothy, and happy anniversary to all our Catholic Worker friends, past and present!

Easter with Dorothy Day

By Casey Mullaney • April 9, 2026
Dear Dorothy Day Guild members and friends, Happy Easter; Christ is risen! We hope that the past several days have been occasions of joyful celebration with friends and family for each of you. As a Guild, we would like to extend a special greeting to all of those around the world who were received into the Church on Saturday night at the Easter Vigil. Here in South Bend, several of us from the Catholic Worker community attended the Easter Vigil at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where our pastor surprised us by invoking Dorothy towards the end of his homily. Speaking directly to the newly baptized and confirmed, as well as the entire congregation, Fr. Andrew talked about how Dorothy’s own conversion to Catholicism had been sparked by the unexpected joy of finding herself pregnant with her daughter, Tamar, and how Christ had come to her, offering her peace. We know that Dorothy was on many of our minds as we watched new brothers and sisters in Christ enter the Church. Christopher Hale, of Letters from Leo, wrote an open letter to all the new Catholics who were received at the Vigil last weekend, offering them thanks and welcome, and inviting them to look to a fellow convert to understand the Church. “Dorothy Day — one of the great American Catholics of the twentieth century — converted to Catholicism and spent the rest of her life serving the poorest of the poor on the streets of New York. Her Episcopalian mother once complained that Dorothy had left respectable society to go to Mass with “the help.” Day did not flinch. She knew what the Church was for.” Like Dorothy, each of these new members of Christ’s Mystical Body enrich the Church and are a gift to the world. We hope that like Dorothy, each of them finds a home, a vocation, and a challenge in Her embrace. The following afternoon, our Catholic Worker community hosted a few dozen friends and neighbors, including many of the guests who join us for breakfast on weekends, for Easter dinner. It is truly a gift to be able to celebrate this feast day with so many of the people who have come into our lives because of Dorothy’s witness to the Gospel, and the legacy of hospitality, voluntary poverty, and nonviolence she gave us!

Happy 100th Birthday, Tamar Day Batterham Hennessy!

By Casey Mullaney • March 4, 2026
Dear members of the Dorothy Day Guild, Lenten greetings to each of you! Even just one week in, it’s been a great gift to journey with Dorothy, who reminds us that the practices of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are powerful tools in the struggle for justice and peace. On the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Worker movement and newspaper , Dorothy wrote about the seamless garment of love that was the animating force of Christian faith. “We want to show our love for our brother, so that we can show our love for God,” she said in 1943, “and the best way we can do it is to try to give him what we’ve got, in the way of food, clothing and shelter; to give him what talents we possess by writing, drawing pictures, reminding each other of the love of God and the love of man. There is too little love in this world, too little tenderness.”
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