My name is Megan and my husband's name is Eric. We're expecting a baby girl on February 2, 2011. We have everything all prepared for her arrival... except for her name! Our two kids are named Meryl Alexandra (5) and Quentin Thomas (3). Meryl and Quentin's names were easy to pick: Meryl is after Eric's grandmother Mary and Thomas was my maiden name, Alexandra and Quentin were names we just liked. This time around, we're having more difficulty. Here are our current front-runners:
Clementine - This is probably my favorite. I would shorten it to Cleo as a nickname, but I'm not sure if we're brave enough to use it! I love it, but is it too much for a little girl?
Tess - This is Eric's favorite. I like it, but I dislike the way the "s" in Tess runs into the "s" in Osbourne.
Renata - Again, we love it, but is it too much? I don't think we would use a nickname.
Celine - Eric likes this one more than I do. I think it's pretty, but I don't see it as "the one."
Allegra - I'm a little bothered about the way Allegra Osbourne runs together. Is this a problem?
I think it ultimately comes down to Clementine "Cleo" versus Tess. Tess is a safe choice, Clementine is much more unusual. Is it too big of a name to saddle on a little girl? Ultimately, Eric says he would be fine either way, but I know he prefers Tess and I wouldn't feel right about naming her Clementine if his heart wasn't in it.
Is Clementine the right name? Tess? One of our other choices? Something else entirely? Help us out!
This is the fault of my 5th grade teacher, who for music class had us sing nothing but the folk songs she enjoyed in her youth: the name "Clementine" automatically and without fail causes me to think "Oh my darling." Because of this, if you knew me I would tell you it was better to use Clementine in the middle-name slot: you get the full fun of the quirkiness with none of the downfalls (such as Swistle humming the song cheerfully whenever she's around you, without even realizing she is doing it).
I like Tessa Clementine. Adding the -a gives a nice separation between the S sounds in the first name and surname, and you can still call her Tess whenever you want. It gives you a nice combination of safe and quirky, and gives you the option of calling her Clementine as an endearment---and she can go by it later, if she wants.
Another option is to name her Cleo. I think of Cleo as a completely different name than Clementine, and not a natural nickname for it. Cleo has some of the quirkiness of Clementine and some of the safeness of Tess---a nice compromise name. Cleo Clementine or Cleo Allegra or Cleo Renata plays up the quirkiness; something like Cleo Celine or Cleo Maria or Cleo Samantha plays it down.
Name update! Megan writes:
Thank you so much for all your help! Cleo Celine Osbourne was born on February 4, 2011, at 6 lbs, 10 oz. She's absolutely delightful and her name fits her perfectly.
