Will Ophelia be perceived as pretentious?

[RTchoke]

I love the name Ophelia but am worried that people will think it's pretentious. DDs 1&2 have much more common names, both only 4 letters, but I want to go more unusual for DC3.

I also love Dora (Dorothea) and Juno.

[colditz]

It is but it's so pretty.

[colditz]

And possibly less pretentious than Titania.

[PinkFondantFancy]

I think it's lovely. If you like it, why do you care whether anyone else likes it?

[RTchoke]

I'm not at all worried about "Dora the Explorer". DDs best friend is Lola and despite the popularity of Charlie and Lola I've never heard any comments. Dora is a classic name unlike Lola and in our area Charlie and Lola us better known than Dora the Explorer.

[Pochemuchka]

I think it's a beautiful name but if your other DDs have more 'common' names (nothing wrong with that, so does my DD) then I would probably choose something a little more like their names as otherwise it mightn't 'fit' IYSWIM

Also, when they get older the others might wonder why DD3 got the more unusual name.

Do either of the other two on your list fit better with your other DDs' names? Both of those seem more down to earth.

[WinkyWinkola]

Pretentious in what way exactly?

[notnowImreading]

It's lovely as long as there's no way your surname could make it funny with I-feel-ya... jokes, e.g. Bum or suchlike.

[HappyTurquoise]

Ophelia is pretty until you think about the Hamlet character going mad and killing herself. As there is a bit of a history of mental illness and depression in my family mix (a couple of suicides and bipolar) I wouldn't use that name and would think parents using it were...odd.

[Hassled]

Ophelia does sound pretentious. Also - she went completely mad and drowned herself. Not really the sort of association you want.

Dora and Juno are nice.

[PosieParker]

I don't think it's pretentious, it is a name afterall. But the scope for teasing is immense.

[RTchoke]

It's true that the Hamlet tale is very sad. For me personally it has happy connotations as my late mother played Ophelia as her first big role as an actress. I appreciate nobody else would know that.

I find naming children very hard! I expect my nerves will set in and we will end up with something much more normal.

[Nancy66]

I know an Ophelia - and she had to endure endless

' Can i have Ophelia tits' style comments

[OpheliaPayneAgain]

[WinkyWinkola]

Associations with Juno aren't that great either.

Ophelia is a beautiful name.

You can find negative associations with every name and also reasons to tease over every name.

[TidyDancer]

Ophelia is pretentious unfortunately, which really bothers me because I love the name and would love to use it.

[conorsrockers]

Nancy .
I also think you'd regret it.
And it does sound a little pretentious.
Unless you put that on her birth certificate and then called her Lily or something

[IsabelleRinging]

I know a little girl called Ophelia, I don't like it as it doesn't trip off the tongue easily enough for me, I always have to think about it too much first.

[DoverBeach]

Other lovely Shakespearean names you might like, Juliet, Miranda, Cordelia, Viola, Portia, Olivia, Helena, Beatrice, Imogen, Rosaline.

[QuickLookBusy]

Sorry but yes,it sounds pretentious.

Dora is lovely.

[Cahoots]

It depends on your surname a bit
Ophelia Smitherton-Brown sounds more pretentious than Ophelia Jones
My maiden name is a bit ugly and harsh sounding so all my brothers DD's and I have pretty flowery names to even out the surname.

I actually like Ophelia. I like how it looks and sounds.

[CheerfulYank]

I like Ophelia, but it may sound odd with plainer sisters. Guess it depends how plain they are.

It still strikes me as odd that Octavia is pretentious there...here it's very downmarket, though that is probably because it is mostly used by African Americans, which is horrible and makes me .