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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Claire

110 replies

Sophronia · 24/10/2017 12:17

I never hear this on babies/children anymore. Is it too dated?

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harrietm87 · 27/10/2017 08:03

theluckdragon not if you pronounce your "r"s it doesn't.

TheLuckDragon · 26/10/2017 23:31

I know a few Claire's and they all suit their name but I don't actually like them name!

To me it sounds more like a sound you'd make when you don't like something rather than a name. Cleeeehhhhhhh.

I also feel the same about Blair. Bleehhhh.

It just sounds like an unsatisfied noise!

stormnigel · 26/10/2017 23:22

It might regain popularity now due to outlander...I quite like it...

GardeningWithDynamite · 26/10/2017 16:29

I have a Claire. She's the only one in her school, but I believe there's another one in our town of similar age.

BernardBlacksHangover · 26/10/2017 09:30

Pemba

I always wondered that too. I think we used to be further apart in terms of tastes during the 80s. I was boooooorn in the USA and my parents thought they'd chosen a really unusual name for me. Moved to the uk and realised it was top 5 or something in popularity. I was never the only one in a class. Unlike pps though, that never bothered me.

I also have an Emma and though it's quite a well known name, I don't think there are that many babies and toddlers around in the uk. We meet the odd one, but it's not like Isabella/ Amelia / Florence/ Olivia / Isla etc. Every time I introduce an American to Emma you can see they think "oh not another one" as it's been so popular over there (number1 I think) for so long. It's only number 60 something here .

musicalfrog · 26/10/2017 01:21

Nice to see so many positive comments about my name Grin

I know an 18 month old Claire.

However I'm a 70s baby and I was never the only Claire at school and in most of my jobs! It gets tiresome. My own kids have names outside the top 100 as I didn't want them to suffer the same.

Popular names tend to be those which go well with most surnames.

I say go for it!

Pemba · 26/10/2017 01:11

I always wondered what exactly they meant by that in The Breakfast Club - Claire being a perfectly normal, and quite common name, especially in the 80s. What were they getting at? Or was it unheard of in the US? (Hard to believe)

Carouselfish · 25/10/2017 23:45

Torn between the polar opposite associations of Clair de Lune and Breakfast Club film 'CLAIRE?!!'

I quite like it actually. It's safe but looks pretty written down.

harrietm87 · 25/10/2017 15:32

It was still big in Ireland in the 80s. I was born in 1987 and there were loads of clares/Claires in my school. Other popular names were Sarah, Jennifer, Catherine, Rebecca and Rachel.

I think they're all lovely names and would be unusual now. Better than an "unusual" name like Edie or Iris that is actually pretty popular.

NotAgainYoda · 25/10/2017 15:21

I think Claire's a little earlier than that, actually/ Maybe 60's

But yes, it wasn't the most commonplace in my neck of the woods

Joanne was the most common name when I was at Primary in the '70s

OlennasWimple · 25/10/2017 12:20

Erm, Claire was only in the top 5 baby names in the 1970s Confused

BernardBlacksHangover · 25/10/2017 10:02

I do know of a little girl called Sarah. I also know a little Rachel. Both popular names in my era (80s baby).

PandorasXbox · 25/10/2017 09:59

Exactly angelina. It may have spilled over into the 70/80’s but that’s all.

BernardBlacksHangover · 25/10/2017 09:56

I like it! I think if I met a baby Claire it would be kind of refreshing.

Like @starting though, I have an Emma (sometimes given as an example of a dull name on here), so maybe my taste in girl names is a bit dull! I love unusual boy names though Confused.

notangelinajolie · 25/10/2017 00:31

Don't know why lots of people posting that Claire is a 70's/80's name because it really isn't. The height of its popularity was for babies born in the 60's. I know many, many Claire's who are in their 50's.

GlitterGlassEye · 25/10/2017 00:27

Sarah was also going to be my 9 yr old daughters name but we made it a middle name instead.

Clara sounds like an absolute drip.

2017SoFarSoGood · 25/10/2017 00:19

my mid 70's DD was going to be Emma or Sarah, ended up Claire. How stereotypical is that?

Still love the name, Claire. So easy and sweet to say; love all the versions we use: Clara, Clara-Belle, Clara-Bow, Claire[-Bear, Clara-Baba. So sweet.

GlitterGlassEye · 25/10/2017 00:17

My names Claire (full spelling Smile). I like it. I was called this so no one could shorten it. I know Claire was popular in the 80’s but most of my friends were called Names beginning with L with various spellings for some such as Lynne, Lindsey, Lorraine, Lauren, Laura, Leeanne etc.
I was the only Claire until I went to university and there was 4 of us in one class.

OlennasWimple · 25/10/2017 00:17

It was the second most popular baby name in 1974, apparently, and didn't really dip until the mid 1980s (then by the 1990s it had plummeted down)

I was at secondary school in the early 1990s with two Claires and one Clare - ie late 1970s babies

clary · 25/10/2017 00:02

Nancy I wonder if we mean (I do!) that it's a name we know from when it was the 70s - I started secondary in 1975 and there were two Clares in my class (and two Angelas, two Nicolas, a Joanne,a Julie and two Karens).

Arthur and Albert and Elsie and Evie have all come back in fashion from before that time!

I am sure Karen and Julie and Clare and Angela and Joanne will come back in - maybe in about 20 years' time and we can all hold up our hands in horror at the awful names our grandchildren are given Grin

nancy75 · 24/10/2017 23:08

Surprised at people saying it’s a seventies name, I was born in 75 & only know 1 that’s around my age ( there were 6 Emma’s in my class at school) my mum is a Claire & she was born mid 50s

C0untDucku1a · 24/10/2017 23:04

Eclair is also E-clur

C0untDucku1a · 24/10/2017 23:04

Sadly, here in the north west, it is mainly pronounced Clur.

Ploppie4 · 24/10/2017 23:02

I loves an Eclair

MikeUniformMike · 24/10/2017 23:00

I like it. I don't like Clara but I like Clarissa shortened to Clare not Clarrie.