Nicola, Claire, or Laura

I'm not a fan of any of them - as someone who was born in the mid--80s, they feel very overused to me and I knew loads growing up. Nicola, in particular, sounds very dated. Claire is ok. Laura would be my choice - much more classic / timeless, though I prefer Lorna, or even Laurel.

Laura is the most classic of the 3. Really dislike Nicola.

Disagree that they are due a revival. They are named of people in their late thirties and forties - ie today’s parents of primary school kids etc.
Revival normally happens to names of parent’s grandparents.

We’d have to go through the 50s and 60s names first before the 70s and 80s names come back. The 50s and 60s names will probably come back when our children start naming their children although I hope that the likes of Gary etc never become popular again.

Laura is lovely and a classic.

Clare somehow feels less dated than Claire. Clara is even better but it’s having a mini boom at the moment and might date.

Not Nicola. Sorry. It will be a ‘mum’ name to children being born now, like a current twentysomething being named Susan or Linda. Names need to age a generation into ‘granny’ territory before they are ready to come back.

Laura is pretty and classic.
Claire/Clare is ok. I prefer Clara but that may be because it was my Nan's name
Not keen on Nicola

Laura - good solid name
Claire - like it a lot - don’t see it as particularly dated
Nicola - I do think this is still quite 80s (?) less fond of this - think it is ‘thin’ or ‘hard’/‘brittle’ -sounding.

Hehe this thread is making me smile.

Two out of the three names are my first name and middle name.

My poor old first name isn’t coming out well. Cheers mum

Claire or Laura both lovely. And the Claire's and Laura's I've ever met have been lovely.

Definitely not Nicola, it ends up getting pronounced Nik-la. If you are in Scotland think of the political associations!

Nicola! Don't mind Laura but I'm not a fan of Claire. If you like Claire, what about Clara?

Laura is your best bet.

I have a name that was very popular in the 60's and 70's and I loathe it. It's definitely not time for those names to make a come back.

Clara?

I like Laura best out of the 3 and I agree with some of the others that it is probably the most timeless.

I like Claire but slightly prefer the spelling Clare.

Nicola... hmm, when it was popular in my young days I didn't really like it. Now I can see it is actually quite a nice name - I think I must just have met a few annoying ones. It's rare now, but not unheard of. I know of 3 under the age of 20 (the youngest must be about 10 now).

Laura (or Lauren)

Nicola will always be Nic or Nicci...not nice. Clare is lovely. Not keen on Claire. I like Laura a lot though.

Nicola is a male name in Italian and French. Nicoletta would be the female version in Italian and Nicole in French.

Nicola is such a horrid sounding name (nick, nickle, knickers...) and Claire is nice enough but a bit too "of its time." I think Laura is quite classic.

Laura is the most classic. I’ve never met a nice one though!

DD has a Laura in her class at primary school - there is also a Claire (although I don't know how it's spelt), and a Sarah!

I like Nicole and Lauren as opposed to Nicola and Laura.
Clara is now popular and think takes the place of Claire.

Laura is timeless with a very long history. All of the Lauras I've known have been class acts

One of those is my name and I have cousins named both the others. I like them all actually but they are totally my generation names for me.

My favourite of the three is Laura.

Laura is a classic. It's a beautiful name that has a very long use historically (that unfortunately had a huge popularity boom in the 70's/80's, but it's never gone out of use). Laura is similar to Sarah in that it's traditional enough to still use as a first name now imo.

Clara has already made a comeback so I'm sure the similar Claire (which has an equally lovely sound and meaning) will make a comeback soon. Whether Clara or Claire is the more popular version of the name just depends on trends (and Claire followed the soundalike/lookalike trend of Louise, Diane, Marie, Julie, Nicole etc of the 60's/70's).

Nicola (or Nicole) is more dated because it wasn't quite as widely used historically - but because the boys version of the name (Nicholas) is a classic, I'm sure Nicola will eventually make a comeback in time too.

I have always liked Laura.
I can see Claire coming back.
Nicola and actually even more so Nicole are dated

I like Laura the best and to my ears it sounds more like a classic (similar vibe to Alice, Charlotte etc) and harder to pin down to a single decade when it was most popular

Claire and Nicola both very 1970s but I can imagine Claire having a revival as it is a very pretty name

I not keen on Nicole. Prefer Natalia or Natasha.

None