To call my baby calliope?

[heathergray]

Pronounced cal-y-oh-pee

Is it awful?

I dont think it is. I like it a lot

Springsteen fan here - and yep reminds me of his lyrics in "Blinded by the light" too!

I think you could find a much prettier name although Cally is quite sweet! Good luck!

It's hideous :- ( are there any others you like?

It's lovely.

Nobody really balks at Penelope or Phoebe (or similar Greek name) so I don't see what the big deal is

I really like it.

Yes - it's unusual, but it is a "classic" name.

However I'm generally drawn to biblical/classic/Celtic names in general.

The ones I can't stand are the "unique" spellings.

Sorry, Koala, that question wasn't for you, but the other poster. It matters not, anyone can answer

Lots of internet name interested obsessed people collate and post the Times and Telegraph names (and their siblings) on a weekly basis, some you can view by year/decade. Usually find a high proportion of the unusual and classical type names on there amongst the more popular names. Interesting stuff if you care about that sort of thing.

OP hasn't returned to the thread at all, Pidgeon (unless she's lurking).

sorry reuset, I just assume everyone is talking to me ;) I'll have a nose at those lists.

Don't pay any attention to what others think, it doesn't matter.
Sure there are people who've never heard of a Greek muse, but do you want them to name your child?

I love it!

Queen of Pentacles, they have quite ordinary names in Brideshead Revisited, honestly. They are all Charles and Caroline.

And Cordelia. That is the name she may have meant.

Nobody really balks at Penelope or Phoebe (or similar Greek name) so I don't see what the big deal is

Possibly because neither of those names are in the least bit unusual.There are loads of Penelopes and Phoebes.

But lass, there must have been a point when they were.

I'm 57. I can't remember Penelope or Phoebe ever being unusual. Penelope in particular seems a favourite name for female writers.

I've never come across a Calliope, although have known 2 Phaedras and an Antigone.

I am a Midwife, in what is classed as an upper/middle class area. I have only ever met one newborn Calliope 😊 (in rather a few years) and Penelope has certainly been rather rare here - two that I know of in the last 2 years. I find it fascinating when Mums and Dads tell me their name choices, and some of the reasons they made that choice. Love my job! 😃😍

Oh, is your username real? 😍

Maidofstars - sort of 😉

I'm 57. I can't remember Penelope or Phoebe ever being unusual.

That's because they are both 16th Century names. In England anyway. That's the point they were starting to be used here ('new'). Any more detail I'd have to look it up.

Thanks reuset. I didn't look it up either but neither Penelope or Phoebe are out of the ordinary. There are loads of famous Phoebes and Penelopes.

I didn't mean they were 'recently' new, I meant 'at some point in history' they must have been 'new' or out of the ordinary.

Although pre Friends tv show I remember someone I knew calling their daughter Phoebe and it raising many eyebrows and lots of people never having heard of it.

The Rocket Launcher T34 Calliope was a tank-mounted multiple rocket launcher used by the United States Army during World War II.

Phoebe and Penelope pop, now and then, in Victorian novels. Phoebe for servants and ordinary people, it wasn't unusual (Penelope less so). Both have remained in use. I'd be surprised at people not having heard of those names, pre Friends. Though I never did watch Friends, actually.

We have other ordinary names introduced later than that. Another Greek name, people might not recognise as Greek (without Google), and used 200 years later than the above is Melissa.

I'd be very surprised if anyone had not heard of Phoebe before Friends.

Melissa is a bee isn't it ? The name Melissa appears in English literature in Orlando Fuirioso. It appears in Restoration literature and 16th to 18th century literature along with Phoebe, Lydia (more Greek) and Celia (Latin).

I can't think of literary Calliopes , other than the myth and Jeffrey Eugenides use of it in The Virgin Suicides last century

I don't know anything about Melissa, I only remember it means bee, now that you've said Literary influences and dates would make sense though.