To call my baby calliope?

[heathergray]

Pronounced cal-y-oh-pee

Is it awful?

I should add that the only things I know about Orlando Furioso is that it exists and has the name Melissa in it. !

I thought of the lyrics of "Blinded by the Light" straight away too!

id be very surprised if anyone had not heard of Phoebe before Friends.

Well prepare to be amazed...I worked at an office in 93 and one of my bosses called his daughter Phoebe and everyone was . People were saying 'Fobe! Sounded like a foot infection' and similar to comments on here.

Well that's just strange, because, unlike Calliope, Phoebe has been in regular use since C16, with the usual peaks, troughs and literary references. It is firmly established.

And back in 1993 it would probably have been firmly in the top 100 names, so strange nobody had heard of it.

It does happen though, people just don't know. Somebody on a thread at the moment said she didn't think Amelia was popular when she chose it, and was told it was unusual, when it was actually top 20!

The root Mel means sweet or honey, in Greek and in Latin, Melissa was a nymph.

I see wiki gives Melissa as a bee, but equally it could mean sweetest, female adj, afair ( I might be wrong after so many years), like calling a daughter Bella or possibly Bellissima. Usually the ss is an extreme.

Apis in Latin is a bee, hence apiary,

Just saying.

Phoebe became a maid's name only in the 19c, iirc...16, 17, 18 crossed the divides.

What do you mean it became a maid's name in the C19 after it crossed the divides? What are you referencing? Explain. I was talking about Victorian novels at that point.

I think Amelia and definitely Abigail were what one called one's maids (even if they were really called Calliope)

Re Mellisa, not just saying that but I did recall melissa was honey ( mellifluous?) Checked it on Wikipedia and got bees ( honest)

Yup, maids were often given names/nick names. Given most women (up to 60%) were called Mary, Elizabeth or Anne, that's probably pretty sensible.

I think if you don't have small children (and that's probably most people) you'd never know what was popular. I had no idea Amelia was popular. I have never met any.

When we chose our ds1 and 2 names we had no idea if they were popular as we didn't know any children at all.

We also didn't do any name research. So when people said 'ah from midsummer nights dream?' We just shrugged and said if you say so. We only knew the Spartan General. Dh worked for a US company and they all knew the name as a bomber. And horsey types know him as the man who made husbands jealous

I now realise how naive that was and it could have been the word for pile cream or summat!

I had to google how to pronounce if, but I think it's a really lovely name!

MElissa is bee in Greek. A bit different from MeLLIsa. No one calls their kids MElissa in Greece.

Haven't rtft. I think Calliope sounds a bit pretentious, unless you're Greek. You'll probably have to answer the question about Greek heritage a thousand times.

It's a pretty name though.

No one has ever asked if I am Greek or have Greek heritage.