Sophia, Clarissa. Clara or Iris? Please help!

[toomanydoughnuts]

I love the name Sophia but am a little worried that its so popular every second girl will be a Sophie or Sophia. I've enjoyed having a fairly unusual name so don't really know if it gets annoying having to always be Sophia X or blonde Sophia or so on.
Other options are Clarissa (nn, Cleo), Clara, Iris.
Opinions please!

Sophia is lovely, but does seem pretty popular at the minute. It would not worry me hugely, and certainly my DS does not mind having a common name in the least.

I greatly prefer Clara and Iris to Clarissa or Cleo.

Prefer Sophia to all the others. Don't think it's that popular.
Second choice Cleo without the Clarissa full name.

Clara and Iris are my favourites of your names.

A lot of Clara around though.
Clarissa is nice

you have quite similar taste to me - with the exception of clarissa!

dd was v nearly sophie but we decided against as too popular round here.

iris is lovely but there are a fair few of them here too now - so i would probably go for clara which is v original

Thanks for all your views - very helpful. seems as if Clarissa isn't so liked - must be one of those ones you either love or hate.

Clara or Iris.
I prefer Clara but I think it's growing in popularity, always seems to be mentioned on these threads at moment.

Sophia is a little safe and boring, although not so much as Sophie is (eek, sorry to any sophies reading)

Clarissa is the most unusual, perhaps for a reason.

Clarissa definitely - and i love Cleo an a nn!!

Sophia is a beautiful name - and definitely not as popular as Sophie. It's classic and timeless!

I really like Clara too.

Clara. issa ruins it. Cleo is lovely too though.

I suggested clara to dh and he ruled it out as 'it's a common name for a cow in germany'

I did wonder if they had annual list of the most popular cows names!

As dd is half german decided it migt not e wise to name her after a cow!

As lovely as Clara is it will be the next ever so popular name, like evie, ruby, Olivia. All lovely but most often one of many.

I like Clara and Sophia.

I like Iris. But Cleo is nice too.

Iris is lovely.

Clarissa is my favourite, very classical, not overly popular, simple spelling and easy to understand. If I could have another DC that would be my first choice for a girl, it's lovely.

Love Clara and Iris.

Sophie is extremely popular in my area (south east) within the under 5s at the moment. I know loads.

Clara would be my choice

Also like Sophia and Iris

I have a Sophie, she was the only one we knew in our area until she started school and we found there were 2 more in the whole school - so not as common as people think. I love the name Sophia and sometimes wish we had named her that instead!

Clara was about 380 in popularity in 2008.

I see it pop up a lot on here.

It is my dd's name, it is the nicest on your list.

I have a Sofia (it is spelt the Spanish way) much nicer than Sophia or Sophie.

It suited her as a baby and still does as a young girl and i think it sounds elegant for a woman too.

so many names nowadays suit babies but end up getting changed or shortened as they grow older.

Go with Sofia just to be different..

My dd1 is Sofia, she is the only one in her school, she's 5 and we haven't heard it that much although dd2 is Olivia!

I like Clara best, then Iris and then Sophia. I'm not keen on Clarissa (though I do like Cleo).

I love all your choices. Good taste!
If I had to put them in order it would be:
Iris
Clara
Sophia
Clarissa