What do you think of Clelia?

[Lorsee]

What do you think of Clelia as a girl's name? It's listed on Mumsnet's Baby Name Finder.

honestly? looks like a mis-spelling of celia...

Um, it looks like a typo to me....

Don't. Seriously. The poor child will have to explain herself for the rest of her life.

Awful. Looks like a typo.

It's unusual, but easy to pronounce (as written). I suspect that the most negative thing about it is that it either sounds or looks like a lot of more common names (Claire, Celia, Clara, Chiara, etc.) so people will get confused. But if you love it, and stick to it, people will get used to it in the end.

Clelia is the Italian version of the Latin Cloelia. Cloelia is a great example of a strong woman (was taken hostage, escaped and famously swam the Tiber to get away) if choosing a name with that kind of history is important to you.

I like it. Prefer Cloelia as TotallyUnheardOf suggests... just spaces out the Ls a bit, makes it asthetically more pleasing? Also like Cleis (Clay-iss), which was the name of both the mother and daughter of Sappho.... Can't find anyone else who likes Cleis though, sigh.

Sounds absolutely awful.

Sorry, looks like a typo.

Cloelia looks much better. Cleis is nice, Janoschi - and I like Cerys too (Welsh).

Looks like a typo to me too, and a bit of a tongue twister to boot. I assume it's a hard c at he beginning, so the 'cl' is like click? It doesn't sound very nice to me to be honest. I quite like Cloelia though, but I'm imagining it pronounced like Floella, which might not be right at all.

Thank you Thumbwitch! I'll try again to have Cleis reintroduced as a middle name, now that I have Official Backing

I guessed Cloelia maybe had the same 'oe' sounds as Phoebe, making it sound the same as Clelia...? But if I saw it written down somewhere I'd probably automatically assume Clo-eelia or Clo-ellia....

I imagine folk would get used. My name is very weird (short and Welsh) but to be honest it's been really handy career-wise because people remember me amongst all the Emmas and Claires. I'm a freelancer so rely on my name being passed around via word of mouth. This counteracts the irritation of weird spellings and pronunciations.

It's only listed on the baby name finder as you added it there, OP.

I dont mean to sound horrible but it sounds like the name of a contraceptive pill...I think you could find a better name

Sorry, but Cloelia sounds like an upscale brand of toilet bowl cleaner to me :o

Looks like a typo. How about Cecilia?

Even if the OP did add it on to the Baby name finder, I have heard of it before. There is a character in a 1960's Margaret Drabble novel called Clelia.

I agree though that lots of people would think it was some other name misspelt/mispronounced.

Thanks for your honest opinions! Yes I did add the name to the baby name finder but the name certainly exists.

I have to say the medical associations of Clelia were lurking in my mind before I asked the question, so I wanted to check it wasn't just me :)

I quite like Cloelia, and the French version, which is Clélie (DH is French so maybe, although it does sound a bit like Kelly). Yes, TotallyUnheardOf, the reason I like it is because it was the name of an ancient Roman heroine. No-one's really heard of her though so there shouldn't be too much pressure to live up to it...

Like Whatshesaid, I'd think of the character in The Millstone.

I like the name.

Love the name Clelia ever since I read the Margaret Drabble book. Certainly not a mi-spelling or made up.

Glad you like the name. Apparently the character, Clelia was in Drabble's Jerusalem the Golden:

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/drabble_work.shtml

I'll have to read the book before making any decisions!

Apparently the French version of the name, Clélie is likely to gain in popularity in France because like us they're reviving their (great) grandparents' names.

Anyway. Thanks again for all your responses.

Cleo is nice?

Yes I agree it is nice, but Renault Clio spoils it for me. Darn car manufacturers!

The one in the Millstone was called Rosamund. And the character Clelia in Jerusalem the Golden had two sisters - Annunciata and Amelia. They were probably both as unusual as Clelia at the time! Good book, I love old Margaret Drabble books.

I assume that the oe in Cloelia is meant to be joined so it wouldn't be pronounced Chlo-ee-lia but Cleelia.
Too much like cloaca imo (birds only have one hole for eggs and poo = the cloaca) and chlamydia.