Helena or Claudia?

[Flowerface]

Pleeeease don't say "I hate them both, call her Madison"!!!

Helena is lovely. Claudia is nice, but there is the unfortuate meaning to consider.

I like Claudia pronounced 'clawed-ia' but not 'cloud-ia'. Much prefer Helena.

I do like Clara too, but DH is a history lecturer and is put off by the whole Hitler's mother/Mussolini's mistress connection. I think he could be talked round, if necessary.

I would be pronouncing them Helen-a and Clawdia. I think people are less likely to mispronounce the latter? Unless we go to live in Germany? I have thought about that. I think HelAYna would irritate me. And there is the Hel- El- thing to consider, as you say. Hadn't thought of that...

I don't think ancient "meanings" of names are all that relevant these days. Or perhaps my parents were engaging in wishful thinking when they gave me a name meaning "pure". I have just looked up Olivia on a website and it means "elf army" apparently, but it is still the most popular girls name. So I wouldn't be put off Claudia by the meaning as most people will be unaware of it.

However, I personally like Helena better.

And, I just looked at Clara on past MN threads and there is a huge debate about whether it is Clarrha or Clair-a. I would want it to be the former, but are there NO names that people don't argue about pronunciation with?!?!?! That is one thing in Claudia's favour...

I think there is less chance of Clara being mispronounced. It's just Clar-ah (Lara with a C)......never heard of it being pronounced Clair-ah.

Claudia on the other hand could be Claw-dee-ah or Clow-dee-ah. I would go for the former but I think the latter is just as valid.

Hope you can convince your DH on Clara.

Other pretty timeles names with a similar feel - Miranda, Camilla, Cecilia/Celia, Marina, Penelope, Tabitha, Beatrice, Ingrid, Margot, Louisa.

I love them both, but Claudia gets my vote. It's a beautiful name. I reckon the vast majority would pronunce it claw-de-ah, so I really don't think the 'clow' pronunciation would be much of an issue at all.

Definatley Helena

As in Helen-a not Hel-ay-na

I'm a Helena and I love it

Claudia is a gorgeous name. Totally love it. Helena not so much - let's face it, it's just Helen with an A. No contest.

Claudia's a lovely name

well I am going to vote for Claudia because you are goingwith the Helen ah pronoinciation of Helena were you going with Helen ah pronounciation and I do not like that at all.. if you had gone with the other it would have been a draw for me.

Claudia. Definitely Claudia as I don't want to encourage any more baby Helenas

These are two of my favourite names! I like them both equally, which isn't much help.
I think Claudia goes best with Elsa, but Helena probably has more nn potential.
The other names on our list are Emilia and Eleanor (with Emilia being DH's favourite, so think we're going for that).

I prefer Helena but agree about the pronunciation issue - I know both HELL-ennas and Hel-AYNAS.

The meaning of Claudia would put me off, I think. KatandKit, some names have more obvious meanings than others and Claudia happens to be a name derived directly from the Latin word Claudus, meaning disabled. Lots of other names' meanings are more far fetched and therfore less relevant imo.

DD2 is Helena, ( pronounced Helen-a), it was DH's choice.. I love it now but took a bit of convincing, partly as I was worried about pronunciation. Its been much less of a problem than I thought though... Funnily enough my fave choice of name was Elsa !

Helena - love it

Claudia is also quite nice but I say Cloud-ia and much prefer it that way (spent many years in German speaking world so all the Claudias I know are Cloud-ia)

I don't mind Cloud-ia as much as I mind Hel-AY-na. Hmm. I don't know. I am not sure DH is mad on either, but he is very inscrutible about the name thing. And I fear that he DOES say 'Hel-AY-na', so he would need to be re-educated...

Love Claudia but the meaning put me off. Having read some of the posts though, I may reconsider....

Helena -- fabulous name.

Just LOVE Claudia!!!

really dont like Helena, so I would go with Claudia. I no a little girl who is 3 called Claudia and she gets nicknamed Claudie which sounds really cute on her.

I like both, but prefer Claudia...

I love all the names mentioned so far. However the meaning of Claudia puts me off just very very slightly. I am a Helena (not helayna) and love it now (altho didn't in childhood), and my dd is clara. I think Clara goes particularly well with Elsa as a sibling. Dd however is irritated by the pronunciation Claira which she sometimes encounters. I doubt you would regret any of the choices you are considering.

I prefer Helena - agree about the pronunciation issue as I know both a Hell-AYNA and a HELL-enna. Claudia is nice although agree about the meaning not being very nice.

Do you think the 'Clair-a' problem could be overcome by spelling it 'Klara'? I see it's a bit contradictory to want the German pronunciation for Clara and not for Claudia, but there we are!

The other name we thought about was Greta but I am ambivalent at the moment, and worry that 'Elsa and Greta' is a bit too German (nothing wrong with that, but we are not German, though my step-Dad is).