Antigone or Tigris

[DaveMccave]

I know it will be a minority that could consider either better than the other but anyone have an opinion to a preference? nn Tiggy.

Antigone.

If it is between Tigris and Antigone, I would go for Antigone although I don't like it much. However I wouldn't have Tiggy as a nickname.

Actually tbh only you op would know if a child with this name would have any problems with the name while growing up/ at school etc. Considering your family/ community.

I think an adult could handle either name and can always choose to go by Tiggy for everything to avoid mispronounciations if they come across that a lot.

However imo if your other dd name is Lyra she has definitely been given the 'easier' name.

My other dd isn't Lyra.

I don't live down south, a very northern working class/deprived town actually, but school isn't an issue as they won't be going.

Tigris is pn 'Tee-gris'

"Tigris is pn 'Tee-gris'"

I didn't realise that. I would have said Tie-gris as in the river. Antigone sounds too similar to antimony.

D'you know what, I'm wrong, it's Tigris - I had heard a mispronunciation of the river and it stuck. I prefer my made up version though

DaveMccave.

My dd doesn't go to school either, but she still has to associate with many people from all walks of life.
It is up to you what you call your dd of course it is, but it didn't seem like you had thought of the child growing up with a name that sounds like a cleaning agent or clown.
I haven't read classics as I imagine many other people in life haven't, so to me on first hearing your dds name I would have to ask for spelling etc. I just wonder what is wrong with a normal name. Of course if you are bringing her up and moving to Greece, Athens or wherever the name originates then that of course is different.
I too live in a working class Northern town, quite deprived. I couldn't saddle any of my dc with a name where they would get the piss taken out of them. I am not trying to be nasty, just asking you to consider this.

They're not names I'd ever choose but each to their own. Some name are so weighed down with associations or just IN YOUR FACE that the child/adult carrying them has to work hard to be seen. Their names enter the room six feet before them.

I don't know what connotations Tigris might have, but Antigone pronounced properly doesn't sound like a cleaning agent or a clown(?). That's not to say that people might not go 'eh?' the first time they encounter it or that there might not be teasing potential. Given all the crazy made up names people inflict on their children at the moment Antigone might not cause a raised eyebrow in any case. Although I'm sure she'd have an easier life in an ethnically mixed or a middle/upper class area.

My DP just saw the title of the thread and said 'Anti- gone, wtf, and isnt Tigris a river?' I think you will get that a lot. Ant tig go knee is a lovely name (much better than Tigris) but she will probably have to put up with a fair amount of mid pronounciation.

Mis, not mid, DYAC.

You cant 'do a quick google' every time you are introduced to someone with the name! So I'm afraid first impressions DO count, even if they are ignorant

Well if you are being verbally introduced you will know how to prn the names won't you.

Problem solved.

You're torn between the two? Really? Goodness!

At a push I'd go for Antigone. Better still use Tiggy as a punning nick name. E.g. Beatrix Tiggy Legge-Bourke was a Beatrix Potter fan (or some such) which is how she earned the nick name Tiggy.

And what morethanpotatoprints said about your children not going to school anyway!

Did you use either in the end? I have an Antigone, mostly called Tiggy-a fellow Classics geek and in love with the character for all the reasons given above!

I love Antigone DH hates it the bastard. He perfers Hannah . Tigris sounds a bit to masculine to me, it feels like a boys name, but that might be as it is similar ish to my favourite boys name.

I love Tiggy/Tig - will be my first DS' s nn.

I want to know which, if either op went for. Still about op?

I've never heard of either name, not sure if they are boys or girls names and not sure how to pronounce them either, sorry!

Isn't Tigris the tiger/woman from the last hunger games book??

The Tiggy I know is a Tegan

Antigone is a fab name, and Tiggy sounds really cute.

...as long as you live in London or similar......

I know two Antigones, both gorgeous and both sometimes Tiggy, sometimes Antigone and very proud of their names (so much so that the one introduced as Tiggy very quickly told me her full name without prompting).

So to say that it is cruel to do that is a bit dramatic, they looked unscathed to me!

I'm very surprised at the sheer number of people misreading the pronunciation, but unless you're called something like Emma people find all sorts of ways to pronounce names that are not complicated at all (bitter experience) so you might as well go with something fabulous and leave a few people scratching their heads once in a while!