Claudia or Athena?

[BananaHammocks]

I've always loved the name Claudia however recently my DH mentioned Athena, I've always liked Athena but it's never been top of my list however now I like it more and more and can't choose!

I think Claudia is prettier and makes more sense with my background as I'm a little bit Italian but not Greek at all!

But... Athena has a much nicer meaning and is a bit more unusual, which is important to me as I've enjoyed having an unusual name.

I feel like whichever I pick I'll regret not using the other one!

I don't want to use one as a middle name as middle name will be a family name. This is my first pregnancy so I guess I can always tell myself I might get to use both anyway but I'm finding it sooooo hard to choose! Help!

I prefer Athena, don't like claudia.

Athena will always mean "poster shop" to me.

Claudia is beautiful.

Athena is beautiful and more unusual.

Athena, lovely name.

I love Athena, that's a beautiful name and quite unusual without being silly

Athena by a mile. Utterly love this name.

Wait and see what baby looks like? We have 2 choices and we'll let baby decide, just like we did with DS.

Having lived many years in Greece Athena is very playing to my ear

I'm afraid I don't like Claudia so of the two I would choose Athena.

Pleasing not playing- stupid phone!

Athena is so much prettier, more feminine and lovely sounding than Claudia. Also, the meaning of Claudia (lame/disabled from Latin claudus) would put me off.

Athena is beautiful

Claudia is harsher to me

Athena is one hell of a name to have to grow into! It sounds beautiful, but I can only imagine it "fitting" a very tall, slim, quiet, young woman with cascades of long hair and luminescent skin who works as an artist/academic.

If you like traditional Greek names, there are plenty which are more "wearable" but still beautiful and very unusual, IMO, and some have a similar sound to Claudia. Ariadne, Phaedra, Despina, Cliantha, Artemisia, Melinda, Delphine, Demetria, Sapphira, and Nicolette are a few that I've liked over the years.

Phaedra and Artemisia are more wearable than Athena??

I don't think I necessarily like Greek names, but I do seem to mainly like European girls names ending in A. Also quite like Cosima, Gabriella, Flavia and Raffaella.

I'm a little bit Italian but not at all Greek, does this matter? Makes me think Claudia is more appropriate!

Lieut. Athena in Battlestar Galactica is cool.

The classical reference is good too - though her birth story is odd: she's born from Zeus' thigh and this is used to prove that children are shaped by their fathers, the mothers are just vessels.

And no no no to Phaedra. Horrid story of a woman crying rape.

Love Claudia. Hate Athena - automatically think of poster shops.

Claudia has always been one of my favourite names, Athena not so much.

I do like Claudia, very classic pretty name but my DD has a close friend call Athene another option on Athena!

I love claudia, don't like Athena at all.

I much prefer Athena.

Both beautiful, but prefer Athena by a whisker.

Definitely Claudia.

Athena will always remind me of this cheesy image.

athena is the poster & card shop - definite no from me. not keen on claudia either.

Banana - this may just be my Greek-ness showing but, yes, I think Phaedra is a hell of a lot more wearable than Athena. I know about as many Phaedras as Despinas or Demetrias (so not many, but some), whereas I've never met (and can't imagine) an actual human being called Athena, Aprhodite, Hecate, Hera, or similar. My name is Greek, and I'm the only person with my first name on the entire internet, but I still consider it more wearable than Athena because it doesn't have the ethereal connotations that Athena has (as one of the best-know Greek goddesses).

Granted, Artemisia is a bit more "out there" - I just chucked it in because I knew an Artemisia once, unusual names clearly don't scare you, and it's a variation on a Greek goddess name which ends with the same sound as Claudia :).

I hope you won't consider my post to be rude or negative - I just thought I'd point out that the two names are on very different "levels" in terms of their connotations, and suggest a few Greek names that are similar to Claudia in case you fancied an alternative to Athena which is more likely to fit with the adult version of your DD over the course of several decades.