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!

Oops - "best-known Greek goddesses" is what I intended to type!

I have Greek family and I know 2

That's really interesting Nom, I assumed Athena would be a widely used name in Greece and that Phaedra was much more obscure.

Love Athena. Don't like Claudia at all

Valuim and Squoosh - it's funny you should say that, I'd never even thought of Athena as a person-name until I read this thread! I'm mostly Greek-Cypriot and so were most of the Phaedras, Despinas etc I knew growing up, so i suppose that might have something to do with it...? (It could also be the ex-pat thing, but I haven't even heard of any Athenas or similar from my extended family.)

Very odd - clearly you should ignore me, OP .

Nom, I've never met a Phaedra but know lots of Despinas I imagine it depends where you're from.

Valium - I guess regional variation and year-on-year fashions must influence things more than I realised. Most of the Greek-Cypriot girls in my school were Sapphiras and Ariadnes, but we had quite a few Nicolettes and just one Despina - all of which, I've just noticed, are pretty expat-friendly as they're easy to spell. Phaedra, Demetria and Danai were a lot more unusual, but I knew one of each while growing up and then came across the names again at university. I love Greek names - I couldn't even bear to give up my surname for an English one when I got married .

Also I am probably much older than you which probably makes a difference