please rate these names?

[1horatio]

1. Clarissa (my favourite. But I didn't really consider it up to now because MIL doesn't like it...)
2. Carlotta
3. Miranda
4. Erika
5. Louisa (so so lovely, used to be a name I wanted for DC when I was in middle school. But it's a little bit... ordinary, imo. MIL loves it)

Godparents will be Raychelle and Brigham.

God no! Clarissa is beautiful. If you love it, use it. She'll have to deal (and she will, because she will totally fall in love with baby Clarissa, and the name will just become 'her').

If you didn't/don't know her and don't associate the name with her I don't see why it's relevant. Your MIL just needs to get over it, it's your baby not hers.

I guess it's you're right. But if my sister (or my DD) have children and were to call one of them the name of my grandfather (who was an abusive arse) I'd be rather upset. But then again... Clarissa was not abusive, just a grinch, aparently... But no, I've never met her. Neither has DH, btw. (his greatgreat aunt was dead before he was born).

My opinion stands, then, fwiw.

Go forth with baby Clarissa!

I'm positively surprised by the feetback for Clarissa :)

Carlotta was given the boot, btw. Car lot is just too... easy to tease.

I like Louisa out of your list, not keen on the others.

Louisa used to be my first choice. But I just don't really like it anymore. Or don't 'feel' it anymore. But Louisa is probably the most liked (or least disliked) of these top 5 names.

But thank you for taking the tine to comment.

Miranda and Louisa are both gorgeous and far from boring...

Louisa makes me think of white busy lizzies, for some reason (I honestly don't know why... ). Which I used to love. Now it's a bit 'meh'... :/
But yes, Miranda is imo gorgeous and not boring at all.

I'm going to go with Miranda although I prefer Miriam.

Clarissa reminds me of the Two Fat Ladies. I
like the nicknames you suggested though.

I personally don't like the name Miriam (because of the name's meaning but mainly because of 2 Miriams I know...)

I agree, Miranda is super lovely. But DD's last name will also start with an M... So, Idk. But there are just soo many lovely m names. Minerva, Magnolia, Mafalda, Morwenna, etc... But Miranda was the one that was just too lovely to rule out, despite the last name issue.

So you like 'a' names? What about: Camilla, Tessa, Annabella, Henrietta, Anika,

Annabella was on a namelist.... But ultimately didn't make the cut. Although it is super pretty! You're absolutely right.
Annika is Pippi's sidekick (to me) :)
But yes, I love (!) feminine, slightly elaborate a names. I think that's also maybe cultural. There's no female family member (I can think of) whose name doesn't end in a vowel, which usually happens to be an a... And even in my case my family adds an a, -ntine becomes -ntina....

But as long as any other LOs we'll (hopefully! I hope I didn't just jinx it) have don't have M names as well Miranda M probably wouldn't be too bad.

Hello Horatio!

I think you should go with Clarissa. Lovely name (and cute nicknames too). Ignore Mil - not your problem, and she'll soon get over it when she starts to associate the name with the baby.

The only one I don't like is erika (especially with the k, but either way to be honest).

I still love Louisa, I remember that being on your previous list. I'd suggest it as a middle name, but with Clarissa I think that's too many similar sounds - L S A.

I've akways liked the name Louisa. Even when I liked fashionable edgy names (as a teen) Louisa was still a name I liked.

Using it as a middle name seems wasteful. What if we have another dd (wasteful seems harsh. I hope it makes sense ).
I once read that the oldest kid is usually the one with the greatest urge to fit in... So maybe Louisa or Clarissa would be better. But now that I have the chance to use L it has lost some of its appeal.