Isabella or Clarissa?

[PocketFullofMumbles]

Second girl on the way and needing some help with names! I really like classic girls’ names, ending in ‘a’ generally, but don’t want a super common one. My dd is Alexa, which feels classic, but not too out there

I love Clarissa for the same reason, but can’t decide if people will think it sounds too pretentious, or the connotations of the novel are too bleak! DH likes Isabella, and I do too, but worry there are a lot around - it doesn’t feel quite as ‘special’ as Clarissa. Any thoughts?!

I prefer Isabella and think it's gorgeous. However it is and has been very popular for a long time.
Clarissa is also nice and much less used.

My personal preference would be clarissa.

Clarissa. Isabella is overused.

Clarissa

Oh, I’m really surprised so many of you agree on Clarissa! Is it more because the name itself is nice or because Isabella is so more popular?

I say Isabella as Alexa and Clarissa are hard to say together.

Clarissa or silence of the lambs

I like both but definitely prefer Clarissa!

Isabella is beautiful but there are lots of little Izzy and Bellas around, if tht bothers you.

I don't think Clarissa is pretentious - unlike say, Cressida. With Clarissa my first thought is the TV show 'Clarissa explains it all' before the novel, but that's a generational thing and her friends won't make that connection.

Alternatives: Cassandra, Sabrina, Antonia, Rosa, Allegra, Cordelia, Roberta, Vanessa, Claudia, Gabriella, Francesca, Dorothea.

I prefer Isabella, but both are lovely (there were a lot of Isabellas between 2005 -2010, but if you look now at posts which mention the most overused names, it's Evie/Ava and similar, and the lone standing Ellie names, and Sophie. Sophie (and variants) was in more numerous use than Isabel/la and variants) for lol but two of the (MN alleged) years of Isabel/la 'overuse'

Some names are popular because they are timeless classics, rising and falling in fashion but not just of one generation (as eg Tracey was)

Clarissa is more in keeping with Alexa IMO

Isabella very overused

Isabella is so overused, so Clarissa!

Thank you so much for all the input, it’s really heartening. I thought Clarissa would be shot down!

@LeeMiller many of those were on the long list and have slowly been whittled off; I still love Francesca but it can’t work with our surname 👎🏻

@AuntieStella interesting you should say that; we had Isabella and Sophia on our long list for DD1 and I said I felt Sophia was far more popular than Isabella, although the rankings tables had them similarly.

Definitely Clarissa. There are so many Isabella/Isabel/Bella variants at my children’s primary school.

Isabella.

Clarissa

Clarissa!

Isabella is completely overused and therefor ea bit boring! Clarissa on the other hand is lovely!

If you chose Isabella there will be about five in her class at school.

Clarissa

Clarissa is lovely. I don't find it pretentious. Probably because I loved Clarissa Explains it All!

I almost chose Clarissa for my DD. It's rarely heard, and a lovely name

I think Clarissa would be gorgeous with Alexa.

My autocorrect just changed Clarissa to Larissa, which is nice too.

I love Isabella but as others have said, it is massively overused. I don’t like Clarissa, but I love Melissa which sounds similar and sounds nice with Alexa.

Clarissa is lovely. I did like Isabella, but it is so overwhelmingly popular that I find it a bit bland nowadays, and it will date.

I didn't know about the bleak connotations of Clarissa and doubt it will be the first thing on anyone's mind.

Isabella is overused but there's something about Clarissa that just feels a bit over the top for me.

Have you thought about Larissa or Nerissa?