Claudia vs Cressida?

[bippityboppityboo22]

Hi all!
We’re not actually expecting but were chatting about baby names last night and I’d love some feedback on these two names? I love both but don’t know whether Cressida is ‘usable’ if that makes sense?
Excited to hear your thoughts!

Cressida sounds too much like watercress to me..love Claudia

@Violetlavenders

Besides, the name existed long before emperor Claudius and his limp.

Yes, so it was a coincidence that the emperor with the name Claudius just happened to suffer from several birth defects in effect making him lame.

His lameness came to define the meaning of the name. That’s not in question. I was just saying the name existed a long time before it became associated with ‘lame’.

they are both good proper names, wow on MN, are you sure you don't want to call them sprinkle-toes or flossy-flossy ?
cressida is getting lots of bad press at the moment, but not sure if that is relevant.
think i slightly prefer claudia, but either are good. well chosen.

Cressida is a faithless women in Greek mythology.

Claudia

But Cressida is perfectly usable

I've always found Claudia ugly. Like Cressida - know a couple - one Cressie, the other Sisi (SeeSee).

No worries @Classica . I suspect we are in agreement that name meanings aren't the most important thing and can also alter over time.

Personally my only issue with a name meaning would be if it's something obviously teasable in the child's native language - such as your example of Amelia (although I suspect only those familiar with someone with the birth defect or have studied medicine might be aware). Eg. Portia "means" Pig and we use the similar word Porcine in English to mean "pig- like" so I might be concerned kids could make the link. Thankfully we don't use "Claudus" in English, so I don't think a Claudia would be teased.

And yes, as you said, one of the original meanings of Maria (and Mary/Mara) is "bitter", but unsurprisingly over time other potential meanings pop up - so I've also seen "longed for child" and "from/by the sea" (because of the Latin "Maris") listed in various name books/websites.