Clarissa - Why is it not more widely used?

[PitterPatter3]

Just wondering if I’m missing something as it’s sounding like a great name to me. Yet it’s only number 1785 in the latest ONS statistics.

I love it. Pretty and classic.

The very similar Larissa is a maybe more modern-sounding option, as an alternative.

I like Larissa though

It's not great

Silence of the lambs

It's harsh and ugly sounding.

I'm surprised there are so many haters. I think it's a lovely sweet name.

Clarissa is an oral contraceptive. So it would be a nope from me.

The novel Clarissa was mid 18th century and featured the eponymous heroine…a naive young lady…being taken in by a cad her raped her to try and control her and left her with syphillis which ultimately caused her death.

Possibly not an association you’d fancy!

I don’t like it, Melissa is way nicer

Agreed. It's quite an achievement for a name to be both harsh and frilly.

It's like the 'posh' version of Elsie, which manages to be both dowdy and twee at the same time.

I think of it as quite lispy, and it does summon an image of a Sloane in a padded velvet hairband and pearls.

Clara, on the other hand, is having a moment.

This is how I feel too. I don’t hate it, but it’s just a bit prissy and horsey.

I love this name.
Wanted it for dd but dh vetoed it.
It’s classic but interesting to my ears.
I also wonder why Diana isn’t more popular.
Befire anyone says because if Princess Diana, people name their child after all sorts of people with far more identifiable names.

I think it's a beautiful name. Maybe people think it's too posh, in the same way as Camilla (which is a lovely name but forever ruined by association for me)

Cassie is a nice way to shorten it.

My best friend in high school's name was Clarissa, I really like it

Prissy, frilly, fussy, urgh

I think it's nice but it would get shortened to Clarrie.

This is probably rather a sick and twisted admission. But Anthony Hopkins has the most seductive voice, and the way he enunciates that name makes me slightly weak at the knees!

Being British, though, I'd pronounce 'Clarice' to rhyme with Harris.

Clarissa does have quite a harsh sound. I prefer Clara.

I like it, but I think that both Clarissa and Clarice evolved as kind of "elaborated" versions of the more basic and familiar Clara/Claire/Clare (like Charis > Charissa/Carissa, or Jane > Janessa) so it may seem more unnecessarily frilly and excessive than similarly structured names like Louisa, Melissa, Theresa, Vanessa?

I'm not sure. I find a lot of the older names that are back in vogue to be quite frumpy. Names like Theodora and Winifred for example sound horrible to me. I find Clarissa much more appealing.

This probably killed it off.

I like it! Although I prefer Clarice, which we were going to use if a girl.

It's a really ugly sounding name. I guess that's why.

Here’s a massive eye roll just for you.

I think it's lovely!