Clemency, yes, no, maybe?

[RoseApp]

I really like Clemency. I feel it is a positive , happy name and a feisty one. I really like Clemmie as a nickname but when I mentioned it to a friend she was really down on it.

i had a French friend at uni who was called Clémence which I thought at the time sounded so sophisticated but again very negative reaction from family

Isn’t that the term for when American criminals get let off the death penalty?

what about Clementine

This! I hear clemency, I think death row. Sorry OP.

It makes me think of when a prisoner or person on trial appeals for clemency. Is it actually a name? We know a little Clemence but she is half French and gets called Clemmie.

It means any demonstration of mercy or softening of punishment.

Clemency is just another word for Mercy, I like it.

Clémence Or Clementine is lovely . Clemency reminds me of the term of like getting off jail time

I like it, and the shortened versions Clem & Clemmie/Clemmy.

Yes, it is a name, and a traditional name of one of the virtues like Grace or Prudence. It's fallen out of regular usage though.

Clementine or Mercy but definitely not Clemency.

I know a 12 year old Clemency. I love it, never know. Anyone else with that name.

I love it.

There's a reason for that.

@RoseApp no, it's a terrible word for a child's name.

Yes, it's lovely. I really like Clementine too although the song is a bit a lot dodgy if you Google the words (My Darling Clementine).

I don't like it. Clementine for a girl or Clemente for a boy yes but clemency just doesn't sound like a name to me.

That's what I thought when I saw the name of the post

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/clemency#:~:text=%2F%CB%88kl%C9%9Bm%C9%99nsi%2F,between%20groups%20of%20similar%20words.

No, you will sound foolish. Besides it doesn't have very nice connotations behind it.

The punishment connection was the first thing I thought of too. I wouldn't.

I can see the appeal of Clemmie as a nickname though. Go with Clementine.

I really strongly dislike it. Also dislike Clemmie or other diminutives. Sounds Clammy and wet to me. Also … virtue names for girls, yuck - we’re not born to forgive others’ weaknesses and be paragons of virtue.

Yes! There's even a film with that name https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5577494/

Why on earth would she sound foolish?

It’s a lovely name, op. Reminds me of the Clemency in Betjeman’s Youth and Age on Beaulieu River https://poetryarchive.org/poem/youth-and-age-beaulieu-river/

Weirdly, this, but also find it suuuuuch a wet name, so that’s a weird couple of associations. Clementine has far more bite to it.

I like it - I know a 14 year old Clemency. I don’t know why the connection with mercy is seen as a bad thing. Like a pp, I regard it as similar to Grace or Prudence.

@Supermand
Given the connotations it has (Death Row), of course she will sound foolish.