Lily or Clelia - Italian baby!

[GreenBlacksButterscotch]

We are Italians living in the UK the last 5 years and due in 2 months our DD1. We live in a relatively international/close to London area and our kid will have an italian surname.

We are in between Lily and Clelia.

• Lily because it's easy, international, straightforward and works well in both UK and Italy. There are not many Lilys around here. What put us a bit off is that for Italians it sounds a bit too international (not authentic Italian), and a bit childish/too cute for an adult. Not a strong enough standalone name!

• Clelia is a family name with strong italian heritage behind. Originated by Cloelia and it's a significant name for us as it is the name of a relative that we want to honour. Clelia in Italy is Cleh-Lia not Clee-Lia, and this how we are planning to call her. I know in the UK the default is Clee-Lia which is why it puts us a bit off, having to correct people is annoying. But, I mean it will be just a few corrections in the beginning of everything i.e. nursery/school/work etc. and then end of story?

We don't want a double name, so please don't suggest that! Just advise between the two please given our circumstances and given we are not British and we don't know if we will ever return back to Italy!

Lily is nice but there are a million of them everywhere. She certainly won’t be the only Lily when she goes to school and will work with several. It’s very popular and without fail is one of those names that gets Rose and May stuck on the end of it.

I think with Clelia you’ll have pronunciation issues but when people know how to say it, they’ll say it correctly.

Clelia is lovely but correcting people's pronunciation could be an irritation for all of you over the years.

Lilia seems like a good option, but there are so many Italian names that work well for both languages.

I’m in Italy and only know one (20yo) Clelia, written with a K as her parents are Croatian.
It’s a beautiful name.

Clelia has a great history and I love the way it sounds.
Cleh-lia. It's really nice.
You might have to tell people how to say it the first few times. People will soon learn to say it.
It is very much like Claire Leah

another suggestion : Lia

Absolutely love Clelia! Beautiful and unusual. There is a well known young Greek actress with this name, spelling it Klelia. Both spellings would work.

Would the spelling with "K" rather than "C" ... So, "Klelia" make the association to Celia and the mispronunciation issues less?

How would Klelia be pronounced in the UK?

I'd go for Clelia. I'm living near London too - people are very used to non English names. You may need to say how to pronounce it a couple of times, but other than that, noone will bat an eyelid.

Call her Clelia. As you live in/near London, the issues people are mentioning are unlikely to arise.
Don’t limit the expression of your culture by anticipating the xenophobia of others!

I wouldn't use K as people judge K names harshly in the UK, especially if they think the name is made up - which yours clearly isn't, but not everyone will be familiar with it.
I think it is lovely to go for a name with a family connection. If it was me, I would go for Cloelia, as I think it works better for English speakers in terms of getting the pronunciation right and looks like a correctly spelt name - Clelia is more likely to be interpreted as a typo for Celia.

I disagree with those suggesting a compromise. If I meet someone with an unusual name, I’d ask how it was pronounced. She will be introducing herself anyway much of the time, it’s not always written down. Go with the family connection since it’s beautiful too. I think you’d regret the loss of connection. Note that I am possibly biased as I have Italian heritage but the names have been lost. Since my divorce I’ve taken to using my great grandparents’ Italian surname on an informal basis as there is just a tiny pocket of them remaining here in a small area of North London and I’m dying for someone to say “hey - cousin!”

Lily is boring.

I'd never heard of Clelia but I immediately read it the way you say you'd like it pronounced.

I think Clelia is a lovely name. Never run into it before. Like others have said, I would also go to Cleh-lia for pronunciation, so you wouldn't be close to 100% on needing to explain that.

But it is more likely to be assumed as a typo for Celia than if you spelled it with a K, for sure. Not sure what @Gloschick was on about with judgement of K names though 🤷🏼‍♀️

Love Lilia as an alternative suggestion, there will also be far fewer of these, but this will also need to be spelled out on the phone, 100%, for life though. But Lily probably wouldn't be far off, and you never do know... if a pop star called Lilli becomes famous in the next 15 years, you'll be forever facing that as the default-you can't account for those sort of things!

There was a Harper in my child's baby group. Great name, unusual, but easy to say & spell. Then a few months later the Beckhams chose this for their 4th child, who was a girl. He wasn't, so I suspect has faced assumptions on class lists until the point of walking in the door ever since...

Clelia. My DD17 went to school with one, and doesn't seem to have any problems with mispronunciations etc - people generally only need to be told once.

I like Lily, but there are thousands of them.

I'd say "clay lah" but also I think in London there's enough variety that people will just use her actual name.

Go with Cleila.

Lily is a nice name and I also like the suggestion of Lilia. In fact Lilia gets my vote as a bit more unusual.

I hadn’t heard the name Clelia before and I’m not sure I’m very keen on it, although I understand you wanting to go with your family name, and I guess whatever you choose people will see it as a nice name as it will be the name of your gorgeous baby.

I meant that if you call your child Khloe instead of Chloe, certain people will judge you. I'm not saying I'm one of them, but I've seen enough of it on mumsnet to be able to say that it is a thing.

Lily is soooooo overused!

Will the surname look Italian written down?
I would go with Clelia.

Have never ever in my whole life heard of the name Celia - have lived all over the uk and in London for the last 30 years. I also thought it was an error and you meant ‘Celia’. If you call her Celia and stay in the UK she absolutely will be called Celia the whole time she’s here. She’ll constantly have to correct everyone. Clelia just is not a name heard or known here. It’s lovely and the story is lovely, but if you call her it be aware that she’ll have difficulties with it while you’re in the UK. Sad, but true ….

I grew up in the UK and I'd heard the name before. I think people who know a bit about Roman history would recognise it.

I know a Lilia and is the name I was going to suggest. My half-Italian friend is called Livia, which is pretty too.

Don’t use a K instead, then it just looks like a made up name. I like the Claelia spelling , but Clelia is pretty too. It’s a lovely name . Do you intend to stay in England, or might you move back to Italy ? I think you will get some people who think it is Celia , or Cleelia as the e sound, as it’s a very unfamiliar name here, but the mispronunciation is true of lots of well known names too, eg Sara /Sarah, Evelyn pronounced with an E as in Egg or an Ee sound. It’s not difficult to pronounce, just might need correcting initially.
If you love it then use it ! I suppose the Italian names that I think are most familiar here are names like Francesca, Sofia, Annalisa ,Giorgia, Bianca. But anyone can learn a name, however unfamiliar it is.

I would naturally pronounce Celia as Cleh-Lia. I would go with Clelia as it honours your heritage and people will learn how to pronounce it.

Clelia, definitely!

Lily is very overused

Lily is a lovely name and not childish at all. I don’t like the other one. It doesn’t sound nice and will forever be mispronounced and misspelled.