Is Portia too weird a name for my baby girl? Sanity check...

[Apteryx]

Hi,
I am thinking of naming our impending daughter Portia. I've always loved the name, but I have some reservations about it being too "out there", or her being hassled with tedious comments about it being like the car - Porsche.
What do Mumsnetters think?

ok i hate it - i hate it with passion i can't tell you how much i hate it - its one of the wrst names ever portia is chantelles twin surely?

I like it.

I did know a Portia years ago though, and she was mad.

But that doesn't mean your DD will be.

i like it, i wanted to use beatrix rose but turned out to be another no 8

Portia was John Cleese's daughter in the film A Fish Called Wanda.

Just thought I'd share that useless piece of information.

Not sure if I like it or not tbh.
If you like it, go for it.

pig like

thats why I couldnt ever have Claudia (means lame)

You can't please all the people all the time. If you like it, that's all that matters. Stick with what you want and don't allow yourself to be swayed as you might regret it.

I think it's lovely

yes, yes, and Rachel means sheep, Rebecca means heifer, Deborah means bee, Thomas means two-faced and Mary (and all its variants) mean bitterness

I try not to get too hung up on these things, else you end up calling daughters Charity and Patience and Mercy, and that way madness lies.

Best to be forewarned though about meanings, otherwise you get that horrible situation in primary school where you have to find out what your name means.....

oh fgs, at least that makes a change from the usual mushy name-meanings - beautiful, beloved, treasured, bleeuurrgghh

yes, but...

pig-like

I like it a lot - and actually my dd did look like a piggie for several weeks - so would have suited her !

Gorgeous - that will be the heroine from Shakespear. Go for it.

I know someone called Porsche
So Portia is heroic in comparison :)

I like Cecily which means blind and it has slightly put me off using it.

I'm not too keen on the character, myself, in the play (she says 'let all of his complexion choose me so' when a black suitor for her hand fails the test, quite apart from the Shylock Thang - and her appalling taste in wimpy gold-digging blokes) so wouldn't go for it.

But hey, I had to be talked out of Delilah, so what do I know?

Also you are slightly impeding a career in the law, which is a nice sort of remunerative career for a young woman with parents to support, of course.

Unless your surname is Nachips it's lovely

I think Portia is a lovely name for a literary character, but imagine calling it across the school playground, sounds ever so pretentious

Depends really on the circles you mix in, where you live etc - I know it would fit right in with my "life" tbh

That's the trouble with Mumsnet - we are all from very different walks of life - and one size definitely does not fit all !

i personally would avoid it as there was a girl in my class called portia and everyone called her portia ferrari and it reeeally wound her up!

I really like it - I know an Ophelia and I like that one too!

Ophelia is too tragic. It's like calling her Cordelia.

Imagine signing an Ophelia up for swimming lessons. Or flower-arrranging.

feel you up...

snigger

Kids being what they are will definitely wind her up about the car connection at some stage but they'll get over it.

Is it too "out there"? Do we have to match our children's names to our social station? Who cares? Don't see why a cleaner shouldn't call her dd Honoria if she feels like it.

I don't especially like Portia but I don't dislike it either. At least it has a clean simple sound. What I can't stand are the "bella" type names, like Arabella etc. Just my personal taste...