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| my favorite picture of Miss Clara Jane - complete with her smile and her dimple and too much cuteness! |
When Tommy and I decided to name our little one Clara we didn't know anyone who had given their child that name...honestly we sort of thought we were bringing it back - reinventing it, if you will. We were beyond psyched to have decided upon such a classic beauty of a name, and that it was entirely unique in the sense that, well, nobody names their kiddo's Clara these days.
Well. Then a couple months into my pregnancy (once my residency kindof gave me a breather) I started to get into blogs outside of the wedding world (gasp!). Stumbled upon OneHouseLove - one of my favorite blogs now - complete with their own baby Clara. I was surprised to see "our" baby's name on another...but I still had never heard of anyone in my "real life" with the name. A little piece of me was sad to hear of another Clara (I don't know why...it's almost like I felt we had "dibs" or something. How silly of me, I know I know.)
When we finally announced the name of our very own Clara Jane, our family and friends overwhelmingly loved her name. Obviously. It's gorgeous. (hahaha - am I biased or what!) Well, much to my surprise, I started hearing about other baby Clara's. A high school aquaintance named her daughter Clara about a month after our Clara was born. Then at my clinic, one of the PA's named his daughter Clara about a month after our Clara was born. Then I was scrubbing a case with one of the surgeons I'd never worked with before and he proudly stated that his toddler's name was Clara.
Not that I think our little girl should be the ONLY Clara...I just didn't anticipate hearing it everywhere as I had never heard it anywhere before. I hope it doesn't get out of control popular/generic like Jessica did in the 1980's.
That being said, I like my name...even if I shared it with at least two other girls in every class I was ever in. Oh well, I have no control over those things. I'm just glad that we chose such a lovely name...it suits our little one so well.
So.. I'm 4 months pregnant now, and still don't know what we're having (we find out in about 3 weeks if Baby cooperates though!). But I'm "weird" about names. I don't want to read what other people are thinking of naming theirs. And I think that the reason is similar to what you've posted here.. I don't want to know that everyone else is picking a name I was considering. I know no matter what, my child will most likely meet someone with the same name at some point (heck, one of the names we're seriously considering for a boy is on a top 10 list), but I think I just don't want to know ahead of time.. I think it's that I don't want something like that to influence my decision.. too much. We did scrap Kate as our #1 girl name thanks to Kate Middleton.. but for the most part, I want to pick a name I like, not one that I've made sure no one else is using!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! We have been trolling the top 100 and trying to make sure that our names are not at the tippy top.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's such a bad thing to have a known name, but an extremely popular name? Yeah, that does get irritating (Hello, how many other Sarah's or Sara's are out there? 1 bajillion in my life alone.)but unless you want your child to have a name no one has ever heard of, going the known but not overly common route is probably best. I know this isn't the same thing, but our dog's name is Cicada...like the bug...sounds like Si-kay-duh. And everywhere we go it's always "How do you say that?" "Oh well that's a different name." And it is SO irritating to have to explain it each and every time we come across someone new. When we have kids, we're sticking to traditional names because I really don't want that to happen to our poor child. I think you've got the best of both worlds, it isn't a popular name and it isn't so rare it's hard to for people to understand. :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I hope you aren't offended by my comparing my dogs name to your daughter's name. I know it can be seen the wrong way...I just view my dogs as my kids...and that's the weirdest name in my life!
I love both Clara and Jane! I love that they are classic, but unique. I think what's happening is more an element of hearing it more often now that you have a relationship with that name (much like when I was engaged, I noticed EVERYONE else who was engaged). This is totally not the same b/c it's about a dog - ;) - but after we named our pup Stella, I started hearing the name Stella everywhere. I didn't realize that it was such an increasingly popular name for little girls. And not that I feel the same way about the name Stella as you do Clara - but it's more like I wouldn't have named our dog a "human" name if I had known!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about Finley! Ha, ha. When I came back to work, I was introduced to someone who was just hired that had a son named Fin. I almost punched him. Every girl name we had picked out was used by a friend in the last year, so I guess it's bound to happen.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the Social Security baby names website you can see if names you like are rising or falling in use over the years. Clara has been rising pretty steadily for the past couple decades. As well it should be, its a beautiful name!
ReplyDeleteWhat a picture!
ReplyDelete@abbie- omg. i feel the same way about finley! i thought i was being unique..crap!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't want to let you down for a unique name, but my name is not only Clara, but it's Clara Jane. I was named after my great grandmother Clara and my aunt/godmother Jane. I was on google today and just for fun was searching my name and came across your blog. I have never known a "real life" Clara before, as you wrote, and I was thrilled to see the middle name was Jane. I just wanted to share with you, while naming a child is very important, the love you give her means the world. While, you might be a little bummed trying to find the perfect name, know your beautiful new girl is perfect and all you could have hoped for. I am so happy my parents gave me this name, but their love over the years is immeasurable. Also, I just started college this year, and being away from home I wanted something to distinguish the people I have always known from the ones who knew me second, so I started telling everyone I met to call me Clara Jane. (At home and growing up they just called me Clara.) I like to be sentimental sometimes. Sorry for randomly ranting on your blog, but I just wanted to send another Clara Jane's congratulations.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened with both of our daughters. We thought we had chosen unique names...and then realized that everyone else had named their little girls the same thing. ;)
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read any of the research on baby naming? It's fascinating...
P.S. I still adore the name Clara Jane...popular or not. You made an outstanding choice. (I know you know that).
stephanie@metropolitanmama.net