u/i-have-a-tapeworm

DISCLAIMER: I am not looking for name suggestions — it is strictly between Claire and Henrietta. I am not going to change my mind. That being said, I am a huge name nerd, so I’d like to hear your thoughts on both names — why you like them, why not, what vibes they give, etc. Feel free to nerd out, ask questions, what have you.

Hey, so, I am planning on changing my name, and am currently struggling between picking Claire or Henrietta. I know the latter is very old-fashioned, but I am very much in love with it and heavily considering it *at the moment*, especially because I live in Austria — a german-speaking country. Henrietta is not common here, neither is Claire, but Henrietta makes more sense imo and is more common in Austria than Claire. I am not a fan of Klara (german equivalent to Claire), and also not a fan of Henriette, which is the germanic equivalent to Henrietta (just pronounced Henriett-eh, instead of Henriett-ah).

I have gone by Claire for almost 3 years now, so it’s a name I’m used to and answer to by now. I have also already ordered under Claire at Starbucks and it came naturally and feels comfortable (and the barista actually spelled it correctly lol). I do worry that Henrietta might not come out as easy since it’s a heavier/mouthful name in comparison.

More about me, in case it’d help:
My government name is Melanie. I am a 29 year old cis woman. I am planning to change my surname as well, which is also why the name I will ultimately choose matters. I was born in Austria, 3rd generation. As far as I know, I have predominantly Czech and Hungarian roots (neither side of my family identify with those roots though, at all). My surname is incredibly rare, and as far as I’m aware my family is the only one in the entire country that has this surname. It seems to be Czech, as there is at least one public Czech figure that shares it, but rare nonetheless. I used to hate it because, since there was so many Melanies in my life, I was mostly referred to as my surname, even by friends, in the past. Additionally, it is often mispronounced, which is odd because it actually is as straight forward as it gets for german pronunciation (it has the word Zima in it, which is what people seem to be struggling with the most for some reason — I am not comfortable with sharing more as it really is incredibly rare and I don’t want you guys to find my family members lol). Either way, I have gone through a lot of bullying and carry a lot of childhood trauma, so changing my name is both a new start for me that I really need and a chance at anonymity because my surname would make it extremely easy to find me if I were on social media.

I don’t care much what my family thinks, we are not particularly close and they’re not calling me by my chosen name anyway and rather pretend like that conversation never happened. My actual name, Melanie, isn’t bad, I still answer to it (no other choices since my family refuses to call me any other name and it’s still my official/government name), I just don’t feel particularly close to that name, and it didn’t help that I have gone to school with up to 3 Melanies at once, in each school I attended lmao (all of them leaning towards mean girls), so it just feels… oversaturated, I guess? It was a very popular name back then.

My boyfriend prefers Claire (he thinks it’s prettier and suits me more), but supports whatever name I will choose in the end. He has not slipped up once since I chose to go by Claire, so I doubt it would be a problem if I were to go by another name again. His parents, who are Czech (and don’t speak any other language), have also been supportive and call me Claire, even though the name is as un-Czech as it gets — Henrietta would probably be easier on them, but they’re very used to Claire by now.

I am white, blue-eyed, and currently have auburn-ish hair that I style in 1940s vintage waves — my makeup is vintage-leaning as well, and I’m currently working on getting a more vintage wardrobe.

If I were to choose Claire, I’d go for an anglo-leaning surname (Scott, to be precise, and that one is fixed, I won’t change my mind on it). If it’s Henrietta, it would be a germanic surname (unconventional ones, but I love them either way — Wolfram or Ingram, but I am open to surname suggestions for Henrietta, preferably germanic, or slavic like Czech; Hungarian is fine too, but they gotta be easy to pronounce for german-speakers. I like Kovacs for Czech/Hungarian, but my boyfriend really dislikes that name lol so it’s not on the table for now). None of the surnames I have in mind have a high chance of being mispronounced (then again, never say never). Again, I live in Austria, so I’d say, logically, Henrietta would make more sense since it’s germanic (enough). Austria is also, as far as I know, very strict with name changes, so I worry that if I were to choose an English/American sounding name, the chance they’d reject it would be much higher, and I’d preferably like to avoid that.

Looking forward to your thoughts, thank you :>