Almost ten years ago when I got engaged I made a list of baby names. [name]Even[/name] though it had both genders, the only ones I really loved were the girl names. I come from three girls so I figured I’d end up having three girls myself. My fictional trio of daughters were going to be named [name]Violet[/name], [name]Clover[/name], and [name]Pearl[/name].
Well, I ended up having three boys instead, but now it looks like I might be finally having a daughter. The only problem is the name! [name]Violet[/name] was out after my first son, whose name has a long “I” sound in it and who was born around the same time as [name]Violet[/name] Affleck, who of course kick-started [name]Violet[/name] back to popularity. [name]Pearl[/name] I’ve never been that wild about as the only girl in the family. It’s been [name]Clover[/name] that I’ve been clinging to ferociously ever since my second pregnancy. I’ve been dreaming of a little girl named [name]Clover[/name] for five years now. But while I was dreaming, I was also fearfully watching the world to see if “my” name would get picked up and thrown into the pit of popularity, and now I think my fears have come true.
Naming my boys was very hard and stressful, but in the end I always picked something thrilling that I really loved and couldn’t wait to pin on an actual human being. The first time I picked something uncommon and unusual at the time but still an old classic, and the next two times I got progressively weirder and crazier. The second and third sons’ names still excite me and I adore them, but now my oldest son’s name is close to the top fifty and honestly if I could go back and name him something else, I would. So I know what it’s like to have name regret, and I don’t want to experience it with my one and only daughter!
See, I picked [name]Clover[/name] because to me it evoked like a magical wild field full of sweet-smelling clover blossoms and wildflowers and fluffy bunnies and gnomes, and it used to sound so unusual and unique. Now between all the flower names, the uberpopularity of [name]Chloe[/name], and the abundance of feminine-leaning unisex names with “er” endings like [name]Harper[/name] and [name]Piper[/name] and [name]Fifer[/name], I fear that [name]Clover[/name] just . . . blends. And I just can’t abide by that! In fact, if you add together the three wildly popular and hugely trendy names [name]Chloe[/name], [name]Ava[/name], and [name]Harper[/name], you literally get [name]Clover[/name]! Plus it’s starting to actually pop up a lot in places - in fact I just read a blog post of another mom with three boys finally having a girl on this very site and it seems like she’s halfway towards choosing [name]Clover[/name]!!! And I’ve found this newer view of the name (a trendy collection of sounds that are trendy versus a quirky humble but beautiful wildflower) reflected in the names of the other children of the increasing amount of families who have chosen the name in real life. The other kids’ names in a typical [name]Clover[/name]'s family are usually either moderately to highly trendy or just boring classics or a mix of both. The only example of a [name]Clover[/name] with cool sibling names that evoke what I loved about [name]Clover[/name] is on the blog “no big dill,” where [name]Clover[/name] has four big sisters with awesome natural ethereal names (including, strangely enough, a [name]Pearl[/name]) and a little brother with a quirky cool name.
I’ve almost “broken up” with the name, but some days I still want to hold on to it! It’s especially hard right now in the late spring when the clover in my region of the country is starting to fragrantly bloom. I just don’t know what I want to do! Help!!!
Essentially, [name]Clover[/name] is a beautiful, simple nature name - forget about the sounds and other people who have used it.