Mum picks perfect name for baby – but some say it reminds them too much of death row

A felt she’d made the perfect name choice for her unborn baby daughter, but not everyone is too sure about it, fearing it has too many connotations with ‘death row’

Picking a name for your unborn child is no easy task, and parents will no doubt want to ensure their chosen name doesn’t have any potentially negative connotations. Unfortunately for one expectant mother, people fear her baby name of choice will remind people just too much of ‘death row’.

The pregnant woman, who already has three children, has been pondering over the name ‘Clemency’ for her fourth child, with the intention of using the “nickname Cece rather than Clem/mie”. However, not everybody is all too sure about it, and feel it puts them in mind of a condemned prisoner “begging for mercy.”

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Taking to Mumsnet, where she goes by the username jrt2022, the woman reached out to her fellow mums about their thoughts on the unusual name, while asking for any middle name suggestions they might have.

However, people have suggested she consider opting for the name ‘Clementine’ instead, which has a similar sound without the potential connotation “of someone sentenced to death begging for their life.”

A second person shuddered: “I really don’t like Mercy or Clemency as I keep thinking of people pleading for their lives. Can’t you find something else. Clementine?”

A third said: “I associate it with pardons for inmates on death row. A reference to a horrible aspect of American life in other words. If you think you’ll use the nickname Cece, then Cecelia is the obvious name to derive that from.”

However, others were quite taken with the rare and ‘lovely’ virtue name, which means ‘mercy or merciful’, while the mum explained she was drawn to it because of the religious connotations.

According to the website UK Baby Names, the name Clemency is ranked 2163 out of 5493 names in the UK, with just 12 baby Clemencys born last year.

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