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HelpIsabel or Larissa?
I have to make a final decision and I can’t decide between these two. What do those names remind you of? What kind of person do you imagine when you hear those names?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
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Replies
Isabel: neat, dignified, happy, alert. I think slightly of royalty and beautiful black hair, but it's down to earth enough. I'd expect someone under 20.
Larissa: tall, graceful, aloof, adventurous. I get a Slavic vibe from it. I'd expect someone around 30.
I like them both about the same. I lean towards Larissa aesthetically.
My reservation about it, is that it was a small fad 20-40 years ago, and so it does have a sort of "mom-name" image.
My own name is like that, modestly popular 25 years before I was born ... and it really has always been noticeable and irritating to me, that it "sounds old" relative to my actual age. However, Larissa was less common by a pretty good margin. So maybe that'd be less of a thing.
I don't think the popularity of Isabella (since it's so similar to Isabel) is an issue. It's not as common as Jessica or Emily were.
Isabella will be more common than Taylor, though ... so if you do care about popularity, it is something to consider.
In my mind, popularity matters less for "classic" names that stay on the chart for a longer time, and that's what Isabel(la) is like.
Larissa: tall, graceful, aloof, adventurous. I get a Slavic vibe from it. I'd expect someone around 30.
I like them both about the same. I lean towards Larissa aesthetically.
My reservation about it, is that it was a small fad 20-40 years ago, and so it does have a sort of "mom-name" image.
My own name is like that, modestly popular 25 years before I was born ... and it really has always been noticeable and irritating to me, that it "sounds old" relative to my actual age. However, Larissa was less common by a pretty good margin. So maybe that'd be less of a thing.
I don't think the popularity of Isabella (since it's so similar to Isabel) is an issue. It's not as common as Jessica or Emily were.
Isabella will be more common than Taylor, though ... so if you do care about popularity, it is something to consider.
In my mind, popularity matters less for "classic" names that stay on the chart for a longer time, and that's what Isabel(la) is like.
This message was edited 5/3/2023, 12:56 PM
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Isabel is popular at the moment, but with good reason. I prefer Laura to hissy Larissa, and I'd use Isabel (or, probably, Isobel) myself without hesitation.
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Hi !!!
Actually both are strongly Mediterranean in my mind.
Larissa makes me think of Greece, Cyprus, Malta ... All these islands. It's very marine and windy. I can see a village with white houses, a lot of enclosures, bays and a lighthouse.
Isabel is so Spanish, Portuguese and Provençal ... It is golden, regal, tryumphant but also airy and watery as well as Larissa.
Actually both are strongly Mediterranean in my mind.
Larissa makes me think of Greece, Cyprus, Malta ... All these islands. It's very marine and windy. I can see a village with white houses, a lot of enclosures, bays and a lighthouse.
Isabel is so Spanish, Portuguese and Provençal ... It is golden, regal, tryumphant but also airy and watery as well as Larissa.
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ISABEL definitely
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Both of those are good names! A key takeaway for both, however, is that they can easily be confused with a name that's far more common / popular:
Isabel --> Isabella (or even Isabelle)
Larissa --> Marissa
I'm not sure where you're posting from, but Isabella is the #7 name for baby girls in the U.S. right now, with a whopping 11,201 births in 2021. (Isabelle is #117 with 2,368 births, and Isabel is #145 with 1,902 births.) Meanwhile, neither Larissa nor Marissa are currently charting, but Marissa's peak was in 1994 at #53 with 6,245 births, whereas Larissa's was... also in 1994, at #363 with 715 births (much less popular).
I bring up popularity stats like this to illustrate the likelihood of name confusion in the future. Though Marissa is a tad bit dated (it's becoming a "Mom name"), at its peak it still didn't eclipse Isabella, therefore a Larissa mistakenly being called Marissa is less likely to happen than an Isabel having her name misspelled as Isabelle, or inaccurately being called Isabella.
This tips my vote over to Larissa.
As for what the names remind me of, I don't have clear images in my head. Larissa does feel a tad more Eastern European, whereas Isabel is decidedly Western.
Isabel --> Isabella (or even Isabelle)
Larissa --> Marissa
I'm not sure where you're posting from, but Isabella is the #7 name for baby girls in the U.S. right now, with a whopping 11,201 births in 2021. (Isabelle is #117 with 2,368 births, and Isabel is #145 with 1,902 births.) Meanwhile, neither Larissa nor Marissa are currently charting, but Marissa's peak was in 1994 at #53 with 6,245 births, whereas Larissa's was... also in 1994, at #363 with 715 births (much less popular).
I bring up popularity stats like this to illustrate the likelihood of name confusion in the future. Though Marissa is a tad bit dated (it's becoming a "Mom name"), at its peak it still didn't eclipse Isabella, therefore a Larissa mistakenly being called Marissa is less likely to happen than an Isabel having her name misspelled as Isabelle, or inaccurately being called Isabella.
This tips my vote over to Larissa.
As for what the names remind me of, I don't have clear images in my head. Larissa does feel a tad more Eastern European, whereas Isabel is decidedly Western.
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