Please help with boys names!

[lilly13]

My husband and I are struggling to identify a short list of 3 names (for our parents' consideration) from the list below:

Alexander
Andre (would you pronouce as Andree or Andrei?)
Andrew
Daniel
Denis
Dimitri (does this sound too foreign?)
Michael
Paul
Phillip
Stephen

We would like the child to have a less common name which could also be an orthodox christian name. Huge thanks in advance!!

[tammytoby]

They are fine, normal names. Which ones do you and dh love most? Do any ones go better with your surname?

[lilly13]

We need to short list 3 names from the above. We like all of these and cannot make a decision. Thanks for your help!

[YouNeverCanTell]

Daniel
Paul
Alexander
and Paul would be my top choice.

Andrew, Michael, Phillip and Stephen are all nice but we didn't use for either of our two DSs because of relatives.

[Ineedsomesleep]

Lilly13, just curious as to why you need to have a shortlist for your parent's consideration. Are they naming your baby?

[excitedfirsttimer]

I think Daniel, Denis and Philip get my vote. Good luck with the decision

[Ineedsomesleep]

Oh, and from your list I'd choose just Alexander and Denis. Don't really like the others sorry.

[raffiiscool]

If you are really not sure, why don't you just wait and see what he looks like. We did this with DS - it took us over a week to decide but glad we waited - my mum was mortified though but it wasn't her baby so she had to deal with it!

[BarbieLovesKen]

Was just wondering the same as Ineedsomesleep why would you have a shortlist for your parents consideration?

Anyway, I like Andrew, Daniel and Paul.

Really like Andrew.

[AbiAbi]

Andrew or Alexander for me.

[Komondor]

From your names, I like:

Alexander
Daniel
Michael
Philip (with one l)
Stephen

[BelligerentGhoul]

Why on earth do your parents need to consider the names?

Fwiw I like Andrew, Michael and Philip with one 'l' best.

[lilly13]

Thank you for your thoughts. It is culturally appropriate/polite for my husband and I to have our parents' input on the baby names and, hence, the dilemma with the shortlist above! Thank you!

[flopsy1974]

Alexander and daniel are both lovely.

[ShowOfHandsInEpistolaryForm]

If you're worried about popularity, Alexander is the only one that I have heard recently used for smaller children. Alex on its own I hear quite a lot too. Daniel was quite popular about 15yrs ago (my Mum ran a nursery and Daniel was quite common when I used to help out there in my teens- just setting things up/cutting things out etc, don't worry wasn't looking after children).

To be honest, it reads (with the exception of Andre and Dimitri) like our class register from 1989. Nothing wrong with that. All good, fine, traditional names that aren't overused. But I don't think there's much to mark one out from the others. Again, except for Andre and Dimitri. Dimitri's nice though. Andre I can't decide if I like or not.

[LunarSea]

I'd prnounce Andre as "On-dray".

Like Alexander and Daniel but they're not exactly "less common" names (assuming you're in the UK) at the moment. Looking at them in order of popularity, then number of boys born in England/Wales last year were:

Daniel - 4444 (10th)
Alexander - 2981 (22nd)
Michael - 1385 (51st)
Andrew - 455 (129th)
Stephen - 220 (210th) or 200 (224th) with a "v" instead of a "ph"
Paul - 211 (215th)
Andre - 87 (432nd)
Denis - 54 (596th) or 92 (417th) with 2 "n"s
Phillip - 52 (617th) or 136 (305th) with one "l"
Dimitri - 17 (1358th)

[BlueChampagne]

1. Alexander
   
2. Andrew
   
3. Daniel

[lilly13]

Show and Lunar, thank you so much for your comments.