Boys' list

[takethatlady]

Hi there,

I am 16+3 with DC1 and DH are struggling away with boys' names.

If it's a girl we are pretty sure (for the moment) we'll be going with Isobel Edith (Edith is DH's grandmother, who died shortly after we got married).

If it's a boy, we're flummoxed. Clive will be the middle name (after DH's dad). For first names we currently have the following long list, all of which one or both of us likes. But there isn't one name that really jumps out at us. Help us decide?!:

Charles (nn Charlie) Clive
Alexander Clive
Leo Clive
Finley/Finlay Clive
Arthur Clive
Felix Clive
Finn Clive
Frederick (nn Fred/Freddie) Clive
Sidney (nn Sid) Clive
Gregory (nn Greg) Clive

I like Charlie, Sid and Greg best. DH likes Finley, Felix, Freddie and Greg. He's got a thing about the letter F, it seems! What do you think?

[takethatlady]

PS Alexander would likely be shortened to Alex, obviously.

[takethatlady]

Just realised Finn Clive sounds like a weird single word, so that's out!

[NewImprovedJollster]

In terms of sounding "right" with Clive, I think Sidney works best (right era) - and Sid's a cool NN. Also quite rare these days.

Charles (nn Charlie) Clive works
Alexander Clive No
Leo Clive No
Finley/Finlay Clive No
Arthur Clive works
Felix Clive possible
Finn Clive No
Frederick (nn Fred/Freddie) Clive works
Sidney (nn Sid) Clive yes
Gregory (nn Greg) Clive hmm not sure.

I LOVE Gregory (my bro's name) but doesn't sound quite right with Clive to me.

Girl's name lovely BTW.

[ValiumTinselton]

Leo and Gregory are the best names on that list.

I do really like Frederick as well, but doesn't roll off the tongue so easily, also, if shortening, Iprefer 'greg' to 'fred'.

Finley and Finn are just too popular now imo
Arthur is one of those unbearably self-conciously trendy names that I hate.
Sidney is not as bad as Arthur but it's pretty bad and it's a girl's name in the USA

Alex, you can't go wrong with it, but prefer Leo and Gregory.

Oh Felix, you have Felix there too. I like taht one as well.

[ValiumTinselton]

ps, instead of finley what about Fergus Clive. That's another F for your husband but I think it works.

[tummytickler]

I love Gregory - it is fabulous. Not too keen on any of the others though.
Agree with Valium that Fergus Clive is lovely too.

[takethatlady]

Ooh I'm quite surprised people are erring towards Gregory. We're both also tending towards this one as it's the only one we both like a lot from the list.

We wanted something that was a classic boy's name but not overused. I should have said that Sidney was my granddad's name and that's why we thought of it in the first place, and it immediately grew on us (with Sid as a shortening).

Felix is almost definitely off the list, as DH said about 8 years ago in uni that he liked the name, and for some reason all our uni friends have remembered this and been relentlessly taking the piss out of the name ever since we told them I'm pregnant (not suspecting he still likes it). We had Christmas cards from about five of them addressed to 'takethatlady, Mrtakethatlady and Felix' ... when I told my mum she also said 'oh my God, it's obviously your choice, but I am NOT allowing you to have Felix'.

Obviously I have gone from hating Felix to liking it in the face of all this prejudice but it would be quite a u-turn now and I don't really want to give my child a name that has become a stock joke among our friends.

We are keeping our name choices private now! They won't be able to say anything once the baby is born!

[takethatlady]

Also, very sad to hear people think Arthur is pretentious. I have loved that name for years as a solid English-sounding sort of name (like George or something), though I take the point on Art/Artie as a nn ...

Hmmm .... Gregory ....

PS, I know Clive is a nuts sort of name to give a baby (only 4 people were called Clive last year!!!), but there are lovely personal reasons for using it and those reasons make the name special (despite its nuttiness).

[belbos]

I see Felix as one of those self-conciously trendy names. Arthur is great!

[takethatlady]

Deep down I agree belbos!

[ValiumTinselton]

I like Clive! It's one of those one syllable names that could make a come back now that ben,max,sam,jack,finn all have brothers called ben,max,sam,jack,finn iykwim.... if they have another brother! what to choose?

I like Jeff, Clive, Saul... think they have a lot going for them. If people are brave enough.

[PlanetLizard]

Charles (nn Charlie) Clive - like, but not sure the two names "flow" together
Alexander Clive - like
Leo Clive - like Leo but only as nickname for longer name (Leopold?)
Finley/Finlay Clive - dislike Finn names
Arthur Clive - not keen
Felix Clive - like
Finn Clive - again, dislike Finn names. Finlay would be better as you can always use nickname of Finn
Frederick (nn Fred/Freddie) Clive - like Frederick, although the ck/cl run into each other
Sidney (nn Sid) Clive - like
Gregory (nn Greg) Clive - like

My favourites would be Alexander Clive or Sidney Clive.

[minipie]

Arthur is not pretentious!

Best options IMO are Alexander, Arthur, Frederick and Charles.

I like Felix, but perhaps not if it's a running joke!

[hmberry]

I like Alexander and Leo not keen on the others sorry.

[takethatlady]

Right, I have totted up the votes so far.

Finlay/Finn and Felix, all of which are my least favourite, only have one vote each, so they're struck off. DH hates Charles/Charlie and is putting a brave face on it for me, so I'll strike that off too.

This leaves (in order of MN votes, including mine and DH's):

Greg 4
Alex 4
Fred 3
Sid 2

(with the long versions on bc).

So keep voting on those please! Thanks so much for your help - for some reason it's clarifying what we think quite nicely.

at valium. You're right, Clive is due a comeback, as is Jeff. Both are perfectly good names. Not sure I'm the brave one who's going to step into the breach though

And thanks jollster for saying the girl's name is nice :)

[bigbluebump]

Are you really going to name your child based on what a random collection of (us) internet users vote??!!

My personal preference would be Sidney and Gregory.

Charlie, Finn, Alex, Freddie are all way too popular and will start to date soon imo.

[cazzybabs]

I ilke felix, arthur and gregory

[takethatlady]

bigbluebump no of course not - and next week we'll probably have a whole new list! But as I said, I was never really keen on Finn/Finlay/Felix anyway and it's interesting to see other people's reactions.

It's all just for fun, obviously!

[takethatlady]

Plus I am genuinely surprised to see people liking Gregory quite so much (up to six votes now). As it's our current favourite it's nice to see people voicing their ideas on it, some of them favourable...

[NewImprovedJollster]

Gregory is a very underused name IME. If it wasn't my bro's name, would love it as a first name for any future DS (might use as MN name though).

And Arthur is DEFO not pretentious. Was my dear dad's name, and thus DS middle name. Been thinking about my dad this morning and missing him greatly :( so just wanted to pop back and post positively about his name.

[takethatlady]

Your family have good taste jollster :)

Sorry you're missing your dad :(

[LittleMsH]

Gregory is an ACE name and I think it goes fine with Clive. (It'd be on my list but Greg is the name of my first love - we're still good mates so it'd be a little weird, I think.)

Arthur - I find it odd that some folk think it's pretentious. To me it's a quintessentially down-to-earth name. "ey up our arthur get t' kettle on". This is why it's my number 1 (with Leo a close 2 at the mo so i obviously also like that).

I personally think Alexander 'goes' best with Clive. But not sure it overly matters whether a fn and mn roll off the tongue. It's not like you'll be using both all the time.

[agirlcalledvicky]

Love love love Arthur but I am biased as I have one (and only ever had positive comments FWIW). LittleMsH at "ey up our arthur...." - we live in Yorkshire and looking forward to asking him this when he's old enough! But also really like Gregory. Both sound fine with Clive. I thinks its lovely to use family names.

[flopsy1974]

From your list the two that stand out for me are Alexander Clive and Arthue Clive. Both great names