Talk

Boys:I like Florian and Gustav..they are both unusual but I've met a French Florian and a ?Swedish Gustav(Gus), not babies anymore though but they both liked having those names.
Avoid Gunter and Rudiger (to avoid teasing..think what they sound like..also unless you are not English the extra punctuation would probably be omitted by most people writing them).
Girls: Harriet & Winifred ( maybe would be called Winnie/Freddie?) I like,Edna and Ethel sound too old-ladyish IMO but there is a fashion for revived names.I like unusual names though and they would certainly be the only ones in their class.

Florian and Winnifred.

Gustav and Harriet are my favourites

Gustav for a boy, Edna, Ethel or Harriet for a girl.

I love Gustav and Harriet. Gunter and Florian are very nice too. Edna,Winifred and Ethel are horrid.

Florian is VERY popular in Germany currently. Gustav, Günther and Rüdiger, on the other hand are VERY old fashioned and uncool.

I don't like any of the girls name, although Edna is the nicest imo.

None are really to my taste except Harriet, sorry

Will the baby be growing up in the UK or somewhere else? Are other cultures a big influence on your lifestyle? I ask because many aren't such obvious choices for a British child (although Harriet is pretty familliar).

Are you forrin?!

My husband is British and I'm French. We both Love Edna but we have had some pretty strong opinion from our English Friends. Just wanted to make sure that our future baby will not have a life of bullying in front of him or her. We both really like Edna which seems to be the one no one else like. For Boys the only real contestant is Gustave which is a very old fashion French name. THank you all for your feed back it's not as bad as I expected!

If Gustave uses Gus in the Uk and he's confident he might pull it off but none of those names are easy to wear for a boy or man here. Edna's a name that will divide tastes too. It is definately harder for a boy to carry off an unusual name than a girl because of the banter factor. Of the whole list only Harriet is not going to provoke a considerable frequency of negative reaction. I'm so sorry.

Don't be sorry! thank you for your advise / views and so nicely put too! (which is more that we can say about our friends!) x

I like Harriet, and Rudi.

Out of your list Florian I quite like. Would it be pronounced Floor-ian to rhyme with door, or Florian with a short 'o'?

I can't find any redeeming features to Ethel and to me it sounds like an ugly name.

Harriet is the most well-known of them all - but still uncommon - however, as a feminist I don't really like women's names that are just a feminised version of a man's name (Harry). Not sure why, probably a strange illogical reason in the back of my mind!

Edna perhaps could work, the obvious nickname would be Eddie of course.

Edna really is a little old lady name in the UK as are Ethel & Winifred - Harriet has made a small come back and is least likely to cause her grief.

I agree with Saffron - Gustave would be OK if you are happy with & use Gus.

It take a strong child to have an unusual name & especially one that isn't particularly of the parents origin (so more common 'French' names would be more easily accepted).

Good luck chosing something - it's very difficult.