Ezra or Elijah?

[LoveAndHate]

Okay, so I was on here yesterday pleading for help with Hector, Wilbur or Albert. Remember? No? Never mind. By the end of the thread I said 'we' had decided on Ezra. Great. Except my husband now thinks it's too female-sounding () but 'will consider' Elijah (which he previously vetoed as 'too biblical')

The problem is I've grown to love Ezra overnight....

Are either of these names going to become ubiquitous? Which would you choose? Thanks.

[LoveAndHate]

...and if you despise both please go and chuck darts at a board instead of me. Ta.

[WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant]

Elijah is creeping up. The popular list round here. North uk.

Ezra is cute, but people might assume he is named after George Ezra?

[Ham69]

Ezra! I know several Elijahs. Go with Ezra. Your DH will grow to love it!

[LoveAndHate]

Thank you! I really do believe Elijah's going to become too popular and Eli's a bit Emmerdale

Am I complete moron to not know who George Ezra is?

[Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost]

Ezra.

[mudandmayhem01]

I love the name Ezra, its ddogs name, might have used for ds if ddog hadn't got it first

[Sophronia]

I much prefer Ezra to Elijah.

[LoveAndHate]

Thank you, everyone, for replying. How do I convince DH Ezra is not female-sounding? Where has he got that notion from? Is he thinking of Eliza?

[Queenbean]

Love Ezra

But prob don't watch Pretty Little Liars.....

[AGBforever]

um, both are super biblical - as in literally not one in RL or even anyone considering even in jest. Hector is ace tho (and only know one in RL)

[nooka]

We were going to call ds2 Ezra, we thought Ezzie would be a fab nn. But he turned out to be dd instead :)

ds had a best friend Eli (Elijah). Both cool names and likely to stay relatively unusual I woudl have thought.

[Cemile76]

Knew a lovely Ezra, think it's a lovely name.

[BondJayneBond]

I prefer Elijah.

Never heard of the George Ezra mentioned thread.

I can't see either becoming super popular anytime soon.

[BondJayneBond]

Actually, if you're worrying about popularity trends, check out the links below. They've both increased a lot in popularity over the last 10 years, Elijah more than Ezra.

names.darkgreener.com/#ezra

names.darkgreener.com/#elijah

[LoveAndHate]

Thank you so much. Bond, those graphs are really useful. Can you help me though (as I'm thick)? Does that graph of Ezra look like he is likely to meet others in his class/school with the same name? Thank you.

[persepolis123]

In the middle east and the country DP is from Ezra is a girl's name. He has an auntie called Ezra. Sorry that doesn't help I know.

[Crazypetlady]

Love Ezra it is also religious though :)

[anothernumberone]

I know a male Ezra from the Middle East.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Nawi

[TillITookAnArrowToTheKnee]

Ezra is currently my top boys name, with Elijah second and Arthur third.

[BondJayneBond]

LoveAndHate - it's really difficult to guess whether your DS would come across other Ezra's in his year group.

Names aren't spread evenly across the country, you'll get some areas where Ezra is relatively popular and others where it's almost unheard of.

And then, these days, the pool of names used seems to be much bigger than a few decades ago when I was at school, so even if Ezra was the most popular name in England, there'd be a smaller proportion of Ezra's in the year than if Ezra was the most popular name 20-30 years ago.

Even with very popular names, there's no telling whether they'll have 2 of the name in the class. In DS1's year at school and DS2's nursery, there's some kids with top 10 names who are the only 'top 10 name' in the class. Some top 10 names I've never heard at school and nursery. Some top 10 names that are carried by 2 or 3 kids in a class.
And some less popular names with 2 kids in a class. As an example, there were 2 David's in DS1's pre-school room at nursery, who've both gone to the same primary school, and David's a very unusual name for small children these days.

[mrsschu]

Not keen on Ezra, it sounds too "trendy" to me. Elijah is better. I'm pretty sure Ezra is a Hebrew/biblical name also though...

[Nataleejah]

Ezra. Elijah not really. Elliot maybe?

[LoveAndHate]

Thank you, Bond and everyone else, too.

DH has agreed to Ezra! I'm thrilled to have settled this at last

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Far prefer Elijah. Sorry.

[SwedishEdith]

I like Ezra, think it's a great name. Would think Ezra Koenig or Ezra Furman (both good associations) rather than George. Suspect it's moving into the popular zone but I don't know of any IRL.