Names you love but were not brave/crazy enough to call your child/children.

I liked Jethro. Everyone laughed at it not taking me seriously. I do love DS name but can't use Jethro for another child as DS name starts with j

I really want to call this girl Soledad - my great-great grandmother's name, who was the wife of a famous Spanish composer (my great-great grandfather) but its too ostentatiously Spanish and I already have a Carmen. I also like Dolores, but it does mean 'pain' and is part of that slightly odd Spanish religious tradition of naming girls after rather unpleasant states (ditto Soledad)

Plus I'm called Dolly (yep, I know...) so we can't have two Dollies in the family.

Boy: Wolfgang

Girl: Albertine

My parents gave me an unusual name and I was mortified by it my entire childhood. I fantasised about being a Sarah or an Emma.... Actually even now as an adult I'd prefer to have a name that people don't constantly comment on.

When I was pregnant I was briefly fixated on 'Tallulah'. I still think it's a pretty name but I'm glad I didn't go for it in the end. You'd need to be confident to live with that one and my DD's very shy. Funnily enough I've heard of quite a few Tallulahs since then.

Calypso is beautiful. It was at the top of our list and if our DD had been born with blonde hair we might have had the guts. She definitely didn't come out a Calypso though and we were kind of relieved not to have to be brave.

Other names we vetoed at the last minute due to gutlessness:

Thor
Odin
Bruce

Constance
Roma
Dolores (Lola)

Tiny I wanted Willow, but went for Wilhelmina (nn Billie). As predicted she is a little chunk, so glad I played it safe

If I had a boy, I wanted to call him Indiana.

We called our DD2 'Liberty' but she was born on the 4th July so it seemed appropriate. DD1 was born on Burn's Night but I don't like Roberta, I wanted Eleri but my SO said 'too Welsh'! I also still like Sorrell (too mournful, he said, and the boss' surname) and Willow (but worried she might be plump, and I'd feel a tit shouting it in the park). I heard a story about a couple who named their son 'Oak', some friends thought this most amusing and referred to their bump as 'Ply' but when he was born they couldn't think of him as anything else, so named him Ply! I like 'Hal' for a boy, and 'Spike'!

I did call DS1 a name which has come up on this thread, I didn't think it was that brave or out there and I still love it . If I ever had another he would have to be Orlando or Oberon.

I abandoned Phoenix and Apollo as a bit too brave, we ended up using them for DS's toys.

I loved Flora but thought she would be mistaken for a low fat spread...

My husband wanted Ethanuel for a boy. REALLY REALLY wanted. I said he could have Ethan but he would always have been Ethanuel in my husbands mind and theres no way I could have let him complete the birth certificate. Though reading these maybe I would have let him.

My husband was VERY disappointed when it was a girl! I wasn't as I had the choice on a girls name (since I had graciously allowed him to choose the boys name). I went for the brave option and her name is Mallory. I get a lot of nice comments about the name :)

I loved Saul and Silas and Rutherford as boys names. We had a girl and gave her a name with an Irish spelling but a different pronunciation as we loved the spelling.

normail meant normal :)

i liked frances and owan (oh-waan) for a boy and jessie, emmy and kitty for a girl but DH and i decided on quite normal names not overly modern or old fashioned just 'normail' lol noticed a couple on here i adored and didnt bother to mention to OH as i knew he'd say no :( including aubrey i adore this name so much its lush :) tierney after maura tierney from er i loved it when i was younger (the name and the show) also noticed thadeous which i hadnt heard of before but is now in my faves list :) its so manly sounding really strong manly name thats nice. had to laugh at jack and chloe my best friends daughter is about to turn 1 and is a chloe if she'd been a boy she'd of been jack i thought it was just me that thought we'd had enough of them now lol i know too many baby lucys and am sick of chloes!!

We took the plunge and called our twin girls Autumn and Cassiopeia. Still love them but they might not when they have to spell them at school!

My husband is called Orlando and he has always loved having an unusual name! We gave our dd an unusual but not totally 'out there' name (think of Pink's new baby daughters name!). She is 3 and we have had so many compliments about it, she suits it sooooo much. I, on the other hand, have a really common name, there were 3 with my name in my class at school so I was quite determined that my child would not be the same :)

My husband really wanted to call our son Barney but we weren't brave enough and although it would have been awful for a teenager (sorry to any Barneys out there), I have to say that he is SUCH a Barney now, at the age of six!

For boys I have always loved Basil dh vetooed (and everyone starts going BASSIiiiiilLLLL when i mention it) I still love it though.

Also love Otis dh didnt say no but he wasnt keen.

for girls both dh and I love Flora but our surname starts " Fl" (you just know that child will have a lisp dont you?)

Seraphina was on our list for dd3 but she just didnt feel like one

Ilona was our name for ds but well seemed cruel to give to a boy [laugh]

Pre kids i really liked Siddalee having a read some American novel (sidda), and Jem (another American novel).

My little (Martha) goes to school with a Cohen (boy), a Tigerlily, a Serge, and an Otto.

And I love the name 'Gray' for a boy

Yes you're right, I'd forgotten about that. Come to think of it I do know a Russian Aleksandr known as Sacha.

Sascha is a very common boys name in Germany, short for Alexander. I like it and know lots of blond ones.

Sacha for a boy, but I feel you should be Jewish to do this, or at least dark and manly like Sacha Baron Cohen, not pale and skinny as I knew my boy would be!

Atlanta Marie, my ex-H wouldn't have it and we now have Isabelle Elizabeth Joy but I still like Atlanta!

lol at pebbles! (also love Ivo and Silas, wish I'd thought of that!)
loving this thread
otchayaniyi i really liked the name Esme after a certain Saki story too, but had a boy and we had a looooong list of boys names we couldn't agree on:

Abraham (little Abe), Gabriel (which is ds1 middle name, i think middle names can be a bit grand), Maximillion (I REALLY fought for that one) and Guyus....that's my regret, he could have pulled off Guyus. ds is 4 and complaining because we didn't call him Ulysses!!!

I also had a name picked out for a girl since i was a girl, but as i'm not having anymore kids i will have to save it and force it on the grandkids!

I like Titania, but couldn't do that to a child. I really wanted Martha but DH vetoed.

Caspar is also v cool