Help us narrow down our baby name list please!

Girls :
Alexandra - yes, love
Cassandra - really like
Catherine - love
Charlotte - inoffensive but nice
Elizabeth - as above
Felicity - love
Helena - my favourite of your list
Jessica - very 90s but again inoffensive
Madeleine - lovely
Nina - really lovely

Boys:
Alexander - like
Benjamin - not a fan for some reason
Daniel - ok
David - yes, love
James - love
Jonathan - like
Joshua - ok, bit overdone
Samuel - classic
Thomas - nice but overused
William - my favourite of your boys names

You've got a lot of lovely names. I pretty much like all your girls names except Cassandra and Nina. Catherine is maybe a bit dull.
I would choose Jessica, Alexandra or Charlotte, all gorgeous. Elizabeth and Felicity are beautiful too (not helpful)

In terms of boys, again lots of classic beautiful names but please not David or Jonathan. It feels like half of men aged between 30 and 50 are called Dave or John which makes them feel very dated. Who wants a 'dad' name when they are a teen?
I really like Samuel, Benjamen and Alexander.

My top 2 from each:
Felicity
Charlotte

Benjamin
James

Looks like my class register from school, names very popular about 30+ yrs ago....and all a bit boring IMO.

Better than 'Passionfruit', 'Contrlaltdlte', 'Rainbow-Vixen' or other such interesting and unique modern names!

For the girls, Cassandra, Elizabeth or Felicity. Classic, elegant names which are unusual enough that she won’t be one of several with the same name in her class.

For the boys Benjamin, Joshua or William.

Looks like my class register from school, names very popular about 30+ yrs ago....and all a bit boring IMO.

Are these names inspired by people you know? Or could you look up names on google to see if there are any characters that might bend you towards or away from any of them?

My personal favourites from your list are Charlotte, nn Lottie, and Daniel or Benjamin.

Don't stress too much about choosing the name yet though. Wait and see what he or she 'feels' like when they arrive. I've known people be adamant their munchkin is going to be called xxxxx and then realise that's just not who they are. Someone even changed their baby's name several weeks down the line as her personality was emerging and it didn't seem to fit.

Also say them all out loud, several times, in conjunction with your surname. See which flow the best. And the same for various combinations of middle names. Think about initials. Does anyone in the family have trouble forming particular sounds? I lisp with 'Sk' words for example, which makes a family member, Skye, a pain to pronounce.

The girls list are a bit meh, except Nina which is gorgeous.

Cassandra was the Trojan doubly cursed as a prophet whom no one would believe. Post Trojan war she was raped and dragged back to Mycaene as Agamemnon's sex slave where his wife and her lover murdered them both . Hideous.

Make a list of all the possible shortenings each name could have, and if there are any you HATE maybe cut them? Even if you insist on calling Madeleine 'Madeline', it's bound to be shortened to 'Mad' at school, and Alexander could become 'Alex or 'Al' or 'Xand', so if there are any that set your teeth on edge maybe rule them out.

Daniel and Nina

Lovely names! We used one of them and had lots of the others on our list.

Catherine, Helena, Jonathan or David would be my pick.

Some lovely classic names. I would go for Cassandra and Benjamin.

Alexandra, Elizabeth and Felicity are all beautiful names. I think Elizabeth is probably my favourite overall.
Benjamin or Alexander for a boy. I think I prefer Benjamin if I had to pick one.

Alexandra- not keen
Cassandra- like also like nn Cassie and not too popular
Catherine- not keen
Charlotte- like but too popular, doesn't have such a wow that's a nice name feel
Elizabeth- don't mind, like some of the nn.
Felicity- dislike since I heard someone calling their child 50 times who wasn't listening, something about it just sounded horrible, vowed I would never use this name
Helena- not sure how this would be pronounced, this would be an issue for me
Jessica- really like, not wow but a nice name to see her throughout life
Madeleine- like but the huge media coverage of this little girl will always spring to people's minds
Nina- ok

Boys:
Alexander- love
Benjamin- love
Daniel- like
David- dislike
James- love
Jonathan- dislike and not keen on nn Jonny
Joshua- ok, a little bit boring and doesn't sound very strong
Samuel- ok
Thomas- dislike
William- not keen

Since you have so many great names I would immediately cross off any that don't sound good with the surname.

That said my favourites for a girl are Alexandra, Catherine and Felicity. This is based on what I would most like to be called. However I also like (just not as much) all the other girl names except Nina. Nothing wrong with Nina but the others just feel more substantial to me - and I personally like strong names with history.

All the boy names are good, my favourites are: Alexander, Jonathan, David and Thomas. David is not so much used these days which gives it some appeal to me. For all though it may depend on use of nickname

Love your lists!

From your shortened version my top three for each would be:

Jessica, Cassandra, Felicity

Alexander, Benjamin, James

But I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

Girls, all lovely though Nina is my least favourite, Felicity Jessica & Helena are my favourites.

Boys, Joshua and William are my least favourite, Jonathan Daniel and Benjamin are my top three.

Alexandra or Alexander
Benjamin

Girls :
Alexandra - ok
Cassandra - dated
Catherine dated
Charlotte nice
Elizabeth nice
Felicity no
Helena no
Jessica nice
Madeleine no
Nina ok

Boys:
Alexander ok
Benjamin ok
Daniel no
David no
James ok
Jonathan ok
Joshua nice
Samuel ok
Thomas ok
William ok

So for boys definitely Joshua and girls I like Jessica the most

I like most of the names, but agree with pp who said you can whittle it down a bit by going through all the possible shortenings.
None of my 3 (now adult) dc are called what we had assumed their names would be shortened too, so it is wise to think of all probably shortenings and that might help you rule out some you don't like.

Charlotte and Felicity

Alexander and Benjamin

Girls:
Mostly a bit prim and Mallory towers for me.

I like
Charlotte - I quite like Lottie.
Elizabeth - also good nn potentials
Madeleine

Boys:
I like:
Alexander - because I like Sandy as a nn.
Benjamin
Daniel

My choices from your names would be Cassandra (we have a Cassia so biased!) and Daniel which I have always loved as a strong classic name.