Rowan or Sonny?

Ive never heard of a female Rowan

Well there’s RowanMumsnet for a start

I've never heard of a female Rowan so I'm really shocked at that! I prefer Rowan over Sonny

What I would say is that the answer to the question “how many”....Roman (with an M) “people know of” in their circle is likely to change very dramatically over the next couple of years. It was the fastest rising name in 2018 and is steaming up the charts. So it’ll be a bit like Noah or Isla or Theo 10 years ago. In 2009 would have been saying then “the name is getting more popular but they’re not that popular, I only know 1 or 2” etc. And then suddenly .... look at those names now- both top 5! Noah and Theo for example were outside the top 50, ten years ago. Just bear in mind that Roman is the fastest rising name so as you say you are wanting to avoid top 20/30 names, I’d personally avoid Roman/Rowan/Rohan. Just depends if this would bother you or not.

Yeh I would prefer Rowan for a girl but I still don’t like it.

Sonny is a lovely name! It’s only used for boys in this country according to the official data. No baby girls were named Sonny in 2018.

Good luck choosing ❤️

@TheHumanSatsuma why?

Love Rowan and know of 2 girls and 2 boys with the name

I love both names, for a girl.

I think either will see him having the piss taken out of him at school

I don't like Sonny as it's a sort of non name and I always think of Sonny Bono.

Associate it with old fashioned address of a young lad - you know - Sonny Jim

Naming a child is such a big decision isn’t it. Boys names are hard!!

I’d personally never choose a name that sounds so similar to so many others, especially so close to the fastest rising boys name Roman. It just doesn’t feel special to have to say things like “my child is the RoMan with an M” “Mine is the RoHan with an H” “Mine is Ronan with an N”. That’s not what I would want anyway.

I’d pick Sonny. It’s really great.

I like Rowan, know a gorgeous little boy called Rowan.

“Sonny has been done to death?”
Really?? There is way more Rowan/Rohan/Roan’s than there is Sonnys. Even if you only include the spelling “Rowan”, then there is more Rowans than Sonny.
If you include all the Roman’s too then there’s 4 times as many Rowans (plus variations) than there is people named Sonny in 2018.

My post made less sense than it was supposed to. My Sonny is still a baby and the baby brain has hit hard 😂

My little boys nickname is Sonny - well his nickname is. His full name was suggested by his dad but I only agreed to it because I wanted to be able to use Sonny ha

Rowan is quite nice. Sonny has been done to death.

I would never describe Rowan as timeless myself. It’s never been in the top 100 in history until now and together with Roman, now the fastest rising baby names of 2018. If that’s not a recipe for a name to “date” I don’t know what is! It’s a very 2019 trendy name. It will date. But it depends if that matters to you or not.

Sonny is fine as a family nn. (Salvatore is gorgeous)
But it forces teachers to call a child, who is not their son, Sonny. I wouldn’t be keen on that myself.
And imagine him as an older man with younger people calling him Sonny.

Love the name Sonny. Think it will work great as both a baby and a adult name.

I appreciate an adult “Sonny” might initially seem a bit strange to us lot that grew up in the 1980s /90s surrounded by other children called Nick, David, Andrew and Simon. But the next generation are growing up surrounded by Alfie Archie, Harry etc and against that backdrop Sonny will sound great as both a baby and an adult. Very masculine. I know a Sonny who is very cool. Suits his name. Wants to be a lawyer.

Don’t like Rowan. It’s really weak, too similar to a plethora of other names and works better as a girl name I think. Don’t like nickname Row. And the “Anne” sounding part is too feminine for me.

I live up North and there’s a LOT of baby Roman’s (with an M) coming through round here. That would also put me off.

Rowan is a lovely name, either for a boy or girl. My friend's son is Rowan and I absolutely love it. Timeless and inspired by nature.

Sonny is not a name that I particularly like. It sounds faddish and more of a nickname. I think it'd be fine for a baby, but not beyond nursery age.

@PlantPotting I have a girl Rowan. She’s never called Row, though some school friends used to say Ro-sy Posy.
We call her Roo as she was very very small.

I love Sonny too. It's DS1's nickname. But I'd give him a full name and make that the abbreviation. Normally that's Salvatore (also gorgeous) but it could be Samuel or Solomon etc.

Rowan is a girl's name to my taste.

Rowan is lovely. I don’t like Sonny at all.

I only know girls called Rowan. I think it’s very girly/ flowery for a boy, but it’s still miles better than Sonny, sorry.
Sonny is awful, it is both twee and naff.
Roman is nicer, cool and definitely male-sounding.

Also RoMan and RoWan are different names though. I can obviously see they are similar but a very different type of name to me.

Rowan is adorable, Sonny is not

Another vote for Rowan. I don’t like Sonny at all.. cute on a baby but not on an adult.