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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Cecily on a boy?

157 replies

AnneBoleyn6 · 03/09/2021 23:25

So my wife really likes Cecily for a boy (usually pronounced Sess-ill-lee, but comes out more like Sess-lee when talking fast).

I love the name Cecily, but I don't know about it for a boy. We both don't really like Cecil. We do like traditionally girl names on boys, though.

I just am not completely sold. What do you think? Can you help me love it?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Shallwegoforawalk · 04/09/2021 00:29

If you want your son to be relentlessly bullied, humiliated and mocked, you're on the right track.

Even if unusual it's still a GIRLS name. With a Y. So not Cecil. Everyone knows this!

How hard of thinking is your wife? At least she can blame pregnancy hormones I guess but it's your job to talk her OUT of mad ideas like this, not try to love it. For the sake of your child. A real human who has to live with their name forever. Or until they can change it by deed poll the instant they reach adulthood and never speak to you both again for years of undeserved abuse

Cleverpolly3 · 04/09/2021 00:27

Are you on glue?

NomNomNominativeDeterminism · 04/09/2021 00:25

Best case scenario:

Your son: [Not saying anything, don’t want to tell anyone my name.]

Other person: ‘What’s your name?’

[Damn.] ‘Cecily.’

‘What?’

‘Cecily.’ [Heart sinking, here we go again.]

‘Er, what?’ [Surely, surely I must have mis-heard?]

‘Cecily.’

‘Oh’ [Wow, your parents hate you]

[Crying on the inside. My parents hate me. Where can I find someone to pay £££ squillions for therapy?]

Repeat ad infinitum, with added bullying.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/09/2021 00:21

Even for a girl, it just makes me think 'cessily' - i.e. in the manner of a pool full of actual poo.

In fact, as a PP said, you could always call him Cecil - like Brad Pitt's brother Grin

WendelFong · 04/09/2021 00:20

Hell to the no.

ElephantandGrasshopper · 04/09/2021 00:18

If you like gender neutral (ish) names, how about:

Jamie
Leslie
Jesse
Chris
Alex
Francis

Cecily is definitely a girl's name to me (just as James is definitely a boy's name)

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 04/09/2021 00:17

No I can't help you love it. For a girl its gorgeous, but for a boy its henious.
He'll be teased mercilessly for having a girl's name. Why doesn't she jyst go with Cecil.

Kite22 · 04/09/2021 00:16

Please answer all of us wondering "Why?"

Nobody would do this to someone they love or even like a tiny bit

DappledThings · 04/09/2021 00:08

@Palavah

Is this a joke or are you trying to prove a point about the one-sidedness of using girl's names for boys but not vice versa?
Well it is a point worth making. Cecily for a boy is no more ridiculous than James for a girl.
midsomermurderess · 04/09/2021 00:07

Marvellous choice, what could possibly go wrong?

alexdgr8 · 04/09/2021 00:05

oh, and i've yet to hear of a girl called cyril.
but you never know.
by the way, were you hoping for a girl....

alexdgr8 · 04/09/2021 00:04

on the slight chance this is not a wind-up,
might i suggest, cyril.
you get that same initial sound, and an L, and it's a little unusual, but more used now due to so many eastern european heritage people here, although they pronounce it with a hard k sound.

RicherThanYow · 04/09/2021 00:04

Absolutely not. Don’t do it.

Regularsizedrudy · 04/09/2021 00:02

Let’s hope he doesn’t have a lisp

crowsfeet57 · 04/09/2021 00:01

Please don't do this to your little boy.

Lalliella · 04/09/2021 00:00

No no no a million times no. What on earth is your wife thinking? It’s awful.

Cillmantain · 03/09/2021 23:58

Please don't.
It's absolutely not a boy's name.
It would really be very cruel.
He would be teased so much.

Blueleah · 03/09/2021 23:56

It would toughen him up I suppose. Because he’ll get the shit beaten out of him mercilessly for the entire time he’s at school.

MrsEricBana · 03/09/2021 23:55

100% no

TattySlippers · 03/09/2021 23:55

Just no!

BanditoShipman · 03/09/2021 23:52

God no!!!

longerevenings · 03/09/2021 23:52

It is a lovely name but very feminine, even as a girls name.

Robin, Lindsay, Valery, Leslie would all work.

Names like Valentine traditionally male but uncommon now.

Cuddlemonsters · 03/09/2021 23:52

God no, no, no

MorriseysGladioli · 03/09/2021 23:50

It's bloody awful.
Sorry.

SnowyPetals · 03/09/2021 23:50

If I came across a boy called Cecily I would think his parents were trying (very hard) to make some sort of point and didn't care about the consequences of that for their child.