Choosing a name when there's nothing you absolutely love

I taught a Hector who went by Hal

Better than Heck, but still not great - sounds like Halitosis...!

@SheeplessAndCounting It's really not 😂

Similar to Tristan

Reuben
Quentin
Roman
Caspian

I'd avoid Hector due to the meaning (to hector) and the nickname Heck

Michael
Benedict
Robert
Lysander
Nicholas

I have 2 girls but my top boys names were
Jenson
Harry (DP Father)
Brodie

I like classic names that aren’t popular
Jonathan
Peter (DS middle name)
Robert
Anthony
Christopher
James
Michael

I had this and we eventually went back to the name we had said years ago our boy would be called. Now he’s here he’s so obviously that name and I don’t ever question it. I liked Freddie and Finn too! I ended up printing out the top 1000 names and highlighting any that remotely interested me, I think there were only about 4 😂I

Pick a sentimental family name. You can tell your child all the amazing things about the relative they were named after

Nigel is due a comeback.

Hector is a brilliant name - go for it. I taught a Hector who went by Hal which I also really like.

Taran is awful. Thunderclap.
Isn't Tor written as Thor?

Hector is gorgeous!

Taran?

Tor?

It’s so hard to find a ‘special’ boys name I know.

Ezra
Asa

Hector and Alexander were both on my list. Other boy names on my list were

Flynn
Magnus (gus)
Guy
Axel
Jasper
Seth
Ralph
Rufus
Laughlin
Rex
Ernie
Wilfred

Hmm. All nice choices. As compromisewith OH guess mine have never been number 1, but I love them now! If you want others

theodore
franklin
george
arthur
ethan
henry
douglas
rupert
wilfred
stanley
ernest
alfred
reuben
oscar
otis
leo
leonard
rowan
edward

I didn't have 'the one' type names for my children, just sort of picked a few that we liked and then chose the one thay sounded nicest with our surname.
The names suit them and the kids like them, it doesn't have to be a a written in the stars perfect name, just something you feel happy to call up the stairs.

My sister and her husband didn't have a perfect name either they just printed off the top 500 girls names and started from the bottom until they found one they liked enough.

Boys are so hard!!! I was in love with my DD’s name from the outset and people are pretty unanimously complementary, even many years later. I’ll be talking about something she’s done and people will interrupt me to say “oh, that’s a lovely name”, and it truly is!

With my boys… DS1’s name still hasn’t grown on me to be honest. Some people like it, some people have never heard of it or find it a bit odd. It isn’t odd… it’s quite a classic name, but more in the French-speaking places where I grew up, not in the English-speaking city where I live now. I’m also not convinced it totally suits his personality. But it is what it is. It is a functional name by which to distinguish him from other people. His middle name is very nice but my DH didn’t want it as a first name for semi-valid reasons.

DS2, I wasn’t convinced by his first name initially. Now it’s definitely grown on me and he could never be anything else. The name totally suits him. Don’t ask me his middle name though. It’s very archaic and I don’t know what I was thinking. 😂

We can’t have anymore kids because we’ve used literally the only boys name I liked, and even that took 8 months. He’s Max.

Go for something that Freddie could be short for like Alfred but call him Alfie for now? Then if he goes for Freddie it's not you choosing it.

But no, I've not loved either of my boys names but they grew on me because I love the people they're attached to.

Go through some distant relative's name. Your great granddad or great uncles or something. Or their middle names.
Or pick a patron saint of something. Andrew, David, George, Patrick, John, Christopher, Matthew etc all safe. You may think they are a bit dull but IMO they are ones that will grow on you.

Pick something that goes with the surname.
Don't worry about the middle name, just use your DP's surname.4
Surname - yours.

The name we called DS was always on our list, it was never near the top though. When he was born and he was a boy we each narrowed the list down to three names, and DS's name was on both of them. So that's what we called him.

I couldn't imagine any other name for him now, because it's his.

Just re-read your OP. Ellis sounds like Alice, would you consider that?

Are you sure you can't use Tristan? DO's brother might be flattered, you could ask him.

My youngest sister is called after my mum, I thought it a bit odd at the time but it worked out fine. She has a short second name and we called her firstname-secondname as a child to differentiate.

Neither of my kids have names I love. They have names that we could agree on, as we had very different tastes.
I can't imagine them called anything else now though, I suppose they just sort of become their name