Why are boy names so hard?! :(

Sue

The problem with this is (and yes apologies for putting in my 2 cents!)
You are thinking of yourselves and what YOU like and not the possible effect on your child.l was given a very unusual name 67 years ago, which would have been fine if l was particularly confident, outgoing, strong and had broad shoulders-problem was, or is, l’m none of those things and l was bullied mercilessly and had my name misspelt on thousands of occasions. I hated my name and what it did to me, so unless you know you’re going to be giving birth to a super confident ‘out there’ type of person-then l would think twice or even 3 or 4 times before giving them an ‘unusual’ name.

I think your list is trying too hard. I absolutely hate the use of animal names. Bear is OK but only as a nickname for Edward (which is how Bear Grylls got his name.) The only name your list I like is Elijah.

In defence of OP....
Unusual names are becoming common.
I know of so many unusual names now that these generations will think nothing of having a friendship group made up of unusual names. It will be, regardless of what we think now, normal!
I was in high school form with 3 Katie's.
My daughter has 3 Evelyn's at nursery.
There's no right or wrong as long as its not got widely accepted negative connotations and none of these have.

A names would never be a burden if we all accepted that it's none of our business and our children to be accepting of others even if they are different. OR HAVE AN UNUSUAL NAME.

loads of names aren't for me... But they tend to be more traditional names or names I think are more dull than the odd Wolf or something.

I only like Elijah on your list. I prefer names that are well established names though.

As per the message from Rachael, we want our children to feel unique and not carbon copies of everyone else.

If the key way your child feels unique or not a carbon copy of everyone else is to have a youuuunique name then there is something badly wrong with your parenting.

Like it or not some of these names will not look good on someone who wants to be taken seriously professionally, of course that could change in the future, but personally that is not a gamble I’d want to take with my child’s future. Many, many people will think some of these names sound very silly and I honestly cannot understand why you’d want to inflict that on your child.

Never understand this mindset. I have a name that's consistently been in the top 100 names for donkeys, probably top ten most years as well. It's never ever stopped me from feeling completely unique and tbqh I find it quite insulting (not to mention ridiculous) you think that possibly sharing a name makes a person a 'carbon copy' of someone else. Or that a name will make a person creative or whatever.

Instill some sense of self into your child fgs rather than giving them a stupid name.

I know you don't want to hear it but trust me, it'll be what people are thinking when you introduce Bear Cosmo to them.

Twice as common? That just isn’t true at all.

I think that if you call your child Fox, Wolf or Bear you have a preconceived idea of how they are going to grow up. How are you going to feel if they grow up differently.

So many parents want 'quirky' or children who are 'individual' by pushing them to act/ look in a certain way.

I actually find a lot of the nature boho names quite sexist. Predator names for boys (Wolf, Bear, Fox). Little bird names (Wren Robyn etc) for girls. I know a lot of the names of the past are rather sexist with flowers and jewels and pretty things for girls and more warrior names for men. But a lot of older women names come from the male names so you get some cool meanings to do with warriors for women, or Charles/Charlotte which I think means Curly bearded, which I find particularly fun. But, even with the flower/jewel versus strong/warrior stuff of the past, at least with traditional names there are plenty of namesakes to mean the name isn't just about the associations with the word, but the associations with so many people having been called it and when there have been many, the association of the word is not what comes to mind. Same for many names with religious meanings, yet if you chose a very religious sounding word as a "new" name, it would immediately have religious connotations centre-stage.

I would never call a boy Bear. And I do wonder about the name Wren (tiny shy little bird). For these reasons. There are nice nature names that are less gender stereotyped like Rowan and Fern, Ash and Aspen, Autumn, Hazel, River. As Robin/Robyn is more unisex and well known and as actual Robins are quite confident and fighty things half the time, I wouldn't be so concerned that the association with Robyn is just to do with a small bird for a girl. I like Ash and Hazel better though.

@BertieBotts - Silas is a great name!

Thank you!!!!

But a lot of these “unique” names just aren’t everyone thinks they are being different yet all think of the same “unique” names or just go too out there and it gets stupid, and a name does nothing for your child’s personality (maybe make them a little embarrassed) but won’t shape their character they could have the most common name in the world and be creative, witty, fashion forward, imaginative or they could be called rainbow and be dull, follow the crowd, shy, quiet and have zero imagination

@winterbabyrose my children don’t feel like carbon copies of other kids because they might share the name with others 🙄. You might love your name but having worked as a teacher for many years I know many kids don’t.

😂😂😂😂 I know so many men that are just dying to be known as the king of elves or named after a wizard

Thing is these are not that unusual, the kids all have these types of names where I live. Oren is only one I don't know.

Peter or Geoffrey or Robert would be really unusual

Exactly this he will just grow up resentful and probably get people to call him john or Dave 😂😂

@SoupDragon absolutely! I love the idea that parents think if they give their kids a unique name it’ll make them unique 😬

I hear you, OP! Also struggling to find a boy’s name I love. Like others have said Eli is a great nn for Elijah or a name of its own right 🙂 your list also made me think of Kit and Laurie, both gentle but a little different.

Maverick?! Dear god. Do parents know the meaning of these words?! Imagine if he’s very much not a maverick!

Bloody awful.

Please don’t be one of those people that thinks they are unique but everyone knows they are just ridiculous your son won’t thank you for calling him caspian, finch, everett, torin, cosmo, flynn, griffin, ludo (🐶 popular dogs name) or fletcher, fox 😂😂
where as bohdi Grey Lennox Lennon and Hendrix are all now popular names that loads of other people thought they where being “unique”

Agree that Hendrix James definitely sounds like a homage to Jimmy Hendrix. If that's the aim no problem. If it's unintended, be aware!

tota agree
some people sound like they’re naming an animal not a child that has to live with the name for years to come!

I think Fox is great and it's not so out there these days.

Boys are hard because the common names are so much more used (about twice as common each as the top girls names) so the common ones feel so very overused, even the medium ones (e.g. 50-200 in the popularity lists) feel common as well and anything over that is so rarely used that it sounds naff.

We liked nature names too. What about these

Merlin
Rowan
Orion
Idris
Alfred (because it means king of the elves)
Rupert
Robin
Tawny
Brambling (Bram)
Aiken
Ash
Calhoun
Oakley
Finley /Finn
Silas (man of the forest)