Gregory, George, Theodore, Nicholas or Sebastian? Help!!!

Laurence is wet.

@ThatLilacExpert , the web site Darkgreener will give an indication of how popular a name is. The ONS baby names page has slightly more up to date info.

If you pick a long name like Sebastian, Dominic or Nathaniel, it will get shortened and Seb/Dom/Nat/Nate aren't elegant.

What level of popularity are you comfortable with? The top names aren't nearly so prevalent as 20 years ago, so there shouldn't be 4 in a class unless it's just locally very popular. However there might be a couple, and there are always rare names that get duplicated in a class you can't guarantee. All the names except Gregory and Nicholas are popular for babies now.

Gregory Rank #1071, 27 babies in 2023
Nicholas #201, 245 babies
Sebastian #42, 1313 babies
Theodore #8, 2666 babies (Theo ranked 11, and teddy 23 so more popular than it seems with nicknames)
George #4, 3494 babies

You can check ranking here: names.darkgreener.com/#gregory

I wanted to call my eldest Sebastian but Dh wouldn't have it - said it was too posh. Eldest is now 29 and says he would have loved to be called Sebastian

Out of the others I like Theodore but as a PP pointed out its very popular right now. Having said that, when my boys were born their names were very unusual but now seem to be everywhere so my advice is choose a name that you like and don't bother about its popularity.

I have a 21-year-old Nicholas. It's a good name!

Nicolas is probably the best if you don't want something too popular. Greg isn't really trendy.

Others:
Patrick
Daniel
Christopher
Frederick
Leonard
Edward
Alexander
Samson
Samuel
Benjamin

If you want unique, you're probably better considering names like Thomas, Matthew, James, Christopher, Alexander, etc

Unique? I know sooo many Toms, James and Alexes..... they are extremely widely used.

I like Nicholas.
It can be shortened to Nicky, Nick or Nico which are all perfectly fine names.

The twee old fashioned names are ten a penny now as they became fashionable.

If you want unique, you're probably better considering names like Thomas, Matthew, James, Christopher, Alexander, etc. Nice, normal names but not used as much these days.

My daughter has 3 Theos in her class, although one goes by "Teddy" which makes me want to vomit every time I hear it!

I know so many Georges it’s ridiculous. There are a crazy number in one of my DC’s year at school. Theo is nicer than Theodore although will probably get shortened anyway.

George is timeless, can’t go wrong. But always popular.
Others are a bit of mouthful and would be shortened.
I personally like Gregory.

My choices too.

I also love Gregory

I've always felt Gregory was an under-rated name. I love it!

@ThatLilacExpert , I think of 'wet' names as being that of a clingy child.
A bit of a 'mummy's boy' or similar.
Quentin is worse than wet and Reuben is wet.

Douglas is fine. I'd be looking at names that haven't quite come back yet. There are plenty of them like Gordon, Duncan, Stuart, Dennis, Terence, Patrick, ...

Gregory - it's OK, but I can't imagine a Greg being pleasant.
George - very popular
Theodore - overused and it's a name I dislike
Nicholas - OK, plenty of them my age, all Nick now.
Sebastian - OK but I don't like Seb

I'd pick Nicholas out of those. Matthew has a similar vibe, as do Christopher, Jonathan, Jeremy and Timothy.

How about Luke?

I have a Nicholas "Nick", none others in primary school and only one other in Secondary

My friend has a lovely Gregory and he’s a fine young man Greg really suits him. It’s better than Douglas which I am seeing everywhere at the moment

Sebastian

George and Theodore are lovely but very popular.

Gregory is old fashioned in a bad way.

Nicholas is a bit dated but a classic.

Sebastian is perfect - fits all your criteria well (as long as you like “Seb” for short.

Gregory is the only one that fits your criteria. Then Sebastian.

I think Theodore and George are overused and boring. Theo in particular will start to sound dated soon

Sebastian has terrible nicknames Seb/Sebbie or Basty (bastard) and reminds me of sebaceous

I like Nicholas and Gregory as they're both classics but not so overused

How about Quentin or Reuben?

Theo and George are in the top 5 this year aren't they? So I'd avoid if you want less common.

I like Sebastian the best from your list.

Other options: Alexander, Michael, Paul, Joshua.

I can't imagine a baby called Gregory. Also, it just makes me think of Gregg's, the baker

Gregory is lovely! I love strong, classic (no others in the class!) names for boys.

Laurence or Sebastian.

I had Gregory on my list for DS 24 years ago! Was going to shorten to Grey. Like all of them, though personally think Sebastian and Nicholas sound a bit wet, and don’t really like Nick as a short version.