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Baby names

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

Bramwell, Wilfred, Digby or Atticus (yes I know…)

195 replies

Lelongducanal · 23/06/2025 09:26

Aware all of these are a bit/a lot out there. Our elder DS is called Nathaniel and tbh I wish I’d saved his middle name for no 2 (Rowan) but too late now!

Digby (Diggy for short) - dh loves, I’m not sure
Bramwell (Bram) - I love, dh not sure, can anyone think of a good alternative long name that shortens to Bram?!
Atticus (Attie) - we both like but worry about associations to the character post Go Set a Watchman
Wilfred (Wilf but obvs he has the option of Fred if he chooses) - DH loves, I’m not sure and don’t like the Boris Johnson connection

Find boys names so hard! Any views? Alternatives which are unusual but less marmite?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Shufflebumnessie · 23/06/2025 11:53

I like Bram as it stands. Apparently it usually short for Bertram, Abram or Abraham.
Bramwell sounds like the name of a product, such as jam.

Personally, I think Digby sounds like a dogs name. Wilfred/Wilf is becoming increasingly popular. Atticus is unusual (to me), I've only ever heard of the actor Atticus Schaffer with the name in real life.

Cassian and Caius are both becoming popular.
Jasper? Jonah? Rupert? Samson? Roman?

I know brothers who are Nathaniel and Dominic, and I think they sound good together.

Toddlerteaplease · 23/06/2025 11:53

Absolutely not. To all of them!

TeenLifeMum · 23/06/2025 11:52

I really like Digby - it’s a local surname used for many things round here (Dorset) Digby Hall, Digby Tap. The Digby family owned the castle. But then I use human names for my dog so have no issues with people and dogs having the same names 😂

Bbq1 · 23/06/2025 11:48

harrietm87 · 23/06/2025 10:29

Bram Stoker (who wrote Dracula) was Abraham. It’s a classic shortening.

All tte Abrahams I've known have been Abe for short. It's more natural to go for Abe than the unpleasant sounding Bram. I know who Bram Stoker is, thanks so don't need reminding that he wrote Dracula. Maybe in his time it was more common to shorten Abraham to Bram because I've not heard that shortening in modern times

CandidHedgehog · 23/06/2025 11:48

sugarapplelane · 23/06/2025 10:07

Go set a watchman is the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird and it puts Atticus Finch in a less favourable light

It’s not a sequel (although I accept it was promoted as such by the publishers to begin with), it’s a first draft that was extensively revised before publishing as To Kill a Mockingbird.

Hence the significant character change / behaviour of Atticus Finch.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Set_a_Watchman

DrPrunesqualer · 23/06/2025 11:45

Atticus means rugged coast but also a name denoting admirable qualities
Bramwell means broom or brambles
Digby means ditch or trench
Wilfred means desiring peace or friendship probably because Frederick means Peaceful ruler

Theres a definitive link in your choices with geographical features but I wouldn’t go for a name meaning brambles for example. I know most people aren’t interested in meaning but as I am
Id go for either

Wilfred or Frederick
Atticus

catin8oot5 · 23/06/2025 11:45

How about Isaac with Ike as a nickname?

Kitkitkitty · 23/06/2025 11:40

I have a pre-school age Bram in my family, short for Abraham. Absolutely love the name, don't know any others but my Dutch friend says Bram is fairly common in the Netherlands.

Cherrytree86 · 23/06/2025 11:38

dont focus too much on nicknames Op. there is no guarantee that anyone besides you and your husband will use them. Nicknames are one of those things that just can’t be forced.

SabrinaThwaite · 23/06/2025 11:30

Bram Stoker was an Abraham.

How about Branwell, after the Brontë brother?

Some less out there biblical names include:

Bartholomew
Elijah
Gabriel
Jonah
Tobias

(I like the sound of Nate and Gabe).

Wackadaywideawake · 23/06/2025 11:27

Love Atticus and Wilfred. Not so keen on Digby, but Diggy is a cute NN for a toddler.

And isn’t ‘Bramwell’ Aldi’s food brand? The ketchup is a brilliant, and a much cheaper, alternative to Heinz. But I digress….

TheBiggestNumber · 23/06/2025 11:26

I know a Bramanie nn Bram. You can’t give Diggy as a nn! Let’s get jiggy with biggie Diggy. Afterwards a ciggie.

Alifemoreordinary123 · 23/06/2025 11:20

Look them up on the ONS list and see where they feature if you don’t want to have a name that everyone uses. DC1’s name was 58th when we used it and there isn’t another one in her school (there are one or two others in the whole village) and DS’s name was 78th and he is also the only one at school (again, we know of another couple locally). People use such a huge variety of names these days that unless you go top 10, there are unlikely to be tonnes of them (we have 3 William’s in one class which is a top 10 name I think). I think there are two Wilf’s in the whole school of 250 children.

TheAutumnCrow · 23/06/2025 11:19

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bram Stoker wrote two of my favourite stories.

whatsyournickname · 23/06/2025 11:19

If you like Robin but DH doesn't, what about Robert? It's pretty rare these days and can be Rob or Bertie for short.

ViolaPlains · 23/06/2025 11:18

HarrietBond · 23/06/2025 10:00

Rigby is Rising Damp.

Sir Digby Jones was an adult Digby.

He was Mr Rigsby.

I don’t know why people give children perfectly decent names and then shorten them. “Diggy” is just awful.

BeliesBelief · 23/06/2025 11:17

Go Set a Watchman has had no lasting impact - there was a flurry of interest when it was announced and published, but everyone quickly realised it was a money grab by Harper Lee’s relatives and should never have been released. No one is talking about it now. All the associations with the name are from TKAM.

CherryRipe1 · 23/06/2025 11:05

Bramwell is the name used on alot of Aldi foods, Bramwell pickles, cranberry sauce etc. I like Bram, Abraham.

OtterSide · 23/06/2025 11:05

Adonis
Aelred
Aidan
Akbar
Amos
Angelo
Athos
Balthasar
Cicero
Crawford
Cuthbert
Diarmuid
Eckhart
Elias
Evagrius
Fergus
Florian
Florizel
Gareth
Hawthorne
Herbert
Irenaeus
Ironside
Justinian
Kabir
Leonid
Lionel
Malcolm
Martin
Mungo
Nelson
Nirmal
Oswald
Percival
Petroc
Petrus
Prometheus
Qais
Quintilian
Romulus
Rustum
Savonarola
Sohrab
Teilhard
Toshiro
Urquhart
Valentine
Velasquez
Wallace
Wystan
Xerxes
Yves
Zidane

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 23/06/2025 11:02

Pigeon123456 · 23/06/2025 09:36

I like all of your options other than Digby. I think Wilfred is my favourite.

Some other names that feel similar to your list:
Ambrose
Cassian
Wilbur
Hector
Montgomery (Monty)
Maxwell

Can't do Monty... you would have to shout "Monty, you terrible c**t" at him. (Withnail and I).

HarrietBond · 23/06/2025 10:59

I know a young adult Digby who’s a lovely chap.

I quite like all your choices, OP. And a lot of the other options people are suggesting. I really like Kit. Another one it makes me think of is Kester.

gsiftpoffu · 23/06/2025 10:59

You could use Rowan.
I know a family with four boys. They've used the previous child's middle name as the first name for the next boy.
It's quite nice actually because it connects each boy to the next.

BunnyLake · 23/06/2025 10:59

harrietm87 · 23/06/2025 09:40

Wilfred, Atticus and Bram are all fairly popular in East London now. They are the new Ezra, Arlo and Otto (actually to be fair Wilfred was also around in Arlo’s heyday - probably why you perceive it as more popular). I think any of them will date pretty badly and sound try-hard hipster to me, whereas Nathaniel/Nate isn’t in that category at all and is much more classic.

Digby is just awful - a dog name.

Hector is another one that I’d put in the hipster parent category but doesn’t grate so much on me for some reason. What about Isaac?

Reminds me of the film Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World.

What about Diggory if you want something a little unusual.

Didn’t see film has been mentioned already 😁

Zov · 23/06/2025 10:57

IleftmybaginNewportPagnell · 23/06/2025 10:53

Ah it’s a great film, Digby the Biggest Dog in the World but I’m much older than you 😂. The boy I wish I’d called Gabriel is actually a Benjamin - I tried for so long to keep to that or Benji but it was only myself and lovely elderly Jewish auntie who stuck with Benji. When he went to school, he asked another boy his name “Ben”, his reply - “you can’t be, I’m Ben” they were friends all through school but Ben2’s mum only told me this recently 😂

YES to DIGBY the big sheepdog!

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