Has Tony Blair having a child called Leo made it a bad name?

No - Leo is a great name. Don't let TB put you off.
Wouldn't repeat the use of Ben personally.

Congrats on pregnancy.

My friends little boy is Leo - i love it and never think of the Blair connection....I think she was more concerned about the Leo Sayer connection

I personally would not re-use a middlename....but did wish i'd kept DD's for another daughter so know where you're coming from.

Whats DS's name??

i realy like Leo ...slightly out of the ordinary run of boys names, but not so unusual as to attract unwanted notice.

Had completely forgotten the Blair connection, and he's out of the public eye. I love it - friend's wee ds is Leo, and it's charming for a baby, plus easy to grow up with.

No. I have a Leo and this didn't put us off and nobody has commented on TB's son at all!

In fact, the only comments we get are universal adoration. I know people will never say they hate a name so comments are not necessarily a good guide, but if people don't like it they just say "oh nice" or don't really comment, whereas we have alwyas got lots of enthusiasm and positive comments, people asking questions about it etc.

To us it seems like a warm, friendly name, slightly out of the ordinary but not crazy. It has historical interest (lots of popes, very popular with the Romans), but seems very modern too with the O ending, so I guess quite timeless. Works easily in several of languages (not critical, but we liked that it was a sort of pan-European name!). And it didn't seem either too posh or too chav so hopefully our DS shouldn't have any preconceptions about him based on his name.

Can you tell I adore it? I'm pg with number 2 and DH and I are petrified that we will never find a name we adore as much!

I have a Leo and never think of the connection. In fact no one has ever mentioned it.

If anything, it shows TB has good taste in names.

I wouldn't reuse a middle name from your older DS.

I wouldn't really think of Tony Blair - if anything I would think Da Vinci or Di Caprio!

Leo is a nice name - cool, simple but not overdone. I also really like Theo.

Ben is a great name too but I would steer clear if you've already used Benjamin for your DS1 - might seem a bit weird to reuse it and there are a lot of other nice names out there too!

I think Leo Blair did make the name more popular back when he was born, but very few people make that connection now. My DS is Leo and one thing that people do ask is 'what's that short for?'. As I explain, it has been a full name since medieval times and 13 popes were called Leo... Anyway, I think it's lovely

I wouldn't re-use Benjamin/Ben either - I've had the same thought about DS's middle name but I don't think I can go there.

No, I doubt that would spring to many people's minds if you announced a baby Leo these days. Lovely name.

I think it's a great name. It's a roman classic. It's also a Pope's name so it was always popular in Ireland. (That wouldn't sell it to me, nor put me off. Just saying it's, Da vinci and di caprio and Blair aren't the only links!)

re: Ben, how do you feel about Benedict shortened to Ben?

JenEm - if you like us now, don't go on AIBU for a wee while and shatter your illusions. Stick to the calm waters of Pregnancy, Parenting etc

I prefer Leo out of those two and wouldn't fret about the Blair connection. (After all, I like Cherie as a middle name and Cherie Blair is REALLY annoying.)

I quite like Leon, too.