Can I call my baby boy this.....

[babywantscake]

Hi there, I'm 35 weeks with my first and really struggling with a boy's name. DH likes very 'out there' names, I like the classics and family names.

We have decided on Rosa Joan for a girl (Joan was my Granny's name).
For a boy we both love Edwin but are struggling with a middle name. DH wants Edwin Galileo (we are very keen amateur astronomers) or Edwin Beowulf (I am not joking!). Safe alternative is Edwin Frederick (DH's Grandad), but neither of us mad keen.

What do you think...... is it cruel to give a child such an outlandish middle name?!? BTW our surname is Italian, very unusual and never pronounced correctly. Thanks!

Middle names never, ever get used, do they.. we gave our children middle names with important meanings to us (loved relatives' names).

I quite like Galileo - classic and cool sounding. Can always use Leo as nickname.

In fact, I prefer Galileo to Edwin, actually .

I wont out my DS's names but sufficient to say that he is named after a 7th century Northumbrian saint of such obscurity that no one knows why he is a saint. His middle name is a place in France.

He is now at secondary school and has never had problems about his name. These days there are so many different names out there that one more really doesnt matter. So much better than my day when boys were all named from a list which could have fitted on a postage stamp.

I like both Edwin (can be shortened to Ed, Ned, Win) and Galileo.

Love both names but would probably prefer Galileo given the Italian and astronomy link.

I agree - there are now so many different names from all cultures that children are much more accepting of 'different' names. My kids both have quite unusual names and have never had any problems - in fact they love having their 'own' name .

I love Edwin, it's on our shortlist too! (He'd probably end up as Eddy while small, but there are lots of nns he could use if he hated Edwin later on.)

But I wouldn't pair it with another Anglo Saxon name, it does make Edwin more outlandish than if it were just Edwin Leo, or Edwin Frederick, or whatever.

Mind you - Edwin Alfred - both Anglo Saxon but both are 'proper' names with a more recent usage!

Ooh, I quite like that combo myself, actually!

I love Galileo -- fabulous mn.

I wouldn't do Edwin Frederick -- too many ED sounds running into each other. But I love Edwin.

Do you like Albin, Boniface, Ambrose, Urban, Ivo?

Want to add -- Cosimo might work as a mn here too. But Galileo is so nice...

much better an odd middle name than an odd first name.

I think it can be mean to give children and unpronounceable and unspellable name.

I've heard all the arguments endlessly but still think you shouldn't lumber a child with weird first name.

I almost called ds3 Rowan Bede, but it didn't fit very well with the other children's names. Bede is a fabulous name!