Can't decide, any help appreciated!

[cakeismysaviour]

Hello, I have only just joined the site so I hope its ok to just jump straight in with a request for help!

I am 36 weeks pregnant with my first baby and we are really struggling to choose a name, not helped by the fact that we are both very fussy. We have (finally!) compiled a list of mutally approved names but we just can't pick which ones to use! So... I was hoping to use you lot as a sounding board to try and make a choice!

Boys names

Thomas
George
Sebastian
Nicholas
William
Oliver
Edward
Henry (maybe shortened to Harry)

Girls names

Freya
Elspeth
Willow
Clara
Iris (My Grandma's name, and I know she would be very touched if we used it.)
Rose
Ava
Sophia

We don't really mind if a name is very popular, as long as we love it. If you can think of any other names we may like feel free to let me know!

Oliver is one of the most popular boys names. Apart from that, all the names are lovely. Elspeth is unusual but very pretty.

Thanks for replying! I believe Oliver is the number one boys name? I don't mind that, although it probably would be a little annoying if there were a ridiculous number of Oliver's in his class at school. When I was at school there were five girls called Emma and four boys called James in my class!

They are all lovely!

Particularly like George, Henry and Sebastian for boys, and Elspeth and Iris for girls - they are both quite unusual and very pretty indeed.

I like all the names you have listed, but some of them are quite common at the moment. I have a George

How many syllables in your surname? I always think shorter names sound better with long surnames and vice versa. Do you have middle names picked or will they be off the list too?

Sorry, meant to say you might not be bothered by popular names! I wasn't when we chose our sons name it was number 10 I think.

Thank you guys!

The baby's surname (we are not married yet) will begin with B and have two syllables. The middle names will also be off the list, sorry I should have said that originally!

Sebastian - like
William - like also like nick name Will
Edward - like the nickname but not Edward
Henry - like

Freya - like
Elspeth - like
Iris - love
Ava - love
Sophia - like

ah two syllable surname means both short and long names are okay. Doesn't narrow the field much though.
Maybe short name -long name -surname would be good?
eg
George Sebastian B...
I also like

Henry George
William Henry
Edward Thomas (I know a little Eddie, he's ace!)

From your girls list I think Clara Rose would be a lovely name although again Rose is a very popular middle name at the moment.
Not keen on Ava or Sophia, Elspeth makes me think of that sex starved woman in 3 men and a baby (sorry). Having said that I think if you use Iris as a middle name it needs a longer first name to balance it IYKWIM?

Sophia Iris B.... actually is very nice!

Both my Dcs have family names as middle names, I think it's a really nice thing to do

They are all lovely , sorry not much help. Dd1 has one of the names from your list and all 3 dds have family names as middle names. Its a nice thing to do and they are never used

From your boys' names, my favourites are (in order):

Edward
Henry/Harry
Thomas (Tom)
William (Will)

I like Sebastian but not its inevitable nn Seb. Never been a fan of George or Oliver (which puts me in the minority )

From your girls' names, my favourites are:

Sophia
Iris
Freya
Clara

I do like Ava and Rose but am a bit put off by how ubiquitous they are at the moment! Willow is a bit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for me, and I find Elspeth a bit clunky.

Congratulations on your pregnancy

I'm 34 weeks with DC1 and choosing names is hard!

We did it by compiling a long-list (like yours) then comparing each name with each and deciding we preferred x to y, even though we both like y.

We've got it down to just two names (we know it's a boy) and we will either choose between now and the birth or choose between the two on the actual day.

To get the names down I repeated them several times out loud with our surname, then tried to imagine calling a baby, a toddler, a young boy, a teenager and a man by those names. Really helped me realise which names I just like and which names I can stand to say many times a day for the next 50 years!!!!

I am so glad that I posted, you lot have thought of all the stuff that we hadn't thought of! I am pretty sure that I will use Iris as a middle name for a girl now, but otherwise we still have some tough choices to make. As Bartimaeus said, we want a name that will suit our child throughout his/her life, starting to wonder whether Willow fits into that catagory....?

What I liked to do was say the full name aloud, putting "Doctor" and then "Judge" at the front and see how it sounds

I like Henry and Iris best from your lists. You have lots of lovely names there, congratulations.

Love Elspeth from your girls names and your boys names are all great classics don't think you can really go wrong with any of them

I like all your boys' names. Not so keen on any of the girls'.

I like the last three on both your lists.

Incidentally, DP and I did this with our DD before she was born. We ended up with a list of seven girls' names. Then, we each went through the list and crossed out our least favourite name, until we were left with the final 3.

We then chose her name out of those 3 at birth.