Just found out team blue and stuck with boy's names!

[sassylassie]

We had quite a few girls' names we loved (Martha, April, Iris and Oliver were our favourites), but we were really struggling to find any boys' names we were more than half-hearted about. We must have looked through thousands already online on MN threads, including pretty much every name on www.babynames.co.uk. Why is is it so difficult?! Can I run our shortlist by you...? :-) New suggestions along the same lines would be appreciated too! We're looking for something not completely "top 10" but not one that will solicit a "Err what, can you spell that please?" sort of reaction either if you know what I mean...

OK here they are:

Alexander (Like this quite a bit, but really not keen on short forms of it for some reason, and it's bound to be shortened. Plus we have a 3-syllable surname...)
Jonah (Probably our favourite so far, so keen on views on that.)
Evan (Quite like this too.)
Eric (This is my grandad's name but a bit unsure and I think it's interesting, but does it sound very old-mannish?)
Noah
Lucas (OH is half-Italian and we originally liked Luca, but slightly went off it because we felt it sounded slightly girly and also maybe a bit unfamiliar in the UK? We already have a foreign surname which needs spelling every time, so thought maybe a less foreign sounding first name would balance it out!)

I prefer Eric, the rest are very widely used already.

How about Gregory, Quentin, Marcus, Tobias, Patrick?

i love jonah, was on my list if dd was a boy!

Thanks mayanna. PS Oops I meant Olive if it had been a girl, not Oliver obviously! Not so keen on Oliver.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Marcus is OK tho not wild about it, Gregory is my DH's priest's name, Quentin and Tobias I'm not so keen on I'm afraid and Patrick is my cousin's name, plus not really keen on Pat (which it's often shortened too).

I know I'm hard to please! The only consolation is my DH is just as hard to please and at least we're in almost complete agreement on the very few we do sort of like...

Lucas is a great name, and not widely used. I agree that Luca would be tricky in the uk, ditto for Andrea
How about Nicholas (nn Nico) ?

Jonah is my favourite by far; Alexander is lovely but may not go with your surname and is very very likely to get shortened.

Noah is also nice, as is Lucas, but I don't really like Evan and I do not like Eric at all - not sure a fourteen year old boy would thank you for it. Sorry.

I like all your list with Eric bringing up the rear. Who knows, you could start a trend.
I work in childcare and have cared for children with all those names except Jonah and Eric.
I really like Evan and Luca.

Alexander - great, classic name. However not great for you if you don't like the nicknames
Jonah - the new Noah, will probably become as popular
Evan - like, would assume you had Welsh connections
Eric - like, underused
Noah - getting a bit overdone
Lucas - prefer Luke, it's stronger-sounding

How about Jerome (Jem), Lawrence, Peter, Saul, Elias, Gabriel, Miles, Arlo?

I've known a couple of boys (primary age) called Luca in England and it didn't seem to cause problems. I prefer Luke, though. Alexander is also lovely, but it seems as if you just don't quite like it enough. I'm not so keen on the others, sorry.

How about: Joel, Marlowe, Benedict, Joshua, Anselm, Barnabas?

Thanks for all the feedback. Doesn't seem to be much of a consensus here so far! Interesting HoneyPablo that you say Eric and Jonah were the only ones you hadn't come across in your childcare work. Just checked the Office for National Statistics top 100 boys names for 2010 and they were the only two that were not in the top 100 from our list. Lucas was a lot more common than I thought and even Luca was 70th name in the UK which really surprised me!

Cereal and meditrina Thanks for the suggestions. I liked Jerome and it was on our list but DH wasn't so keen so it got struck off. Elias and Joel I also quite like but again, DH was not keen. Most of the others just don't work for me somehow. Joshua would be nice if it wasn't so popular, but I don't like Josh at all. I actually like Peter a lot, but it's my dad's name and that would create all sorts of family tensions (best not go there!!).

CurwySwide I know what you mean about Eric - that's my hesitation too. It was cool for Cantona, but then he's French! My brother was named Pascal by my parents (very unwisely really!) and he changed his name by deed poll at the age of 8 because he just wanted to have a normal name and blend in with all the other kids. (He changed his name to Paul because 3 other kids in the class had that name!!)

I just love Jonah. Saul is also a brilliant name.

Of your list:

Alexander - I love it, but I like nns
Evan Okay
Eric Sounds old mannish to me
Noah I have gone off this now
Lucas always nice, and I love Luke

Ooh now I think Pascal is a gorgeous name! How about that? :o

I love Lucas (but like Luke more) and like Noah. Not fond of the others and Eric is baaaaad imho, sorry.

Eric or Lucas

I like Pascal and Luca.

Actually Luca would be my favorite by head an shoulders and in my middle classish, south-eastern enclave it would not be blinked at.

What is that song? 'My name is Luca'

Putting your names in my preference order would look like this:

Jonah LOVE IT - fab
Lucas - great
Noah - like it quite a lot
Alexander - like, but not so much
Evan not so keen

Eric seems super to me as a middle name

Alexander is lovely, so versatile

Im hoping noone i know sees this post cos im keeping my name choices a secret lol.
My son is called Luca and noone has ever batted an eyelid and always say its a lovely name, Lucas is ALOT more popular and i seem to hear it wherever i go!
Im pregnant with my 2nd son and his name will be either Jonah or Tobias :) Leaning towards Jonah i think, not sure though lol.
Sooo im gonna say go for Luca or Jonah :D x

Like all of your name choices, apart from Eric, as I do think this is old man, but not in a good way.

However, I do love Erica, which I think is gorgeous and underused.

I think Luca sounds feminine, with the -a ending. But in Italian some boys' names have this ending, like Andrea (boys name in Italy).

Thanks everyone. Actually I'm coming round to Luca again now reading all your posts, especially finding it's more common that we thought in the UK (ranked at about 70 in 2010), which was our only worry I think. Donna1992 Encouraging to hear people's reaction to your son's name too. :-) We're also thinking Lucas is MUCH too popular now, as well as Alexander and Noah - all in the top 20. Jonah is still on the table, and Evan, and maybe Eric too, though I agree with Italiangreyhound that it might be better sticking with that as a middle name.

CurwySwide and EBDteacher I like the name Pascal too, but my brother hated it because it got him teased. I really want to avoid dumping a name on our child which is going to cause them trouble just because we happen to think it sounds nice. Children can be very cruel! I think Pascale for a girl would probably be fine though.

I really like Eric and Lucas from your list. Luca, like Andrea, work well in Italy but sound very feminine in English speaking countries.

I also like Pascal - can't see what is teaseworthy about that?

I've always liked Luca so I say go for it! Jonah is a close second..in fact I might steal that one!

Know a one year old Eric, given the name for family reaons.

OK folks, after a week of um-ing and ah-ing Luca has emerged as frontrunner. I think we've decided on Luca Eric unless we have a brainwave between now and the birth. Thanks for all the feedback! :o