Absolutely stumped re boy's names

[fretfree]

To the point that I am really hoping that the baby is a girl (only around 12 weeks at the moment). My DH and I cannot agree on anything re boy's names (actually that is not true - he also agreed that Monty was a great name, but best kept for when we get a dog eventually.....)

It is made worse by the fact that there are very few boy's names that do appeal. My favourite name is actually that of my DH, so that is out. We live in a french-speaking area, so it is very important to me that the name works in French as well as English. This is not at all relevant to DH. I also struggle with names of people that I know but don't particularly like.

Xavier, Leon, Louis, and Antoine are OK, but DH hates them.
He likes Alexander, but that name automatically makes me think "tosser" because I associate it very strongly with a work colleague.

I went through the whole of a paperback book on baby names and couldn't find more than five that I liked (once I had discounted the three that are either the names of my brother's children or my DH's best friend's). What is wrong with me??? Although judging by the number of similar threads on Baby names, I am not alone in this type of dilemma...

Any suggestions????

Popular names in France at the moment include:
Lucas
Enzo
Mathis
Matheo
Raphael
Theo
Arthur
Maxime
Lorenzo
Ethan
Jules
Clement
Adam
Noah

Erm, I'm sure I can think of more. But do you like the style of any of those? Then we could think of things along those lines.

Thanks ImpYCelyn

I really like Theo and Raphael, but I think the main problem is that I love French sounding names but DH hates French sounding names (I'd forgotten about these two but have raised them before with him and he doesn't like them :(). Good idea to look at the popular French names - i might find something there that translates into English there

Lots of names currently popular in France aren't French names. They're branching out a bit.

And it won't be the end of the world if your DS (potential) has a name that is pronounced differently by different language speakers. A common theme on the name threads started by people in bilingual families (like ours) is the practical impossibility of finding a name that is actually pronounced the same in two different languages.

How about something with the nn Leo if you like Theo - Leonard, Leopold, Leon etc etc. Also if you like Raphael maybe Rafferty? I have a Nicolas which is popular in france as well. Good luck in choosing a name!

Thanks for the suggestions. ImpYCelyn - I don't necessarily need a name that is pronounced the same in two languages, but I just don't want one that makes me go 'yuck' when I pronounce it with a French accent.

Upatdawn - love the suggestions of Leopold and Leon but, as with Theo, DH doesn't :(

Maybe I should just forget about it until the scan where they can tell you the sex of the baby!

What about

Tristan
Liam
Oscar
William
Killian
Eliott
Anthony
Dylan
Aaron
Samuel
Simon
Adrien
Julien
Benjamin
Leo
Evan
Paul
Alexis
Axel
Thomas
Tom
Hugo
Gabriel
Nathan

All in the top 100 in France and not French-sounding.

Ah I see what you mean. We had the other problem - lovely French names that we hated when pronounced in an English accent :(

I think knowing the sex does make it easier sometimes, you can focus on picking for just one gender, rather than getting half way through a boys' list and saying "oh, Ariane is actually really nice" :o

I always like Aiden, not sure how it might work in French though. I believe it is popular in Canada though. Might even be popular in the French/Canadian parts.

Just showed it to DH, without pronouncing it - he pronounced it the same as I do, just with a French sound. That said, he pulled a face and had to think about it; and said it looked weird and foreign :o

Are you in Canada? Because he says in that case they shouldn't have a problem with it and they should recognise it.

Oh, and he doesn't find it obviously a boy's name.

Am not sure if there are as many boys names to be honest. We have 2 boys and are currently expecting a third child (although I don't want to know the sex until the baby arrives). Each time we have had a single boys name that we love and several girls names that we like but not a single girls name that really jumps out, if that makes sense. Am having real trouble thinking of boys names this time though - the book we have has a really bad selection of boys names in it, and having had a quick look there tend to be around 2-3 times as many girls names on each page as boys. Which doesn't help!

What kind of names does your DH like, apart from Alexander? Does he go for classic English names?

Found these French boys name - some would work well in English too:

1. Thomas
2. Alexandre
3. Nicolas
4. Maxime
5. Quentin
6. Antoine
7. Lucas
8. Dylan
9. Julien

10. Alexis 11. Valentin 12. Guillaume 13. Clément 14. Romain 15. Kevin 16. Florian 17. Mathieu 18. Anthony 19. Pierre 20. Théo

Thanks everyone - I think I will revisit the naming thing after the 20 week scan and hopefully it will be a lot easier!!

We've only recently found names we both like - I'm nearly 28 weeks. It'll come...

Had similar problem with DH (name had to work in most European languages and we didn't like each others choices at all!) eventually the name we both thought was okay and neither crossed off the list was the one that stuck.

Could be a good one for you too? Luke. Simple and despite different spellings all over the world, it's pretty much always pronounced the same!

I agree with phlossie - it'll come.

Well, in German Luke is pronounced Loo-keh and means hatch (little door) .

If you like xavier and your dh likes Alexander how about xander?