Fenella/Barnaby

[Tiredalready]

I love these two names, particularly Nell as a shortened form of Fenella. The surname is one syllable, so I think we need a longer fn. I also like Romilly. My DH hates them as thinks they are ridiculous and affected. He likes Catherine, Mark and, wait for it, Diana (not a fan, just likes name, doesn't think is a problem)...... Any views?

My friend Diana is 'Dee' as nickname.

Telegraph reading toffs. No!

These are not to my taste too "posh" and not very "strong" sounding. I can go a bit posh but that's too far, IMO.

I prefer Romy to Romilly
Marcus - bit more interesting than Mark
Vanessa, rather than Fenella

Also, what about

Christina
Marianne
Audrey

Christian (not to everyone's tastes)
Alexander/Alex

Also, for boys:

Matthew
Patrick
Michael

I think that you need to find names that you both love. I can totally understand your difficulties with finding a name that you haven't got a strong association with as a teacher, and as a holder of an unusual name I think it's great to look for something less widely used. That said your friends have chosen some interesting names

70's names are likely to be unusual in your dc's generation, so that's not a bad option - I guess you need something more interesting sounding than Mark but less affected than Fenella (makes me think of the good life but I'm sure that isn't right!). I'm not sure about Diana.

Maybe something with a straightforward nn choice for dh but a longer full name for you? Are Penelope/Penny/Nell type names worth exploring?