Joseph and Rowan???

[TwoBedsAndACoffeeMachine]

DS1 is Joseph, DS2 is 4 months and named Rowan with middle name James. Now both me and DH have been wondering lately whether we should continue to call him Rowan or use his middle name James which to be honest if it hadn't been for our DS1's name already beginning with a J we would have used as a first name. I love the name Rowan but something about it just doesn't fit. I don't know whether it's that it doesn't have the same feel to is as Joseph has which I think of as being classic and it has a nice nice name with Joe. another problem we have is that the only logical nicaname we have for Rowan is Ro which rhymes with Joe! Any ideas or am I being silly on thinking we should have used James???!

sorry nice nick name with Joe^

I think Rowan is a great name. If you're having doubts, try calling him James at home for a week and see if it sticks. If it does, great - plenty of people are known by their middle names. If it doesn't, maybe you'll get used to calling him Rowan. As far as nicknames are concerned, maybe you could call him Rolo or Rowley... or something entirely different: Bear, Mouse, Archbishop, (Mr) Bean... Nicknames are organic and don't necessarily have to correspond with given names.

I think Rowan is a great name. If you're having doubts, try calling him James at home for a week and see if it sticks. If it does, great - plenty of people are known by their middle names. If it doesn't, maybe you'll get used to calling him Rowan. As far as nicknames are concerned, maybe you could call him Rolo or Rowley... or something entirely different: Bear, Mouse, Archbishop, (Mr) Bean... Nicknames are organic and don't necessarily have to correspond with given names.

I think Joseph and Rowan are great together and that Joseph and James could get confusing longer term (eg post or other items labelled J. Surname).
Why would you need to shorten Rowan at all? It sounds lovely!

I personally wouldn't have put Joseph and Rowan together - they just seem different sorts of names to me.
Joseph and James are in a more similar vain though I think the J J would get confusing.
Tricky... and not very helpful, sorry!

This seems to be a recurring dilema on here. In fact it may even be a recognised 'post birth' phenomenon - try googling. It's very common to have doubts about a name after baby arrives, some stick with it and then later say they're over the wobble and would never have chosen anything else, some change the name to something else and say they're glad they did.

The suggestion from Stellan to try using James at home for a few days and see how you feel. My Dad is known by his middle name and hardly anyone realises it's not his first name.

Sharing initials may be a bit irksome for a few years but beyond the age of 18 (or whenever they leave home) - which will be the majority of their lives - it really won't matter.

Good luck with your decision x

thank you all. Weirdly James hasn't stuck at all! Love the name but it's not him. Loving the archbishop and bean suggestions, made me chuckle!!! I know Joseph and Rowan are very different types of names but I didn't think there was a need to have a theme but I do feel like it has a very different feel to it. I love both names but with already having a Joseph I think people expected DS2 to be a Thomas or William, that kind of name.