Following DH's surrender to my active lobbying..

[MagdalenaAlec]

..I get the final say on DC2's first name (dancing on the coffee table :o ) while DH will choose the middle name from a duly approved list I am supposed to give him.

And this is where I need some ideas! I am looking for artsy or unusual middle names for a boy or a girl, if possible with a connection to Scotland and not ending in "ia" or "a" for the girl names.

So far I have:
Sibylle or Sibyl
Zelie
Berenice
Blair
Albane

Andrew
Ezra
Ivan or Ivo
Alan or Allen

Do you have other ideas?

First name for a girl will probably be Antonia (alternative choice: Octavia) and for a boy, it will be a tie between Gabriel and Barthelemy.
Second middle name will either be Martha or Maurice.

I'm named after a relative, and although I love my name I've hated that fact all my life. Why? Because all I ever get off the family circle is the other S........ Would never do that, wear that, think like that. Or other clinkers are "Why are you named after her, you don't look like her at all". And "It must be great being named after her".

No she wouldn't do that because she's not me, no I don't wear the same clothes as her again because we are not the same person, am I supposed to look like her? No it's not great being named after her or being named after anyone because I AM ME, we are very different people.
It's not great growing up being so unimportant that your parents named you after someone who was is or was the most important person ever. Seriously you will be surprised how often you will compare your child to its namesake. I had a massive row with a family member one time because said "The other S........, would never do that" and by that point I had heard it a million times in my life and I just exploded saying "I'm not her I am me I am me I am me........"

Sorry for the rant and sorry for the typos. Give your child it's own first name and call it Alan as a middle name.

shimmy it is middle names OP is looking for

I can see why that would happen with a first name and would be really annoying!

You wouldn't believe how often you get compared to the person you are named after. For me it used to be every day especially when I was really young. The person I was named after is still alive and only about ten years older than me. People would buy me something cos she liked it (seriously) or more often than not it was funny to have the two of us in a picture alone together because people could write "Awwww the two s......s best friends" at the back of the photograph.

I have loads of cousins who are named after family members, it seems like its a running thing with my lot lol yet the ones who are named after someone didn't continue the tradition and some of the ones who aren't named after someone have continued it.

Blaise.

Oh, Katrine is a very nice idea again!
I like Tay, too, but cannot really give DD the initials ATM, lol (nn Cash Machine?)
Eden is lovely but quite popular I think.
Like Lunan very much too and, yes, I cannot get pass the Twilight family with Cullen.

(updating list)

Shimmy: I understand it must be quite harsh to be "the other X".. I share the first part of my hyphenated first name with my mother and great-grandmother and the second part with a great-aunt, but, put together, my name is unique in the family so it is perfectly fine with me.
Alan is DH's great uncle who is quite old now but has played an important role in his life, mostly by supporting him when he chose to give up Med school and become an actor. Besides, it is only a middle name, my son will definitely have his own first name. Last, DC2 is due August 15, which also happens to be our relative's 95th birthday!

Please not Alan!

You share just one part of your name with others, I share my full first name with my cousin like your son will with your relative. if you are considering giving your son Alan as a first name please note that boys very rarely ever go by double names.
Exactly this Alan is a dear old relative who you really want to honour by giving your son his name. Your son should be important enough to be given his own name surely? And another thing he will end up probably with a different personality to the first Alan. Little Alan may end up getting nicknamed Al at school which I think may be another reason to give the kid this name as a middle name instead.

Ah ok just saw your post saying its going to be a middle name if you choose it. Please disregard what I've said as complete jibberish.

Alan is only for a middle name as are all the names being suggested here. Middle names are perfect for honouring special people in our lives. Ds has my grandas name as a middle name.

I'm named after someone as is my sister, but we go by different nicknames. Very few people actually know we have longer names. Shimmy I'm very sorry that you have had a ba experience sharing a name, but not everyone in your situation feels the same.

And fwiw my dad is Alan, and by brother is named after him. My dad also has 2 cousins of his mothers side with the same name.

I love the idea of honoring someone (2nd middle name - Maurice - is after my grandfather) and Alan is growing on me, I like how it sounds and its meaning (especially after my "soft" boy names).

Blaise: I like it but would not dare to use it, since it is bully material in France (one letter short from "to f*ck"). Not keen on Blaine.

Any other creative ideas before I give the list to DH? Be bold! :o

What do you think of Zelie for a girl (retro French name, probably stemming from Azalea's equivalent)?

Just curious but why does the baby get named after people if it's a boy, but totally original names if it's a girl? Are there any nice names amongst your families to have as middle names?
Anyway my suggestion would be Davina, I knew a Davina once and she was so outgoing, confident and hilariously funny :-)

I already have Martha after a great grand mother who meant a lot to me but I cannot think of any female relative DH would want to honor, hence why only one family name for a girl

Well if you like Fife you could follow Mr Brunel's lead and go for Kingdom instead?

Sibylle or Sibyl -- gorgeous
Zelie -- gorgeous
Berenice -- sounds a bit frumpy to my anglophone ear
Blair -- sounds like a foghorn sound
Albane -- dislike

Andrew -- nice
Ezra -- nice
Ivan or Ivo -- lovely, especially Ivo
Alan or Allen -- prefer Alan, nice

I prefer Antonia to Octavia by a long shot.
Antonia Martha Sibylle
Antonia Martha Zelie

Barthelemy is fabulous.
I love Struan, suggested earlier, and also Sholto.

Barthelemy Maurice Sholto (or alternate Maurice and Sholto)
Barthelemy Struan Maurice

I detest Antonia so it's Octavia by default. I don't think we have the same tastes, particularly in girls names,

Sibyl is a witches name
Berenice reminds of some haggard barmaid called Yvonne or the like
Zelie and Albane are just not nice at all

HOWEVER..... Blair is gorgeous! It's my dd2's name and people often compliment her on it. Occasional war in Iraq jokes but that's it. The gossip girl thing does come up but my dd looks like a black version of the girl so it's more in a comparison type way.

Thank you everybody!

DH likes Katrine (thx Glaikit!!), Albane (pr ahl-BAHN btw), Blair and Zelie for a girl. For a boy, he only likes Alan and Andrew.

He also added:
G: Eilean (means "island" apparently) and Evie
B: Keith, Graemsay, Harray, Irvine, Erik, Flannan and Glen

Quite like Keith (makes me think Rolling Stones and Haring) and Erik - not sure what to think of the rest of them (my head is about to explode). Any thoughts?

Glad he likes Katrine:o

Eilean pr illy-an is lovely.

How are you pronouncing graemsay (I would say Gray-am-say) and Irvine (Irvin not ir-vine), not keen on Harray because it sounds madey uppy, I offer Harris as an alternative, Keith is a bit 80s for me and I love glen.

Other islands girls, Skye isla, boys Tyree, Lewis, Arran, kintyre, Harris,

Your DH has Scottish islands on the brain.
Graemsay sounds like a pet name for Graeme that would embarrass a boy if his mother called him that in front of his friends.

I think while Eilean is lovely and the meaning is very nice, it would be interpreted as a 'unique' spelling of Eileen, not the same name at all. If you want to give a DD a name that is basically pronounced Ellen, then spell it Ellen.

Albane would be mispronounced Al-bayne in the UK.

Katrine rhymes with Latrine. I would avoid it.

Harray would be called Hurray/Har-RAY, and there would be NN trouble - 'hip hip Harray', etc...
Did you mean Harry?

Keith and Glen are incredibly 70s names, as is Alan.

Erik with a K is nice, same goes for Andrew.

Flannan and Irvine are very nice imo.

Evie is incredibly popular -- Evies are absolutely everywhere.
Blair is a homonym for a loud and unpleasant noise.

Zelie is gorgeous.

If the DH likes Scottish islands, and likes Harray and Alan, how about Harris and Arran?

x-post there a bit

Back to Eilean -- the slender L would probably defeat non-Gaelic speakers or people not familiar with Irish. I think a lot of people would call it Ellen therefore, once you had convinced them it wasn't Eileen.

Katrine like the loch is kat-ryn to rhyme with win though.
And blair is an open plain

But Katrine looks like latrine to the average speaker of English who is not familiar with Scottish lochs. Kathryn otoh avoids the toilet angle, but again it is a different name, not the same lovely Scottish associations.

Blair may well be an open plain but in English it is a homonym for something else.

haha, yes, DH is obsessed with Scottish islands (loves sailing + thinks of himself as a "true Scot" - to be read with the most cliché accent and what I call his Braveheart face :o ) and VERY frustrated I vetoed Iona and Isla because there would be too many "a"s.

I did a little bit of research and Harray turns out to be a Loch on Mainland, Orkney (do I need to add how predictable DH can be?). Oh and I have always thought it was "hip hip Hurray"??? Missed that one.
Harris sounds nice, but to me it is the most famous French brand of toast bread.

Graemsay is also an island and DH pronounces it "Grimm-say"

Eilean: DH says "illy-an" too, yes. I am not very worried about its pronunciation since we have chosen "English friendly" first names, so we terrible parents kind of feel we have earned our fun for the first middle name (same with Albane). The French will probably say something like "Eye-leh-ahn" anyways, so I am ready for the pronunciation battle!
As much as I like Eilidh though (like I love Aoife), it would be a living hell in France ("Ah-oh-eef, what??", "Eh-ee-leed, sorry?").

Irvine would be "ER-vin" (the spelling Irvin might be better?). Quite like Erskine too which I just found.

Alan, Glen and Keith: growing and growing on me! Like Gabriel Keith Maurice and either of them after Barthelemy.

Andrew and Erik are safe choices. Barthelemy Erik Maurice sounds nice to me.

Not sure whether I can give Lewis as a mn to DS2 when DS1 already has Louis as second mn.

I am not keen on Arran (love the place though), I find it a bit strange..

As to Blair, there is also a stupid association in French too, but I still love it.

(Panadol much needed)

Other ideas?

(hands over Panadol tablets :o)