Really like Henry but already have a Harry - help!

[Spellcheck]

Please can I have some opinions on this! Expecting my DC4 (DP's 1st) in a few weeks. It's a boy, and we are really stuck for names. I am a teacher and therefore most names remind me of some of the children I teach so I don't want them as they are already 'taken' IYSWIM. The only name we really, really like is Henry.

However, my first son is Harry. It's a name in it's own right, I didn't call him Henry and shorten it, so surely as they will both have different surnames, it would be ok to call DS2 Henry?? Some friends have called the idea into question, and now I've thought about it so much I can't think straight.

What would you think if a friend did it? Or should I say sod what everyone thinks and go for it anyway?

[MoottonBun]

NotLongUntilXmas - I am dying to know what your daughters' similar names are - can't think of anything significantly different for English/French equivalents, please share!

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

You can't have Henry and harry! That's like having Lizzie and Elizabeth!

[schroedingersdodo]

they are the same name

[CheerfulYank]

Definitely wouldn't.

[RiaOverTheRainbow]

Even if your ds1 is fine with essentially having his brother named after him, you've no way of knowing how ds2 would feel about it. As a middle name it's fine, but give him his own name too.

Also, unless I were introduced to them together I'd probably spend ages trying to figure out which boy was Henry aka Harry, and what the other brother was called.

[RubyGates]

It was common to give at least the first couple of boys the same first (usually the father's) name and call them different diminutives because noone expected both to live to adulthood and reproduce.

WE have ancestors in the 19th century with two sons called Israel but only one survived

Harry and Henry are the same name. To me it feels as if your replacing DS1 with DS2 by using the same name. Will you call a third Hal?

[CheeseStrawWars]

Oh, it's sweet your DS came up with the name. What about Henrik? Henry as a nickname? (Bit tenuous?)