Gosh I find boy's names dull, nevertheless I have a short list

[Artichook]

I loved naming my girls, there are so many choices for girls and you can get away with slightly unusual without sounding odd. Now I'm having a boy and it seems you have a choice of about 10 classic names that are hugely overused but lovely and after that your choices are really posh, really not, or 10 or so very "of the minute" trendy names. I'm not inspired at all.

Despite these feeling here is my list. What do people think?

Thomas - lovely, classic, way overused

Joshua - lovely, classic, but teacher SiL says the Joshua's in her class are always naughty.

Isaac - I thought this was pretty safe but a friend reacted with shock and said "you can't do that to a child"

Reuben - quite unusual, DD1 says its "weird", does this view of a 6 year old mean he will be bullied?

Frederick - Freddie, a family name, but I'm not sure.

[ThreeMenFromCarntyne]

Patrick is also fabulous

[ThreeMenFromCarntyne]

Simon or Isaac for me.

[whyno]

I like them all. Reuben and Freddie are very of the minute where I am though. All Thomas's love being called Thomas in my experience if that helps!

[Ikeameatballs]

Winston
Stanley
Arthur
Donovan
Laurence
Sebastian


I really didn't want a super trendy of this moment type name for my dc. For dd we went a bit retro and for ds went classic.

[gindrinker]

I like Richard. Rich/ie as nn?
Matthew?
Robert?
Daniel?

[MackerelOfFact]

I'm the opposite - I think there are loads of lovely boys names but I find girls' names a bit meh.

My favourites include:

Caspar
Otto
Sebastian
Wilbur
Lawrence
Percy


From your list I like Isaac the most - classic and underused IMO.

[thegreylady]

They are all lovely my favourites in order are:
Freddie
Isaac
Thomas
Reuben
Joshua

I also really like Frank, Edward and Patrick

[fussychica]

Thomas, James, Luke, Adam.......can you see where I'm going with this?
Timeless, no bullying, sound right at 8 month, 8 or 80.

[KittiesInsane]

Why did your friends react so strongly to Isaac, which is pretty mainstream and has been for centuries? I can only imagine you have a comedy surname combination such as Hunt or Cox...

[KittiesInsane]

If you like Atticus, would Marcus be a 'safer' option?

Mind you, we have two of the 'boring' options already mentioned. I like boring. Especially as we have an away-with-the-fairies sort of surname.

[PostmanPatsBlackandWhiteCat]

Kane
Merlin
oscar
Jonty
Peter
Glenn
John
Zack
Leonidus
jacob
daniel
bryan
Odin
Reuben
Hayden is nice

[enormouse]

Ewan? We shortlisted Aidan, Felix. (DP vetoed Felix on the grounds of the cat food but I love it) and Sean.

[DaveMccave]

Reuben is definitely not unusual anymore. I know about ten three and under.

I'm having the opposite problem, finding boys names really really easy and there are loads of unusual but not chavvy names to chose from, but all the girls names are over used and too girly.

[iclaudius]

John known as Johnny is fab

Equally Jonty

[iclaudius]

I'm marking my place as on phone and sooo want to PM you later !!

Reuben is delightful and not too out there - liking your style !! Will message the rest later for fear of outing myself !

[dinkystinky]

I have a Joshua - he's not naughty at all. I always get comments from the teacher about what a delight he is to have in class. So it doesn't follow that a name will mean their personality is a particular type always.

Reuben is a lovely and fairly unusual name. I love Isaac too - its pretty unusual.

I'm sending a bit of a biblical theme to the names - others that may be worth considering with a similar feel are Daniel, Nathaniel/Nate, Zachary and Gabriel.

[dublindee]

At the risk of outing myself I have a Matthew, a Christopher and a Martin.

We had two names to choose from depending on when the baby was born what he would best suit.

Here are the names we left and done I wanted that hubby refused point blank!!!:

Thomas
Conor
Eoghan (Irish version of Owen)
Noah
Michael
Cian
Paul
Samuel
Sebastian
Tristan

[retrorita]

I love winston.

And would adore a little albie (Albert) running around.

[rezzle]

I see quite a lot have been mentioned before, sorry!

Also, at the moment I love Sid or Stan.

[MERLYPUSS]

I have a Thomas and an Isaac so I must be a right boring bastard. Never had the cruel face when I said Isaac. Someone said it was unusual. Obviously illiterate and not aquainted with the Bible then. (we are not religious but loved the names and shortened versions. Also I have been a cub leader (always boys)and have had no bad experiences of likewise named children. As opposed to Jack, my beloved uncle's name, who was a sneaky horror. Otherwise I would've poss had a Jack regardless of how popular - none in our year)

[rezzle]

What about traditional names but with less common nick names?

You've already mentioned Sacha, so how about -

Harry nn Hal
Christian nn Kit
Edward nn Ned
Dominic nn Nic
James nn Jim/Jimmy
William nn Bill
Alfred nn Fred
Hector nn Tor
Jacob nn Coby
Philip nn Pip
Nathaniel nn Nate

[Gwennan]

I like your list - particularly Thomas, Isaac and Reuben. I think Reuben, Isaac and Frederick/Freddie are a little 'of the moment'; they are all classic but cyclical names if you ask me. I'm not sure why but Joshua doesn't much appeal to me although I do like Josiah which is quite similar; it's probably to do with the nickname Josh. That's what puts me off Thomas too - it's a lovely name in full but Toms are ten a penny.

I don't know whether you're keen on additional suggestions but, if you are, I'd throw in the following:

Adam
Jonathan
John
Henry
George
James
Philip (Pip is a nice nickname if the thought of a baby called Phil makes you cringe)
Giles
Miles
Michael
Samuel
Robert
Robin
Matthew
Arthur

Use names.darkgreener.com/ and www.britishbabynames.com to get an idea of trends and popularity. The former shows you the change in popularity of a name from 1996 to 2010; the latter has collated names of babies announced in The Times and Telegraph and has grouped the top 200 or so baby names together, taking into account alternative ways of spelling the same name. I recommend looking at both.

[wiltingfast]

Why don't you give us your dream list instead of your "worried" list? Then we can see if anyone can hit on some names that you really like and saren't too "ahem" out there?

Fwiw I love family names and I think fred/freddie would be great.

And I wouldn't personally worry about names being of the moment as who ever met anyone and though "ooh that name is so 1994??!

Other suggestions

Finbar
Fiontan (since you like finn)

Random thoughts-

Declan
Oscar
Barney
Diarmuid
Paul
Ralph
John (love this and you never meet one these days)
Maurice
Harold
Leo (another favourite of mine!)

[KLou111]

I like Jared, I went to school with one :)
Jake is very popular where we are. I love it (Jake Humphreys former F1) but too popular.