Francis for a boy

[Alias78]

What do you think?

For me it's an "oh ok" name.. I dont dislike it but nor do I go "OHH I love that"

Doesn't hit any weird levels.

I'm not sure tbh, I always thought Francis was the spelling for either sex but perhaps they spell it Frances.

As we're likely to go with the nickname Frankie, I'm not too worried about the Catholic connection.

Mr Sinatra was a Francis and we like the idea of a musical connection :)

It's a great name. Specially if you go for Xavier as his second name

I have a Francis and I love it. The only problem we get is people spelling it wrong i.e. Frances (girl's version).

Francis Drake, too -- what's not to love?

Love it. One of my brothers name,s.
Actually op he's Francis Lawrence.

He was Francie Boy when a kid, he sometimes Frano to his mates, but always Francis as mum would correct diminutives.
Lovely classic name for girl or boy.

In a grown up world Francis is lovely, but some considerations:

1. Accents - will it be pn locally with a long 'a' - Fr-ar-n-cis, or a short 'a' - Fr-a-n-cis'. My parents and I would always use a long 'a' but I was brought up in an area where all the local kids would use a short 'a'. It caused me agonies of self-consciousness at achool and I discounted Frances for a girl because of this.

1. Thinking playground teasing here - what if you replace the 'f' in Frankie with a 'w'? Sorry to lower the tone but I can see it happening in the playground.

1. Imo Frank is awful!

Lovely name; as is Frances for a girl. I actually love the nn, Fran for both

Jojo - we're southeners so it would be pronounced with a long "a"
fr-ahn-cis.

With playground teasing, you can't pre-empt every reason kids will find to tease. Granted there are some names that would incite it more than others, but I'm not feeling too worried about Frankie. My maiden name was horrendous and really stuck out like a sore thumb at school (primary and secondary), laughing in assembly etc so I'm not taking it lightly!

We are almost certainly going with this for a boy. DS1 was nearly called it, but we chose something else in the end, because dh and I pronounce Francis differently. However he would always be Frankie at home anyway, so it's not really a problem.

The Pope thing is a slight concern for me, but he will not be going to a Catholic school, so I think it will be ok.

Also the baby's only surviving great grandparent is called Francis, and he's a smashing bloke :)