Inspiration for boy's name please!

[WhatAPredicament]

There are loads of imaginative and beautiful girls' names but boys names seem to be either traditional and frequently heard or a bit too far on the unusual side. Please help me to think of a name for ds2 that's not too trendy and overused, not too traditional but not too wacky either! It seems like an impossible task to me and I feel like I've heard every boys' name there is in the world!

I'm quite a fan of surname sounding names like Evan, Owen, Ellis, Sullivan, Harrison, Travis. They are familiar as names, so not too out there but not so much as first names

Gregor
Niall
Fraser
Joseph
Keir
Arran
Simon
Peter
Logan
Austin

Quentin - best name ever (ok, I'm biased ).

Or how about Tristan, Patrick or Clement?

Jago is a lovely name (Cornish version of James) that I am disappointed I will never get to use!

I like the suggestions of Austin, Quentin and Clement - great underused classics.

Or how about
Benedict
Dominic
Vincent
Cassian

I'm liking some of these - Ellis, Evan, Niall and others but on phone so can't look back... Still haven't hit on 'the one' yet though but definitely a start. Some are ruled out as already in close family and friends. I don't find as many boys' names as pleasant to say/hear as girls' names. I like quite a lot of nature/virtue names that don't seem to exist for boys?

Joel
Simeon
Nicholas
Julian
Anthony
Nathaniel
Spencer
Fraser
Aidan
Brett
Karl
Victor
Silas
Noel
Ivor
Emmett
Leon
Marcus
Neil
Owen
Amos
Philip
Christian
Linus
Dean
Scott
Blake
Gavin

A bit of a mixed bag but might inspire???!!

Maybe go for some of the traditional boys names which have fallen out of fashion, so aren't overly popular at the moment but are still heard of?

Simon
Michael
Richard
Leonard
Miles
Matthew
Julian
Samson
Adam
Andrew
David
John
Peter

Conrad

Patrick
Rowan
Francis
Xavier
Corin
Elliot
Nathaniel
Simeon
Saul
Timothy

Thanks! There's loads of suggestions here, I'm liking Rowan and Miles and Christian among others.

I'm starting to feel a bit annoyed with myself though that I don't think I've seen one yet that really feels like the name that I could actually imagine calling ds yet there are loads of girls' names I could really enjoy reading and saying. DH is next to useless on this topic as has no strong opinions about my suggestions but hasn't come up with any of his own either!

Question - would a Christian just end up being called Chris?

Or Kit

I know 2 Christian's and they never get called anything other than Christian.

Oh god I know exactly what you mean about boys names. We had LOADS of girls names we loved but struggled so much with boys names. Luckily I had 3 girls

Do you have any other nationalities in your family? Might be worth looking at the names from that place for something different but not 'out there'. We are Welsh so looked at the traditional Welsh names and found some lovely boys names that we would've gone with had we had boys.

Sadly, we're boringly English through and through so no excuse for getting creative with names from other cultures! Though I wouldn't rule out any name if it was the right one.

I second the idea of looking at surnames for something.

Nature/virtue names maybe

Hunter
Finn
Flint
Flynn
Archer
Fox
Heath
Wolf
Jett
Forest
North (I knew a gorgeous little boy called this!)
Ash
Bodhi
Cole
Leo
Hawk
Canyon
Thorne
Phoenix
Onyx

I hope these some of these are not too wacky! ^^

I was the opposite of you op. I had loads of boy names I liked but could find very few girl names.

I know a couple of Christians and they are not called Chris. One has started to use his middle name though - he's an atheist and prefers it.

bugsybill - I love some of your ideas but don't think I'd have the guts to actually use them! I think the one I really like is North but I certainly can't see myself getting it past DH even if I tried!! Did you use one of these names? Leo's one of my faves but unfortunately we already know a couple, ditto Finn/Flynn.

If you like Niall, what about Nile? - I've heard of a boy called that, named after the river.

ro , what about

Logan
Devon
Paris
Merrick
Cairn
Craig
Lorne
Harris
Blaven
Duncan
Jed
Guy
Robin
Crispin

whatapredicament yes we used 2 of those names (well one was a variation of one). There is a couple I would love the chance of using, will have to see if we're lucky enough!

As I said before dh and I find it easier to think of boy names, if we ever have a girl we would be in trouble.

I also love North but could never use it as our surname is a place name (so couldn't even use it as a middle name).

Jasper?
Noah?

Hadn't really thought of it till now but our surname also sounds like a place name so North would hypothetically have to be ruled out because of that too!

I really like Noah but get the feeling that it's becoming extremely popular, as is Theo.

I quite like some of the surnamey names so am half thinking about Logan and I liked Cairn but not sure whether that would appeal to DH! I read Lincoln on another thread today and that isn't bad but probably too 'out there'.

Just still have the feeling that we haven't found 'the one' yet and suspect that it's going to be a case of choosing one of the ones we like enough... for all the suggestions.

We almost had a Cairn - we were choosing a name by sticking pins in a map and kept on hitting the Cairns at the top of mountains. We had more or less decided, started telling a few people and then heard someone say it in the local accent.......and they said it Kair in.....which sounded like a girls name :( so that was that. He ended up as Ciar (prn Keer) instead which suits him fine.