So depressed by the lack of interesting boys names!

[Nessalina]

Due in 9 weeks, and every boys name I hear bores me to tears!

Not interested in cutesy little boy names (Alfie/Archie/Charlie) and absolutely no 'Thomas the Tank Engine' names (Edward, Henry, James, etc).

Impress me with something a wee bit different!

I think that's the trouble - there are indeed thousands of boys names, and I like quite a lot of them, but there's very few that I really love

Torin
Conrad
Wreford

I was the opposite and couldn't think of girls names,

Some of the boy's names I liked were
Levi
Lysander
Dennen
Ezra
Liev
Cillian
Atticus
Alexei

There were so many more but my mind has gone blank!

I like strong sounding names, patrick, Michael, Wilfred, albert, Christian. Are they boring?

Aidan
Elliott
Perry
Rudy
Ruaridh (pro. Roo-ry)
Garth
Gus
Troy
Nico

very pleased to see that our soon to be born babys name has been mentioned. We love it!

ACM88 - I'm afraid that anything 'strong' and 'classic' is just not my cup of tea. Though they're very popular (which is part of my issue!), so I appreciate that I'm in the minority!!

Cassian is another

Go for Ellis ! It is my DS 's name and have never regretted it . Cannot understand why it is not more popular but glad it's not really .

Ellis is a great name...
What does he get as a nickname though? I can only think of El, or Elly, which I don't love.

My son was named James Walter George

All the names have meaning to both families. Absolutely nothing to do with Thomas The Tank Engine

Perhaps look into older names, from your families, see what stands out.

Most of his friends call him by his name but a few shorten it very occasionally to Ell but he has never complained .i don't hear it said enough for it to bother me either .cant understand why everyone wants to call their children the big standard popular names .

Based on the kids around here in East London:
Arlo
Odin
Otto
Orlando
Ivor
Otis
Harper (my 8 year old son's name)
Hector
Perseus

And then a few more unusual favourites of mine:
Soren
Viggo
Rutger
Bennett
Wolfram

(Names starting or ending with 'O' seem to be particularly popular at the moment!)

I also find names like Edward, Thomas, William, George quite dull and overused.

But isn't it great that there are SO many names that we can all find one we love - would be even more dull if we all had similar names.

Milo
Jon
Gregor

Bun - I know 4 Eriks ranging from 1 year-82years old, all spelt Erik not Eric so I would assume the first spelling myself

OP, can you give us a taste of what you would have called a girl? Might help!

Could you shorten Ellis to Eli? I know they aren't said the same but that is probably what I would do. My son is generally known as Kili even though it isn't exactly how that part of his name sounds.

Another vote for Quentin :)

I also like:
Aston
River
Dexter (Yeah, I know, fictional serial killer...)

Alaric
Anton
Marius
Tobin
Tobias
Jabez
Giles
Stirling
Asher

But TBH it sounds as though you really love Ellis, so I'd go with that and let a nickname (if you need one) evolve naturally.

Boys names are tricky.
I still like names to be normal, but some of the less common ones I liked were:

Louis (also like Lewis),
Julian
Quentin
Arthur
Cedric
Anthony or Marc Anthony

Traquair
Sorley
Gillan
Aurelius

Ooh Cedric is cool! Now where have I heard that from? I feel like it might be a character in a book... Hmm

Here's my extensive (and currently useless ) girls list:
Vanessa
Valerie
Vivian
Meredith
Miriam
Marian
Claudia
Anastasia
Arrietty
Narissa
Clover
Cicely
Juniper
Alexandria
Genevieve
Carlotta
Jessa
Jessica
Jesamine (hard s)
Jessamine
Jessamyn
Tessa
Alexa
Miranda
Ariadne
Juno
Charlotte

Cedric Diggory is a character in the Harry Potter books.