Laurence?

[Linguaphile]

Have had a great uncle Laurence just pass away, and I've taken a fancy to his name for our coming baby... feels a bit more fresh than some of the other classic boys' names floating around. Could we use Laurie as a nn for a boy without it seeming too feminine? I did love Laurie's character in Little Women... Laurence feels quite distinguished to me. Middle names would probably be Peter and Robert.

Our other two DDs are Philippa (Pip/Pippa) and Vivienne (Vivi), so want it to fit with those. What do you reckon, would it go with our other two? Vivi, Pippa and Laurie?

Other possibilities we're considering include:

Felix
Robert
Ewan
Hugh

I have one. He does sometimes get called Larry which I thought I'd hate but actually it's quite cute and it makes me laugh when shop assistants say ah, he's happy as Larry and I say yes he is!

It's the kind of name where when you tell people they don't quite know what to say as it's not cutesy like Charlie or Alfie etc. I had lots of 'oh that's... old-fashioned' type comments.

I love the other comments made by pp, I also thought it was a fresh sounding name that suited any age - I met quite a cool one in his 20s and all the Ls I know are very nice people.

"It's the kind of name where when you tell people they don't quite know what to say as it's not cutesy like Charlie or Alfie"

I'd say, "Oh thank God it's not a cutesy name like Charlie or Alfie".

Haha MsJupiter, I get a similar reaction to my son's name, which has a similar feel to Laurence. The assistant in M&S last week looked puzzled and said "Oh...where does that, um, come from, then...?", as if I'd nicked it from the aliens. (It's a pretty well-known biblical name!)

It's lovely :) my BIL is called Lorcan which is Irish for Laurence, I like that too.