Final shortlist - opinions gladly received!!

[MummyNotMommy]

Hi all! After some very difficult negotiations, myself and DH have narrowed our boy and girl lists down to 5 for each. I think our final decision will be made once we have seen the resulting baby (in a few short weeks!), but I would really appreciate your reactions to the below names...

BOYS:
Huxley
Rafferty
Barnaby
Montgomery (would be Monty on a daily basis)
Jasper

GIRLS:
Gretchen
Juniper
Tabitha
Agatha
Clementine

Any negative connotations for you? Stand out favourites?

Thanks!

I love Juniper nn June - really unusual but lovely-sounding

i'm afraid I really dislike Gretchen, Agatha and Tabitha. Just too hard-sounding or pretentious in the case of Tabitha.

I like Agnes though - I just don't like the "th" sound in names- same goes for Martha

From your boys' names, I like Huxley and Barnaby best

I don't like any of your boys names, they sound just a bit too "try hard" IMO. Huxley is my least favourite.

From your girls list the only one I like is Clementine, I only know one, a lovely little French girl who's about 4. Please don't go with Tabitha, it sounds like a cat's name. I know it's madly popular on mumsnet but I honestly don't know why. I have yet to meet one in real life also although I live in London.

Interesting list of names. These are my very honest opinions.

Barnaby - like
Huxley - not sure
Montgomery - love Monty if you can carry off such a posh full name
Jasper - like this but very different to your othe options
Rafferty - I quite like this too

Gretchen - HORRIBLE. She would not thank you for this. Greta however is lovely
Tabitha - lovely
Clementine - it's an orange fruit, it will be forever mispronounced and shortens to Clemmy which is basically Clammy. It's a pretentious silly name IMO
juniper - love this. Shortens nicely to June/Juni as well
Agatha - dislike this. She will be Aggy. Aggy is a word describing someone who is irritable.

I would pick:
Jasper or Monty
Juniper

So nice to have a list that isn't the 'same old names'! I'm going against the general view because I like Huxley best of your boy's names. Second choice Barnaby. Love Tabitha (DH vetoed). Second choice Juniper.

BOYS:
Huxley - absolutely dreadful
Rafferty - dislike
Barnaby - love
Montgomery (would be Monty on a daily basis) - like
Jasper - ok

GIRLS:
Gretchen
Juniper
Tabitha
Agatha
Clementine

I hate all of the girls' names, sorry. I'd choose Agatha, if I had to have one of them.

I was going to say Monty until someone said it sounds like a snivelling little mummy's boy. And now I can't imagine thinking of it as an adult's name.

Like Barnaby and Tabitha best.

Rafferty is a fantastic name - love Raffy for short personally. After that Monty is lovely . Of the girls love Clementine . This will be our DC2's middle name if baby is a girl .

.. Haha I guess my mumsnet name kind of gives that away though ;-)

Montgomery and Tabitha (was on my list for DC1 who was a boy!)

Mighty put Montgomery on my list now for DC2!

I like all your girls' names except Clementine, which I find rather twee.

I don't like any of the boys' names, sorry. They all sound a bit 'comedy' to me. Jasper is the least worst.

I like Juniper

Huxley, rafferty and jasper are all on our boys list and I love clementine but DH says no to that one!! X

Montgomery - This has a VERY strong association with Mr Burns to me. If the Simpsons is still showing when your kid is growing up he would be the target of endless "Eeeeexcellent" jokes.

Jasper - why not

Huxley - I personally detest the trend of using surnames as first names, so this grates on me. But the name itself is....fine. "Hux" is a bit of an ugly nn though.

Barnaby - I actually think this is quite cute, but difficult to shorten. "Barn"? lol. You could go with "Aby" or just "B" I guess.

Rafferty - I find it difficult to have any opinions on this one. It's pretty bland, but not in an ugly way.

Gretchen - Meh. Fine.
Juniper - if you have a daughter, naming her after a type of bush invites some pretty cruel jokes from teenage boys.

Tabitha - Very nice. Very pretty.

Agatha - Very nice, very pretty

Clementine - Why would you name your child after a fruit? Why?

Barnaby and tabitha, love those names!

Love Montgomery. Don't like any of the others, boys or girls.