Thoughts on Nathaniel

[youcanbeanything]

Do you like it? Leaning towards this or Nicholas for a boy :)

I like Flora for a girl - what else might I like (please, no margarine 'jokes' )

I do like it but it seems to be becoming popular around here (if that kind of thing bothers you). I know of 3 born in the last year.

I like it. But love Nicholas, which was on our shortlist for DS.

I would have used Nicky as a little boy - and he looks just like Nicky in the Mog books.

Fantastic names. I love Flora. Nathaniel is lovely. But I think I'd go for Nicholas, a lovely name currently underused and Nick or Nico are great short names.

I'm not keen on Nicky as it seems more of s girls name. Nick is OK :)

We have one! Nn Nate. I know of one other. Both age 6

You have some of my baby list there 😊

I have Nathaniel
Nicholas
Christian
Alexander
Louis
Elliot
Joshua

We are veering towards Louis at the moment as I think it's cute and quite high up the charts currently. Bit concerned people may see Louis and say Lewis but I was assured by an old thread on here that that won't happen.

Nicholas I like but for some reason I'm fixated by the fact it sounds like knicker-less. Christian I like but I'm concerned about any possible religious associations in people's minds. Elliot doesn't work with my surname. Joshua is apparently 'very common' and with Nathaniel I really love the full version and Nate as an abbreviation but don't particularly like Nathan which I suspect will end up being other peoples abbreviation
of choice.

There's my brain dump for you lol. 7 weeks to go 😜

I like Flora but I wouldn't use it because of the marge. How about Fraya, Fiona, Fennella?
Nathaniel is a good strong name far better than Nicholas.

Oh and Alexander I like but I know it will always be Alex and I'm not so struck with that.

Flora is nice, very popular at the moment though which would probably put me off. My girls name of choice was Charlotte and Georgia.

Love it. Not keen on Nicholas though. Love the nn Nat too.

We have a Nathaniel nn Nat. Only one in his school. No one ever calls him Nathan... Weirdly he was going to be Flora if a girl! Love both names. Not so keen on Nicholas - seems more of our generation? Know lots of Nick's in their 30's and 40's.

Nicholas nic nico. I love these.

Nathaniel I love. Nathan too.

Nate. No. Just no. It grates. Not sure why.

Nathe. Yes. Nat. Yes. Just. Not. Nate.

Flora seems dated, but not enough to be granny chic.

Simply means flowers, so inoffensive enough.

I have one (5) and don't know any others where we are in the local area (school or clubs), W Midlands.

Where we used to live (SE London) I knew 2 others born a year after him.

The only abbreviation he gets at the moment is 'NaTHAN', literally Nathaniel with the last syllables of the name chopped off, rather than NAthan, the typical pronunciation. Oh, and Natty by one particular person.

As he gets older I'll lean him towards Nate hopefully.

I have a teenage one. Great name!

I have taught two boys called Nathaniel and they were both called Nathaniel so I'm not sure there 'needs' to be a nickname. I agree I really don't like Nathan, though.

I love the meaning of Flora and the fact that there's a margarine of the same name really doesn't bother me; I just like having more than one option but while there's plenty of girls names I like, at the moment that's the only one I can see being my daughter, if you see what I mean :)

Flora was our girls name too OP, along with Marnie, but we had boys. No one would have put me off it, it's a gorgeous name.

But I would say if you go with a multiple syllable name like Nicholas or Nathaniel it may not get shortened but the probability is that it will, so I think you need to like the short names or at least be able to tolerate them!

Nathaniel is lovely. Really dislike the shortening 'Nate' for some reason. Seems likely a 3 syllable name woukd get shortened so for me the main consideration would be whether I also liked the shortened versions.

We have a 9 month old Nathaniel, he's sort of stuck at being Nate but also Nat or Nath weirdly...
I like a long name for the flexibility but at the same time there's shortening I don't like, Nathan is one.
However our daughter is only really known by one nn for her slightly old fashioned full0 name and I can't imagine her using the others. I think what you call them really influences others.
Lovely name but I'm worried it is more popular now! I've only met one other until now though.

The trouble with Flora is the advertising line "spreads easily" which hasn't been used for yonks, but remains alarmingly well-known.

And I think you know that it's an issue, even just in the brand name, because you needed to caveat the opening post with 'no margarine jokes'. That simply wouldn't be needed if a) the association was so weak as to be negligible and b) you have the patience, and are confident of producing a child with the patience to deal with them life-long.

Nathaniel is lovely.

To be honest Stella, I don't think anyone cares that much outside of Mumsnet but it's ALWAYS harked about on here and I didn't want loads of posts going 'ugh, margarine!' is all as I really don't care!

But as I've said it's nice to have more than one option.

I think Nick and Nate are fine (though I will confess I've never known the latter) it's just Nicky I don't really like!

I would never say anything like that in RL. I can always come up with a positive spin on a name when applied to an actual child.

You are 100% right. MN isn't like RL on baby names. Because people will post what they would never be as impolite as to mention in RL.

But Stella - I don't care about what people think or mention

I really love the name. I will very probably use it if I have a daughter, but it's nice to have other options and I included flora just to give an idea of my taste so people could suggest alternatives, not so everyone could go on about margarine which is why I made a point of saying in my OP that I wasn't bothered about this.

I liked Flora, but my last name also has an association with margarine, so it would have been weird.

I liked Florence too if that helps.