I just threw a baby name book across the room - argh!

[Somerville]

Stupid baby name book, where the boy section is missing one syllable names.

Well... there are a few that are short for something (Matt, Nick), which I dislike on their own, and having a longer name on BC defeats the purpose.

And a few more that are just... not very dashing interesting.

Oh and others that don't fit our other essential criteria - which is not ending with the letter L and being able to work okay in both France and Ireland as well as UK.

Indulge me for a moment that the issue is my baby name book and not our (unfortunately, wholly necessary) criteria, alright?! Any ideas?

Wolf
Jude
Rex
Spike
James
Syd
George
Charles
Fred
Greg
Shay
Rain
Drac
Joe
Jack
Tom
Flynn
Finn
Zack
Beau
Max
Chad
Brad
Dave
Mike
Wilf
Drake
Seth
Ben
Sam
Ged
Ned
Mick
Ted
Stan
Bert
Alf
Dirk

Belfast occasionally taken for Scottish Somerville its more of a long drawn out syllable than two separate ones.

But I've changed my mind and after MoonPower's post I think Wolf is a clear winner

Joel
James
Ben
Lance
Cole
Drew
Jude
Jack
Jake
Rhys
Shaun
Scott
Max
Saul
Charles
Todd

I do love Raoul also. Although it ends with L.

Jack
Bruce

Joel
Rhys
Lloyd

A few here...

Rafe but spelt Ralph? Dashing and rakish?

(But yes, Somerville, you're changing the rules on us - long and abbreviate-able to one syllable or one syllable without being an abbreviation of a longer name? You cant have it both ways!)

Claude
Jean
Beau
Ned
Quinn
Yves

Louis (2 syllables but short)
Theo

Vann
Vince
Joss

DD1 has a long first name (with a nickname, but we don't tend to use it) and a long hyphenated surname. Her surname is often abbreviated to the first initials but I think that would happen even if her first name was short. I wouldn't rule out longer first names just because of the surname.

We're also a bilingual French/English family. Some names I would suggest:
Yann
Jack
Marc
Donn
Sam (although "C'est qui Sam?")
Neil/Nil
Troy

If you were open to two-syllable short names:
Alec/Alex
Noah
Leo
Luca

ChippingIn Tangled is DD2's favourite film so we've all watched it too many times. I used to eye up Flynn Rider but I'm too bored of it now.

Flavia Half my family are from Derry and Conor is def two syllables. 'Con-errrrrr'

Em Ah, thank you for the permission. I love your sons name. 😍
No, we're not hypehnating. And I think he may well drop my half when he's older, and use his daddy's. Which is fine - especially as my older DC will have left home by the point he's at senior school. So DH's surname second works better. And I want mine first, so it doesn't sound like an add-on.

Ah well, no one can understand what Derry people say

Thanks ☺️

It's so tricky isn't it, with two surnames and two languages to consider (plus Irish family in your case!)

There are some names on this thread which, although they're shortenings, they're popular and sound complete on their own, so I don't think you'd be short-changing the child by giving the short version of the name and not the long one.

Alternatively just go with the two syllable name you love, and he can use his full name for official things like passport, bank accounts etc, but maybe drop one surname for everyday (which might not bother you too much if you're already thinking that he probably will?)

Anyway. If it was up to me, I'd vote Max Maybe with Fred and Greg as joint runners up!

Okay I'm clearly not explaining myself well about syllables.
(And I've now officially typed the word syllable too many times - it's started to look stupid)

I want a one syllable name that is just as much a whole name in its own right as any long name.

I don't want to have, for example, kids called Elizabeth, William, Victoria and... Ben.
For a girl it would be easy... Fleur, Grace, Niamh, etc...

Or you could just call him Beau 😂😂😂

(I wonder if French people name their children "Beautiful"?!)

Brad
Chad
Ross
Henk
Bram

Saul
Gad

Another vote here for Max

I also like Scott and Luke/Luc.

Also my son was born in France and my family are Irish so I can 100% understand where you are coming from. My son's name is Charles. Which works really well for everyone.

Irish names like Colm or Niall (as in Nile) could work too.

Maybe also Pierce/Piers or Carl?

At least Beau is dashing.

There are lots of nice names here. More than in that stupid book I paid 7 quid for, anyway.

I'll read them with DH when he's home and see if inspiration hits.

You starting on a Derry girl?

Brett

Giles

Iain
Josh

Flavia... Iain?
Again... how are you pronouncing that to get one syllable??!