Suggestions for my (fussy) husband?

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

My DH has vetoed a lot of (beautiful) names, which I've suggested. To date he has suggested two names:

Jack
James

I don't like either of them enough to use, though they are fine. I quite like James, but I'm worried the royal baby might be a boy named James and don't really want the name to match the Royal baby. I am due well before DoC is, so can't change choice after they have their baby.

Fwiw my choice would be:

Gabriel Wilfred Surname
Rowan Wilfred Surname (which ends in -son, so not sure if Rowan goes all that well)?

Dh doesn't like them, but hasn't done a total face at me for the Gabriel suggestion. So maybe he'll come round to that. But I'm not sure.

What about Wilfred James

Then if shortened Wilf, Will or Fred are pretty cool

Thanks all.

Caspar, Tobias, Jonas, Caleb, Miles, Rory, Cillian, Angus (one of my faves), Arthur and Benedict have all been suggested by me at various points and vetoed by DH. I'll go through the rest and suggest some more to him.

Maybe I'll send him the thread so he can see how many names I've suggested so far, all of which he has rejected!

I like Hew as a shortening of Matthew, but I'm sure there was a thread about that on here or maybe on a baby name site where everyone said it would never stick as a shortening. I think the upshot was, "just call him Hugh / Huw"!

I don't like Jack or James enough to use them, but agree with whoever said there's nothing "wrong" with either of them except that a former colleague always pronounced it a strange two syllables jaa-aaack when she said it, which has weirdly put me off it.

I love Gabriel! Has anybody suggested Nathaniel? I agree that James and Jack are fine but if it was me I'd want a name that is more than fine!

Keeping with nice sensible names, but a bit less ubiquitous than James and Jack:

Adam
Francis
Leo
Patrick
Nathaniel
Justin
Dominic
David (though Baby Dave is possibly not so great...)
Philip

James is fine, I know a very nice James. It's just so very unimaginative.

Gabriel is cool though.

Daniel? Dan is a nice nickname (Danny slightly less so)...

Rowan is lovely

I was also going to suggest Nathaniel (Nate)

Samuel is not ubiquitous. I have one who is 9. We've met 2 or 3 others, but not half as many as Olivers, Jacks, Georges and Noahs.

Louis or Nate

Thanks again.

Wilfred as a first name was my absolute favourite for a long while (it's a family name), but DH is pretty adamant he doesn't want it. He said fine to have it as a middle name though. It could also be Albert as a middle name.

Jack and James are both beautiful, solid names.

You have mentioned Seamus being vetoed. How about seimi? An abbreviated version, rhymes with Jamie.

Incidentally, I read a post on here before suggesting that James would never again be considered as a royal baby name for some sort of historical/political reasons. I know it's not exactly a guarantee but there you go. You might choose a fab name for your boy and still have the royal baby names the same!

Oh interesting, is it because of all the Scottish James's maybe? That would be going far back into history though!

I am not sure about James anyway. It's very popular (near top ten I think). I hear it a lot where we live and I'm not mad about how it comes out in some of the accents here if I'm totally honest.

I think James Wilfred or James Alfred are lovely. Have thought about John, nn Jack. I think that's lovely too.

Re. nicknames, I have a daughter who has an unobvious shortening of her name because we referred to her as both from when she was a baby, so others followed suit. She's only been referred to as the obvious shortening a handful of times, and doesn't respond to it because 'that's not my name!' 😀 (She's only 3!)

Good luck choosing, some lovely names here.

(To add, I'm aware she could grow to be known as/prefer the more obvious shortening, which is fine by us. I guess you do have to be ok with all shortened versions to chose a name!)

What about other names that were deemed classic once but aren't particularly used now - like Peter and Christopher? Richard, Simon, David, Paul, Andrew, John, Nicholas, Michael, Timothy, Douglas, Stephen, Bruce, Robert, etc.

I was going to suggest Kit my son's name
My second son and third child due in five weeks is going to be called Corin.

Others I like (though boys' names are trickier) are

• Jerome
• Remy
• Heath
• Edward
• Inigo
• Grey

Sure there are others I've gone off most of the having spent four years reading names for two sons and a daughter 🙄

Oh and Keir

I guess you do have to be ok with all shortened versions to chose a name

This is what I think. I can choose a preferred shortening but he'll choose for himself eventually and if I don't like and am not even ok with the only obvious shortening, it seems silly to choose the name.

Love Keir, but DH says "that's a drink"!

How about

Asher
Cain
Solomon
Seth

William
Benjamin
Matthew could be Matty too when little (I love Matteo and Matthias as well)
Cameron (maybe not with a -son surname though)
Gregory
Adam
Luca(s)

I like Benjamin and think DH is ok with it. We have two Benjamins and one Ben in one of our playgroups though, although it isn't that popular nationally (I think). Wonder if it's quite popular in our area...

It's nice though. I like Benji for a little toddler, Ben for an adult.

"Love Keir, but DH says "that's a drink"!"

Have you told him that Kir is a drink, but Keir is a real name - Keir Hardie, Keir Starmer - @FindTheLightSwitchDarren? I think they are pronounced subtly differently too - Keir has a slightly longer ee sound.

John
Ian
Robert
Nicholas