Are these TOO standard?

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

At the moment DH and I have the following shortlist for our baby boy to be:

James
Charles (nickname Charlie)
George
Edward

Charlie is my favourite, George is his. We both said from the off that we wanted quite a straightforward, conventional name (I have a weird name and don't want my child to also have a life of spelling their name out or people going 'what?' when they say it! And DH has very classic tastes, with a strong reaction to anything that he sees as overly trendy), but I'm starting to doubt myself, and worry that we'll regret choosing quite such standard names. Is it time to look beyond the names of English monarchs?! We've tried and failed to think of names with similar vibes but a little more unusual that we both like - does anyone have any suggestions?

These are all fine. You won’t get any points for originality but if you want classic names they are all nice ones.

Laurence? Francis?

Henry
Nicholas
William
Matthew

All well known names but not overly common (except Henry, I know millions of little Henrys)

They are classics for good reason!

I like them. So much better than those surname type names classic and you can’t go wrong.

I like James and Edward the best, but they’re all nice:

What about Thomas?

That was meant to be a full stop, not a colon. Just in case you were waiting on the edge of your seat for an exciting follow up post !

Peter?

Also,
Henry
John
William
Joseph
Samuel

They are all solid, classic names. There will be others at their school, along with Thomas and William but that’s not necessarily a bad things. Out of the list, I would say Charlie is the most popular, followed by James, then George and Edward last, although there are a few Teddy’s that are probably Edward.
Without sounding flippant just go with what you love. Nothing else really matters.

My DS is 2 weeks old and we had a shortlist of very standard names, as you out it. We also had very similar reasons as you for favouring more traditional names. I have an unusual name that people always pronounce and spell wrong and my DH scoffs and more trendy names. We had James and Matthew with Arthur as a middle name. Added Daniel at the last minute after wavering on our front runner (Matthew). Went with Daniel Arthur in the end and very happy with our choice.

Collectively yes they are a bit dull but you're not naming four children, only one. If you call the baby James, your alternative shortlist could easily have been as exotic and unusual as you could imagine. So if you like Charles or whatever, that's just fine. Go for it.

I don’t think you can go wrong with any of those names, they’re great.

Similar names but less monarchical would be the Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Thomas, David from the Biblical set, also Michael, Gabriel, Andrew. Then no particular category but standard and easy to spell like Martin, Michael, Alexander, Bernard, Patrick, Robert... None of them my absolute favourites but they fit your criteria.

Thank you for both suggestions and reassurance! Unfortunately both Thomas and Samuel (both of which I really like) are out because they're already in immediate family. I like William, Nicholas and Joseph but DH doesn't and I'm not super keen on Peter or Matthew. I might press again for both David and Henry to be considered for the shortlist, though!

They are all really nice, classic names. I think any one of them would be fine.

I'd put slightly less common names like Alan, Carl, Christopher, Guy, Hugh, John, Paul, Robin and Simon in the same sort of bracket in case your list is still open.

Edmund seems to fit in with your tastes but is a bit less common so may be an option.

They are all fine!
Maybe you could branch out to
Sebastian
Miles
Edmund
Theodore
Alistair
Christian
Guy

They're often used for a reason, classic and nice. I like all of them except George, which is a bit solid and just screams baby prince to me.

I'd go for Edward due to the tons of nickname options, or Charles, which is actually a lot less common than the others (check out names.darkgreener.com/ to see stats, it's great for seeing just how popular your name is!). Do any of these have a strong meaning for you? I'd choose any that do.

Otherwise there are other traditional names that are slightly less popular, like
Nicholas
Jonathan
Simon
Hugh / Hugo
Arthur
Alfred

Edwin?

Classic names are used a lot because they're good

In the modern online world there's a lot to be said for a popular name. Google my name and you get millions of irrelevant results. You need to add very unusual search terms before you can be sure you've got me.

You can't go wrong with such classic names!

If you're after other ideas though...

Luke
Gregory
Oliver
Isaac
Andrew
Lawrence
Julian
Robin
Felix
Albert
Vincent
Aaron
Alexander
Nathaniel
Alistair
Jacob
Reuben
Tristan
Leo
Saul

I love Edward.

Edmund is now hugely common. As is Henry. Charlie (not Charles, Charlie on birth certificate) is also very common. In fact Charlie rather than Charles is so common now people won’t assume Charlie is a nickname, if you see want I mean. So bear that in mind if you don’t want him having a life of saying oh no my name actually is...

Amongst the babies I know I’d say James is the least common as a first name though still a popular choice for middle. So I’d go James from your list if I was looking for classic but not hugely popular.

Someone else mentioned Bernard. I love Bernard!

Anthony.