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?

Yes actually I always thought of James as a popular name, but thinking about it it’s more popular for people my age - I know no baby Jameses. I do know a 6 month old David which is adorable, and he gets Davey at the mo which is cute too.

I love Edward, it's classic but with a few options to shorten if that's your/his thing.

Edmund is now hugely common.

Not really. It was 691st in England and Wales in 2016, equating to 50 babies.

Richard
John
Gregory
Philip
Martin

Nothing wrong with your choices

I love James despite its popularity

There are a lot more names in circulation now than there were 40 years ago so using a top 10 name isn't quite the same as it was in the 1970s when David, Chris, Andrew, Sarah, Nicola & Joanne accounted for about 50% of school children!

You won’t get any points for originality

. No one gets points for originality in names.

And I say this as someone with a lovely but unusual name who gave her children lovely but unusual names.

NB: they are actual names, with standard spellings used, they are just all very old, regional and not used much.

To echo pps classic names are classic for good reasons: everyone likes them and they get used over and over.

My D.C. have classic middle names as an alternative just in case they didn’t like their first names.

Your list are all super names. My favourite is James.

I’m Scottish so I know quite a few little Jamie’s. I think it works well for both children and adults.

I suspect some people might regret using unusual names but I don’t think many people regret using a nice traditional name.

2016 is not now though is it.

Edmund is very popular right now.

There are lots of real classics that are slightly less common - I love Jonathan, for example. Jon is such a nice gentle short form.

Edmund may well have risen in popularity between 2016 and now, but given it was ranked 691st in 2016, it would take an improbably meteoric rise in popularity to get it anywhere near “very popular” levels.

OP, I like all the names you’ve mentioned.

They may be thought of as standard, conventional names, but I think it’s good to remember that these days, there’s such a wide range of names used that even the top 10 names aren’t really shared by that many children born in that year.

The darkgreener site mentioned above is great for checking out name popularity trends.

I love traditional names & really like James & Edward. I quite like Charlie, but associate it with boys who can be a bit naughty (I’m a teacher). If I ever had a son, I’d call him Adam or James.