Help on Felix and Gabriel - all your thoughts wanted

[Manchestermama]

Please can you give me all your first impressions and thoughts of both names? Also would be great to know if you have kids at nursery/school and how commonplace the names are?

In desperate need of some help with these 2 names please... my son is a couple of weeks old now and I just can't make a decision between these names. He really needs a name, poor little guy! My husband is getting annoyed with me now but doesn't want to pick himself as wants me to be happy with the final choice. After hours of talks they are the only 2 we both agree on but I think I've overthought them both and these are my 'issues' with each...

Felix - 1) is it too posh?! 2) no nickname option I can really think of and we are nicknamey people

Gabriel - 1) is it too religious? we aren't religious at all so would it be a weird choice and people assume we were? 2) would the likely nickname of Gabe be a problem with potential for bullying, sounds like gay (shouldn't be a problem these days and husband thinks I am being ridiculous with this one but don't want to make my son's life difficult if that would be an issue)

I wanted something with a laid-back, cool feel to it which works for any class - to give you an idea of us, I'd probably describe us as lower middle-class, live in a Manchester suburb, kids may go to either a state or private school.

Love both, and if DC3 had been a boy, they would have been on our shortlist, along with Jude (not so keen on Jesse tbh!)

Felix just about pips Gabriel to the post for me, but both are gorgeous.

DC2 is Caspar which I think has a similar feel.

Both fairly standard middle class names. I know a few Felixes but they are all secondary school now. I don’t know any Gabriels.

I wouldn’t worry about nicknames, personally. Let something natural evolve rather than forcing it.

Felix is a great name, my son is friends with a Felix so I don't think of cat food even though I buy it for my cat.

I don't like Gabriel at all find it hard to see why anyone would like that name I think bully's would defo use it to there advantage

Love Gabriel, think Gabe is very manly.

Know quite a few Felixs but no Gabriel's.

Felix for me, Gabriel sounds feminine. I've only met one of each ever so not that common. Not met any at baby classes.

Out of those two I would go for Gabriel /Gabe.

I have a Gabriel (but spelt Gabrial). No religious connection at all. We shorten it to Gabe.
I will be honest tho, he has had issues with bullies calling him gay .

I have an adult Gabriel and he hates it. He’s Spanish but he moved here in his early teens and said he has had a lot of negativity about his name. He uses Gabi now but still says people think he’s a girl if they see it written down
I love it though

Felix is cat food. I love Gabriel - it was my boy name (but we had a girl) after Gabriel Oak from Far From The Madding Crowd

I meant a friend, adult friend. My DS isn’t an adult

I love both of those names! DD2 was going to be Felix if she'd been a boy. My daughter has a Gabriel in her class (age 6, year 1) and she doesn't shorten his name when she mentions him. Don't know if anyone else does. He seems like a lovely little boy. I don't know if his family are religious but I assume not since they chose the school they did which is a normal state primary, rather than a Catholic or C of E school which are both nearby. There are no boys called Felix in her year or at my younger daughters nursery.

Gabriel was my first choice so i love it - sadly my husband didn't we ended up with Seth. I also love Felix and we are not particularly religious.

Prefer Felix and Gabriel over Jesse and Jude, sorry (Jesse is a bit feminine sounding for me and an insult in Scotland and Jude reminds me of the German word for Jew/Star of David in WW2).

20 years ago I would have said both Felix and Gabriel were slightly brave - Gabriel because of the "Gay" sound in the name and Felix because of the cat association, but they have both been in the top 100 for a while (Gabriel for nearly 20 years) so I'd be really surprised if he got any teasing for either choice. Because of the top 100 thing, I don't think Felix would be considered posh or Gabriel religious now - they are too well known/used by a variety of parents.

I slightly prefer Gabriel as it sounds that bit more classic to me, but I don't think you can really go wrong with either (and while Felix has no obvious nn, he could end up with something vaguely alike like Fox, or more random like Buddy, Sonny etc).

Btw if you are interested in other options, "laid- back, cool feel" to me suggests more nature names - Heath, Rowan, River, Ivo etc . Or for some reason some of the anglicized shorter Welsh names - Evan, Owen, Dylan, as well as the "cool" nicknames for the more traditionals -Xan/Lex (Alexander), Nico/Cole (Nicholas), Cal (Charles), Bram (Abraham), Bear (Edward), Han/Nate (Nathaniel), Zev (Xavier) etc.

Gabriel is ace.

Felix is a cat. Plus it’s a name that other boys pity as it’s not cool.

@BabyMoonPie

Felix is cat food. I love Gabriel - it was my boy name (but we had a girl) after Gabriel Oak from Far From The Madding Crowd

Who doesn’t love Gabriel Oak.

@IamnotwhouthinkIam

Btw if you are interested in other options, "laid- back, cool feel" to me suggests more nature names - Heath, Rowan, River, Ivo etc . Or for some reason some of the anglicized shorter Welsh names - Evan, Owen, Dylan, as well as the "cool" nicknames for the more traditionals -Xan/Lex (Alexander), Nico/Cole (Nicholas), Cal (Charles), Bram (Abraham), Bear (Edward), Han/Nate (Nathaniel), Zev (Xavier) etc.

We were looking at nature names as well in our long list but veered away from them. You saying that has got me wondering if Phoenix might be a better option than Felix... thoughts?

Gabriel is one of my absolute favourites ♥️

I like Felix and Gabriel but don't like Phoenix at all. A very different type of name.
Your first two are both great. Don't overthink. Similar names in my opinion: Rufus, Jonathon (Jonty), Simon, Alistair.

I much prefer Felix toPhoenix which has a very different feel to me.
I think both your original choices are nicer.

As a Christian, I'd automatically assume a Gabriel to be from a very religious family (it is on my list) and would be a little surprised to hear the family weren't religious. Seems a little odd to use if not religious, like a non-Muslim using Mohammed.

Felix is lovely, not posh and a more appropriate choice, I think.

Really hate Phoenix! Felix and Gabriel are both quite classy and classic and cool and strong but Phoenix is really naff.. a celeb name.

I'd add:

Barnaby
Xavier
Jude
Milo
Jasper
Casper
Otto

to your list?

There are lots and lots of boys called Felix around me so if you want something less frequently used then I think Gabriel is a lovely name also. My friend’s son is called that, nn Gabi/Gaby, which I like.

I don't think Felix is a posh name but I do only think of cats.
I love Gabriel! I also like the nickname Gabe and would never have associated that with gay.