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.

Gabriel 100%

I really like both names, pretty equally!

I like both. I have a Felix. Chosen because it's fairly untied to any particular place, time, class etc (though I accept it's increasingly popular with middle classes like me!)

I don't think you have to plan nicknames ahead of time. You might end up calling him Curly or whatever! My Felix gets called Feelo a lot.

Felix and Gabriel are both lovely
Phoenix is ok. Bit trashy but ok

Tristan? Barnaby? Nathan Nate? Kit?

I love the name Gabriel and it was definitely on the list if I'd had another boy. Really like Gabe as a nn too. Felix is also really nice, but Gabriel pips it for me.

I far prefer Gabriel to Felix, but they are both nice and popular. There are a lot of Gabes about these days, so I don’t think nasty nicknames would be a real issue.

For me Phoenix is a definite no - it’s a v
downmarket name and it won’t help him in life.

I love Jesse and Jude too. If you can’t get those signed off how about Joel, Jethro, Jonah, Jonas or Jerome??

Other thoughts - Nathaniel nn Nate or Nat, Nicholas nn Nico, Christopher nn Kit, Rufus, Luke/Lucas, Patrick

Felix is a cat food, but Gabriel is lovely.

Love both Felix and Gabriel. Felix doesn't sound posh to me and Gabriel doesn't sound too religious either.

I know 2 or 3 little boys called Felix, but only one Gabriel (no nickname) who is only an acquaintance so it seems more unusual to me.

I know quite a few of each. The youngest Felix I know is 16 so I see it as a mainstream name but not super trendy now. I think it's classic and classy but not posh.
The Gabriels I know are a bit younger - from 6-18 ish. None of them have had the "gay" teasing - my son has 2 in his year and I just don't think they would even think of those jokes. I don't see it as religious although two of those I know are religious.
Personally I would struggle to pick between them because I really like them both. I probably would go for Gabriel just because Gabe is a cute nn.

Phoenix is a touch brave for me (I think it's also a bit "celeb" sounding - but that could just be my age talking as it reminds me of Mel B's daughter Phoenix). But over 250 boys were named Phoenix last year and it's rising (only 40 less than River and much more the number named Heath), so clearly my taste in nature names is slightly tame and I don't think your DS would be teased if you did go for it.

What about Raphael?

I have a Gabriel, I do not know another. We shorten to Gabes as do most of his friends. He has never ever been called Gay or been bullied. I still absolutely love his name. We are not religious.

Love Gabriel /gabe, don't like Felix and really don't like phoenix

I have a Gabriel in his early 20’s. There were a few around when he was little, laid back, bohemian type families not religious ones. His friends call him/he introduces himself as Gabe.