Traditional- Robert, John or Edward

[sleepyhoglet]

With my daughter, I knew straight away what to call her and never wavered and still love her name. I am having a boy in a few weeks and have no idea! I think it's better to go traditional if I am unsure than something I might regret hence thinking either Edward, John or Robert. I'm not so keen on George. Do you think they are acceptable names? I wish I could just stick. When I first found our I was having a boy I had slightly more unusual names but I've gone off those. Also considering Dominic

All lovely names.
My favourite would be Robert: Bob/Bertie.
Edward is quite often shortened to Ed in adults, and though I like Edward, I am less keen on Ed (it seems more like a sound than a name/too short).

I like them all. John and Robert are my favourites.

Love all 3.

I’m related to a lot of Edwards, all Irish with surname Murphy. Even Murphys Law was created by an Edward. I suppose I can see why it seems too English with all the king Edwards though.

Andrew is also a nice traditional Scottish name. My DHs family is Scottish and the name pool is literally Robert, Andrew, John & Malcolm. I think there may be a few Duncan’s too.

John (with Jack as a diminutive if you want one) is lovely.
Edward has had a bit of a revival and although I do like Robert there seem to be a few baby Robbies about I recently, so I wouldn't necessarily choose those even though they are classic timeless names.
I'd like to throw Peter, Hugh, Guy and Alasdair into the mix if you like Dominic.

I have one of those and chose it as it was only just in the top 50 the year he was born.
All good, classic names with multiple nickname options.

All three are absolutely lovely, you can't go wrong. My favourite is Robert.

I have a Robert, we call him Rob. Benefit is he's the only one in the school so feels unique. And you can always get his name cheap on personalised stuff....

I like traditional names.

I love Robert with nn of Robbie.

I've surprised myself by how much I like John and Johnny is great.

Jonathan, Joseph, William, Thomas, Peter, James?

I think of your’s Dominic is my favourite, I also quite like Michael as a traditional name and Nicholas.

Edward
Robert

Then John

In order of preference

I like Robert with nn Bert and Edward with nn Ned. Dominic will be shortened to Dom, which I don't really like.

I think John is lovely and overdue a comeback. I once dated a lovely man called Johnnie.

I'm exactly the same as you OP, in that I'd mostly settled on a (less common/popular) girls name I loved quite easily, so expected to feel the same about a boys name when I found out I was having a DS instead.

As a name lover I thought I'd go for something more unusual too (I liked names like Orlando, Zev, Bram, Ivo, Heath etc), but now that he's getting closer to arriving I've turned to more traditional names instead - William, Alexander, Hugh, Edward, Samuel and James are some of the names on my list now! (John, Thomas etc would be there too but they are already used by close family members)

For me of your choices, I'm probably drawn towards John the most - it used to be so popular that there are some amazing historical namesakes but it's much less common now, so he'll probably be the only one in his class/groups. Plus I like both it's nn's Johnny and Jack so that's a bonus, as you can never tell if he'll get a nickname.

Edward is my second choice and may be the "safer" timeless option since it's never left the top 100 in popularity. But I'm less keen on Ed/Eddie (of the many Edward nn options) which personally puts me off a bit.

Edward was v v unusual in the 60s/70s/80s! Rather like John now.

Edward is beautiful.

I don’t like Robert. And John is everyone’s dad.

@RosesAndHellebores

Edward was v v unusual in the 60s/70s/80s! Rather like John now.

I'm not sure where you are but in England and Wales Edward was ranked 50, 53, and 52 in popularity in 1964, 1974, and 1984 respectively. For context, John is ranked 150 now. While 53 was the lowest recorded point of Edward's popularity, it can hardly be described as very very unusual. It's one of eleven boys names which hasn't left the top 100 since 1904.

John ❤️

I like all of these, much prefer them to all the surnames that are popular

Robert is a bit more Scottish, as is James or Alexander (ok mostly royal scottish names!). But John is a fab name and you can’t go wrong with it.

I'm a bit biased because I have an Edward. I do get many compliments on it and I love the name itself and its NN options. Regarding the popularity, we never came across another baby/toddler named Edward. But then we are based in London, where it seems children are given more trendy names like Alfie, Teddy (his mum seems to regret it though), so might be worth to check on the ONS side.
I like John, but definitely prefer Jonathan (love it, another favourite name of mine).
Robert is nice as well, but personally my least favourite.
Whichever name you decide on, it will be a lovely one :)

In order my favorites are John, Robert, Edward.
I also like Michael, Alexander, Mark, Thomas, Adam in the traditional sense.
Do think about nicknames, I really like Dominic but I know three and all are called Dom by everyone but their mothers.

They're all good solid sensible names. I'm not keen on Dominic, it's a bit dated and not in a classic way.

@newterritory

I have a James Edward - still love it 13 years on!

Mine is Edward James- you obviously have good taste 😁

I like Edward (Eddie not Teddy) and John (Johnny). Not very keen on Robert.

It's funny John is so out of fashion in the UK, I think it's been a top 30 boys' names in Ireland for over 50 years, and probably the No 1 name for a big chunk of those.