Cool but traditional not overused boys name needed!!

[Purplefoxes]

We are stuck trying to name our second son. Our first is Oliver, a name which we liked due to the flowy sound and the olive tree (and peace) connections. He is anything but peace loving in reality 😂. Unfortunately two years later this name became highly popular for a while and he had three in his class so we are hoping to choose something this time which doesn't go to the top of the list! I like traditional names that don't sound made up but have a cool edge or nickname. I like European/Mediterranean names but dislike anything that sounds very American. Surname is two syllables and starts with a P. Also looking for two middle names that flow nicely with the first name as our first son has two family middle names. No pressure! 😅

Does any one have any we might not have thought of?

So far on our list we have:

Issac
Elliot
Alexander
Sebastian
Lawrence
Rowan
Felix
Leo
Jude

Not feeling definite about any of these as we did with Oliver! 🫤

Any ideas welcome! Thank yoooooou! 😄

Oliver is a gorgeous name

Harry
Sam
Henry
Jonathan

Harvey
Ralph
Lance
Simon

Really like Jonah & Elijah.

Silas
Marcus
Margo

😂😂😂
Margo should be Marco!

Spencer
Leon
Michael
Gabriel
Barnaby
Elliot
Joseph

Charles goes with Oliver

Of your (nice) list I'd go for Laurence as it's great and not overused - but I would spell Laurence as Lawrence is usually the surname spelling (the Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia was his surname).

Of the rest of your list they are all very popular right now, other than Elliot which is still another El name (and a bit wet, sorry)

Patrick would be my top classic suggestion - v underused
Robert - Robin is popular but Robert nn Robbie or Bobby isn't
Michael - hardly used at the mo
Nicholas - ditto
John - great name
Alistair - creeping up I notice but still quite unusual

More unusual ones:

Jerome
Jethro
Joel
Silas
Seth
Kester
Gawain
Struan
Linus as suggested by PP is great
Josiah
Jonathan
Soloman nn Sol

We ended up going with something else but he would have been Lawrie.

If you’ve got time on your hands right now then I would suggest getting nerdy about this. Download the full ONS boys spreadsheet from 2020: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalesbabynamesstatisticsboys, go through, delete the ones you don’t like and go from there. Disregard the top 20 if avoiding popularity is very important to you. I have no idea how you managed to give DS1 literally the most popular name in the country without realising but this method will ensure it doesn’t happen again, if that’s a priority!

Wes(ley)

Love to see Struan here. It's my DS2 and still my favourite name. I don't see it getting hugely popular as it's very Scottish. If you don't have a Scottish connection people might think it's a bit strange. I know my friends in England had never heard of it (then again they'd never heard of my other choices: Murdo/ Rhuairdh/ Morven/ Muirne!)

Conrad?
Clyde?

Loic would be pronounced low eek , with Romain depends if you go with French or English pronunciation, English would be Rowman rather than spqr romans

Samuel

Francis isn’t unisex. Francis is male, Frances is female. Different names and different pronunciations.

Download the ONS excel document that gives every single name given to boys last year (apart from when there are less than 3). It's sorted by popularity so you can see the names you like and where they rank.

My baby daughter is called Rowan. If i had realised how trendy Roman with an M is (fastest rising boy name, currently in the official ONS top 30 but still rising and could well be top 10 soon) I would never have used it. Everywhere we seem to go there's a couple of Romans and people get confused and make comments and mishear and assume another Roman. I can see Roman and Rowan have already got muddled up earlier on in this thread. Rowan and Roman super trendy at the moment so if you're wanting another classic name like Oliver - I'd avoid Roman as it's very trendy and really having a moment

Lawrence is lovely

If you're going to use Isaac at least spell it correctly.

I have a John who is now in late primary - I chose it because it was classless , timeless and could be spelt the world over . It does stand out amongst all the trendy ones and the traditional ones . We’ve not met any others . Although a couple of kids called him Jonny it rarely gets shortened . We are in England , more common in Scotland . His older brother had something trendy and European which has ended up in the top 20. I thought of all the famous Johns - jfk , depp, Lennon etc . It looks nice with our surname write down . My alternate was Marcus , Mark, and the out there one was Otto.

Richard
Julian
Justin
Patrick
Lawrence
Alastair
Alexander
Arthur
Raphael
Sebastian
Robert
Peter
Jonathan
Xavier
Gabriel

Eric
Edward
Edmund
Edwin
Gerard

Gregory?

Simon
Joseph
Patrick

Just choose a name you like

Laurence …a great name and not overused and can be shortened to Laurie .

Toby