Soft names for a boy

[ibis17]

Hello,

My partner and I are expecting a baby boy, but really struggling to bond with a name. For some reason we have a long list of girls names we love but it feels harder with a boy. We want something unusual, but not something that might sound too out there or put him in a line of fire re bullying. We prefer the softer sounding names that are less traditionally 'male' and like the idea of a name that is linked to nature (although this isn't essential at all). Our top name for a girl was Alba, and we love Albie and Alban, but already have friends who have used these for their children so need to avoid copying... We have a daughter who is Elinor.

Some boy ideas so far are:
Espen
Albur
Alben/ Albin
Rowan
Oskar

But if anyone feels like brainstorming further... I would love to hear alternative ideas :-)

I would lay off the younique spellings, will just be a PITA for him

Corin
Casper
Jasper
Ernest
Laurence
Kester
Francis
Alistair
Innes
Tobias
Marius
Matthias
Gabriel
James nn Jamie
Rafe
Miles
Simon
Arnold
Wilfred
Walter
Cassian
Caspian
Lucian
Fabian
Alberic nn Bertie
Ivor
Ivo
Silas
Amos
Seth
Diggory
Barnabas / Barnaby nn Barney

Orin
Roban
Donal

I love Linus and Joel.

Albie/Arlo/Otto are v heavily used atm.

Toby?

I love Rufus

Florian

Robin
Falcon
Merlin

I have a Fabian and a Rafe. I also love Florian and work with the most delightful man called Robin, so would absolutely second that!

Hugh

Ooh lots of these on our lists. Our boys names have been said on this thread. Our lists off the top of my head included:

ambrose
acer
asher
aubrey
joel
joss
alder
evan
oscar
rowan
Otis
lawrence

oh yes Robin is great!

Ardal
Briar
Nils
Warren
Lev
Conleth
Niles
Lief
Gus
Ivan
Ewan
Ivo

Devon
Fabian
Quinn
Cass
Beau
Monty
Ash/Ashley
Evan
Bay
Micky
Pat
Oisin
Owen
Ocean
Orson
Orville
Dara
Cole
Jasper
Casper
Ray
Nemo
Mel
Jonah
Jojo
Corey
Casey
Finlay
Benny
Manny

At risk of being outed as it was rare at the time but I have a 25 yo Arlie and both him and I still love his name.

Some great suggestions, thank you!! Lots to think about.

We live in a very multicultural area so spellings aren’t an issue… I teach at a school locally and most of my kids have names spelt every way imaginable 😊 We are more concerned about avoiding the more traditionally private school English names (as much as we love a lot of them) as in my experience these can become targets for bullying/ standing out.

I love Arlie. And to hear of some other Albin’s 😊😊

Reuben
Andrew
Milo
Simon
Austin
Thomas
Dylan
Wilson
Corin
Raymond
Ellis
Niall
Ivor
Harley
Leo
Maurice
Philip
Vincent
Ciaran
Lawrence
George

I love Oskar which is the Scandinavian version of Oscar rather than a "yoonique" spelling. Not sure if people commenting are aware of that.

My favourite soft/gentle boys names:
Luca
Otis
Oliver
Gabriel
Theodore
Alexander
Dylan

I once met a lovely little curly haired boy called Jem or Gem. Not sure if it was short for something, but it sounded sweet and soft just like this little boy!

My other favourite boys name is Lysander.

I love Oskar which is the Scandinavian version of Oscar

Exactly. Perfectly valid spelling.

People have already mentioned a lot of what I would suggest. There is also Sean, Ethan, Lucas, Arthur

Wilbur
Cosmo
Casper
Callum
Julian
Douglas
Ernest
Jasper
Raphael

Arbor is from Latin.
Crann is the Irish for tree

...sorry that was in response to @BumbleUnicorn

Prefer Alban to Albin/ Alben

Some other names

Keaton
Gideon
Soren
Ethan
Conan

I know an Eden who is about nineteen. Always loved his name but, perhaps oddly I tend to think its a bit low class when used as a girls name.

Also how about Ashley, Xavier, Sasha (Alexander), Jago, Paris, Michael, Uriel, Christian.