Choosing from our final 4

[JaJaDonkey]

In case it's relevant to these names- have close Irish and Welsh heritage, but live in England. We have no French heritage but some close family connections to France.

Would really appreciate any thoughts on these. We love them all for different reasons. Brutal honesty welcome. Help and thank you!

1. Etienne
2. Lorcan
3. Emrys
4. Quentin

I like Emrys and I like that it reflects your Welsh heritage.
I am not a fan of Quentin.
I quite like Lorcan but also find it a little harsh sounding

Etienne is a really beautiful name. It bothers me that there's no real french connection or heritage. It shouldn't but it does a bit. I think it's because it's so very french. He may get asked his whole life what the French connection is and there is none. It probably doesn't matter, but to me it would.

I’m welsh and quite like emrys although I don’t know of any young people with the name. More welsh names I like are:
Idris
Aled
Efan
Dafydd
Iwan

I really like Quentin and Lorcan.

Etienne sounds a little feminine to my ears and Emrys is hard to pronounce (for me)

I like Quentin.

I like Quentin best.

Etienne

Etienne - I do really like this but it looks quite feminine. I think some people might assume it's a girl. Apart from that it's a good name

Lorcan - I don't love this one. Not sure why. Just sounds odd to me

Emrys - my favourite

Quentin - I still can't get past Uncle Quentin who was pretty awful in the Famous Five. Also, the only real life Quentin I know, who is in his 40s, has kids called Ben and Tom (full names) which, I suspect, tells you something about growing up as a Quentin.
OP's posts:

Emrys

Emrys

Emrys ❤️

I like Quentin (biased i we have one )

I also like Lorcan. Étienne sounds very French and I'd assume French heritage.

I like Quentin - I think most people, especially younger ones, would think of Quentin Blake or Tarantino, rather of Famous Five. I think it's a great underused classic and Q a cool initial.

I also like Emrys and Lorcan, but find Etienne a little too obviously French, although it is a lovely name.

I love Lorcan. I only know one, about 9 years old. It's a fantastic name.

I love Emrys. I wanted the name for my DS but DH vetoed it, mostly because he couldn’t pronounce it.

I also love Quentin.

I like Emrys best.

I think they are all lovely. Though I do think French heritage would be assumed for an Etienne.

Emrys

Thank you all, this is really helpful.
Looks like consensus is Etienne would be setting the poor child up for a lifetime of 'no, I'm not French... my parents are just pretentious.' Such a shame, it's a beautiful name!

Also a couple of people have mentioned Emrys being difficult to pronounce- to me it's quite straightforward- EHM-riss- am I getting that right? Not being snarky, just checking that I haven't missed a subtlety in the Welsh pronunciation, because it's not my accent (or language!)

Equally I love the Irish pronunciation of Lorcan with the rhotic R, but feel like it's not quite as lovely in my non-rhotic English accent.

Lorcan is alright, although prefer Lachlan, Lorne is nice too.

I don’t like Emrys personally, makes me think of a middle aged football pundit or something… it’s ok I guess - how about Idris instead?

Quentin - I think this really IS awful. Such an uptight little name. Corin instead?

Etienne- I’d dump this - it really does sound and look like a girls’ name in English - and that isn’t fair on him. Fabian, Lucian, Julian might be alternatives

Gawain is a fabulous Welsh name..

I like all except Lorcan which puts the image of a Lord of the Rings baddy in my head.

Etienne is my favourite and the ones I know have never shortened it-always the full name.

I think the issue with Emrys is whether it's Em-riss or Em-rees as the latter seems to the Welsh pronunciation.

I really like Quentin. Reminds me of the lovely illustrator Quentin Blake.

Interesting to hear Quentin called 'uptight.' I've seen similar comments on other threads. It's one of those rare names that has absolutely no connotations to me; I couldn't give you any impression at all of what a Quentin in my mind is. Which is one of the reasons I like it so much. But I can see that for lots of others that's not the case.

Where does the 'uptight' connotation come from? I've also heard 'geeky' or 'reedy.' Is it an Uncle Quentin thing?

I have a Quentin so am slightly biased but I love it. DS is 17 and we've generally had very positive comments. I'm guessing that the most 'famous' Quentins out there are Quentin Tarantino and Blake, neither of which are considered 'uptight' imo. We've only come across one other during his time at school, so it's a well known but not overly popular name.

Before Tarantino and Blake I always think of Uncle Quentin. Childhood stories clearly hold strong.

Still like it!