Following on from my Frank thread

[Boyandgirlmama23]

My DH has suggested that Francis is better for the birth certificate but introduced / known as Frank seen as though Ted is Edward formally but never known as Edward.
So Edward, Nancy and Francis does this work?
What is the general consensus on Francis?

If you like Frank, just call him that. It’s a perfectly fine name on its own. My great uncle was called Frank as a full name.

I prefer Frank but Francis is also fine.

i would use Frank on the birth certificate, much prefer it to Francis.

I like Francis.

Francis is awful. It's such a wet, limp and unattractive name. It's marginally better than the incredibly harsh and ugly sounding Frank but that isn't saying much. It seems to be going through something of a revival though as I've seen it mentioned on MN many times over the past few months so I don't know if that'd be an issue for you.

Francis is a girl's name for me (although obviously that's spelled Frances) and I'm of an age where Frank was along the same lines as Dennis, Cyril, Terry and Roger - and the hapless Spencer.

I think Francis goes better with your other 2 - but those are lovely names and Francis is not up there with them for me.

I like Francis, but if I only wanted to use Frank I’d wouldn’t bother with a longer form. Frank as a name is an older name than Francis, so while it can be used as a diminutive, it didn’t derive from it and is a stand-alone name.

I much prefer Francis to Frank.
Is Edward called Edward or a diminutive?
Nancy was usually Ann(e) on her birth certificate in my nan's age group

If you are never, ever going to call him Francis, you might as well call him Frank. Mr Lampard is just Frank and he seems to have turned out all right.

It’s always very feminine sounding to me. Personally I wouldn’t do it to my child

I’d prefer Frank. I think Francis could be mistaken for a girl. I don’t know the popularity in girl Francis vs boy Francis. Quite often gender neutral names become exclusively girl names. I know a male Leslie who is constantly called Ms in emails.

Frank is cool
Francis is wimpy. Even if it’s just on the birth certificate.

‘Francis is better for the birth certificate but introduced / known as Frank’ That’s the best way to go. Both are sound names.

Frank is great.

I really like Francis. I know a 4 year old one.

I like Francis.