Asa?

[BlueMountains5]

My husband and I just found out that we’re having a baby boy and we’re so excited! Except for the name.. we have so many great girl names but are really struggling to find a boy’s name we like.

I love the name Asa (pronounced Ace-ah) and it’s an old family name. But I know it’s pretty uncommon. My husband really likes it too, but we don’t want to saddle our child to a name that they’ll constantly have to explain.

Thoughts?

People seem to manage fine with pronunciation of Ava and Ada. You don't get people saying Avva and Adda so don't see why this would be any different?

I think it's a great name, you don't hear it often but it's cool. I guess it depends if it goes with your surname?

I hadn't heard of it before and wouldn't know Ace-ah pronunciation however once you hear it it's easy to remember. I wouldn't use it as where I am I imagine most people don't know it either and I'd worry about the ass-a or just generally mispronunciation.

I thought it said Asda to start with.

I think adults are too polite to say anything but I think children will shorten it to Ass (I know that's not shorter but you know what I mean).

This is one time I think a different spelling might be useful.

But it's only the Yanks who sit on their 'ass'. Brits have arses.

I automatically pronounced it correctly so I wouldn't worry about that 😊

I know someone with an Eesa and he suits it.

I like it and first heard of it through Asa Briggs, the historian.

A Polish family I knew as a child had a female dog called Asa (pronounced Azz-a).
interesting how widespread the name is.

I really love it but doesn't go with my surname ,my spelling choice would be Acer.

But that's a Taiwanese company that makes PC, laptops, and tablets.

But it’s also a tree.

Otis make evelators
Avery make labels (v popular in the states and I know one)
Celeste (ok, Cilest) is a contraceptive
Zoe is a car
Henry is a hoover

I think some names historically were very culturally tied to certain backgrounds or religions, but as a previous poster said once a wider range of people start using them, they don't seem so culturally tied any more. When I was a child (mid 50s now), anyone called Noah or Reuben in the UK would almost certainly been at the very least Jewish, probably quite orthodox. But now there are lots of young people without Jewish heritage called Noah etc. So I don't think Asa is a problem from that perspective.

It's not a favourite name for me - it looks a bit thin and insubstantial and like the start of a sentence: "As a woman in my mid 50s, I feel..."

@MyFaceIsAnAONB , if I saw the name Acer for a boy, I'd think they had misspelt Asa.

Really cool looking and sounding name (palindrome! plus the "Ace" sound)- I wish I'd been brave enough to use it but I was a bit concerned about the "Assa" thing too.

However likely kids don't tease about names now the way they might have in the past - plus many older people will think of Briggs or Hartford, so I think more people should know how to pronounce Asa than the relative rarity of the name might initially suggest.

Ok :)

Rohan/Rowan, Jon/John, Ann/Anne, Harriet/Harriett, Amy/Aimee, Clare/Claire, the list goes on. Not unusual and not a problem imo.