Benjamin or William

[Flowergirls19]

Help!
We can’t agree! One of us likes Benjamin, other likes William. Mumsnet may well have casting decision it’s getting so hard!
Thank you in advance!

Ben(jamin) is a fabulous name!

Love both. I can’t decide either, so am no help to you - but at least whatever you choose will be great!

But- William Wallace, William Wilberforce, William Wordsworth and even the future King (apparently William Windsor was also known as William Wales for a while). I would say having an alliterative surname is even more reason to use William

For Benjamin I can only immediately think of Benjamin Britten and Actor Ben Barnes but there must be others...

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

• Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), American author and surveyor
• Ben Barnes (actor) (born 1981), British actor
• Ben Bernanke (born 1953), former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve
• Benjamin Biolay (born 1973), French singer, songwriter, producer and actor
• Benjamin F. Bowles (1869–1928), African American civil rights leader, and founder and president of Douglass University.
• Benjamin Breedlove (1993–2011), American YouTube and internet personality
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), British composer
• Benjamin Burnley (born 1978), lead singer of American rock band Breaking Benjamin
• Benjamin Butler (1818–1893), American lawyer, politician, soldier and businessman

Benjamin Britten is the only one that came to mind. I must admit Benjamin Button also occurred to me.

I prefer Benjamin. But keep both and wait and see which feels right when he’s born.

William is my choice but both Benjamin and William are handsome names for a boy and a grown man.

They are both lovely. My DS has William as a middle name as it’s a family name, but I really like Benjamin as well. Don’t use both in case you ever have another boy.

For a first name I actually prefer Benjamin.

Benjamin, it's gorgeous

I like Benjamin but then that's because I've got one!

DS2 middle name is William and he was very nearly given Benjamin as a middle name. I still love it.
Benjamin just edges it as a first name.

Was very nearly given Benjamin as a first name that should say.

Thanks everyone! Will continue the debate!

Both lovely names but I especially love Benjamin

They’re both solid names that you can’t go wrong with and they work either way round as first name and middle name. I’d wait and see which suits him when he’s born.

Benjamin

But I like both!

Both of my sons have those names as their middle names. Eldest has Benjamin and youngest sons has William. To be honest, I like neither but their dad picked them out. Out of the two though, I think Ben is nicer as a first name.

One of my kids has William as a middle name so I obviously like that. I went out with a Ben years ago but I always thought of Ben as a dogs name (my brother had a stuffed dog called that and my cousins dog was a ben) so it was never even considered when we named our kids. I think there are nicer traditional names, I'd probably relegate both to middle names although Benjamin William does go nice.

William (or Wilfred) because I adore Will and Wilf.

Both.
Bill and Ben.

Benjamin

Benjamin, nice name and has become slightly unusual again. I like the short forms Ben, Benji, maybe Benny not so much, but it's fine.

William is fine and I like Will, it's a little bit on the dull side now though, as there are so many around.

Benjamin

Benjamin is my brother's name and William is my husband's name. They're both strong, classic names - don't think you can go wrong with either!