What names didn't you use?

[SnowAndIceLobelia]

And why?

The names I liked if either DS were to be a girl included;

Isis (obviously could not use, sadly)
Leveret which I maintain is a fabulous name but DH did not agree
Hebe
Hera

DH did not like either

Boys

Tobermory (love it still but it sounded wierd with our surname which rhymes!)
Agamemnon (we are not Greek and it was a bit of a pregnant hormone name)
Ezekiel (DH vetoed).

Both DCs have quite normal fairly old fashioned names of the David / Stephen variety which i love because it's unusual on 14 and 12 year olds now.

I really wanted to call DS2 Noah. My Mum, who was a primary school Head, persuaded me that it was so old fashioned that he woukd get teased horribly in the playground. So we called him Owen instead.

That was 25 years ago. By the time he was 10 there were baby Noahs everywhere.

If he'd been a girl he would have been Imogen.

My DH was utterly in love with Virgil for a boy. Poor baby would be virgil the virgin. I liked Isabelle (DH refused to have any names with 'bell' in it due to 'bellend'). Several others I liked but DH is staunchly athiest and refused any 'biblical' names. Part of why I refuse to get pets, naming with him is a nightmare!

Katherine Zoe because we had boys.

Girls - we didn't have any:
Rose
Shona
Anna

Boys -
Prentice (because this was DH's suggestion and he was clearly addled)
Samuel (my suggestion, which DH said "sounds like middle class parents trying to be working class" - I still don't know what he was talking about)
Edward (also my suggestion, it is DH's middle name and he doesn't like it)

Holly - this was a long term favourite that we changed our minds on, not sure why!
Imogen, Amy, Rose - DH didn’t like
Harriet - relatives name
Emma - very nearly DD2 name
Anna - same initial as DD1
Eleanor - relative is Ellie

Thomas - relative used it
Harry, Samuel - didn’t go with surname
Jacob, Joseph, Daniel - DH didn’t like

Luckily I was able to use my life long favourite names on my 3 children. If we had another though I’d have liked Robin (I like this for both a girl and a boy) or Nathaniel.

Girl- Ember, absolutely loved it but too close to immediate family members name.

Boys-
Esca
Emrys

I only had girls so never got to use my boy choices

DH wanted Titus - I veto’d.
Happily because my sister recently met a man with that name who is complete player

Calypso.

DD wishes we'd had the nerve. But we're more of a Michael and Sarah sort of tribe.

For DS - Greg

For DD ( if she'd been a boy )
Victor
Zak /Zac/Zach but not Zack

Mercedes (girl)

Eva - it didn’t work with our surname due to a certain historical figure! 🙄

DD loves it as a name and really wishes that we’d been able to use it as she doesn’t like the one that we ended up giving her..

Jack. - midwives put us off because “too popular” but I still love it. Ds now in his 20’s and it wouldn’t have been a problem, although of course we know of some he doesn’t actually have any friends called Jack. I do like the name we used though.

Joseph - it wasn’t really on our list but I adore Joe now.

We had a girl and the other names we picked for her but didn't go with were Posy and Etta.

Calypso was on our girls list but we had boys. I’m not sure I’d have been brave enough either, but love it and think Callie works as a simpler short name and is also unusual.

Wren was one of ours too. Because she was our first baby I feel like we 'played it safe' with her name. I was worried about people giving funny looks if we'd named her Wren!

Kathleen - because DS was a boy.
Spitfire - we weren't serious about this but enjoyed telling people anyway.

Flora. Absolutely loved it, but made the mistake of telling dh's family in advance that we were considering it. BIL said 'Oh they'll be saying 'Flora - she spreads easily' '

I always dreamed of having a little girl called Chloe. But the minute I got pregnant I knew I was having a boy - and I was right!

Otto (couldn’t persuade dad)

Ophelia… the backstory was a niggle I couldn’t shake. My own name is a tragic one and I wish I could change not so much my name but its meaning. I didn’t want to lumber DD with the same feeling.

I wanted to call youngest dd Boudica. I still think it's a great name . She's now 18 and absolutely hates it though so glad she got a very ordinary top 100 name .

Niamh, Connie and Ada. Had three boys.

Haydn
Liana
Mikael
Zack

Girls names Mila, Clementine, Juno because we had 4 boys. I wish I’d called my youngest boy Sullivan or Dashiell but my dh vetoed them.

Our top pick for girl name was Joni.
We had 2 boys….

@JennyGracexx I've since met two toddlers called Wren, so I'm glad we didn't go with it after all!