John ?

[NightSkyWanderer]

Yay or nay ?

@penjil , Johnathan and Johnathon are even worse.

Love it!!!

It's DS's middle name, named after FIL. I love it. It's well known, but not common.

There are two Johns in DS's school, three years apart. That's my definition of "ideal" - not so unusual that no-one recognises it, but not so common that there are multiples in each class.

Yes. A very fine name indeed.

It’s so so boring, I’d use it as a middle name maybe.

Yay
love it
so underused

Prefer Jonathan

Nay - is my FIL name who I'm NC with

It's dull. Go with a name you will really love otherwise you will regret it.

Yay. I don’t understand why John dipped in popularity - it was a perennial/timeless classic like William, James and Thomas until a couple of decades ago. These kind of names are great as they have the benefit of making it difficult to judge things like age, social background, even nationality- it’s hard to make any assumptions.

If you aren’t sure then I think it’s fine to just use it as a middle name (to honour your relative ) but personally I love it as a first name - he’ll probably be the only one in his class or possibly even school, yet he’ll have some amazing historical and pop culture namesakes and John has a couple of nice nn’s too (on the off chance he wants one).

Absolutely yes

Yay. So long as it doesn't become a diminutive Johnny etc.

John is good.

If you're not that keen on it use John as a middle name to honour your dad.
John mades me think if John Major for some reason- not an exciting name but definitely a classic.
But don't give your son a name you don't love.

I have one who is 9.

He's the only one in his school never mind his class.

People saying it's boring......to me it's the Alfies, Noahs, Olis etc that are boring as there are so many of them.

Agree. Though I have a soft spot for Oli (assuming it’s Oliver not Olivander or some such tedious ‘out there’ name).

People saying it's boring......to me it's the Alfies, Noahs, Olis etc that are boring as there are so many of them.

They are all boring - John is imo overused in the over 45 age group (I know at least 5 adults called John) whereas the other names are overused in the under 15 age group!

It's why John Smith is often used as an example name - it's soo common.

I love oliver as a name. I know alot of mumsnetters don't like it because it's very common. I don't mind a common name but I'm in West Ireland and it's not a common name at all. I've never met any olivers in my 40 years of life.
I feel like he'd get called ollie Jo or ollie John or something which is awful isn't it? as I know a few men with John and Joe as middle names around here and they always get a double barrel name

Yes.......classic x

@IamnotwhouthinkIam I don’t understand why John dipped in popularity
Jack replaced John.

There were lots of Johns at (Welsh) school with me, but other forms of John were becoming popular. The English names tended to be replaced by the Welsh versions, Siôn and Iwan, then Ifan, Efan, Ioan and Jac.

Other form of John like Seán and Ian were fashionable.

Lots of travellers called John; if that’s your community go for it, outside of that community it’s very old fashioned

Great name.

You mean not old-fashioned like those popular new names like Alfie, Martha, Stanley and Ruby?

I know two babies called John! I think it’s going to be shooting up the charts again. Don’t like it myself but Jonathan is ok

Yes - John is strong and traditional.

I actually love it. Possibly because it’s the name of one of our favourite friends (57 😂 but due a revival).