Now that we can't use Joseph (something similar)

[joligood]

We had decided on Joseph for our little boy quite early on but kept the name to ourselves as we wanted it as a surprise.
I have just discovered some friends of ours have just had a little boy and used it.
We are gutted as we had our heart set on the name and we've been calling him this for months and only have a couple of weeks to go.
I can't find anything else we like as much or agree on.
Can anyone think of any similar ideas to Joseph?

I would just use Joseph, it’s a great name!

Otherwise:

Jeremy
Jonas
Jordan
Jared
Josiah
Jake

Joey

I would use Joseph (do you have a different middle name to the other Joseph). You could let your friend’s know - great name choice, before you tell everyone else.

How often do you see them?

I'd stick with Joseph.
It's the name you had planned
There are lots of diminutives if you're in the same room together

Just go with Joseph, we had friends that called their son the same name as ours including the less familiar spelling 4 months after us, didn't bother us in the slightest, they'd probably chosen the name before we announced ours

I would stick with it, just explain to them you've had it picked for months and laugh about what excellent taste you have.

Alternatively, I think Matthew and Samuel have a very similar vibe. Benjamin? Thomas? Adam? Oliver? George? Daniel? James? William? Edward? I assume you're drawn to traditional names, hence those suggestions.

YES

Lovely name

Definitely stick with Joseph. Some friends of mine both called their child the same first name and their surnames sound identical although spelt different - think Jane Thomson and Jane Thompson. Which is obviously totally fine if that's the name they both wanted to call baby Jane.

Just use it. You don’t know if the children are going to be friends or even spend any time together let alone how your friendship is going to pan out.

My Joseph is Joseph George
so maybe George
His little brother is Arthur
sorry this has happened it’s so annoying!

Fantastic 😊

Just call him Joseph!

I had my girl 3 months ago and 5 of us were due within the same few months. None of use shared the name until they were born but I wouldn't have changed my little girls name if any had used it first.

Just use it. Joseph is a lovely name.
Other suggestion would be Joshua

Jonah
joel
jacob
noah
adam
aaron
samuel
ethan
nathan
joshua
daniel
jasper
thomas
jude

It depends how close a friend they are, if they're not your besties and the boys won't be growing up alongside each other then stick with Joseph. If they're probably going to be close I'd pick something else for ease.

My SIL had a baby 3 months before I did, she used the only name me and dp had agreed on. We hadn't shared name choices with each other so it was just a coincidence. The boys were cousins, of course we had to pick a different name! Ds was nearly ten days without a name as we couldn't decide.

My friend has a boy named the same as mine. They are born 8 weeks apart. We didn't realiseret and it has never been an issue. They are off to university now. They have different middle names.
In my husband's family two cousins have the same name. They are not close so again no issue. No middle names.

Just stick with Joseph.