How would you rank these three names?

[Eloise34]

I apparently love French baby names as the top three for boys at the moment are exactly the style my husband and I like. Keen to hear how people personally rank the top three, they are:

Leo, Gabriel, Raphael.

I love the name Gabriel known as Gabe but the ones I’ve known have always been really naughty so I’d avoid that.

I think Leo, though some say is overused, is a really good, strong name: masculine, short, easy to spell and pronounce.
I can't think of a diminutive, except perhaps ' Lee',, which is really unnecessary.

Raphael is very nice too, has a few NN, which will invariably be used.
Gabriel, nice, but will likely be called "Gabby" or Gabe, which turns a nice name into one not so nice.

I know it's popular but I just love Leo - that would have been our choice for a boy but having another girl.

Maybe you could do Leonardo nn Leo/Leon?

Raphael and Gabriel I like both of those names as well, can't choose between them!

I really like Gabriel

Raphael where I live is unlikely to be classy or romantic.

Interesting, are you in the UK? Where I live it's super middle class. The rather less classy names are ones like Reg, Ronnie or Frank.

@SnapdragonToadflax , grim area dahn sarf. Old Testament names are popular as are short names (Jay, Shay, Kit etc), older youngsters seem to be Alfies and the like. Teenagers are Kaydens and Jaydens.
If I venture to nicer areas they are things like Vincent.

The difference is 'Rapha-yell' or 'No-argh' screeched or 'Please get off the floor and stay here Vincent' in a soothing gentle parenting voice at the little horror that is being unruly.

@3rdLucky , @Eloise34 , They'd be Layo, Gab-ree-el and Rapha-el (approximately) in French.

They're nice, but the local versions here aren't, and it only takes one incident to put you off a name. I know several nice Noahs.

The girl's names here seem to be either long and vowelly or Ella/Elsie/Daisy type names.

Raphael -
Gabriel -
Leo - far too overused

I wanted Raphael for my son but my DH hated it haha

Thanks ladies, very interesting and very mixed comments! For further context, my husband is Portuguese and in Australian, our kids will grow up in Australia. Australia is so multicultural that the accent the name is pronounced in will vary wildly. Probably the biggest given is that in Australia as soon as your name is a couple of syllables long you are given a nickname, so always need to consider seriously what the name will get chopped to. It’s what’s had me hesitating with Raphael , I’m not sure how I feel about Raf / Rafa. Leo would not get shortened. Gabriel would be Gabe or Gab.

It’s interesting to me also that from feedback (I think that most of you are in UK) Raphael is not uncommon. In Australia it’s almost unheard of for an Australian child at this point, maybe for a child with foreign parents, but hasn’t caught on to locals yet. Gabriel is just starting to become popular. Not sure if it will change - we do tend to lag behind UK trends :-)

I'm in Australia; my friend just had a baby Raphael, but other than that, I'd never heard of another one!

@wandawaves oh thanks for sharing! Are they an Australian family? Also, would love to hear what you thought of the name when she announced it? I know it would be very hit and miss amongst our circles…

They are Australian, Australian accents, but look like they have non Australian backgrounds in there somewhere. I actually loved the name when they told me! All of their kids have beautiful, fairly uncommon (but not at all weird) names.

@wandawaves sent you a PM :) thanks for sharing!

I'm suddenly reminded of a neighbour we used to have whose child was called Louis. Nice name... until she's yelling 'Lou-waaaaaaay'.

In Canada, Gabriel has been in the top 50 baby names since the 2000s; currently ( well, in 2023) it was in the top 24 names.

Raphael, on the other hand, is not at all popular in N. America, I was surprised myself to see that.
It was listed 129th in 2024, a 12 point drop from 2023, just FYI OP!

Good luck with your decision; all fine names, and being in Australia will make a big difference in acceptance of any of the names it sounds like!