Dennis

[Firebird83]

What do you think of Dennis n Denny? Or maybe just Denny on its own?

Bloody awful. There are many many far nicer names.
And at least do the boy the service of being called an actual name, don't give him a nickname as his first name.

🤣

....the Menace. Are you tempting fate? Haha

Tbh though, I actually don't hate it. But neither do I love it.

Dennis sounds really old fashioned, and not in a good way. I quite like Denny though as a stand alone name, couldn’t use it in Scotland though as we have a Denny town near Falkirk.

Terrible. Sorry.

Denis Penis
Denis Thatcher

No

Dennis is a Greek name. I don't think it works well in English.
Why not call him Daniel instead? And use Dany as a nickname?

Denzel?
Dylan?
Dexter?
Dante?
Darryl?
Dominic?

Not Dennis, no.

Denny is kinda cute but it will get misheard/pronounced as Danny all the time I bet.
reminds me of Denny from greys anatomy.
don’t like Dennis. Could Den be a full name? Nn Denny? Not sure. Danny/Daniel is a good alternative

It is an uncommon name, I only know two real people that are older than me called it (2,probs in their late 70s or early 80s) I am afraid the only Dennis that I remember other than "dennis the menace" from the Beano, was Dennis Nilsen, the Muswell Hill murderer, who killed at least 12 young men in the early '80s, and I only remember this because I lived very close to it. Denny is OK though, quite like it, although isn't a fast food store in the states?

Dennis the Menace!

No, I beg you, don’t do it, OP. It’s horribly old-fashioned, and not in a good way. I have an aged uncle with the name Dennis and he’s in his 80s. It’s very much of that generation, but it hasn’t made a comeback as a chic retro name à la Mabel or Arthur. Please choose something much nicer!

Denis and Dennis are both fine.
And what's wrong with Dennis the menace?
It's a vintage cartoon. Minnie, Mickey, (not Donald at the moment!) Louis, Daisy are also quite fine names to use.

Den is what I would use if you need a nick name at all.

Horrible.

Dennis is fine. You are ahead of the curve.

Denny is really cute. I personally like it a lot. And there seem to be plenty of young Lenny’s about now, so he’d fit right in with his peers (although I adored Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Denny Duquette on Greys Anatomy years ago so my love for the name may be influenced by that 🤣)

However I’m not sure whether every adult man would appreciate having a “cute” name or not - so I’d usually suggest something longer on the BC to give him options. But I think Dennis is awful, sorry - Dennis the Menace and Dennis Pennis jokes and just doesn’t have a very nice sound (a bit like cute Archie vs Archibald).

Maybe Desmond could be an option? It’s not at all a favourite but imo it’s better than Dennis and you could still use the nn Denny (as long you used it from day 1 otherwise you risk “Des”).

Having said all that though, there are so many boys in the current generation with nickname style “ie/y” ending names, that by the time Denny grows up they probably won’t sound so cutesy anymore.

ETA: I love the suggestion of Daniel, it’s a timeless “can’t go wrong” classic. And the “Den” letters are there for Denny. Like with Desmond though, you’d have to use the nickname from Day 1, otherwise it’d automatically get shortened to the more common Dan/Danny once he’s older imo.

i love the name Dennis.
Denis is too close to ...

Denny is the handsome guy who died of a weak heart on Greys Anatomy
so there will always be an association for someone, the most likely being
Dennis the Menace or Scotsman Dennis Law, for footie fans,
or Denis Denis for a blast of Blondie

and Denny Laine - so the name is out there for sure

Too old fashioned. DH had an uncle called Dennis who is sadly no longer with us.

Plus Dirty Den from EastEnders

Okay so the new Minecraft movie has an adorable dog called Dennis which made me like it a bit more 🤣

Mumsnet is a fickle place, when I asked about using Dennis as a middle name just last year I was roundly told yes of course!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/baby_names/4994157-dennis-as-a-middle-name?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

We did use it in the end by the way and I love it more every time I say it. I also dug into the statistics and in 2023 in the UK it was number 461, so more popular than many a name that gets suggested here!

Denis is like Terry and Norman - it’s just too early to revive it

You could use Denzil, although it’s rather eccentric you do have the Denzil Washington reference

Daniel/Danny or Darius/Darry might be better

Middle name is quite different though

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with Denis, it’s just that he’s 74 and married to Pam

I know a family of three little lads, Eric, Dennis and Sean. Brilliant names all of them.