Classic but rare baby boy names

[TheFutureIs]

I’m a teacher, so when naming a baby I want something unusual but not weird.
I loved Alastair but unfortunately my partner has a cousin named this
Girl names are so much easier!
Any suggestions of similar names?

Hadrian

Based on older gentlemen at my family church:
Albert
Arnold
Bill
David
Norman
Ralph
Walter

Lachlan
Colm
Malcolm
Fraser
Ruairaidh

Oren

My 2 little grandsons are called Chester and Hugh.
Never met any others!

Actually "Lawrence" is the traditional English spelling. The French spelling "Laurence" became popular due to Laurence Olivier.

Howard
Sidney
Billy (William)
Roy
Stanley
Adam

Oh and Robert, love the name Robert.

Lawrence, nickname Laurie

I love

Rollo
Robin

Scottish vibe
Geordie
Hector

PS It's interesting how short versions of names become names - Lando is surely short for Orlando (love that name too). I don't think this is new as MIL was named Betty, although it's short for Elizabeth and that was ages ago!

Edmund
Florian
Fabian

Basil
Claude
Victor

Surely that would just be a shortened version of Alexander, also very popular in my part of London.

I have an Alastair. There are 3 of them in the family - my son, my uncle, and my cousin's son. Doesn't bother me at all that mine isn't the only one, but I do have a large extended Scottish family with quite a few 'duplicate' names! I'd just just use it.

Alban
Botolph
Giles
Barnabas
Bartholomew
Wesley
Bede
Gregory
Crispin

Guessing you're Scottish?

Andrew
Cameron
Alexander
Michael
Fergus
James/Jamie
Daniel
Thomas

But, your 1st choice of Alastair is lovely, your DS will probably have nothing to do with his cousin once removed so don't let that stop you. I would go for the Gaelic spelling of Alexander though - Alasdair 😀

David
Paul
Andrew
Peter
Stuart
Daniel
Myles
Raymond
Ian
Alan
Richard
Jonathan

Yeah, classic definitely wasn’t the right word - if you want classic but less common/popular these days you’d be looking at “Dad” names like:
Laurence (could use trendier Laurie as nickname)
Nicholas (could use trendier Nico/Cole?)
Robert (could use trendy Bertie?)
Peter
Simon
Stephen
John
Jonathan
Paul
Phillip
Gregory
Malcolm
Hugh
Patrick

But it sounds more like you want something that’s never been super popular but is still well known? Maybe more along the lines of:
Xavier
Maximilian
Benedict
Dominic
Nathaniel
Owen
Evan
Tristan
Euan
Sean
Joel
Saul
Marcus
Magnus

Given this, you might like

Lennox
Douglas
Fergus
Clement
Everett
Bennet
Beckett
Merrick
Emmett
Truman
Lucien
Hadrian
Julius
Cosmo

I would spell NILE Niall.

Miles
Atticus (I bloody love this and suggest it on any boys names threads!!)

Well, if you’re going to do that then at least spell ISAIAH correctly.

Other good Biblical names include Levi and Asher.

I generally agree with you, except Noah is HUGELY popular…

Monty. Fantastic name and as a teacher I did once teach one who lives up to his fantastic name. I also like Hamish and Laurie from your list.

I like Fergus.

Lando would say Star Wars fan to me.

Simeon
Silas
Atticus

I know a recently born Scottish baby boy by the name of Struan.