'Weak' and 'strong' names for boys

[Comerscroft]

My friend has just made a list of boys names she consideres to be 'weak', and therefore not for her.

Timothy (= timid or Timmy the dog)
Philip
Samuel (Sammy)
Benjamin (Benny)
Stephen
Alfred (Alfie)
Walter (the wimp from Dennis the Menace)
Charles (Charlie the chimp)
Henry
Maurice
Nigel
Alan
Ian

The names she considers 'strong' and acceptable, include

David
Andrew
George
John
Michael
Kenneth
Duncan
Grant
Craig
Fergus

I thought it was interesting theat the 'weak' names all have soft consonants, whereas the 'strong' names have hard consonants, and so sound more forceful.

Interesting. I do have names that I view as 'weak' or 'strong' (for girls as well as boys), but I wouldn't group the names your friend has in the same way.

The names I view as 'weak' do tend to stand and/or end with vowels or soft sounds. It doesn't mean I view the person bearing the name as weak at all, I just find the sound of the name wishy-washy to my ear. I am someone who prefers harder sounding names in general though, which isn't the current trend.

Names I'd view as 'weak' would be Noah, Theo, Joshua for example. Which I realise are perfectly decent names. I'd also include any girl names in the top 10, especially Isla.

There are also names like Caleb and Jamie, which I categorise as 'weak', because to me they sound like the person saying the name has a bad cold. I don't know why!

I find the vowel-heavy boy's names weak-sounding.

Otis
Elijah
Elliott
Theo
Arlo etc

Is Adam a weak or strong name in her eyes?

Alfred the Great and Henry V were wimps? She clearly doesn’t know her English history…And what about William (The Conqueror) or Alexander (the Great)? I wouldn’t say their names have particularly strong consonant sounds either but they are hardly wussies (and Alfred, Henry, William and Alexander are all top 100 popular too!)

I think what makes a name sound tough likely depends on who you associate it with - whether RL people or fictional or historical ones. The sounds in a name are secondary imo.

Edit: Akk, just realised this was a zombie thread, didn’t check the first post date 🤦‍♀️

Kenneth is a wet lettuce name if ever there was.