Graham??

[chandellina]

Hi, we are thinking of this name for our son, it was the name of DH's father. Looking for any reactions. It doesn't seem to be a terribly popular name yet i have come across enough Grahams to make me think it's an acceptable and traditional name.
Am i missing something?

Not cos it's old but because it is just not an attractive name - to me, anyway.

If you like it then do it - it's up to you, entirely!

I never liked it even when it was the name of the moment.

I like Nigel though...

Bit boring and middle aged.

Dh is 30 and a graham and for as long as I have known him he gets called with G or gray

thanks lady thompson.

I truly hate it i'm afraid to say. Makes me think of a head to toe beige civil servant with really bad shoes and v dull personality. And with that really bad curly hair that the blokes wear short-ish but not short enough so it grows upwards.

Please note, just because something is "cool in America" that does not necessarily make it "cool." Quite the reverse, often.

I agree Puppymonkey. Eg. Kevin is really popular in America - it's like our Jack.

I believe Kevin is cool in France too - ditto

I love it.

Now that's decided, what about a middle name ?

I love it that people are dismissing it as boring or middle aged but threads asking for opinions on Pearl, Ruby, Mabel seem to elicit positive responses.

They are old lady names, old ladies in polyester frocks and cardigans (possibly with a brooch added on Sundays) waiting for the tea trolley to come round in their care home.

Sure they are prettier sounding names than Kathleen, Doreen, Dorothy, Ethel etc but dismissing Graham as middle aged when people are rediscovering Archie, Alfie, Freddie, turn of the century boys names, seems odd to me.

There was a bloke at my school who was actually called Malcolm Graham. Bizarrely he was extremely good looking and never wore a tank top.

I love the name Graham! Of course it is my husband's name, but I like it anyway.

Sitdown I think it is a question of how long ago it was last popular. We take names from our grandparents and greatgrandparents generation, but names from our parents generation are still too close for comfort to have come full circle and sound cool again (Maureen, Alan, Keith all seem rather middle aged, no?). Personally I don't think we are yet ready for a Graham revival but happy to be proved wrong.

its up to you what you call your baby if you like graham call it him

Ryobi - look in chat

sitdownplease - thanks and i have to agree. old fashioned names regularly go through renaissances so i'm thinking the time could be ripe for Graham.

puppy monkey - too right but a lot of it seems to make the journey across the ocean or we wouldn't have all this Hayden Kayden Jayden palaver.

They are clearly ripping off Brit girl names over there too.

Top 10 Names for 2007 (US)
1 Jacob / Emily
2 Michael / Isabella
3 Ethan / Emma
4 Joshua / Ava
5 Daniel / Madison
6 Christopher / Sophia
7 Anthony / Olivia
8 William / Abigail
9 Matthew / Hannah
10 Andrew / Elizabeth

Here's our Grayham with a quick reminder.... horrid name, like Colin, Ian, Kenneth, Brian, Neil etc.

I quite like it, and there wont be 4 more in his class at school

Quite like it. I used to want to call my future son Graham after Graham Coxon in Blur! lol

My 13 yo cousin called Graeme, think it's always been quite popular in Scotland.

There were loads of Graemes in our year at school along with

Craig
Mark
Scott
Stephen
David
Robert
Gary
Brian
Colin
Greig
Billy
Stuart
James

Dh says Graham is fab. But then he also likes Malcolm. I'm not too sure, but hey its personal.

Sorry - haven't time to read all the thread, but I think it's lovely that it's a family name.

Names go in cycles, and it's at a low ebb of popularity at the moment, BUT I'm sure our parents would have said the same thing about all the 'old gent/lady' names that are currently popular (Arthur, Fred, Lilly, Evie). Your Graham might very well be deemed to have a supercool name when he gets a bit older!

FWIW I would opt for Graham over one of the (lovely but) very popular names around at the moment...but that's partly because we have a very common surname (think Smith, Jones, Brown) and I'd rather my DC had a respectable but less used first name.

I think that the only reason people don't like it is because of its association with middle aged men, not because its inherently ugly.

Don't forget Archie and Arthur and all those "come back names" were traditionally considered as OAP names.

Personally I prefer it to all these new fangled Finley type names.

Go for it.

thanks Branflake.

I think it is inhernetly ugly actually. Too much grey!