Favourite boy names from this shortlist for a bookish but not nerdy feel

[danascully96]

Which is your favorite: Miles, Joseph, Luke, Daniel, Pierce, Alexander “Alec,” Nicholas, Cameron, Christian, Caleb, Elijah, Clark, Heath, Max, James “Jamie,” Theodore, Russell, August, Simon, Blake, Rowan, Graham, or Leo?

If this helps, I always picture a handsome, bookish man but hopefully not a dorky name!

No idea what you mean by bookish but not nerdy, that’s a bit odd.

Most are nice, so I’d say Heath, Graham Pierce and Clark are the worse ones. Luke’s my favourite

Miles is my favourite from that list

Thats a long list - can you not whittle it down a bit yourself??

My favourites are:

Miles
Joseph
Luke
Daniel
Leo

Woohoo, you have great taste. My 2 are on your list
Graham, Simon and Rowan 😮just no.

Love -
Alexander (though prefer Alex or Sandy to Alec)
James (but not fussed on Jamie)
Nicholas
Daniel
Leo

Dislike -
Heath
Clarke
Christian
Rowan
Russell
August
Simon
Blake
Graham

Others are OK

Favourites- Miles or Caleb

You could go all retro with Simon, which is my favourite

Nice list. Pierce, Nicholas, Christian, Simon are my favourites.

I’m in the early stages and don’t want to make more than one post. Prefer to have them all out there!

Love/like August, Christian, Miles, Nicholas and Leo. I also love Piers, but not Pierce.

Simon, Luke, and Elijah, I really like.

Love:
joseph (despite it being common I still like this one)
nicholas (Nico is my favourite shortening)
theodore (but there will be loads of Theo’s)
russell
Heath
elijah

ok but bit bland for me:
Luke
Daniel
Rowan
Leo

dislike:
pierce (any name that’s a verb is a terrible idea imo)
clark (similar as it’s a job if spelt with an E)
August (more commonly a girls name and also odd if not born in August)
simon (sorry but that’s a personal dislike due to the person I knew called that being a violent disgrace of a human being)
Caleb
Cameron (means crooked nose and I can’t get past its meaning)
Graham
Blake (very American and also commonly a girls name)
miles (I find it a dull name and it’s also a measurement not just a name)

Jamie is the best one out of all those, but Jamies are sporty not bookish.

James but not Jamie
Miles
Christian

I also think Lawrence would work

Joseph and Daniel are my favourite

Like:
Heath
Max
Leo
Jamie (not a fan of James)

ok:
Christian
Nicholas (Nico or Nicky, not a fan of Nick)
Cameron
Caleb
Theodore
Alexander “Alec” (if it was Alex or Sandy would be in the 'like' column)
August
James “Jamie” (only because it would be shortened to Jamie)
Rowan
Joseph
Luke
Daniel

Dislike:
Elijah
Clark
Miles
Russell
Pierce
Simon
Blake
Graham

I like Blake, Caleb, Christian, Daniel, Dante, Heath, Hugo, Leo, Luca, Ludo, Miles, Rafferty, Raphaël and Theo.
All of those have a poetic vibe although I prefer raffish over bookish.

I think I'd say to people 'would you believe I met a baby Graham today?'. It might even make the group chat.

Both my DC on that list plus two ex boyfriends!
James/Jamie my favourite.

It’s funny, the name Graham has a much more outdated connotation in the UK than the US (I’m American). In the US, it’s seen as a slightly preppy/warm/genial sounding name, but I know in the UK it’s frumpy or extremely dated. I guess it must’ve been super popular there for a long time, whereas it’s never been super popular here. Since I travel to the UK a lot, it’s good to be aware of these differences.

I love Luca! Boyfriend is blonde and I’m a redhead and he thinks we can’t use names like Luca because we’re not Italian 😭 Will work on him 😜

James Luke and Alexander are probably the most "classic" from that list, as in there's always some in every generation, but not super popular. Stereotypically, they could be clever, but are maybe not fully nerd or as bookish as you want, as in they can be set one, but they can also be sporty. Simon and Christian seem more 70s/80s, Cameron is quite popular now, same with Elijah.
Some names are more obviously religious, and some are more likely to be shortened, like Nick, so bear that in mind if it affects your judgment.

I think Luke is one of the most unbookish names I could think of. But names clearly give different vibes to different people!

If you think you'll travel to the UK a lot with your child, I would avoid Graham due to the US UK pronunciation differences.

A UK Graham would generally speaking be between the ages of 50 - 70, and yes it was obviously very popular at one point as you meet quite a lot of them. A bit like Ian. Trevor and Derek are also seen as really old fashioned in the UK, but not so much in the US.