Are there any usable Victorian/Edwardian names?

[bipbopdo]

Pregnant with my first (at last!). I’ve always had a soft spot for faintly eccentric names, but I’m conscious of the fact that my baby with be a real person that has to live with the name and I don’t want to saddle them with something just because I like it. So, I thought I’d get some feedback on my fairly chaotic list of favourites:

Boys -

• Algernon (Algy)
• Montague (Monty)
• James
• Hector
• Albert
• Auberon
• Rollo
• Rufus
• Peregrine (Perry)
• Inigo
• Ivo
• Benedict
• Rafferty

Girls -

• Clementine
• Felicity
• Petra
• Imogen
• Matilda
• Alice
• Eleanor
• Cecily

Boy names seem to be so much harder to pick compared to girl names.

Rollo reminds me of the sweet, so I'd personally avoid that, but none of the others are particularly offensive imo!

I love your list except Algernon, Montague, Peregrine and Petra

Most of those are pretty popular nowadays

Are you seriously considering nicknaming your child ‘Algy’? Might as well call him ‘Slimer’.

Matilda. Alice, Eleanor and Imogen are so popular now they’re just standard names. I love Felicity. I like Rufus and Hector.

I love peregrine, Montague and auberon but they may be marmite! Also Clementine ❤️

Monty, Perry and Clem/Clemmie are all lovely.

Completely agree with this for the girls names. As you say OP, it's a chaotic list! If you want something less well used, you need to look at the popularity of them all as some are very, very common and some not at all. You're not always aware of baby name trends when it's your first.

James, Inigo, Ivo and Benedict are good.
All your girls names are nice except Petra and Clementine.

I like Edgar and Aldous

Your girls names are lovely, not so much the boys. Well James is lovely (very common though, if you care), Rufus is nice too. Benedict is OK, although I actually prefer Benjamin. The others - nah.

I assume Algernon is a joke. Please don't do that to an innocent baby!

From your list, I love Rufus, Ivo, Rafferty for boys, and Clementine, Felicity, and Cecily for girls.

How about Caspar? Edmund? Walter? Leonard? Constance? Clara? Lydia?

Congratulations!

James is my favourite from the boys. The rest are nice apart from Algy, Auberon, Rollo, Peregrine (Perry), Inigo, Ivo and Benedict.

For the girls I love Clementine (prefer Clemency). Like the rest apart from Imogen.

I know two Algys IRL. Both are lovely guys. Their names, however....

James is a classic name which has been popular for hundreds of years. That makes it different from all your other boy name choices. It's not likely to drop out of the top 100, but that doesn't necessarily mean your son would have a dozen others in his class at school. My son has another classic name and I was quite surprised that there were no others in his primary school year and only one other in his large secondary school year. The great advantage of classic names is that they don't really date, everybody knows how to spell them and everybody can pronounce them.

Having said that, from your boys' list I also like Albert, Benedict, Hector, Ivo and Rufus.

Alice is my clear favourite from your girls' list. We have one daughter and one son. Our daughter got my favourite girls' name, which by good luck was also my husband's favourite. If our son had been a girl, he'd have been either Katherine or Alice. Alice might have been the favourite in the end because I couldn't decide whether to go for Katherine or Katharine. I also like Eleanor and Cecily.

I have a 5 year old Ivo, so obviously I love it. It’s always well received (at least to my fave) but lots of o ending boys names are popular at the moment so it doesn’t stand out as much as you might think.

It was also the nickname of the fat kid in Grange Hill. Very un PC.

I know a baby Montague whose nn is Tag. Also love Rufus.

Maybe it's where I live but none of those are unusual or unusable round here.

King Rollo forever for us 80s babies!

Well, 'James' is nice, and seems out of a different list from the other boys' names.

Fior girls, take any boys name and stick -ina on the end.
My Victorian ancestors were all Georgina, Thomas and, Wilhelmina. I've also co.e across Jamesina and Hughina. Some were shortened to pretty names much as Nina or Wilma.

Thomas , Hugo, or Alexander or William maybe

All of the girls names are ordinary names and not rare.

About three of the boy are unusual.

My choice from your list would be Hector and Felicity

congratulations. I'd shorten your list to :
Boys -
Montague (Monty)
Albert
Auberon
Rufus
Benedict
Rafferty

Girls -
Clementine
Felicity
Imogen
Matilda
Alice
Eleanor

your girls list is all pretty standard. Clementine is the only one I don't hear.

There is an ancient church a few doors away from my house with quite a lot of Victorian and Edwardian graves. Sadly most of the inscriptions on the tombstones have worn away but there is a lovely name for a girl:

Clarinda