Has the name Lucas become too popular? DS1 due in April...

[2010Dad]

DW and I have grown up together always saying we would call our son Louis if we ever have a boy. In recent months we've become pretty set on Lucas. We reckon it goes really well with our surname, Grey. It also means we can call him Luke or even Louie for short.

However, having just read The Most Popular Names Of 2009 it seems that Lucas has been the highest climber this year, racing 24 places up the charts to make number 15.

This has put me off a bit. How would you lot feel about it's popularity (probably due to Eastenders and Spooks) and what's your preference out of Lucas, Louis and Louie?

Feel free to suggest alternatives!

Regardless of popularity, Lucas Grey does go really well together and I'd be tempted to just keep it at that.

It depends on how much you're bothered about a popular name. Personally, having a very common name myself, I would avoid top 50/100 names, as I prefer to give my children more unique names, but every parent has a different viewpoint.

I think lots of names sound great with Grey:

William Grey
Quentin Grey
Simon Grey
Thomas Grey

Lucas is very of the moment and very popular It will shoot up the charts to the top 10 I think.

Louis is lovely. Is Louie even a name? Isn't it just a misspelling of Louis?

Thanks for the feedback, quite mixed so far.

snurgy, Louie is a separate listing to Louis in the 2008 charts, although we would definitely go for Louis if we chose that name.

So far, Lucas is back at the top of our favourites list!

Lucas William

Despite its popularity, (and I don't know any- wish I did because it's lovely) it's still classy IMO.

Now, Luca, on the other hand........

I don't like Louis, it's try-to-hard.

Luke is OK but a bit boring.

Lucas is just perfect.

I really don't like Louis. Luke is blah.

Lucas is lovely and sounds great with Grey.

Basically, what Bucharest said.

I would say that Luca is much much classier than Lucas. I find Lucas trendy and downmarket. It's very popular with teenage mums round here.

Loving these opinions... off to see a customer now, looking forward to checking this upon my return.

Thanks all

Lucas - it is popular but it does go very well with your last name

Louis - will you say it Louie or Lewis? I have met boys who do both... I think it too is quite popular as Louie pronounciation.

Louie - no it just looks like you can't spell

Luke - this is my favourite by far but it goes less well with your surname...

We would pronounce Louis as "Louie".

Lucas William is definitely our current favourite.

Well I have a Luke but I also know a Luca and a Lucas and love all three names.
Tbh in hindsight if I'd thought of it I would have called ds Lucas, but it would have ended up shortened to Luke anyway.

Also like Louis but would probably spell it Lewis.

Louis. I agree Lucas is downmarket.

Louis is much classier and classic than Lucas.

Much prefer Louis or Luke. Or what about Lucien? Goes just as well with Grey...

Seems like a 50/50 split on opinion here between Lucas and Louis, and really surprised to hear that people see Lucas as downmarket.

Certainly giving us second thoughts on Lucas, now.

I know of 2 Lucas Williams born in the last couple of months.

I prefer Luca as a name and also prefer Louis to Lucas.

On the phone to a friend atm, asked her if she likes 'Lucas' (she's pg with a boy) and she said she'd thought about it but her antenatal group say it's 'downmarket'. So yes, that seems to be a popular opinion.

ginny, they are different names.

Lucas, Luca, Luka, Luke very popular here.

Don't know any Louies and only one Louis.

What about Marcus? I don't know any and I know a few Lucases. don' know any marcuses at all.

I prefer Luke, it's more of a classic name I think whereas Lucas seems a trendy form of Luke that's popular at the moment, I've met quite a few. I wouldn't call it downmarket though, the rest of mumsnet obviously move in much more upmarket circles than me! I do like both though, and I think Lucas Grey is lovely.

Personally I've never really liked Louis, I've always thought it was a little bit pretentious - perhaps I am actually downmarket then!

I really like Lucas!

I personally find Louis a bit posh sounding.

I much prefer Lucas.

I have a Lucas, and know of quite a few younger Lucas's in the area. So it is getting popular but we still love it, I think it suits all ages and backgrounds and sounds great with your surname.

Find the 'downmarket' comments quite amusing as when our Lucas was born some people remarked it was a posh name!?

Also know of a lovely little Louie and think Louis/Louie goes well with your surname too.