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Arrgh. Really need baby boy name help here.

9K views 62 replies 41 participants last post by  penelope3213 
#1 ·
So I know I had that huge long thread about the name Miles, but now I've decided I don't like it after all. I think. Maybe. Anyway, I'm looking for alternatives (much to DH's disgust!). But right now I feel like I've looked at ALL THE NAMES IN THE WORLD and haven't found the perfect one, so... help?

We like names with a hard-C sound, names that start with L, names with R-sounds in them (although DD's name starts with R, so I'm not sure about another R-name - too matchy? I could be convinced, though). I like names that have a kind of gentle sound to them without being girly; preferably with Anglo-Saxon, Celtic or at least Latin roots (to keep vaguely within our ancestral heritage); and not super-common, but not totally made up or "huh?"-worthy either.

Here are some that didn't quite make the cut, but have some of the right elements... (and forgive me for rejecting the names of your beloved children; I'm sure it's me, not the names!):

Liam - way too popular in NZ right now, or I'd go for it

Lachlan - I love, DH doesn't like

Clark - I like the sounds, and the Superman connotation, but it seems a bit too... modern? Nerdy? I dunno. Just doesn't sit right.

Llewellyn - Sounds to me too much like "Lou-Ellen"

Leander - Similarly, reminds me too much of "Leanne"

Lewis - I like because of CS Lewis, but I'm not sure I like how the name looks; plus, people would spell it Louis

Locke - kinda cool, but not "namey" enough for me.

Carroll - again, sounds too much like "Carol"

Carl - friend of DH's, so would be weird

Cullen - ruined because of Twilight

Calvin - I love it, but we're Calvinists so it would seem fangirlish and a bit odd

Carson - see above :p A bit too modern for our tastes, anyway

Calum/Callum - ruined by a kid we know

Connor - ruined by the kid on Angel and the kid on Primeval

Lionel - I dunno, meh?

Lyndon/Linden - DH vetoed

Russell - ruined for DH by some character in... something.

Lincoln - too Presidenty

Other names that aren't quite right, but have vaguely the right vibe, include Brock, Mason, Greyson, Hunter, Alden, Birch, Heath, and... heck, at this point I forget. They're all blurring together.

Help!
 
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#4 ·
I'm no help! The boys names that I like that we didn't get to use are Daniel, Dean, Ezra, and Calvin.

My brother's name is Corey and it's a nice name. My Dad's name is Kenneth.

Maybe some of those might hit...
 
#11 ·
I like the "L" names from your list, specifically Lewis and Llewellyn. Lewis is also a great island (where cool medieval chessmen were discovered). Llewellyn doesn't really sound like Lou Ellen when pronounced properly. It's my top contender should we ever have another boy.

I love Welsh names. My kid is Gwydion (we call him Gwyn for short, which is close to Gwen...but so what? Honestly.). Then you could have matching "W" names lol.

What about the names Ronan or Rory(RUAIDHRÍ)? No, I think Ronan is too close to your DD's name actually... How about Rothgar (kind of kidding here, but I am a huge Beowulf fan)?

I'll keep thinking...
 
#12 ·
Well, I was going to suggest Lincoln until I saw it all the way at the bottom of your list. It's my youngest son's name, and we get a lot of compliments on it.

What about Dominic? Doesn't exactly fit all your criteria, but I think it's a nice enough name.

Good luck finding "the one".
 
#14 ·
Let's see... I like some of your suggestions, but they're problematic. :p Dominic is DH's name! Malcolm has been "dibsed" by my sister (family name on her DH's side). I would like Graham, except there was a guy I knew once... Gregory reminds me too much of House, unfortunately! Rothgar is slightly out of our comfort zone. :p DH vetoed Garrett. And this is no doubt my calloused Australian ears, but Llewellyn still sounds like "Lou-Ellen" to me, even with that pronunciation! Levi reminds me too much of blue jeans.

A Welsh name wouldn't strictly be within our heritage - well, it probably is, somewhere, but as far as I know we're mostly Irish and Scottish. That doesn't mean anything Welsh is automatically vetoed, though... it looks like I can't afford to be too fussy!

I found myself liking Cowan for five minutes the other day before I remembered that DD's name is Rowan. I think the name-hunting is getting to me. :p
 
#17 ·
(crashing from new posts but I love name threads
innocent.gif
) I love you daughter's name. I think Mason would go well with it (but you already considered that name).
A pp mentioned Rhys, I like that, but yeah it's Welsh isn't it.
What about Milo? I really like that name. If we ever had a boy I would love to use it but my DP's last name is very typically Irish and starts with O' so that wouldn't flow wel I think)
I also lovelovelove Aidan but it's gotten so popular and than there's all the Brayden/Jayden/Caden 's..

Or some more Irish names
Donnchadh (pronounced DONN-a-cah or DUNN-a-cah) I like it, but I guess it is kind of a "huh?" name and the spelling is, well, not erm easy, lol
Cian or Ciaran
Oisin (pron. ush-een)
Malachi
Irial (Eer-ial)
Fionn/Finn (Finn has become very popular though, even over here in families with no Irish heritage whatso ever)
Fiachra (FEE-a-khra)
Fearghal/Fergal
Cormac
Ruarc (like Rourke)
Cathal (might be too much like cattle or kettle)

edit: or what about Aran (or Arran), like the Islands? It's kind of like Aaron though so he'd be spelling his name a lot (but he would be with pretty much all the names I suggested, hehe
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)

Or what about
Lucius
Arthur
Eli
Francis (I like Fran)
Mica

Good luck!
 
#18 ·
PP before mine stole some of my hard-C suggestions :p (Cian, Ciaran...or the K spellings of those names). Another celtic hard C name would be Conal, My DH likes that one alot but I'm not fussy (but maybe you would like it!). Cillian is another one (I tend to go back and forth on that name...the 'kill' part is harsh). Casey is another hard-c name that I really like.

Also along the celtic thread...Kenzie and Keegan, which i usually have seen spelled with K, not C.

I'm the same as you, I LOVE Liam but it's just too popular. We try to pick names that aren't too common, and somehow we end up being trend predictors or something - we have a Fionn (which as PP said is getting more and more popular) and a Declan, and we get people saying to us all the time "oh my friend/cousin/whatever has a son named that". Sigh. :p

L names...Luke? Lucien (not Celtic, but I loved the character Lucien on ER :p He pronounced it loosh-en)?
 
#21 ·
Ok, I'm a huge fan of geeky medieval names (even better if they are Welsh) so how about: Emrys? Doesn't really fit your perimeters but its a damn cool name (and the second serious contender should I have another boy...but then both boys would be named after magicians which might be cheesy).

Or Gawain? Cedric (Cerdic)? Edmund (Eadmund)? Godric? Oswin?

Cuchulainn? (Although that one is hard to pronounce...Koo-HUL-an I think?)

How about Olin? Its my grandfather's name and very uncommon.
 
#23 ·
No suggestions to offer (actually so many of the names that PPs have suggested were on our list of contenders, lol) but I totally sympathize with how hard it is to pick a boy name! Probably to pick any child's name, but I only have boy experience. My process is very cerebral like yours initially, but after going through tons of names it always ends up coming down to the name that "feels right" -- very subjective, but it has worked for us three times! Basically, one of us (usually me) will have a strong feeling that a certain name is right, and the other one will agree, "yeah, I like that" and once it comes together like that, for the first name, it is set, and then we hash out middle names. We've both ended up being happy with the names we've chosen. So I would say to keep trying out names in your head and eventually something will pop out at you. I try to envision having the baby in my arms and calling him by the name, putting it on birth announcements, calling a young child by the name, seeing it on his resume or college application, etc. and that helps to rule things out and then also helps you recognize the "right" name. That's my process anyway! Oh, and another thing we did is we would take breaks from talking about names, for a week or two, and then come back to it. So maybe taking a break would help you clear your head and then when you come back to it, the right name will be more obvious.

ETA: In case it's not obvious, my kids' names are not really Bird and Bear, those are just their nicknames, lol. I wouldn't have felt any need to say that except that my SIL actually considered naming her son Bear as a given name.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
I also lovelovelove Aidan but it's gotten so popular and than there's all the Brayden/Jayden/Caden 's..
I know! I'm trying to avoid trendy-sounding names... even though I quite like a lot of them. It's such a pain - everything is either too "normal" (someone suggested Luke, but it's just too common/standard for my liking, even though I really like it), or too trendy, or so uncommon it's hard for me to see it as a name rather than a random collection of letters.

Girls' names are way easier, I swear. We had to have a follow-up sono recently, and confirmed the baby was a boy while we were there; and I was torn between "I've already knitted all this blue masculine stuff" and "But we have a girl's name!". :p

Finn is super-trendy here right now, but I haven't actually heard Fionn! I like it. Bet DH will veto it, though. :p How is it pronounced? I just Googled it and it seems like some people say Fin, some say 'Fee-on' (which I think I prefer, otherwise we might as well just use Finn/Fynn, right?) and a few say 'Fyoon'.

Lucius and Cedric are too strongly associated with Harry Potter for me; Cillian, sadly, reminds me of Cillian Murphy, specifically Cillian Murphy being Scarecrow in Batman Begins; so yeah, no.
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He is one creepy chap. Cuchulainn is pretty awesome, but it reminds me of Angela's Ashes, which is surely one of the most depressing books in existence, particularly when it comes to babies; so again, no. And same for Malachi, sadly.

I do like Emrys and Gawaine; I think DH already vetoed the latter. Basically, the only names he likes right now are Miles, Lewis, and Clark. (I have pointed out that if we use Lewis or Clark we can never name a subsequent son the other name!) Miles is still our backup name, I guess... and I sorta like Lewis... but I'm just not sure. I'm not sure who's fussier, me or DH!

Quote:
ETA: In case it's not obvious, my kids' names are not really Bird and Bear, those are just their nicknames, lol. I wouldn't have felt any need to say that except that my SIL actually considered naming her son Bear as a given name.
LOL! You know, initially I thought it was obvious, but then I started to think "Well, this is MDC", and since then I've always wondered! Good to know.
lol.gif


Keep the suggestions coming! I'll run the latest batch past DH (expected response: "No, no, no, no, ew, no; what's wrong with Miles again?").

Quote:
I try to envision having the baby in my arms and calling him by the name, putting it on birth announcements, calling a young child by the name, seeing it on his resume or college application, etc. and that helps to rule things out and then also helps you recognize the "right" name.
That's the trouble I'm having with Miles! It's not common here, and I know a lot of people I know won't like it. And if they're going to give me a faintly amused look and say "Miles?" - well, I can deal with that if I really like the name (I did with Rowan, which is apparently a lot more wacky-out-there in NZ than on MDC!), but I don't want to have to defend the name if I have my own doubts about it.
 
#25 ·
Hmm, I liked Kyan for a minute. It's different and not too popular, and the only reason it didn't make our cut is b/c Dh's brother is Ryan and we thought it was too similar. But I loved Kyan Dax and thought it would be an awesome name for a boy. Dax is the middle name we have 100% decided on, and now begins the hunt for an equally badass first name. Nothing is working!!! Everything is just so trendy or, like you said, a jumble of letters, or too plain.

Good luck! I'm going to be lurking for ideas too.
 
#26 ·
I thought of Declan right after reading your first post but I think someone else thought that too! The other one that comes to mind is Killian. Or Kenzie or Cencil. I also like Rhys, seeing as my DS is Cager(pronounced kay-jer not keggar or kaygar) Rhys
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but just FYI I know its Welsh but the first time I heard it and saw it spelled that way was a New Zealand comedian named Rhys Darby. Good luck!

What about Emery?
 
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