Need ideas for boys' names.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Oni no Husband and I may well be procreating. We’ve had a girls’ name picked out since about the time we started considering the idea (and we both really do want a girl) but there’s at least a 50% chance that the Potential Offspring will have a Y chromosome, and we don’t want him getting beat up on account of being named Athena Marie.

Requirements/guidelines:

At least two syllables (this is important)
Not a “last-name-as-first-name”; both of us hate that trend.
Interesting. Not never-before-heard-of, not common as dirt. Not a misspelling of another name (ie, Ayden, Brandonn, Lerry)

Oni no Husband is agitating strongly (though I don’t know how seriously) for Bahamut. I told him that, geek-pride or no, there is no way in hell is my son going to be named after a summons from FFVII. His second choice is Solomon, which I’m meh about, but it’s kinda growing on me. He tends to prefer Old Testament names generally.

I like nature/mythological names - my current favorite is Arthur. Apollo is nice, too, and works well with Athena…but I once knew an Apollo and the name really worked against him. I’m also kinda partial to Kestrel, but Oni no Husband hates it.

Ideas?

2

Gilgamesh

He’s not really a summon so it’s ok

3

If we’d had a boy, we were going to use “Chaplin.” Obviously, this violates your No Last Names rule, but if you’re a fan of Chaplin, it transcends that trend, I think.

4

This site has three hundred Greek baby names for boys. Of their list, I like:
Ajax
Galen
Giles
Jasper
Julius
Juri
Marcus
Nico
Piers
Rhodes (originally a place, rather than a last name, apparently. so is my name)
Silas
Theron
Zale
Well, I like Cadmus and Daedalus too, but those are a lot more dated :slight_smile:

5

My son is named Howard - I’m not sure whether that violates your last-names-rule or not.

Have you checked out nymbler.com?

6

May I inquire about the two-syllable rule? I came in here with a list of good names but many are too short.

Liam
Julian (just met one today, in fact)
Aristotle
Gawain
Broderick
Griffin
Ariel (pronounced are-ee-el, not air-ee-el)

7

Criteria I had when choosing my daughter’s name:

Must fit well with middle name, which was already a given - a feminised version of my Grandad’s name. Do you know what middle name you’d like? That makes a difference.

Must fit well with the surname. I presume this is why you want two syllables or more? I had the same criterion. My surname ruled a lot of my favourite names out, unfortunuately. :frowning:

Must not create unfortunate initials.

Must not have been used by anyone in my family, or anyone I know unless I don’t see them often.

Must be connected to my wider life - Shakespeare’s plays provided a lot of options for me, but that was for girls’ names.

Must have an OK meaning.

Must not be in the top twenty popular names, but also not so odd that everyone would assume the kid’s mother was a weirdo.

Must not have a short form that I dislike.

Given that, I liked, for boys: Gabriel, William (sadly ruled out because of my surname, and it’s also hugely popular), Toby (mainly because of the baby in Labyrinth), Bruno (it sounded a bit too much like a dog’s name, but it’s also turned out to be rather popular for little boys where I live), Rufus (ditto), Oscar (though it was too popular - and I don’t like Oz as a nickname), Harry (ruled out for various reasons, especially popularity, but I still like the name), and Jonah.

Some Old Testament names are lovely. Ezekiel (though then you get Zeke), Isaiah (Izzy), Zachariah (HUGELY popular in various forms), Balthazar, etc. Gilgamesh not so much, and he’d always be called Gil.

Inigo is a name not one, but two acquaintances of mine have chosen for their sons, with really ordinary surnames. Of course, it’ll be consistently misspelt as Indigo, but that’s not so bad.

If you chose Arthur, and moved to the UK, he would meet quite a few other Arthurs his age. Grandad names are on their second round, as usually happens.

Apollo is probably one of the few names that would stand out as weird round here.

Maybe Bahamut could be a middle name. That’s a name that would need not only spelling out every time someone writes it down, but every time someone hears it. Bahawhut?

8

I like the bolded ones too. Silas also has a literary precedent in Silar Marner.

9

I think she’d prefer a name that won’t get her son picked on.

10

Yeah, but she’s considering Apollo and her partner’s rooting for Bahamut. :smiley:

11

Sylar is nice. Only a little evil. :smiley:

12

Christian Muhammad- (covers three billion of the world’s inhabitants)

I think an unusual name should be balanced with a traditional, like

Nicholas Selwyn (Selwyn’s a Gaelic name I’ve always liked)

or

Jason Padraig

or

James Tiberius

13

I like Gunnar.

I don’t pronounce it like the Dutch; I pronounce it “gunner.”

14

Hell, I just like Marcus. And meets your criteria. Bonus for no gratuitous ‘Y’ (the chromosome is Y enough) :smiley:

15

I always fancied Etsee or Varédiem. For some reason they just sounded so comfortable yet powerful. I could trust someone who had either of those names.

16

What’s wrong with a good old fashioned Anglo Saxon name?

Osric
Ceolwulf
Athelstan
Thinfrith
Wigmund
etc.

17

Throckmorton
Morton
Nigel
Basil
Cornelius
Devon

18

John (or Jon) or Atticus are my two current favorite names.

19

Cormac
Aidan
Lorcan
Tiernan
Odhran
Fiachra

20

You’re hilarious, An Gadai! I came in to suggest Cormac! :smiley:

Also-

Zack
Conner
Declan
Cameron
Erik
Jack
Johnny
Kelly
Dana