Side note I also have a daughter named Chrysanthi (nn Ani) Eleni. James is my husband’s MN and Gregory is his first name.
Hey all!
Is [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] usable for a first name in the US? I’m first generation Greek American, my husband is not Greek. We have such a difficult time agreeing on boy names and the only name we can agree on is [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] (nn [name_m]Archie[/name_m]). The baby’s middle name would be [name_m]Gregory[/name_m]. I have asked countless people their opinion and I actually haven’t gotten any negative feedback, which is surprising to me…that’s why I’m coming to you all! Honestly, what do you think? For reference, our older son is named [name_u]James[/name_u] [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] and goes by [name_u]James[/name_u]. TIA!
If he’s mostly going by [name_m]Archie[/name_m] it will work great. If hes going by [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] it is quite an unusual name but probably doable.
I think it’s definitely usable! @brittanyanitarose has a little [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m]. However, I do think that [name_m]Gregory[/name_m] [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] would flow and fit better with your son’s name.
I think the nn [name_m]Archie[/name_m] makes this feel quite usable and I do like the name, though it is very different from [name_u]James[/name_u] if that matters to you
[name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] ‘’[name_m]Archie[/name_m]‘’ maaaaay be usable, but [name_u]James[/name_u] and [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] are just… too drastically different as siblings in my opinion. Also, as a Greek person myself, [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] feels a bit silly to me? It’s the kind of name that’d get mocked here. Not sure how your Greek relatives feel about it, though if you’re not planning on visiting Greece and your relatives don’t think it’s silly then it doesn’t really matter!
[name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] would be cool! Not unwearable.
But I have to agree with this. I don’t think sibsets have to match perfectly but… [name_u]James[/name_u] & [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] are very different. I’d say “your style… changed?” if I met a parent of J & A.
I haven’t run it past my dad, siblings or any of my cousins (who still live in Greece). I had my heart set on [name_m]Andreas[/name_m] (nn [name_m]Dre[/name_m]), but my husband thinks it is too close to the female name “[name_u]Andrea[/name_u]” used frequently in the US. We keep running into boy name issues because, as you know, Greek male names are more “flowery” than [name_m]German[/name_m]/English etc names. Also, I already have 5 nephews, so many names have been taken. It’s so frustrating
I get the struggle! You could always do an [name_f]English[/name_f] name with the middle name [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m], but if you want a Greek first name here are some ideas:
[name_u]Atlas[/name_u]
[name_m]Apollo[/name_m]
[name_u]Alexis[/name_u]
[name_m]Ares[/name_m]
[name_m]Byron[/name_m]
[name_m]Alexander[/name_m]/Alexandros
[name_u]Constantine[/name_u]
[name_m]Cosmas[/name_m] ‘’[name_m]Cosmo[/name_m]‘’
[name_m]Cassander[/name_m]
[name_m]Damian[/name_m]
[name_u]Elias[/name_u]
[name_m]Evander[/name_m]
[name_u]George[/name_u]
[name_m]Harris[/name_m]
[name_m]Ilya[/name_m]
[name_m]Isidore[/name_m]
[name_m]Leon[/name_m]
[name_m]Leander[/name_m]
[name_m]Lucas[/name_m]
[name_m]Leonidas[/name_m] ‘’[name_m]Leo[/name_m]‘’ or ‘’[name_m]Leon[/name_m]‘’
[name_m]Maximos[/name_m] ‘’[name_u]Max[/name_u]‘’
[name_u]Nikita[/name_u]
[name_m]Nathaniel[/name_m] ‘’[name_m]Nate[/name_m]‘’
[name_u]Orion[/name_u]
Perseas ‘’[name_u]Percy[/name_u]‘’
[name_m]Phineas[/name_m] ‘’[name_u]Finn[/name_u]‘’
[name_m]Raphael[/name_m]
[name_m]Seamus[/name_m] ( Pronounced Simos in Greece though, not shay-mus)
[name_m]Theodore[/name_m]/Theodoros ‘’[name_u]Theo[/name_u]‘’
[name_m]Thomas[/name_m] (It works really well with [name_u]James[/name_u] too!)
[name_m]Timotheos[/name_m] ‘’[name_u]Theo[/name_u]‘’
I do think that some of these work better with [name_u]James[/name_u] than others, but I thought I’d put them all on the table!
Thank you for all the suggestions! I actually fought pretty hard to have our 1st son be a [name_m]Leonidas[/name_m] (nn [name_m]Leo[/name_m]) to the point where we didn’t have a name for [name_u]James[/name_u] until right before we left the hospital. I should have explained why I used/am using [name_u]James[/name_u] and [name_m]Gregory[/name_m] in the OP. I like using family names, but I also LOVE using fun/unique names. I also have a daughter named Chrysanthi (nn [name_f]Ani[/name_f]) [name_f]Eleni[/name_f]. [name_f]Eleni[/name_f] is my name. [name_u]James[/name_u] is my husband’s middle name (hence the eventual usage) and [name_m]Gregory[/name_m] is my husband’s first name. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband loved the name Chrysanthi from the beginning and her name was decided when I was 20 weeks pregnant. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband doesn’t care about using ‘[name_m]Gregory[/name_m]’ as a MN, I just think it would be cool for each of our kids to have one of our names, especially since the first two do. I tried Cosmos too, also rejected. I have nephews named [name_u]Constantine[/name_u], [name_m]Lukas[/name_m], and [name_u]Elias[/name_u]
I think if you’ve used James you don’t need to use Gregory as well unless you really like it. Archimedes is really cool but very noticeably different to James. I like Andreas, but if your husband doesn’t, what about using the English form Andrew - it’s a great Greek origin name, classic/timeless and New Testament like James. Andrew Archimedes You could still use Archie as a nickname if you really wanted and/or your Greek family could use Andreas.
That is a great point about how I have already used one of my husband’s names, especially since there is a high likelihood of us having a 4th child. [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] is a nice, classic name also!
My son is Archimedes Theodore, which kinda has a similar vibe to Archimedes Gregory doesn’t it? And we use the nickname Archie! Based on our experience I would say it’s definitely useable.
Very few people have had trouble with the name even if they aren’t familiar with it which is nice. I can think of maybe two occasions where someone needed help with pronunciation.
Funny thing I’ve learned though:
For a lot of people who do know Archimedes, their association with it is the owl in Disney’s The Sword and the Stone. It never crossed my mind until after he was born and we had several people mention the movie. My first thought was always the mathematician.
As far as associations go though, there are worse things than a cartoon owl.
I love the idea of siblings Chrysanthi, James, and Archimedes! Though I agree with others that you don’t need to use Gregory when you’ve already used James.
I know people keep saying they’re mismatched but I disagree, James Aristotle and Archimedes Gregory make sense to me. And I think the shared fuzzy -es endings in this case helps tie them together even if they don’t share language roots.
Then again my favorite name for another boy is Edmund and I’m sure plenty of people would find that mismatched with Archimedes as well.
lol I never knew this Of course, I haven’t seen the movie either but yeah, I thought everyone would have heard of [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] because of the Greek mathematician like how everyone should have heard of [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] because of the philosopher.
Although a rare name in the US, [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] should be familiar enough to not cause major pronunciation issues so I think it’s usable. While it’s quite stylistically different from [name_u]James[/name_u], it fits with Chrysanthi and if [name_u]James[/name_u] ever feels left out, he can use his middle name [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] so I think [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] works as a fn. Also, while [name_m]Gregory[/name_m] [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] would match his brother better as others mentioned, I think it could get confusing when you have 2 people with the same (or even similar name based on personal experience) name in the house. I know you want to keep the tradition of family names but like what @EJK1720 said, since you’ve already used [name_u]James[/name_u] and your husband doesn’t seem to care about using [name_m]Gregory[/name_m], maybe could try being open to using other names? Also really like the idea of [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m]
Disney used it in another animated movie too. Which I also didn’t catch until we watched [name_m]Tarzan[/name_m] with my son when he was like 2- [name_f]Jane[/name_f]'s dad in the movie introduces himself to the gorillas as [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] Q. [name_u]Porter[/name_u]. Apparently someone at their animation studios likes this name.
Thanks so much for responding! It’s great to hear the experience of someone who has named their little guy [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m]! We must think alike because when we named our son [name_u]James[/name_u] [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m], I said that if he really wanted to use [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] as his name as he grew up, he totally could.
I’m not a huge fan of a lot of the traditional boy names ([name_m]William[/name_m], [name_u]Michael[/name_u], [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] etc), but I have always LOVED the name [name_u]James[/name_u] for some reason.
I also love the “[name_m]Ed[/name_m]-” boy names, like [name_m]Edmund[/name_m]. I wanted to use the name [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] for this baby, but my MIL hates any name with the [name_m]Ed[/name_m]- beginning due to some unresolved family issues
I think of the mathematician too and didn’t realize Disney had an owl named [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] haha!
Yes! I have never liked “matchy” sibling names. I feel like if we had 2 boys with the first names [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] and [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m], it would get confusing. Especially since their sister generally goes by [name_f]Ani[/name_f].
Like you said, if [name_u]James[/name_u] wants to go by [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] one day, that would be great! [name_f]My[/name_f] husband wasn’t 100% sold on [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] as a first name, and I’ve always loved the name [name_u]James[/name_u], so it was a good compromise. [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] is also growing on me!
Andre is nice too, but I’m not sure if your partner would also find that too close to [name_u]Andrea[/name_u]. [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] definitely feels like a safe bet.
You could still use Archie as a nickname if you really wanted and/or your Greek family could use Andreas.
Of course, I haven’t seen the movie either but yeah, I thought everyone would have heard of [name_m]Archimedes[/name_m] because of the Greek mathematician like how everyone should have heard of [name_m]Aristotle[/name_m] because of the philosopher.
