I’d like to apologize in advance if this all comes off very negative. It’s a heckuva lot easier for us to define what we don’t like than what we do.
First off, we’d really like to avoid Western names, like [name_m]Clyde[/name_m], [name_m]Wyatt[/name_m], [name_m]Houston[/name_m], [name_u]Walker[/name_u], [name_u]Dallas[/name_u], [name_u]Cody[/name_u], [name_m]Amos[/name_m], Wesson, etc. We’re from Southern Appalachia and would like to focus on names more connected to that region.
We’d also like to avoid names that have a national level of popularity: [name_u]Mason[/name_u], [name_u]Sawyer[/name_u], [name_m]Tucker[/name_m], [name_m]Levi[/name_m], [name_m]Jasper[/name_m], [name_m]Travis[/name_m], etc. might once have felt very Southern, but at this point they’d be as at home on a baby in [name_u]California[/name_u] as one in Kentucky.
Third, we’d like to avoid names that are a bit too quintessentially Southern, like [name_u]Beau[/name_u], [name_m]Rhett[/name_m], or [name_m]Montgomery[/name_m]. They feel disingenuous to us.
Fourth, we’re not a fan of place, nature, or occupation names, at least for boys (nature/place names are nice in girls to us, and in fact we can come up with plenty of nice girl names, but we’re not having a girl.) In theory we’re not against naming our child for a famous Southerner, but we have been looking a lot at potential namesakes and cannot really find any that inspire us. We would prefer then not to really continue to consider this route.
Some really biblical names seem like great options, but we’re worried they come off as Western, Jewish, or just way more religious than we really are. Definitely open to these though if you think they fit the feel we’re going for.
We are definitely open to a first/middle pair if it gives the sort of feel we’re looking for.
We have looked through our family trees for inspiration but have not found anything we’re really comfortable using. Lots of Baileys, Courtneys, Whitneys, Ashleys, etc. which read too feminine for us to feel comfortable using for a boy. Sadly, no nice surnames either.
We definitely don’t want something Southern prep like [name_u]Blair[/name_u] or [name_m]John[/name_m]-[name_m]David[/name_m], but we don’t want to go trashy like [name_u]Bentley[/name_u] or [name_m]Ryker[/name_m].
The only names we’ve got on our list at this point are Ketch (which DH loves but I’m not sold on), [name_m]Cotton[/name_m] (which my daddy won’t stop suggesting), and [name_u]Sutton[/name_u] (which I like but DH thinks sounds too much like “mutton.”) [name_m]Lafayette[/name_m] and [name_m]Wesley[/name_m] have come up as potential middle names, but we’re not in love. We like Roke as a nickname but cannot find a longer form we like, except maybe Roanoke but that feels try-hard.
Recent suggestions that we really aren’t how we feel about at all are Julep and [name_m]Angus[/name_m].
[name_m]Truett[/name_m], [name_m]Fleetwood[/name_m], and [name_m]Wiley[/name_m] are very nice Southern names, but also the names of living relatives, so we’d prefer not to use them.
We really want a nice boy name that just screams Southern without sounding trashy or making his life difficult for him if he leaves the South. At this point we’re desperate just to find any names we like. Suggest away, and thanks muchly in advance!