Is anyone else out there just not as excited by boys names?
I am perpetually obsessed with girls names, finding new ones I like, making combinations, adding and changing my lists. But boys names - I’m not so taken by them comparatively. I only have a few boys names I really like, but even them I’m not obsessed with.
If, when I have kids, I only have boys, I’m going to be super disappointed.
I just can’t get into boys names as much as I can girls. Does anyone else feel this way? [name_m]How[/name_m] do you get on the boy bandwagon?
I don’t. I used to, many years ago, because when I first got into the world of baby names I copied the styles that everyone else catered to. And while everyone else seemed to love girl names of all different styles, types, ages, and appeals, when it came to boys they completely lacked imagination. For the most part, people did, and still do, cater to either dull overused classics like James and Alex, or modern ‘unique’ choices that are repetitive and ridiculously common like Wilder and Mason.
I broke away from the dull boy names everyone seemed to like, and started experimenting with other options. Names like Ambrose, Clement, Lucius, Hadrian, Julianus, Llywelyn, Sylvester, Quincy etc. A lot of them have been called ‘gay’, ‘too weird’, ‘likely to be bullied’ and such, but I ignore such criticisms and, as a result, have come to love my boy names just as much as my girl names, if not more so – because girl names are really hard to be original with, whereas it’s ridiculously easy to be original and exciting with boy names because so many people are so narrow-minded/limited when it comes to them.
So my advice would be to break away from the norm. Perhaps examine your girl names, check to see if there’s any pattern like style or length, and then maybe look for those same patterns in boy names. At the very least, it might give you some ideas.
It’s not that I’m not as excited about them as I am girl names, it’s more that I can find more girl names that I like (and even then, barely). I grew up with mainly sisters, had female friends, and so on, so coming up with girl names is a bit more natural to me, I suppose. There’s just not many boy names I like, honestly. Stylistically, names I like for either gender are similar: “older” names…[name_f]Eleanor[/name_f], [name_f]Ada[/name_f], [name_m]Franklin[/name_m], and [name_m]Felix[/name_m], to name a few. I get stuck on it often, but lately, it’s more of what I focus on in the name-realm. I guess it’s because we pretty much already are okay in the girl name field, so we have to get some options we like in the event we have a son down the road
I used to struggle with boy names and occasionally still do, but for me I have to be able to picture actually holding a baby and calling him or her by that name. I also find that I like names I can somehow relate to. I love [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] because I loved [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] Twist as a kid and the sense of a green color that makes me think it sounds a bit nature-y. So look around for inspiration. It can be from a favorite TV show, actor or actress, a culture that intrigues you, really anything at all! I think going over your girls’ list and trying to determine why exactly you like those names would maybe help you find similar boy names. One thing I love about this website is that you can go to a favorite girl name and just look under the “similar names” tab or even use the namehunter feature. Other than that, I would just say don’t overthink it. Forcing yourself to find a new name obsession can be tiresome and you may overlook some awesome names because you are trying too hard. There’s no rule that says you have to love both boy and girl names equally. Try to have fun
I used to be like this. Then I had a boy. I had a million perfect girl names and only one boy name.
I went on a name quest in case we have another boy and now somehow something has turned around and suddenly I am not that interested in girl names anymore. I find boy names much more interesting. Granted, most of the ones you hear on the playground won’t be my style, but I think that’s the interesting part for me now: there are plenty of amazing boy names out there, but people are more traditional with boy names still, so it takes courage to unearth the others and bringng them (back) to life.
Strangely, I used to have an easier time finding boy names that I like, and I had a terror of a time finding girl names that I thought suited my style. I guess I take it turn about, because now I have a much easier time considering girl names than I do boy names.
I do feel like people are less adventurous with boy names, so for every thousand boys named [name_u]James[/name_u] or [name_u]Michael[/name_u] or [name_m]Alexander[/name_m], there’s only one special, interesting name that sticks out to me. It even gets to a point where I feel like I’ve seen all the unusual choices, and even names like [name_m]Alistair[/name_m] or [name_m]Dante[/name_m], which are uncommon, start to feel old and worn out. I think it more has to do with the fact that my style isn’t compatible with the traditional conservative choices, which are plentiful when it comes to boy names; it’s not that there aren’t enough cool and interesting boy names out there, it’s just that there aren’t many cool and interesting boy names that I could conceivably and realistically use for myself.
Yes and no. Most of my name crushes recently have been girl names, and I have a hard time finding names that I would 100% use for a son someday if I have one. There are a lot of boy names I like but don’t love.
There are some common boy names I like a lot (I like the way they sound) but there are also lot of boy names that I find boring and overplayed. While names like [name_m]Peregrine[/name_m], [name_m]Thor[/name_m], Llewyn, Alleric and [name_m]Cornelius[/name_m] are way too kooky and out there for me, names like [name_m]Matthew[/name_m], [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m], [name_m]Brandon[/name_m] and [name_m]Daniel[/name_m] are just so dull. When I meet yet another guy named [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] or [name_m]Daniel[/name_m], it’s like they don’t even have a name. (On the flip side, if I met a guy named Bethor or Paragon or something equally odd, I’d think, “LOL WHAT?!?! Is that seriously your real name?”)
As for making combos, very few have really clicked with me. In fact, I only have two combos that I’m loving right now and they’re both boy names: [name_u]Dallas[/name_u] [name_m]Frederick[/name_m] and [name_u]Roy[/name_u] [name_u]Jameson[/name_u]. [name_u]Dallas[/name_u] and [name_u]Roy[/name_u] sound like brothers to me, and if I ever end up having two sons, these are the names I’d like to use. I tend to favor names that are uncommon but still within the top 500 or so, but not ridiculously obscure or insanely quirky.
Overall, I think people should be bolder when it comes to naming boys. It simply strikes me as weird when people with children of both genders will give the girls quirky names like [name_f]Calliope[/name_f] or [name_f]Rainbow[/name_f], then give their boys super conservative names like [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] or [name_m]Christopher[/name_m].
I feel that way, too. For some reason, there seems to be so many more options for girls’ names, and so many awesome combos you can come up with! Boys’ names can make good combos, too, but they’re just not the sort to get as excited about as girls’ names.
Thanks everyone for your replies! It’s interesting to gain some perspective on this.
@aldabellaxwulfe, I think you hit the nail on the head:
I think you are completely right here. Maybe that’s the problem. You see people in the girl names forum asking about [name_f]Honey[/name_f], [name_f]Zelda[/name_f], [name_f]Dulcie[/name_f] and [name_u]River[/name_u]… and over in the boys section there are threads on [name_m]Peter[/name_m], [name_m]Henry[/name_m], [name_m]Alexander[/name_m], and [name_u]James[/name_u]. People do seem to stay within trend boundaries with boys names. I will take your advice and go for the unconventional without worrying about what others are into!
I think I am more open minded and excited about girls names. But I do have a few boys names I stick to like glue ([name_m]Milo[/name_m],[name_m]Truman[/name_m], [name_m]Gavin[/name_m], [name_m]Leo[/name_m]/[name_m]Leonardo[/name_m], [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], [name_m]Ezra[/name_m],[name_u]Reid[/name_u],[name_m]Russell[/name_m] and [name_m]Gulliver[/name_m])
I developed my favorite boys name over time .Nameberry helps!
The list seems like I don’t struggle but it took a
long time to come up with that list.
Kind of. I find that my girls list has way more going on. I crush on loads of names, add more to my list, fall in and out of love, change the order of some of my favourites, construct combos with the perfect image and flow. Whereas as my boys’ list is far more constant. I rarely add new names or alter combos and everything tends to stay the same. But I find that I really, really love the names on my boys’ list more than those on my girls. For my girls I’m always worrying about sibsets and feeling unsure about which names I really love, whereas my boys have stayed steady because I just adore them so much, and they fit together well. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though there are fewer names, there are also fewer similarities like same endings or beginnings, similar sounds etc. which can be a problem with my girls names. I love my favourite girls’ names, but a lot of them have downsides that I have to overlook, and with so many other options I’m never certain if there’s a better choice, but I don’t want to force myself to love a name either. The boys are far simpler. I do sometimes feel frustrated that there aren’t as many boys names that I like and I just can’t find anything new or interesting, but that might just be because the ones I have on my list already just can’t be beaten. I think I’m more critical with boys names, and I take a bit more time deciding whether to add them, whereas a gorgeous combo can easily sway me to add a name to my girls’ list.
So, for me, it can be a pain sometimes when my boys’ list seems to be dead and unchanging. But when I look over my favourites I realise I still absolutely love them and don’t need to change anything, whereas I’m more uncertain about my girls (ramble over ;)).
I 100% feel the same way. I’m pregnant now and love a bunch of girl’s names but boys names not so much… They’re so boring in comparison. I agree with aldabellaxwulfe comment that boys names that are socially acceptable are so dull (for various reasons) whereas girls’ names have so much more personality. I’m going to take her advice and look for more unusual boys names. Hopefully that will to spark some interest in them for me.
↑ This. A thousand times this. @aldabellaxwulfe said it better than I could have. I myself have the opposite problem, mostly because boys names are so darn easy for me and I can be creative with boys names and all the interesting girls names have been used over and over again. PP have given some pretty solid advice on how to overcome this problem, but what I did when I was trying to get excited about girls names was to start looking at the meaning and mythology/history behind the names. My boys names were (and still are) pretty wild, but before I started actually looking my girls list consisted of mainly [name_f]Rose[/name_f] related names, [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] and variations, [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], [name_f]Rachel[/name_f], [name_f]Rebekah[/name_f], and Rahab. Now I have gems like [name_f]Artemisia[/name_f], [name_f]Cassiane[/name_f], [name_f]Thyme[/name_f], [name_f]Hadassah[/name_f], [name_f]Jacinda[/name_f], [name_f]Drucilla[/name_f], and [name_f]Selene[/name_f] on my list.
I only have a small list of names that I love, but that’s for either gender. I tend to like classic names, some are more extravagant, others are simple, sometimes I feel like I’d be disappointed if I only had boys in the future but then I think about the possibility of a little [name_m]Henry[/name_m], [name_m]Edmund[/name_m], [name_m]Arthur[/name_m] and/or [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], I picture sweet little boys, I imagine what they’d be like, what they’d look like, how I would dress them, what they like to do after school and then the possibility of only having girls disappoints me.
For me a name is always just a “path/entrance/door” to a picture, an imagery, a vibe or feeling and depending on what they make me think of, I love them or I don’t. [name_m]Even[/name_m] if some imageries are not as exciting to other people as those of grander/more unusual names, I’m drawn to the classicness of these imageries while I personally don’t care for the woodland-fairy vibe (just an example) of other names, doesn’t make them bad names but not names I get excited about even if they’re that much more unusual than [name_f]Rose[/name_f] or [name_f]Alice[/name_f] or [name_m]Henry[/name_m].
I think finding out what imagery your drawn to might help figuring out which names you like and finding more of that kind.
