Pencey
Pencey has been my favorite name for a while now. I love it so much. Its different and cute and its a family name for me. The probable is my SO doesn’t like it. He thinks I made it up and its not a real name. According to him, “you can’t just make up names like that.” All this coming from the man who thinks also I made up the name [name_f]Madeline[/name_f].
Have any of you been in this situation? Where you able to get your SO like the name? [name_m]How[/name_m] did you handle it?
I guess its just a matter of compromising and meet somewhere in the middle. What about [name_f]Peony[/name_f], or [name_u]Penny[/name_u]? I think they both have that sweetness and uniqueness that you are looking for, and maybe SO wont think they sound made up.
Oh. My. Goodness.
We have such a hard time with names. My husband and I have very different tastes, apparently. He hated [name_u]Theo[/name_u], because he is Spanish and it sounds too much like the word Uncle to him. He hated [name_m]Indio[/name_m] because of a certain connotation in American [name_f]Indian[/name_f] culture. Those were my two favorites while I was pregnant with [name_m]Judah[/name_m]. In fact, [name_m]Judah[/name_m] and [name_u]Noah[/name_u] were the only two names we did agree on, besides [name_u]Eliot[/name_u] for a middle. Which is only because of a musician we both adore. But I have loved the name [name_m]Judah[/name_m] since I was young, so it worked out. He is a taurus, stubborn as a damn bull, so no I did not get him to change his mind one bit. But thankfully we found a common ground. God help us if we have a girl, however…
My husband is sort of interested in names, but he flip-flops a truly amazing amount on which ones he likes. Earlier on, I used to worry when he didn’t really care for names I really liked, or get really excited when he was enthusiastic about names I really liked… but I’ve found that over time (sometimes a couple of years but sometimes seriously just a couple of months), his preferences change wildly. He recently got really excited about a name I showed him, to the extent that I got more into it to, and then when I mentioned it to him seriously maybe six weeks later, it was met with almost a neutral reaction. It was insane. He’s not like this about other topics. It’s fascinating and so weird and makes me worry slightly that if we have children, he’ll vacillate dramatically between loving and hating and not really caring about their names, whatever they may be.
TL, dr: he might change his mind.
That said, if the time comes and he still hates it, it might help to explain its history in your family and how much it would mean to you. You also might be able to use surnames as bargaining chips: like, the baby can have his surname or his favourite first name or whatever if you get to use Pencey in the middle name spot (for example).
Um, and I’m laughing with you and not at you, but I think it’s endlessly hilarious that he thinks you invented [name_f]Madeline[/name_f].
Well…my child’s name wasn’t on my top 5, so if you figure it out, let me know 
Yeah, my husband is like this. It seems a lot of men are from what I read on Nameberry. My husband likes names he’s read in his fantasy novels that he doesn’t even know how to pronounce! Endlessly frustrating because every time we discuss it he says them differently.
Out of interest, where does Pencey come from? I have not heard it before.
Same here! I had so many names in mind and he crossed every one of them off my list like nothing. It hurt. Still, we found a name that we both love and it fits our little girl perfectly. You’ll get there. Hang in there.
I have gotten beyond frustrated with my FI about names. He will just kind of shoot down a name and give no reason. Doesn’t matter if I’ve loved the name since I was a little girl. If it strikes him as odd or he simply doesn’t like it, it gets a no. Well, after he kaboshed many of my names, I finally drew a line: He could only say no to a name if he had a better one in mind. For example, if he didn’t like [name_f]Cecelia[/name_f], he needed to come up with an option himself, or it was going to stay on as an option. That is how I’ve been approaching it. So now he no longer gets to just say no and that’s it. If it’s no, there needs to be something else he has in mind.
That’s a shame, I like Pencey- it’s the name of the school in the Catcher in the [name_m]Rye[/name_m], do it gives a preppy feel to me
That is so funny about [name_f]Madeline[/name_f]