We’re expecting our 7th baby, 5th boy this summer. Our kiddos are P@ul, Cl@re, M@rk, K@th@rine (called Kat and Kitty at home and exclusively by her full name outside the family), J@mes (nn Jay, not sure if he will use this as school yet), and Andr3w. Last name is Tys0n.
Everything else being even, I strongly favor Henry. My main stumbling block is that the older boys all have New Testament first names and this baby would not. My husband doesn’t share my enthusiasm for Henry, but strongly wants to use a name I love. He knows that the baby’s name means way more to me than it does to him. We’ve both used nearly all of our favorite boy names as first or middles already so I think it’s easier at the point to be accommodating.
Our other 2 contenders are both New Testament names - Peter and Gabriel. I probably find Peter a little more my style. However, I do like Gabriel a lot better with our last name and I really would prefer not to repeat a first initial. (I realize the initial thing may be a bit silly as P@ul is starting high school so it’s not like I need to label their belongings to distinguish them and by the time a little Peter wants to have his own initial, P@ul will likely be moving out of the house, but silly or not, it is still a strike against using Peter).
My husband, not being a name nerd, doesn’t think the New Testament theme matters and also isn’t bothered by repeating a first initial. He would also use John which repeats a cousin name so for me isn’t a great choice.
So I’m looking for feedback on how a Henry would fit in with my crew. And if we decide against Henry, would Peter or Gabriel be the better pick?
As far as just fitting with your other names, [name_m]Peter[/name_m] probably “fits” the best. However, I think loving the name is more important and [name_m]Henry[/name_m], to me, fits just fine. I don’t think anyone will think it stands out oddly from the rest. It especially goes well with Cl@re and K@tharine. (full disclosure - I have a [name_m]Henry[/name_m], but I’m actually considering [name_m]Peter[/name_m] for my next). [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] to me doesn’t sound as thematic with the other names as [name_m]Henry[/name_m] and [name_m]Peter[/name_m]. I think of it as more of an Old Testament name I guess, and most Gabriels I know are Jewish.
The fact that [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] sounded less thematic was actually another one of the things I did like about [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] over [name_m]Peter[/name_m]. Adding a [name_m]Peter[/name_m] to our boys really turns them into sounding like a list of apostles (even though [name_m]Mark[/name_m] wasn’t an apostle). I liked that [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] is a significant [name_m]New[/name_m] Testament character (probably gets more attention among Catholics than among some Protestants) without being an apostle.
We had essentially agreed on [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m]; however, the further into the pregnancy I get (and the more I’m suffering for this little guy) the more I want to just adore our chosen name. When I shared our choice of [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] with my mom and a few friends, I felt the need to explain that obviously it wasn’t a favorite and the we had already used up all of our favorites. (That sounds a little blunt, but I also had no problem telling them 2 years ago that [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] was my husband’s favorite name and since I didn’t have a strong favorite I let him have his choice.)
Please forgive me as I know you have not asked for other suggestions but I can’t help but love [name_m]David[/name_m] with your sibset! Chances are you’ve probably already used it as a middle name, but if not it would work so wonderfully and I absolutely love it’s meaning.
My second vote would go to [name_m]Peter[/name_m], then [name_m]Henry[/name_m], followed by [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m]. I also love [name_m]John[/name_m] (could use [name_m]Jack[/name_m] as a nickname if the cousin goes by [name_m]John[/name_m]?).
Congrats on the pending arrival of your 7th blessing. All your children have wonderful names!
Interesting that I haven’t seen any support for using [name_m]Henry[/name_m]. Last year when this was hypothetical I posted my dilemma in the general baby name forum and the consensus then was that my boys’ names weren’t so obviously Biblical. Back then I hadn’t mentioned specific names so maybe that made the difference.
[name_m]David[/name_m] is a great name! Thanks for the suggestion. My husband has several close friends named [name_m]David[/name_m] so he’s not a huge supporter.
I like [name_m]Johnny[/name_m] far more than [name_m]Jack[/name_m] but just feel a bit odd using it. And we call [name_u]James[/name_u] [name_u]Jay[/name_u] so I hesitate to add another “J” name.
I say go for [name_m]Henry[/name_m]. I have encountered a similar dilemma with my name list (although I am not close to having children). All of my boy names sound like a list of apostles except for [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m]. However, I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m], as you seem to [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_m]Henry[/name_m]. Plus, I don’t think [name_m]Henry[/name_m] is extremely out of place, but it does shift the focus of your boys’ names from biblical to saintly (which isn’t bad!). Also, your daughters have very saintly first names, like [name_m]Henry[/name_m], so even if it breaks a connection with the boys, there is still a connection to the girls.
If you can’t move past the unintentional biblical theme, your next best bet is [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m]. It keeps the biblical theme, but breaks the trend of what sounds like a litany of apostles. And while I love [name_m]Peter[/name_m], it would be repeating a first letter (which you seem hesitant to do) and it would reinforce the theme.
Hopefully I helped at least a little bit. Your children have beautiful names!
From your 3 names, I like [name_m]Henry[/name_m] best with your sibset. I like different first initials as well and so would exclude [name_m]Peter[/name_m]. While I like [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m], it does seem different, so I’d go with [name_m]Henry[/name_m]-- it fits well with K and the other names. Some other possibilities: [name_u]Seth[/name_u], [name_m]Luke[/name_m], [name_m]Samuel[/name_m], [name_m]Thomas[/name_m], [name_m]Timothy[/name_m], [name_m]Leo[/name_m], [name_m]Eli[/name_m], [name_m]George[/name_m], [name_m]Daniel[/name_m], [name_u]Noah[/name_u], or [name_m]Isaac[/name_m].
You might have opened up a can of worms. Unlike [name_m]Henry[/name_m], [name_m]Leo[/name_m] is a name my husband actually really likes. I love it too but felt like even more than [name_m]Henry[/name_m] it was really different from my other kids names. So funny to see you list it here!
Resurrecting this thread as I’m still debating which direction to go. We’ve been landing back on [name_m]Peter[/name_m] lately. I’ll have to say the fact that it’s dramatically less common than [name_m]Henry[/name_m] or [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] (both top 20 in my state) has been a vote in its favor. Also, I’ve had a hard time pulling the trigger on [name_m]Henry[/name_m] because I know my husband doesn’t really care for it.
Hey, @lo! I could have sworn I replied to this thread earlier, but don’t see any response now, so I guess I’ll just leave my two cents’ worth now. I’m personally greatly biased in [name_m]Peter[/name_m]‘s favor, but at one point [name_m]Peter[/name_m] was my favorite boys’ name and I think he’s just about perfect in every way. To me, he fits best with all your other kiddos. As for [name_m]Henry[/name_m], I don’t know if I’m remembering correctly, but wasn’t [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] a name that your husband was really pushing for last time? For some reason I was thinking that he really loved it and you acquiesced, but later grew to love it. So if that was the case, if you agreed to [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], I think it’s rather fair that he could agree to [name_m]Henry[/name_m], even though, on principle, I pretty strongly am for families only using names that BOTH parents love equally. (I would love to name my kids [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f], [name_m]Caleb[/name_m], and [name_u]Everett[/name_u], but if my future husband hated them and I sort of twisted his arm into using them, I don’t think I’d enjoy it nearly so much!) But since you’ve already used [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], [name_m]Henry[/name_m] only seems fair. I personally love the story you’ve told about your boys listening to the sermon and keeping a tally over whose names are mentioned the most (so adorable!), and would love to see it continued (I would love to see who wins more–[name_m]Paul[/name_m] or [name_m]Peter[/name_m]!). I like [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] a lot, but it doesn’t feel as classic as [name_m]Paul[/name_m], [name_m]Mark[/name_m], [name_u]James[/name_u], [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], etc. I think it would make a nice middle, but [name_m]Peter[/name_m] [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] feels too iconic to get around. For what it’s worth, I like [name_m]Leo[/name_m] a lot, and it does have ties to Christianity, if not being a NT name itself (the name of several popes, I believe, if that appeals to you–as I’m not a Catholic, it wouldn’t matter to me in the slightest, but it might you?–as well as [name_m]Leo[/name_m] meaning “lion”–I like that it reminds me of one of my favorite titles for [name_m]Jesus[/name_m], the [name_m]Lion[/name_m] of [name_m]Judah[/name_m]). I would probably rank them [name_m]Peter[/name_m], [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m], [name_m]Leo[/name_m], and [name_m]Henry[/name_m] (which I like, but I just love the idea of keeping to the Biblical names!). I love [name_m]Leo[/name_m] a lot, and would probably push it if you hadn’t used all Bible names so far. Good luck!
You are right that [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] was a favorite of my husband and I was initially more lukewarm towards it rather than outright opposed to it. There were several things I did like about it even from the beginning. (It kept the theme, was classic and manly, and gave him a unique initial.). In fact it was probably more similar to our selecting [name_u]James[/name_u] name. My husband wanted [name_m]Philip[/name_m] but I preferred [name_u]James[/name_u]. I also recall that I didn’t really have another name I loved that time around (well other than [name_f]Grace[/name_f]!)
I’m personally greatly biased in [name_m]Peter[/name_m]‘s favor, but at one point [name_m]Peter[/name_m] was my favorite boys’ name and I think he’s just about perfect in every way. To me, he fits best with all your other kiddos. As for [name_m]Henry[/name_m], I don’t know if I’m remembering correctly, but wasn’t [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] a name that your husband was really pushing for last time? For some reason I was thinking that he really loved it and you acquiesced, but later grew to love it. So if that was the case, if you agreed to [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], I think it’s rather fair that he could agree to [name_m]Henry[/name_m], even though, on principle, I pretty strongly am for families only using names that BOTH parents love equally. (I would love to name my kids [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f], [name_m]Caleb[/name_m], and [name_u]Everett[/name_u], but if my future husband hated them and I sort of twisted his arm into using them, I don’t think I’d enjoy it nearly so much!) But since you’ve already used [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], [name_m]Henry[/name_m] only seems fair. I personally love the story you’ve told about your boys listening to the sermon and keeping a tally over whose names are mentioned the most (so adorable!), and would love to see it continued (I would love to see who wins more–[name_m]Paul[/name_m] or [name_m]Peter[/name_m]!). I like [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] a lot, but it doesn’t feel as classic as [name_m]Paul[/name_m], [name_m]Mark[/name_m], [name_u]James[/name_u], [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], etc. I think it would make a nice middle, but [name_m]Peter[/name_m] [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] feels too iconic to get around. For what it’s worth, I like [name_m]Leo[/name_m] a lot, and it does have ties to Christianity, if not being a NT name itself (the name of several popes, I believe, if that appeals to you–as I’m not a Catholic, it wouldn’t matter to me in the slightest, but it might you?–as well as [name_m]Leo[/name_m] meaning “lion”–I like that it reminds me of one of my favorite titles for [name_m]Jesus[/name_m], the [name_m]Lion[/name_m] of [name_m]Judah[/name_m]). I would probably rank them [name_m]Peter[/name_m], [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m], [name_m]Leo[/name_m], and [name_m]Henry[/name_m] (which I like, but I just love the idea of keeping to the Biblical names!). I love [name_m]Leo[/name_m] a lot, and would probably push it if you hadn’t used all Bible names so far. Good luck!