We are having a very hard time finding a boy name. I have steep requirements and my partner and I aren’t easily on the same page about names.
Rules we have are:
No ending in “sen/son” because last name is Hansen.
Must not be popular (not top 100).
Must not be “weird” - unique is good, but we don’t want people hearing it and generally turning up their nose or thinking that it’s very strange.
Must have nickname potential.
Must be more than 1 syllable.
Should not end with “ic/ik/ick” because Dad’s first name is “Erik” (and some amount of “-Eric” is ina. Lot of names!)
Must not have easy potential to be made fun of (for example we actually both love Dennis but can’t bring ourselves to use it as a first name because we know they will get “Dennis the menace.” Similarly we love Kennedy but with the Barbie movie lately, plus the “and Ken” things it feels like we are setting him up for issues).
Our first son is named Kipling. This name came to us after a lot of deliberation from liking the nickname “Chip” moving towards “Kip.” We want to have a name that sounds good with it, but also “matches” it for its level of interest/unique vibe.
We are leaning towards Lawrence with the idea of possible nicknames being Wren, Lawrie, and/or Rory. I love Rory but it’s fairly popular, and I don’t love it by itself. We just don’t quite love Lawrence and baby is due soon! We love Kipling’s name and want to feel the same love for baby number two’s name choice.
We are recently entertaining the idea of Islington with the nickname of “Izzy.” I would love to hear any thoughts on if Islington is too weird or any thoughts generally.
I would also love to hear any judgements for people familiar with the Toronto area because as a fluke Kipling is a major road, highway exit, and subway station but Islington is also all of those things and it definitely has only come to us to consider because of that. I’m feeling like our friends and family will tease us about “naming our child/children for a highway exit” but also that maybe in practice the name itself is enough of a normal name it doesn’t mean our child gets troubled for it. But I think I’m too biased and can’t see out of this! Haha.
Appreciate any feedback or suggestions for different names!
I quite like Islington, but I would rule it out if it’s a road name, that’s a bit odd connection with [name_m]Kipling[/name_m]. I don’t know… I associate [name_m]Kipling[/name_m] with [name_m]Rudyard[/name_m] [name_m]Kipling[/name_m], so to me it’s an [name_f]English[/name_f] surname-name. 