Picky Partners

I feel the need to vent because my husband’s vetoes make the name hunt for our second baby incredibly frustrating! He not only vetoes the names he dislikes, which would be understandable, but raises objections based on the most ridiculous reasons or associations the name gives him. For example, [name_u]Owen[/name_u] is ruled out because it was the name of a “rude” former coworker, and he has trouble thinking of [name_u]Arlo[/name_u] as a human name since watching The Good Dinosaur. Now the other day we were spitballing for middles for [name_m]Otis[/name_m], a name he (miraculously) loves, and I came up with [name_m]Otis[/name_m] [name_m]Henry[/name_m], which I loved as soon as it left my mouth. Husband’s face lit up, then fell- he liked the name BUT…
Basically, there is this book series called Horrid [name_m]Henry[/name_m] which my son likes us to read to him. As the name suggests, the protagonist [name_m]Henry[/name_m] is a nasty, spoiled brat, and he has a brother called “Perfect [name_m]Peter[/name_m]”. My son’s mn happens to be [name_m]Peter[/name_m], and now my husband fears that having the “horrid” name would give our second child some sort of inferiority complex. So the search goes on…

Is anyone else’s partner driving them up the wall with their pickiness? :slight_smile:

Is [name_m]Otis[/name_m] still on the table?

Hahaha that sounds very familiar. I tried to pitch [name_f]Marlo[/name_f] ([name_m]German[/name_m]-friendly spelling of [name_u]Marlowe[/name_u])and he just made the most ridiculous suggestions of what associations people might have. I love [name_u]Arlo[/name_u] and [name_m]Otis[/name_m] both! And [name_m]Henry[/name_m] would be a great middle - I mean, that children’s book will be forgotten in a few years, that really should not be a deciding factor right?

It is, but I’m struggling to find a good combo with it as a first name. Otherwise I have [name_u]Finn[/name_u] [name_m]Otis[/name_m] and [name_u]Glen[/name_u] [name_m]Otis[/name_m]

Tell that to my husband! [name_f]Marlo[/name_f] is great, the only (far-fetched) association I can think of is Marlboro