Thoughts on Greyson?

Boy Names
1

Our little guy will be here next [name_f]Wednesday[/name_f] and we are really ramping up our name search. My husband’s fav had been [name_m]Chance[/name_m] and while it wasn’t my fav, I was willing to give it a try until…

We were sitting at lunch and he asked “What’s if he’s a little chubby, do you think they’ll call him Fat [name_m]Chance[/name_m]? What about Slim [name_m]Chance[/name_m]? No [name_m]Chance[/name_m]? Second [name_m]Chance[/name_m]?” Gah! I knew there was the option for puns, but now I can’t get past it.

So, we’re looking into alternatives but nothing hits the mark. After yet another ultrasound yesterday where our stubborn boy refused to let us see his face, I told DH we needed to come up with a name that reflects his physical flexibility (since his feet and hands were in front of his face again). He came up with [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] from the “Flying Graysons” in the Batman comics (how he retains this information I will never know hehe). [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] had actually been on my very first baby name list in 2009 when we first tried getting our family started but as the years dragged on and it grew in popularity, I felt like I had to let it go. Hearing DH suggest it made me want to put it right back on the list but I’m worried about my little guy having a name that is too popular and having to correct the spelling (since I like the [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] spelling but [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] is more popular here in the US.)

Has [name_m]Grayson[/name_m]/[name_m]Greyson[/name_m] cooled off enough to be usable again? Would you go with the more popular spelling so people guess right or chose the spelling that you prefer?

DH actually took another name from my list and came up with [name_u]Beau[/name_u] [name_u]Hunter[/name_u] which is funny but also reflective of his deceased father who loved [name_m]Bow[/name_m] Hunting. I’m thinking maybe combining the two might make for a nice name?

[name_m]Greyson[/name_m] [name_u]Beau[/name_u] [name_m]Langston[/name_m]?

2

For what it’s worth, [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] hasn’t cooled off at all. It’s been steadily climbing since at least 2000, and is at its highest yet, at number 37. Both [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] and [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] are in the top 100, though, so I wouldn’t think it’d be a HUGE nightmare to live with the [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] spelling?

Personally, I’m a HUGE fan. I’m re-adding it to my own list (although it’s an honor name, in my case), and I’m pretty excited about it. Yes, it’s popular, but popularity is not what it once was. Not by a long shot. I’ll use numbers from [name_m]Grayson[/name_m], since it’s more popular, but you could easily do this with [name_m]Greyson[/name_m], as well. Last year, 8,622 little Graysons were born all over the United States. That may sound a lot, but when you divide it between 50 states, that averages down to about 173 per state (obviously, not an accurate number, but you can do this with your state data, too). In most of the time I’ve done this for people, there seems to be about 67 counties in each state, with about 20 school districts in each county. So, going off that data, you’d have an average of about 2.58 (we’ll round it up to 3, haha) Graysons born in each county, which means only about 15% of the school districts will have a [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] in it per grade (not to mention per classroom), and this doesn’t even include charter schools, home schools, Catholic schools, [name_m]Christian[/name_m]-but-not-Catholic private schools, secular private schools, etc., etc. (which are smaller, but still account for dozens if not hundreds of children per county). So, that may mean (at the very most!) that there is 39 Graysons in all the school districts in your county, but you have to split that between 20 school districts. Which will leave you with about 2 Graysons per school district! So sure, your son could MEET another [name_m]Grayson[/name_m], but popularity is nowhere near what it once was, and so he definitely won’t be in a classroom with 5 other Graysons, if that’s what you’re worried about.

I think [name_m]Greyson[/name_m]/[name_m]Grayson[/name_m] [name_u]Beau[/name_u] is super handsome! I personally prefer [name_u]Bo[/name_u], but any little boy would be lucky to be named [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] [name_u]Beau[/name_u], honestly. It’s a gorgeous name, and [name_u]Harmony[/name_u] and [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] are cute together.

Good luck!

3

Hehe Great minds think alike. I had actually searched for both spellings on the SSN list for [name_u]Texas[/name_u] for 2016. [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] didn’t break the top 100 and there were 733 boys named [name_m]Grayson[/name_m]. [name_u]Texas[/name_u] is a pretty big state so I was hoping that was enough dilution to keep it viable. The number 1 name here was [name_u]Noah[/name_u] at 2,017 born last year so even [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] is about 1/3 as popular :wink: US rank for [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] was 39 but TX rank was 59. TX seems to differ from the US average making some of my fav names “less popular” which is fine by me hehe

With my daughter’s name I worked to find something that would be accepted but not common. It feels harder to do that with boy’s names though because it seems like there are only 3 categories to select from 1) traditional/popular 2) trendy/popular 3) weird. If you pick something that isn’t from one of the first two categories, it seems like there is more judgement which is kind of an odd double standard since anything seems to go for girl’s names. I don’t want him to get picked on because we went too far off the beaten path, but you’re right that I don’t want him to have to be [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] L. in all of his classes growing up either. Maybe he won’t mind but I always preferred having a name that was a little different as opposed to my friends [name_f]Jennifer[/name_f] and [name_f]Jessica[/name_f] who always had to go by nicknames or last names.

Thanks for the feedback!
~[name_f]Heidi[/name_f]

4

I like [name_m]Greyson[/name_m]! I think it’s handsome, warm and approachable. I prefer the e.

5

Thanks! Based on your name list, I think we have similar taste in names hehe. [name_m]Callum[/name_m] is actually one of my husband’s top contenders right now (although I think he is warming up to [name_m]Greyson[/name_m]).

Apparently it is important to me to have some sort of connection to a name and while we’ve got a bunch of solid options on the current list, they don’t really have any significant meaning to us. I like that [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] at least has a little bit of a story now and at this point, even a little story is enough to make me happy hehe

~H

6

I think [name_m]Greyson[/name_m] [name_u]Beau[/name_u] is beautiful! Like you said above, it is popular enough that people won’t mispronounce it but not quite the number 1 name in the country meaning he will have 12 in his class. Plus I love the way it sounds with [name_u]Beau[/name_u] and the beautiful way it will honor your father-in-law. I say go for it!