{"id":14645,"date":"2020-04-06T08:52:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14645"},"modified":"2020-04-06T08:52:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:52:47","slug":"baby-boy-mckeg-william-liam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2020\/04\/06\/baby-boy-mckeg-william-liam\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy McKeg: William\/Liam?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are expecting our first child, a baby boy, this August.<\/p>\n

My husband’s far and away favorite name is Liam. While I am not opposed to the name, I worry about its current popularity, including that our child will be one of several Liams in his class, and and how it may seem dated in 10-20 years. I tend to gravitate toward names that are more timeless or have vintage charm.<\/p>\n

I recently learned that Liam can be a nickname for William. So, as a compromise, I’ve suggested naming our boy William, and calling him Liam, with the idea that if the name falls out of fashion, our child could opt to use William or another variation of that name. My husband is not convinced by this, and thinks it will be confusing to give him the name William while expecting people to call him Liam.<\/p>\n

My name is Katherine, and I’ve gone by Katy my whole life, so I see no issue with having a nickname.<\/p>\n

Our last name sounds like McKeg, and I think both Liam and William sound equally nice with the last name.<\/p>\n

Other top choices for boy names include James, Thomas, and Henry.<\/p>\n

Top choices for a middle name include Michael, Thomas, and Xavier.<\/p>\n

Any input you have would be appreciated!<\/p>\n

Thanks,<\/p>\n

Katy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The name Liam is currently a common nickname for William. It will only be confusing to the same category of people who say with genuine surprise “But that’s an old man \/ old lady name!” about vintage revival names in the Top 10.<\/p>\n

If Liam is far and away your husband’s favorite name, and you are offering this perfectly reasonable compromise that makes the name work for you (as well as making it a much better fit with the other boy names on your list), I am feeling pretty cranky that he is “not convinced.” If he continues to insist it has to be his own exact top choice with no adjustments, and\/or that a perfectly ordinary and familiar name\/nickname combination might be confusing for others, I would be inclined to say that in that case the name has to be out of the running, and the two of you should decide together on James, Thomas, or Henry.<\/p>\n

If you do decide on William\/Liam, I like either Thomas or Xavier for the middle name, only because Liam Michael blends for me into Leah Michael—which likely won’t be a daily issue, so if Michael is your definite favorite, I don’t think this has to be a dealbreaker. Just, if you’re equally fond of all three, I’d lean away from the M- one.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to something more likely to be a daily issue, which is Liam with the surname. Henry has a friend named Liam Matthews (always called Liam Matthews because there are several Liams in the grade); and, because I knew who I was talking about, “Liam Matthews” didn’t at first sound like Leah Matthews to me. But my mother thought for a long time that Henry had a friend named Leah, and a bunch of times Paul thought we were talking about someone named Leah. It was a persistent enough issue that I started saying “Liam (Liam Matthews<\/em>)” instead of just “Liam Matthews.” If your surname really does start with M, it’s something to be aware of—particularly because he will almost certainly be known as Liam McKeg or Liam M. to distinguish him from other Liams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are expecting our first child, a baby boy, this August. My husband’s far and away favorite name is Liam. While I am not opposed to the name, I worry about its current popularity, including that our child will be one of several Liams in his class, and and how it may seem dated in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3Od","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14646,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645\/revisions\/14646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}