Stacey writes:<\/p>\n
Hi Swistle! My name is Stacey and we just recently found out we are having a baby boy! Since the start of this pregnancy we have only talked about 3 boy names: Lucas, William and Michael.<\/p>\n
Recently our neighbors found out they are also having a boy and naming him William because in their family it’s tradition and he will be a third. Understandable.<\/p>\n
And even more recently some friends of ours had a baby boy and named him William.<\/p>\n
This gets my husband thinking we are not allowed to use the name “William”. (FYI, we would call him Will)<\/p>\n
We are not super close with either of these couples. I personally feel if it was an uncommon name then yes, it would seem odd but William is such a classic name that I don’t see it as we are copying, per se. Also, yes we do have couples that we are VERY close too, and in that case I would probably avoid it because our children would be around each other often, but I don’t see that happening with these other couples I mentioned.<\/p>\n
What is your opinion on this?<\/p>\n
We both like the name Michael, which would be after my brother but we have also thought we would save that name if we have a second boy someday UNLESS this baby pops out and resembles him, then we might change our minds.<\/p>\n
I am not feeling the name Lucas. I don’t hate it but it’s just not IT for me.<\/p>\n
Any thoughts?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’m totally with you on the William issue: if the name were Oswald, and your neighbors used it and then some friends of yours used it, I’d say maybe you should reconsider—not because they have exclusive rights to the name, but just because it would be getting pretty silly to have a third Oswald right in a row.<\/p>\n
But in the case of a name such as William, I don’t think some mild duplication among acquaintances is going to be a problem. It’s a terrific name: classic, long roots, and I like the nickname Will. I seriously think it’s one of the best boy names. (You might be thinking, “Um, duh, it’s your son’s name”—but it’s only his pseudonym.)<\/p>\n
Michael is another truly terrific candidate. It’s been in the top ten forever, and yet there are no Michaels in any of my kids’ classes. And again: classic, long roots, and great nickname. I really don’t think you can go wrong with either William or Michael.<\/p>\n
With Lucas, the only thing wrong with it is that you’re not feeling it. I had that same experience with some of the names Paul and I considered for our kids: the name was great in every way—except that it didn’t feel like “My Baby.” It felt like a great name for somebody ELSE’S baby.<\/p>\n
Tell your husband not to be silly: use William. And next time, use Michael. What great sibling names!<\/p>\n
[Update!<\/span> Stacey writes: “He arrived August 1st, 7lbs 10 oz and we went with the name Lucas Robert. Initially I wasn’t feeling it but the closer it got the more I liked the name and now I can’t imagine him any thing other than a Luke. Thanks for your help!”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stacey writes: Hi Swistle! My name is Stacey and we just recently found out we are having a baby boy! Since the start of this pregnancy we have only talked about 3 boy names: Lucas, William and Michael. Recently our neighbors found out they are also having a boy and naming him William because 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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1SN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241","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=7241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}