Choosing a unique baby name for a boy is something that I imagined that would be fun, easy, and Jane and I would have a long list of baby boy names we’d love and have to choose from. Huh. Seems I must have missed the memo that went out to soon-to-be dads that figuring our a unique baby boy name is going to be tough. Really tough.
Jane has rattled off hundreds of baby names since we learned that we’re having a boy. And every single name she mentions just doesn’t quite fit the bill as far as what I imagined. And I’m taking this whole baby name thing seriously.
While we were at Pregnant Jane’s doctors office a week ago (an hour after her ultrasound when we learned we were having a baby boy), I flipped through a book of baby names. There were lists and lists of boy names and meanings of what the names meant. I was trying to find some unique baby names that weren’t too ‘out there’.
I didn’t have any luck. In fact, since Jane became pregnant, she’s run more baby names by me than you can shake a stick at. None of them felt right for one reason or another.
I’m trying to find a name for our boy that:
1. A name that is unique, but not weird.
2. A name that cannot be shortened. Examples: Mike = Michael. Rich = Richard.
3. A name that is easy to say and not spelled funny.
4. A name that doesn’t rhyme with bad words.
5. A name that won’t be made fun of.
6. A name where others will take our son seriously when he’s older. Example: If we named our son Zoolander, Yoda, or Alf, that wouldn’t be cool.
As far as why I don’t want a name that can be shortened, I know that’s a strange thing to be looking for in a boy name. As for why, I’m not 100% sure… and is one thing on the list that could possibly change.
Now s far as the name being ‘unique’ I’m not talking naming our boy Table, or Valaboro, or even Azorad. I’d file those names into the weird category.
This is not easy! Choosing a name for your child is not something you can take lightly. At least for me, a lot of thought has to go into it. I’m one who would want to know what the name means, and many a little history on it. And who knows, maybe I’d go as far as using some numerology to see if the name works number-wise. OK, a little out there for some, I know. I’ve never used numerology for anything, but I’ll want to pull out every tool I can find when it comes to figuring out some unique baby name for our boy.
I just want a name that is cool, people will think it’s a little different and unique, but not ‘out there’. More importantly, I want Jane and I to love the name we choose and feel for a 100% fact that our baby looks like a (insert baby boy name name).
This is going to get even more interesting if Jane and I finally agree on a name and when our son is born we both say, ohhh… we can’t name him (name). He doesn’t look like a (name). I’ve heard from a few people where they’ve changed their mind at the last minute after their baby was born.
So I want Jane and I to be armed with a good 2-3 names that we love going into it. But at this rate, we’re on track for really naming our baby boy, Tarzan Junior. I’m sure Jane would let that one fly!
I feel like we’re running way behind most couples who are 18 weeks pregnant. I would think we should have unique boy names we like picked out already. And I feel like most couples at this point are already buying items for their nursery and getting it ready.
All we’ve purchased thus far is two shirts for Tazan Junior. Well, their not shirts. They’re these things that I guess are called “onezies” or “onesies”or “one-zies” or something. I don’t even know how to spell the damn word! And if a one-piece of clothing for babies is a onezie (or onesie), why aren’t a matching shirt and pants called twozies?
Or do twozies already exists and that’s what they are called? Man, all this stuff is all so new to me. I feel so clueless.
So baby Tarzan Junior at the moment is nameless. He’ll be here before we know it, and we really need to figure out some baby names we love sooner or later.
I know some couples name their baby where s/he was conceived. Names like Ford, Orlando, Boston, Austin, Georgia, and so on. Mabybe we could name our son Jello shot? Or maybe Halloween?
I’m lost. Anyone else have such a problem coming up with the name of your baby boy?
You might also want to read:
- What do you call your baby during the weeks of your pregnancy? Peanut? Bean? Sweet Pea?
- 17 weeks pregnant belly and guess the sex of our baby!
- Good news from this pregnant couple, I *think* our baby boy has a name!
- It’s a boy! My boys knew this was their last shot. Good job guys.
- The BIG question pregnant parents ask each other 1,273 times… at least
= a post from Mommy Jane 
= a post from Daddy Tarzan
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
I had a hard time with a boy’s name too. I felt the exact same. I wanted something unique, but suitable and appropriate that couldn’t be spelled weird or made fun of. The only thing I can suggest is to keep looking, keep your ears and eyes open. I didn’t make up my mind until I was 30 weeks (that was about 5 weeks ago). So there is no rush. When the perfect name pops up, you’ll know and every other idea will fly out the window. Hope it helps.
If we had boys, they’d be Jude and Quinn. That’s not happening now. We had the hardest time coming up with two girl names though. We had Delilah, but baby #2 didn’t have one. We finally settled on Mira. Makes me laugh those because all three girls will have names that end in “ah.”
And I hear you on unique, but not weird names. We couldn’t have Adia and her little brother “Bob.” It just wasn’t gonna fly.
We have a huge list of names. Some have sort of hovered at the top, but I’m not worried. We’ll just take the list to the hospital with us, run thru the names while looking at the kiddo and then decide what fits. Who knows, maybe something’ll hit us on the way to the hospital (um, hopefully not a bus or anything!) and we’ll come up with some name that’ll just click. For now, s/he’s just Bear Cub and we’re fine with that.
Don’t feel bad, you’re not behind. We didn’t know the sex of the baby beforehand, which complicated matters. If it was a boy (which luckily it was) we were set. William George fit the bill, because that’s my dad’s name and George is her dad’s name. We wanted something traditional and in the family for a boy. But if it had been a girl…we had no clue. Seriously, our daughter would’ve been born without a name because we were still fighting about it. So don’t worry, you have plenty of time.
And onsies are your friend. Buy stock in them. You can never have too many onsies.
Oh, that’s a tough one. I wanted a traditional name for our son, so it was easier. Some friends wanted something more unusual and actually turned to Gaelic names. They were unusual, but cool. He was named Kavan, which is easy to pronounce and easy to spell, but I’ve never heard of it.
We had a very difficult time naming our son too. We had almost the same criteria as your list! We decided on a boy’s name for our first child, but she turned out to be a girl. When I was PG #2, we found out he was a boy at around 17 weeks, and we decided on Devon for his first name. I thought it wouldn’t be shortened- but guess who shortens it? ME. I call him Dev most of the time. I think that shortening names is like an endearment. It sounds more familiar than using the entire name somehow. Anyway, I don’t mind that it’s shortened by close family. Everyone else calls him Devon.
I liked that it sounded strong, but was a bit different. What do you think? It doesn’t rhyme with anything nasty, he doesn’t get made fun of for his name….it only gets spelled wrong by stupid people..LOL
Oh, and if you want to get an amazing little baby outfit for Tarzan JR, check out the current auction I have running on my blog to benefit my Weekend to End Breast Cancer. OohLaLa Mama’s owner donated FIVE items from her shop for my fundraising. Her stuff is so unique~ Winning bidders can choose ANYTHING from her shop for their top bid. So far, I’ve only got 4 bids for the 5 items, so there’s one left for you. The auction ends tomorrow and bids are only $10. Her stuff sells for WAY more than that…I hope you don’t mind the little plug for my auctions. Just trying to Save The Boobies and raise $3200 for the cancer foundation by August!
This is plain as plain can be but these were our boys names before we found out we were having a girl…..Ryan and Brett. We have a ridiculous long German last name so we like simplicity. Best of luck – this is the toughest decision of our lives!
haha thanks for pointing out the naming your baby after where it was concieved…i had no idea that we had done that until i read that and thought about it. wow…i mean its nothing obviously like chevy…but its definately related
@Jessi… I agree with you about looking around. After we learned we were having a boy, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant to celebrate. I was looking at all of the pictures on their wall and coming up with some crazy names based on Italian words. Sadly, Jane didn’t approve of any of them… and honestly, I don’t think I did either!
@Crysi… We were the opposite – if we were having a girl, we had a good 2-3 names that we liked. Today the name “Hey You!” is growing on me… lol
@MVP… lol. Yeah, that is a good idea. Bring a long list to the hospital with you and see what your baby looks like. Bob? Nope. Joe? Nope. Tom? Nope. Bill? Nope. Fred? Nope. Allen? Nope. Razoo? Nope. Zack? Nope. Nilo? Nope. ______? YES!
@Daddy Files… Good point. I can’t imagine not knowing and really having to come up with both boy and girl names you really like. We’re on the same track you guys were on so far with boy names. And as far as onsies… why do I have a feeling that they are going to become my friend because our little Tarzan Junior will be going through like 20 of them a day!?
@Helen… Ah, you wanted a name that you couldn’t shorten, and you found a way to shorten it. lol That is a cool name. As far as your auction, we couldn’t find baby clothes, but we did find a moose that we liked. Jane and I placed a bid for $17.77 to go towards your fundraiser to help end breast cancer.
Anyone reading these comments should stop by Helen’s site, see her second post, and if you can, maybe donate a little something. Every penny ads up and it’s going to a great cause.
@Lesley… I’d agree with you – if you have a crazy long German last name, a nice simple first name is a great way to go. Our last name is easy to say, although most people forget a letter or two when writing it down when I tell them my last name. It’s more of a traditional last name I’d say, so luckily we could go with a short easy to say/spell name, or one of the longer first names. Oh boy. Yet another father-t0-be realization… finding some unique baby names for a boy is going to be harder than trying to open a coconut with a plastic spoon.
@Monkey Mama… LOL. That’s funny. Maybe we should go that route. Since my boys chose to swim the channel on Halloween after too many jello shots, my top choices would be:
1. Hallo
2. Oopsington
3. Missedpill
4. Champ
5. Jelloington
LOL
We really like Caelan for a boy. It’s Irish/Scottish and we love the sound of it. Esp with the middle name we have chosen, MacGregor (which is part of my husband’s lineage/family tree back some hundreds of years ago). I also love William, which can be shortened to Will, and I like Matthew. Good luck and congrats to you both! We won’t get to find out our baby’s gender for another month or so. Can’t wait!
I’m partial to it, since it’s what we named our son…Tate. We had many of the same criteria as you, and my husband also shot down tons of my ideas before we finally agreed. We weren’t opposed to shortening of names like you are, but didn’t realize that our chosen name would actually get lengthened by his uncles within the first couple hours of his life, to Tater-Tot. Hopefully that will be outgrown by the time he’s in school.
Good luck! And you’re not at all behind; we were way into the third trimester before we came up with one girl and one boy name.
Tater-Tot…LOL! That’s uncles for you hey?
We had a hard time coming up with a boy’s name. REALLY hard. We kept the sex a surprise, so it felt vital to have SOMETHING going to the hospital. Our baby girl name was settled immediately – Madeline Grace. But the boy name, that was harder. About a week before I went into labor, we settled on Collin James.
I still love that name. Maybe next time!
My husband and I had absolutely no problems naming our daughter, we had her name picked out before she was conceived and when she was born it fit her perfectly. It was so easy. And then we got pregnant with our second child and we had another girls name picked out but no boys name when we went to the Big Ultrasound. Of course we were thrilled when we discovered we were having a son but apparently my husband and I cannot agree on boys names at all. After countless rounds of “discussions” we finally agreed not to name him until after he was born. A miracle occurred and we named our son within an hour of his birth with no “discussions” and the name we ultimately chose wasn’t even on either of our top lists. Boys names are just harder then girls.
I’m wondering if trying to figure boy’s name is tougher on the father than it is for the mother? Jane sent me a few baby name pages today and not one name really stuck out for me. There were several that she liked. There was one that I’d be OK with, but it wasn’t like, “Yes, that’s it!”
Well, we still have a ways to go… somehow, some way we’ll come up with some names we love.
I know what you mean – its so hard! I’m also expecting my first baby boy, but i am still struggling! This has also helped out http://www.bounty.com/babynames/ as not only does this have the top 100 boys and girls names, but you can also search for names by meaning and orgin. i’m 32 weeks and at the moment I love Gabriel James… I also like Dylan Jacob….. Its too hard! x
I should add that I went through the book of 20,000 names TWICE before finding 2 boys names that I liked, and my husband didn’t immediately love my favorite one. I had to keep bringing it up every so often, and finally googled it with our last name, and there’s a college basketball player with same name. We’re both really tall, so I think that helped make it seem a little more practical/realistic somehow? Just saying that it may not be love at first sight, don’t get discouraged.
It is tough coming up with names. How do you hang a name on someone you haven’t met yet? You don’t know anything about there personality, etc. It’s tricky. For us it was odd. When our first child (a boy) was born, we knew the gender and we had a name worked out fairly early on. Thank heaven it was a boy though, because before we found out the gender, we were having a terrible time agreeing on names for a girl.
Then most recently when our daughter arrived, we did not know the gender. We had a girls name picked out very quickly and we were totally stuck on names for a boy. Guess we got lucky both times.
Tarzan,
I just thought of a name thats sort of nice and fits your description..
Aven? I dont know, mabey not. Just a suggestion. Ive always liked that name
so I thought I would share!
Good Luck!
It’s funny that you mention this. I recently wrote an article on my blog about a new site I came across recently. “Nymbler” is a cool tool that helps you pick baby names. I linked my name to my article if you want to check it out. Good luck! My husband and I have not had kids yet but I’m sure we would be at odds over picking names. Especially if it was a boy.
It took us a long time too, but then we came upon “Zane”… and when we did… it fit. It just fit.
I had that problem with my girl! You would think after 2 boys I would have had, I don’t know, a short list of girls names at least, but no. She was a couple of hours old when we finally decided on a name. Good luck deciding!
The name “Tarzan” is starting to grow on me.
LOL
I can’t stress this enough: Make sure the name you choose is easy to say and preferably one-syllable. You will be yelling it ALOT over your lifetime….so do yourself a favor and keep it simple!
“I feel like we’re running way behind most couples who are 18 weeks pregnant”
I had a good guffaw at this. Dude, this is the first time I have read your blog, but that made me laugh. I rolled up to the delivery room with number one with the name book in my bag thinking I was going to FINALLY find that name I had been looking for for nine months in between contractions. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
First time parents are so cute.
Seriously though, we had similar things we were going for with our kids (different but not weird, spelled like it sounds, no swear words etc…) First one who is a boy (the one I brought the book to the delivery room with) andis now five is called Calvin and it totally suits him. Not popular in our area (country) at all and so we have no worries about there ever being another in his classes etc.
I babysit a lot and have come across a few really good boy names recently. My favorite is Bruno, which is something short, sweet, an kind of unusual. The other names I like were Walker (a family name), Milo, Jude and Roman. All strong male names that are a bit old fashioned, but my best advice is to have a list to go into the delivery room with a see what he looks like!
We are going with Caleb Patrick…..isnt typically shortened and doesnt rhyme with anything!
How about Kade? Don’t think you can shorten it or misprounounce it, and I can’t imagine it being interpreted as a girl name. Just my 2 cents
I wouldn’t worry so much about number five on your list. Kids have this amazing ability to make fun of anything if they so choose. As long as you don’t name your kid Mike Hunt or Ben Dover, you’re cool.
In fact, I affectionately called my oldest Hyper Piper the Diaper Viper when she was in diapers just so she could be used to people coming up with stuff based on her name.
And don’t worry about not having a name right away. Both times I went to the hospital unsure of what the names of my daughters would be. But I knew I couldn’t name my babies before I met them anyway. The name will come to you.
Hi Tarzan,
I’m the one who told you about my husband starting a journal the day he saw our baby on the ultrasound. I read it the other day and it was great. Sadly he did not keep going with the writing. He is 12 years old. We had a boy name and a girl name picked out. I’m glad he was a boy: Keegan.
Once you start with an Irish theme, for us, we had to keep it going with the next two boys. He loves his name. We kept it secret till till the baby was born.
Just because you know you are having a boy and not a girl, does not mean you have to name it quickly. You have time.
I love the name Lydon but it is already taken by my friend. Yours to keep if you’d like =)
Good luck.. it will certainly come to you
just caught a glimpse of this….
ive got girls myself, but how about -
jarvis
miller
hudson
campbell
theres a few diff names
goodluck
YES!!! We change our minds constantly! I think we have finally settled on one, but we want to have some in “reserve” for the exact reason you said…what if he doesn’t look like a “blank?” We’re going for a 3D ultrasound next weekend so we’re hoping that will help us decide if we have the right name in mind. If not, back to the drawing board! I feel like we should have had this nailed down long ago as well!
I feel bad for my wife, she comes up with about 10 new names weekly and I shoot them down like clay pigeons!!! It is hard selecting a fitting name for a boy, I want a name that will be strong but not to big. Something he can fit into, not a name he has to live up to. I sure don’t want a name where he will be teased or pushed around for either! The wife is fed up and I’m still scoping out my options… Such a hard knock life!!!
4th child and we had some difficulty, specially because we only chose names for girls… the the ultrasound came and… a boy!! – Hehe… took us about 2 hours deciding the name
We chose the first name from both of our fathers. They aren’t with us anymore, so, it was our way of “keeping” them close 
They are both strong and traditional Portuguese names.
My husband and I are going with Logan Stanford if it’s a boy…we’ll find out for sure on Monday! Stanford is his mother’s maiden name and since his grandmother only had girls we want to pass it on…kinda. Plus I like how it sounds with our last name. Other names to consider:
Jonathan
Carson
Nathaniel (although I guess it could be shortened to Nate)
Tyler
Ross
Maddox
Mercer
Hopefully we only have one boy because we had an easy agreeing on this name (but had NO other options!) and actually had a different middle name until my husband suggested Stanford. Of course we have quite a few girl names that we’d be okay with…but we’re thinking Madeline ______ for a girl…just not sure about her middle name! Good luck!!
I liked a lot of the suggestions. Our son (due in 3 weeks) will be named Maddox James. It’s different and I cannot think of a shortened versions
I am expectin a baby boy in October!! And i need an UNIQUE first name that goes with the middle name James. Any uggestions? Plz help me out!
Hey stuck! On a first name!
Have you gone through any baby books? How about Jessie James? How about Tarzan?
Just kidding. Boy names are TOUGH. Jane and I had a hard time figuring out a name for Monkey. We didn’t even figure out his middle name until Jane was in the middle of labor on the hospital bed that she delivered Monkey on! LOL
Stuck on a first name, how about Kendrick James? Love that name since I gave it to my litte boy. It’s unique but not weird. He gets tons of compliments on it