My husband and I are expecting our first child in early February 2011. We don't know the sex, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a boy. This is a bit of a problem, since we are all set for girls names, but can't come up with anything boy-friendly.
My family is French Canadian, and I really want our children to have names that work in both French and English. We are hyphenating our last names, with my name coming second, so the baby's last name will be Coe-Thériault.
The only name that I've come up with that I like is Emile, but my husband says that it makes him think of a little boy in a sailor suit, which to me sounds kind of adorable, but apparently not to him. He prefers Charles, but I'm not too keen on that. Other possibilities that we've thought of have been Henry, Felix, Lucien and Theodore. The baby's middle name will be Ernest, after my grandfather.
Any suggestions? I would love to hear them!
And:
So Charles is pretty much out (I think that my husband has come around to the fact that I'm not going to love it). I still love Emile, but I find that a lot of English-speaking people aren't familiar with it and might have a hard time pronouncing it. Also, I worry that he (if it is a he!) will end up being called Emily. So right now the main two we're considering are Theodore and Isaac.
So my question is basically fourfold - is Emile awful? Or am I over-thinking this? Is Theodore (n.n. Theo) super dorky? I'm worried he might get teased. Is Isaac too popular? We'd like to avoid anything over-used. Do you have any other suggestions?
Also, it occurred to me that it might be helpful if I explained how to pronounce our last name. Coe is like Co. (as in Tiffany & Co.) and Thériault is like the back half of Ontario.
Thank you!
Emile definitely isn't awful---but I agree with you that it's too much like Emily for the U.S. (especially with creative spellings so common). Not IMPOSSIBLY so, but I'd avoid it. I think the spelling Emil works better, but maybe that ruins it in French?
Theodore definitely isn't too dorky, and it's coming into style nicely (that is, it's rising just a little, so the name won't seem weird, but it's not rising in a rapid, worrying way), and the nickname Theo is great. My main hesitation is that Theo Coe-Thériault is so rhymey: theO cO tariO. Maybe Sebastien instead? Sebastien Ernest Coe-Thériault.
Isaac, Henry, and Felix are three of my favorite boy names. Isaac is currently the most popular of all the possibilities: #40 in the U.S. in 2009, according to the Social Security Administration, but I think of #40 as a very nice place for a name (especially a boy name) to be: familiar but not EVERYWHERE. The C in Isaac runs together a little with the C in Coe, but not so much as to be a deal-breaker---just enough to want to consider it beforehand.
Henry is next-most-popular at #71. Felix is the biggest risk at #339: I've noticed when considering it on my own lists that the generation before us finds it shocking---but then, they find the name Henry shocking, too. (Heh---this suddenly reminds me of my late mother-in-law, who would complain that people weren't using NORMAL names anymore, names like [list of names in the top ten when she and/or her own children were born].)
Another possibility is Pascal. Blaise Pacal is a cool sciencey-mathy namesake, and since he was French I assume his name works well in French. Pascal Ernest Coe-Thériault.
With the rest of the name, I think my favorite is Henry. Henry Coe-Thériault, Henry Ernest Coe-Thériault.
I'll leave other suggestions to people who know which names work in French.
Name update! Anne writes:
I am writing to give you and the commenters on your blog a huge THANK YOU for your help. Theodore Ernest Joseph Coe-Thériault made his appearance three weeks early, on January 17th. Theodore was seriously the only name that ended up being able to agree on, and I'm glad we chose it, because Theo really suits him. It is a bit rhymey with his last name, but only if you use the nickname, so I'm not too worried about that.
Thank you guys for giving me the confidence to go ahead and use it, and not worry about it being too dorky. Everyone loves the name so far!
