Baby Boy Name

I think you are brave to ask people about baby names! I find it a very personal quest. I know of family members of mine who kept their chosen names under lock and key till baby was born as not to get all the opinions of everyone.
So go with what you and your husband agree on. That was the challenge between my husband and I.
I like Wilhelm for a nice formal name and you may find as he grows into adulthood his name changes from the childhood Willie to the more adult name.

Good luck deciding!

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My sons are Gerald Phillip and Gabriel Kenneth and we call them Gerry and Gabe. We use Gerry because he's named after his grandfather, who doesn't shorten his name at all. Gabe just stuck even though we never intended to shorten his name, because we started calling him "Gabee Babee". I imagine we'll stop when he's older. haha

I had a boyfriend in high school named "Rickie". He hated it and had it legally changed to "Rick" as soon as he was old enough. I think a lot of names can be really cute for a little boy or girl, but when they get older, they can seem immature.

And I don't think you're being crazy at all. This is a name that your child will have for the rest of his/her life. I work in child protection and you would not believe the names that people come up with trying to be clever or whatever. I just heard of a little girl named "Tyranny" by her mother. Why would you do that to a child?

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I myself like the longer leagal names. My oldest is Vincent Andrew. He's 2 and we still call him Vincent. On rare occasion his daycare lady calls him Vinny and I've used it once or twice two, but he doesn't respond to it like he does with Vincent. In fact I often use his first and middle name together, I just like the way it sounds. I am actually hoping Vinny is not what he commonly becomes called as he gets older. I guess when he grows up, he can decide if he wants to be called Vinny, but I'll be calling him Vincent and the rest of the family does too.

Our youngest is Ian Thomas.

I wanted some not so typical names for our kids, where my husband wanted some more traditional (he is like you, didn't want it to sound made up ect.) We chose Vincent, because it's not a common name for his age and it is more traditional..in fact we found out it's a name in his family tree going back to the family coming to America...(although we didn't realize it at the time.).

Ian isn't quite as traditional, but we just weren't liking many names in the book the second time around and it sounds really good with his middle name, which is more traditional.

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I'd go with the longer legal name for the exact reasons that you gave. As far as school goes, I remember a lot of teachers reading the roll on the first day and asking the students to correct mispronunciations or to let him/her know if they went by something other than their legal name. In my classes there were a ton of Jennifers who were called Jenny and Christophers who were called Chris. It was never a big deal. We actually yell at the substitutes who didn't get it right sometimes. Aren't elementary kids fun?
Really, though, Wilhelm is a great, strong name, and it's got great options for nicknames like Willie and Wil.
And just another case in point, my friend's parents actually put Lizzie on her birth certificate. They went back and changed it a couple of months later. Today her mom is the only one who calls her that, and there were years where anyone else who did was very nearly injured!
Long story short, go with the "real" name and let the nicknames sort themselves out. Good luck!!

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I agree with you about wanting a non-nickname first name. My daughter is Katherine and before she was born, I thought we'd just call her Kate. However, my husband wanted a formal sounding name for her, so we went with Katherine. Turns out, we don't call her Kate! Anyway, I grew up with the first day of school thing... everything said Deborah. The teachers would see me writing my name on papers and quickly figured out that I wasn't Deborah. So I wouldn't let that part of it worry you. The minor issue doesn't last long.

Names are tough! Nothing sounded right for my son until after he was born. Even then, I didn't have a really good feeling about the name Oliver. But now, I love it!

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I like the more formal first names too. My sons are Charles and Joseph, but we call them Charlie and Joey. I actually picked the names because they have various nick name choices... Charlie, Chuck, Joey, Joe... I think it's nice that a name can change as kids grow... my name is J. and I went from a Jessie to a J. to a Jess at different places/times in my life. I guess that was important to me. It's funny because my sister in law wanted a name that was just the name, no nick names, no changes...

Good luck!
Jess

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Definitely go with the longer, more formal name. You can call him Willie but at least he'll have a choice in what he wants to be called later in life. The legal name can make all the difference in the professional world. If you want him to be taken seriously in an important position he should have a serious, professional sounding given name to put on his business cards.
My men in my life are Andrew, Benjamin, and Christopher- all names that commonly sprout a myriad of nicknames, yet everyone calls them by their given names. My 5-year-old sometimes introduces himself as Ben but that is his choice. It's good to have options.

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I would have to say that I personally like the name Wilhelm as his first name. It can always be shortened later in school and then go back to his full first name. I am a little neurotic also when it came to naming my children, However I just didnt want any old name. I wanted my children to be named after someone or for something. My daughter is Michaela her dad is Michael her middle name is Nevaeh- or Heaven backwards, I was told at 16 I would not have kids due to PID (Pelvic Inflamitory Disease), so when I got pregnent it was our gift from heaven. My son was named after three grandpas that had died or dying. My son was born after my grand father died, he was a very strong man and was very important to me his last name was Cole, his other grandpas last name was Reese, he was also born while my husbands grandpa was very sick and was dying, his name was Milton. We combined all the names and came up with Coleton Reese. We have never called him anything else, except my grandma who sometimes calls him Cole. I cant bring myself to give them a name with no real meaning, that is why when we have our next one it will be a combination of family names. Good luck on your decision and your pregnancy. Happy Holidays

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