What do you think of the name Dalton Alexander for a boy?

Dalton Alexander is definitely better than Edward Duke imho. I actually quite like Dalton Alexander. I think it fits your requirements.

I love the names: Gideon, William, Sebastian, James, Henry, Alexei, Nathaniel, Benedict, Jonathan, Alec. (And Vladimir is one of my personal favs.)

Personally, I’m in love with Greek names in particular, they are beautiful and have this ancient feel to them. Almost sacred. Especially Perseus and Theseus. Try this if you like the idea of Greek names.

Giving a last name as a first name is awfully WASPy. So many of my white undergrads have last names as first names right now. Also, mean little kids might tease him by calling him “Dolly”.

@bookish1 – There are A LOT of people who have Dalton as a first name, and it is a first name.

@Luiveton – Really great names, thanks!

Dalton brings two things to mind:

Carpets – Dalton is in NW Georgia and is a town that is filled with factories that make carpets and other flooring.

Fighting: In the movie Road House, Dalton (played by Patrick Swayze) is the bouncer in a bar who ends up fighting with and killing a whole bunch of bad bugs in a small town.

Neither of those gives me a reason to name a child Dalton. But – it’s your baby.

I have an old college friend named Dalton, he’s a great guy and he never had any real hassles with his name. I did occasionally call him “Doolin” from the Eagles song Doolin Dalton . But that was just funning when the song came out.

Edward leaves an immediate question to decide in he hospital before the baby goes him. What will you call him the rest of his life? Edward is too formal, Eddie is great until he’s in his teens. Ted?

Ao long as you keep him in prep schools he should be ok.

I like Dalton. It’s distinguished. I’m a Bob, but no one ever calls me that. I have about 30 nicknames.

I find Dalton pretentious too. What’s his “little boy” name going to be?

@janbb How about D?

Then it sounds like a girl’s name.

@janbb How sexist.:)

@bookish1 Since when is Dalton a last name?

I knew a couple Daltons in high school. I like Dalton Alexander a lot. Edward Duke sounds incredibly pretentious – the Duke more than the Edward.

Is this for a child or something else, like a book character?

When I hear the name Dalton, I think Old West gunfighters, not royalty.

I love Alexander – if my daughter had been a boy that’s the name I would have picked. I think Alexander Dalton is better than Dalton Alexander. And anything is better than Duke (except possibly Prince). Duke is for dogs and gangsters.

In either case he would probably choose to go by ‘Alex’ as a lad. it’s a pretty big name but I’ve heard a lot weirder. It is, also a very white, trust fundy sounding kind of name. I’m sure he will grow into it though.

Wilberforce Ponsenby Buttercup.

I agree with @bookish1, that last names for first names are a little pretentious. However, when I think of the name Dalton, I’m reminded of the origins of the periodic table, so that’s a checkmark in the positive column.

If it’s a family name or some such (even the name of a town that your family once lived in, for example), something that has significance to you or your family, then it can’t be gainsaid. If it’s a name that you’re just picking out of a hat because it seems “distinguished”, but it has no pedigree in your own family or history, then it’s going to seem to others (starting with your family, and proceeding from there to his friends and in later life his own family) “pretentious”.

I think that’s what the responders along this line are trying to convey.

I know what I’m talking about. I have a middle name that does sound pretentious as all hell, and it certainly did as a child. And I used to be kidded about that when childhood friends discovered what that middle name was. But it’s a family name, and it does come from a distinguished (by which I mean “accomplished”, and not just “rich”, or “descended from someone else who had accomplished things”) lineage, so the kidding died out and I am now quite proud of that middle name.

On the other hand, my best friend in high school was Raymond Ovid. His mother thought the Roman poet’s name was great for him in 1953, and I’ll grant that it does sound distinguished. (I don’t think I kidded him much about it in high school.) He’s now a hermit somewhere up in Vermont.

My honest opinion is that Dalton is a really horrendous name. It just sounds dumb to me. I do love the name Alexander though. Alexander Dalton is not as bad.

You might as well named your kid “Maurice Wentworth”

I don’t like the name “Dalton”. How about Sterling Winthrop Tennyson III.

@reijinni lol!

@Skaggfacemutt Hahaha, okay I get it :)

If you wish it to be Royal perhaps stick to some of the actual Royal’s names? Like William, Henry and so on. Personally I don’t like Dalton it sounds a bit like a romance novel hero.

I like the Alexander part. Dalton sounds contrived to me.

If I was going to have another kid (which I refuse to do), I’d most likely name him/her after another Transcendentalist.

Look at the meanings of names maybe.

David -> well, you probably know who this is

Richard = “High king”

Augustus = something like “emperor”

If I were ever to have another kid (fertility gods forbid!) my next son would be named Arthur. Doesn’t get much more royal than that.

Well, there’s always Napoleon, Caesar and Charlemagne, @Seek_Kolinahr; not to mention plain ol’ “Alexander” itself. But otherwise, yeah, Arthur is right up there.

Alexander Craig
Henry Thompson
Victor Alexander
Arthur Tyler
Kyle Nathan
Mark Hector

@CWOTUS my chosen middle name is one like that. It sounds pretentious but it’s a family name that has appeared in every single generation (except my own) of my father’s family, going back at least as far as the mid-18th century. If I hadn’t picked this name it might have died out in our family which would have been very sad.

@downtide You mean your name might be, Down Charlemagne Tide? : )

@mazingerz88 sadly not so illustrious a name. My ancestors were fishermen, not kings.

@ucme Fetch the caviar! It’s rinkydink curdlesnoot, the great ponce!

@partyrock Here’s a list of British monarchs. Edward, Henry, Richard, and James seem to be the most frequent. A respectable, royal name doesn’t have to be pretentious.