Comments on: Classic Boys’ Names: Let’s hear it for Henry!

By: heimarmene

heimarmene — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:12:33 +0000

Oh dear, I kind of hope Henry suddenly vanishes from the charts…like ConsultantMeghan said, it’s my favourite name and I want it all to myself. :3 It’d be a shame to see it shoot to the top and consequently be ridiculed like the Aiden pandemic.

By: ChristineR

ChristineR — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:41:21 +0000

Oh, I have not met any other little boys named Henry… yet… we live in California.

By: ChristineR

ChristineR — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:40:47 +0000

My son is 5 and his name is Henry. We call him “Hen” for short and sometimes “Henna” (I know that sounds kind of girly, but we do call him that, idk how or why it started!). I’d like to call him “Harry” but can’t quite bring myself to do it b/c of how popular Harry Potter is It was not it the top 100 US Social Security names the year we used it. I do not like the nick name “Hal” at ALL and I hope my son never uses it. I don’t love “Hank” but I don’t hate it either. My daughter is 7 and her name is Catherine… so I think you can read into that “History Geek Parents!!” and see why we like the names we do.

By: Sarah A

Sarah A — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:02:04 +0000

I absolutely love Henry. It’s a name that’s grown on me, as I used to dismiss it as “boring” along with names like Robert, Michael, etc. But somehow DH started loving it and now I do too. Classic, regal, tailored, the Y-ending, what’s not to love?

If we ever had a Henry we would most definitely call him Hank. I actually like Hiram and Hanif to get to Hank as well. I can see that it sounds harsh but I still love it. And I love that it honors Hank Williams, one of my favorite musicians.

@MaryB – as a Sarah who grew up in MI and now lives in NJ, I can attest to the regional differences in that short A/long A. People here in NJ and NY say my name with a real nasal tone and really draw the A out. I really don’t like it. To me, my name rhymes with care-a.

By: MaryB

MaryB — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:45:58 +0000

I feel that Henry has been up-and-coming on the radar screen for a while now and parents may now be more apt to choose a fresher neglected boys’ classic, of which there are many. Having known a few; my opinion is that the nickname ‘Hank’ is harsh sounding and it also kind of conjures the image of a farmhand or some unsophisticated individual. The nickname Hal is handsome but I agree w/ others that it might be a stretch from Henry.
The issue with ‘Harry’ seems to confuse the adminstrators of this site, b/c I know the pronouciation issue has been mentioned in the past by other posters, however I’ve never seen it acknowleged by Pam or Linda so maybe they can’t ‘hear’ the problem based on their native accents.
The fact is in most of the US the name ‘Harry’ will be pronouced as’Hairy’. That is not the image that most parents want for thier son and it also very ripe for teasing.

In the UK (where both Prince Harry and Harry Potter originate)the ‘a’ in ‘Harry’ is pronouced the same as in the word ‘pal’ or ‘Hal’.
In most of the US, the ‘a’ in ‘Harry’ is pronouced the same as in the word ‘care’. Hence ‘Hairy’.
I grew up in New England, and we use the UK pronouciation for names like Harry, so to me the ‘Hairy’ pronounciation sounds strange, and I grew up hearing it the Harry as in Hal pronouciaton. This short A/long A issue also effects names such as Sarah(I hear others say Sairah), Carrie(I hear others say Cairrie) both of these names have an ‘a’ as in ‘Hal’ to me, Kerry (to me the ‘e’ should be as in ‘met’ not ‘Kairry’). I have also heard a few discussions on the forum where parents had named their daughter Clara, but were confused b/c some people were calling her ‘Claira’ and others Clara with a short ‘a’ as in ‘Hal’. I know this linguistic discussion seems confusing but it is a pronouciation issue that affects any name(Sarah, Kara, Carrie, Derek, Clara, Karen, Mario, Larry, Carol, Erin etc…)…with the ‘ar’ or ‘er’ sound in the 1st syllable. It is not just the UK/US pronouciation divide, but there are also regional differences to how these names are pronounced.

By: miloowen

miloowen — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:39:59 +0000

While I have always liked Harry and Hal, it took me a while to warm up to Henry. Now, however, I like it. I’ve always been a fan of the Norwegian Harald, as well as the Dutch Henk. Still, Harry and Hal are the best of the nns for Henry. I remember when Princes William and Harry arrived at Burnaby High when we were living in Burnaby in BC. The principle introduced Harry as HRH Prince Henry, and Prince Charles joked that “we only call him that when he’s bad.” It was quite sweet.

By: Nyx

Nyx — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:39:23 +0000

Almost 22 years ago my sister gave my nephew the middle name of Henry (first name Nicholas “Nick”). At the time (I was only 13) I thought Henry was a rather stuffy choice and glad it was his middle name and not his first. Now, however, I can see just what a gorgeous, classic and timeless, and oh-so beautifully masculine-without-trying name it truly is. Both names were family names, and I can see them being used by future family members again (an idea which really appealed to me when I was thinking about names for my sons!).

By: BritishAmerican

BritishAmerican — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:41:19 +0000

I’d say that being used for a King and in the plays of Shakespeare gives ‘proper history’ to Hal as a nickname for Henry.

We call our Henry “Hen” as a nickname. It used to be “Hens”. I do like that he has the option of being Harry or Hank or Hal in the future. We kind of teased him that we were going to start calling him “Hank” and he said he didn’t like that name.

I did have a friend tell me that she would have named her son Henry, if we hadn’t already used the name. (She preferred to use a name that wasn’t already used in her circle of friends.)

And yes, I remember this article from a couple of years ago too. I even checked back, to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.

I kind of wish it wasn’t getting more popular – but at least it’s a classic name with a long history, rather than a newly coined trendy name that might date badly.

By: thetxbelle

thetxbelle — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:26:16 +0000

My Dad’s name is Henry and he goes by Hank, not a big fan of that nn, I like Henry on its own. I think Hal is a little bit of a stretch as a nn for Henry.

By: skizzo

skizzo — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:20:21 +0000

Not a fan of the classics, but I dont mind Henry. Its nowhere near as permanently dull as John, Michael, Robert or Richard, or not as ugly sounding as Ronald, Harold, Herman and Horace.