For some reason, I'm having an easier time with these than the girls' list.
Conor - reminds me of Superboy, though his name is actually
Conner. And
Connor MacLeod, but again that's a different spelling. The
Conor spelling is less familiar and therefore looks odd. I'd actually prefer
Conchobhar to
Conor. ;)
Ryan /
Rian - much prefer
Ryan to
Rian, but
Ryan just feels a bit dull. Looking at it's popularity charts, it seems it was quite overused when I was growing up.
Cillian /
Killian - prefer
Killian to
Cillian. Both feel quite quirky and a bit rebellious.
Patrick - nice name. Certainly nothing weird or "out there."
Darragh /
Dara - really not a fan of the spelling of "
Darragh," but "
Dara" just looks feminine to me.
Shea /
Shay - again, looks quite feminine (in either spelling). Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that.
Finn /
Fionn - relaly like
Finn. :)
Ronan - lovely and strong.
Sean - never been a fan of this name. It just doesn't work for me.
Oscar - like. I think of
Oscar Wilde before
Oscar the Grouch, but neither is a negative association for me. :)
Liam - always like this one. Reminds me of
Angel from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as it was his human name before he became a vampire), and of course
Liam Neeson (who is one of my favorite actors).
Conan - largely neutral to this name. I think of "the barbarian" and "O'Brien."
Cian - my dyslexia makes me want to read this as "
Cain."
Cormac - had a good friend from summer camp with this as a surname. I'm also reminded of that one guy from
Harry Potter...not a good association there, but as a name, I think it's rather nice.
Lorcan - I want to say this name is "pretty." Not that it sounds feminine, just...it's pretty. Like
Lucian, I suppose, which I also like.
Aodhan /
Aidan - love these, but for practical purposes much prefer
Aidan.
Rory /
Ruairi - somehow the Doctor Who connection has not quite managed to make up for the earlier association of a bully who targeted my brother in elementary school. :(
Niall - even if it wasn't for One Direction, this name would still look like "nail" to me. :/ Just not really good no matter what.
Shane - really like this one, possibly because it's my cousin's name. :P Also makes me think of a cowboy, though if I recall correctly I didn't enjoy the movie very much.
Kevin - I have both a cousin and a brother-in-law with this name, which probably helps explain why it feels so overused and plain.
Tomás - normally not a fan of names that require accent marks of any kind, but this one doesn't bother me for whatever reason.
Brian - really like this one. Probably mostly due to the brilliant character of
King Brian of the Leprechauns in '
Darby O'Gill and the Little People,' a movie my parents showed me when I was a child.