Thanks everyone, this is really helping. Funnily enough, we've never had a bad reaction to the name Archie when we tell people (touch wood so far anyway!) whereas every other name gets a mixed reaction. To be fair though, Felix also gets a mixed reaction in some circles so I shouldn't let it cloud our judgement too much!

It's funny you ask about the middle name as we think we're going to go with both our fathers (John - mine) Ray (DH's). The only thing is that my dad passed away fairly recently (2 years) and I would really like to honour him by just using his name as the middle name alone, especially given our child will carry the paternal surname anyway. But when I mentioned this, DH was very clear that he would never forgive himself if he didn't have his father's name in the middle name alongside my dad's.

To be honest, if his mother had passed away, god forbid, I wouldn't dream of putting my mother's name alongside hers, I would just let his late mother have that honour if we had a girl. But the only other tricky thing is that DH's family live in the UK so they don't get to see much of the grandkids, so I suppose I can see why it is important to him, to incorporate their name into the kid's name in light of this ongoing absence..

Anyway, when I mentioned why I wanted to have just my dad's name, as a nice way to honour my late dad (who our son will never meet!!), DH is of the opinion that his dad will frankly pass away one day too, so that's not enough of a long-term reason to only opt for one middle name (ie my dad's). Frustratingly with Felix, we never thought to use one of our dad's names as it just wasn't important to us back then, but since my dad has died it does feel important to carry on his name.

DH is usually very supportive and understanding on everything, so this reaction has surprised me and I'm just not sure whether it's worth broaching it with him again - am I being unfair to only want my dad's name as the middle name in light of these circumstances? (I also think 'John Ray' sounds like a dodgy texan cowboy!!! But I'm trying not to be shallow...!)