Hello, I need some input. So my husband and I are expecting a baby boy 🩵 We've been talking about names and have a few possibilities. We want to include family names or people we love in our son's name if we can. But, there's a dilemma. With both names kinda. First name. We love the name Nathan. The name on its own we think is perfect. Here's the issue. When I was in highschool, 10+ years ago, my junior and senior year, I became friends with a guy named Nathan. That's all he ever was, a friend. I never liked him more than that and he never liked me more than that. I'm from a small town so our parents know each other. I know his mom really well. Everyone knows we were friends. In 2020 he was in a car accident and unfortunately passed away. While we never talked after highschool, I still know that most everyone would assume we'd be naming our son after him. Which we wouldn't be, and we don't care what people would think. He left behind a son named after him and his brother had a son a couple years ago with his middle name. Again, my husband is all for the name Nathan though.

My second issue is I was scrolling Pinterest and saw the name Nathan James. I absolutely love it. But I had a very dear friend, again, met in high school and became friends but we stayed friends after highschool and he became family. He married my best friend and was considered an uncle to my other kids. He passed away in 2021, and again, unfortunately, in a car accident. His middle name was James. My husband was also friends with him too. He knows how much that loss hurt me. We considered naming our youngest after him because she was born a day after his birthday but we chose a different name. So it's not off the table to honor him. I'm just worried, given the people and history, would Nathan James be too morbid of a name? Even if, to us, we wouldn't be naming our son after my friend from highschool named Nathan, just our friend whose middle name was James?