You could definitely nickname him if you don't want to legally change it. My MIL's legal name is Eileen but she's only ever been called Alana. No one knows any different except her family
I suspect you hate it because it's popular, but if it's popular then that's because people love it! You like it enough to have it on your list, so what's the issue? My son is called Jake, there's loads of Jakes in his secondary school but I don't care, it's his name and it's a lovely name that isn't weird and will sound lovely when he's a man ☺️. My baby girls name is unusual in the sense that it hasn't been popular for years, but it's not a unique name at all
@Rebecca his name wasn’t on the list - it was just one we plucked out of the air on the day because we couldn’t decide on one of the others 😂 so I guess in that moment it felt right.
Then that's fine. Its just a name, and it's not even a weird one so I'd just go with it
I think you can legally change it up to 12 months and it'll reflect on documentation, otherwise you have to do it by deed poll. Or as you say you can just nickname him, used to happen a lot in the olden days, my grandad was legally called Arthur but he was known as Bill. What's his middle name? Does that work any better?