Adam

Pat is always a nice guy. And Mike and Dan/Danny. Chris, Will, and Jack are less reliable.

OP again - I LOVE Nate/Nathan, but DH thinks it's boring

OP here - I should have mentioned that we would name him the full name (Benjamin, Samuel, Charles, etc.) but call him a nickname. It's just easier to talk about the nicknames!

I like Tim and Andy, but DH doesn't.

We have talked a lot about Peter, but I don't really like Pete. Is Peter still a nice guy name?

Nate/Nathan

Steve
Tom
Anthony/Tony
Dave/David
Paul
Hank
Larry

Barack

Andy! Andy's your pal! Andy will lend you anything, buy you a beer...

Joe

Bob is always a nice guy. Always.

Mikes tend to be nice too, so do Sams.

Timothy/Tim was also my first thought!

So, nick names? It's hard, because so much of what is "nice" sounding is based on your experience with the name! Several you listed are "jerk" names to me, because of guys I know. My nice guy list is...

Matt(hew)
Jon(athan)
Zach(ary)
Luke

I was always going to name a son "Timothy". Never knew a Tim I didn't like. I also like Peter.

Jim
Dan

My favorite names for boys are what I think of as "nice guy names" like Ben, Sam, Charlie, and Max. We can't use some of these for various reasons, and the others are more common than we'd like. My husband would like to stay out of the top 50 SSA names, but I'd be comfortable outside of the top 25.

Please help us think of other options!