I've really been liking
Ellis lately myself and have been thinking how well it would fit on a boy today. I cound
Ellis amoung a group of names I always used to think of as old-man sounding (like
Owen,
Otto,
Henry,
Harry,
Leo,
Miles,
Job,
Abel) and are now gaining a youthful sound to me.
So I really think
Ellis would deffinately work for a little boy now, either as a fn or a mn it's very cute, but with a spunky masculine edge. Also it's marvelous that you could use
Ellis to honor a son's grandmothers, I think that it would already honor
Elsie but to also have that -lis- from
Phyllis, to so clearly honor both mothers by using the first letters of the one and the last letters of the other without having to switch any letters is so wonderful! I think you should deffinately use it! :)