Barry sounds anything but distinguished to me! I have never seen the appeal in it at all. One of my mum's oldest friends has a son named
Barry. He'd be in his 30s I guess (never met him) but it seems like an older man's name to me. Whenever I hear his name mentioned I always think, "why would someone choose
Barry when there are hundreds of other names out there?" I picture someone a bit dim and not very successful when I hear the name
Barry.
I don't think it could work today, sorry. I'm not a fan of
Theodore but I can see why people would like it. It sounds much more distinguished and intelligent. Personally I would choose
Edward with the nn
Ned or
Alfred nn
Alfie (much as I'm a little sick of all the Alfies in the
UK now).