# Any feminine names that became masculine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193 "2009-05-30T20:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/41 "2009-06-01T04:15:29Z")
[This site](http://victoria.tc.ca/~tgodwin/duncanweb/documents/names.html) list **Christian** as a common English girls name in the early 1600s, perhaps following the trend of ‘virtue’ names (Patience, Charity.) It does not appear on the Boys side. [Today in the US](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=CHRISTIAN&ms=false&sw=f&exact=false) it is predominantly a boys name, in fact #22 for 2008. It looks like it was used as a boys name throughout the 20th century, but the girls name did not appear in the top 1000 until the 1970s, probably tagging along with the upswing in the use of the boys name. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/42 "2009-06-01T04:36:53Z")
Jayne ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/43 "2009-06-01T04:36:57Z")
OK, it looks like we have a winner, there. Though that’s still probably not so much the name going from “girl name” to “boy name”, as the female name falling out of favor, and then coming back independently as a male name. > [@](#): > > …perhaps following the trend of ‘virtue’ names (Patience, Charity.) Just, whatever you do, don’t name your daughter “Chastity”, because that’s just guaranteeing that she’ll become a stripper, porn star, or prostitute. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/44 "2009-06-01T04:38:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Jayne Jayne’s a girl’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/45 "2009-06-01T05:08:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Jayne’s a girl’s name. Well Jayne ain’t a girl! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/46 "2009-06-01T05:53:07Z")
What about Jan? In parts of Europe it’s a deviation of John, but it’s not in English - in English it’s a nickname for Janice/Janet. **Jan and Dean** were Americans, weren’t they? I’ve heard of a few other male Jans in the US too. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/47 "2009-06-01T06:28:06Z")
You have to watch short names. Like Kim. I’ve known five people in my life, with that name, but it’s always short for something else, like Achkim. Jan is another one, it’s usually a shorten form of something else. Most unisex names are shortened formed. Chris is unisex but it’s shortened for a definate male or female version (Such as Christine or Christopher) The trend is once a female takes a male name, parents abandoned it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/48 "2009-06-01T07:05:12Z")
Emmett Charlie Rowan Dylan Or so sayeth the Internet… ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/49 "2009-06-01T12:18:26Z")
Morgan maybe? I had a several times great grandmother who emmigrated from Wales named Morgan. It seems to be headed back to a girls’ name now though. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/50 "2009-06-01T12:47:39Z")
[Hero](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_and_Leander). ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/51 "2009-06-01T13:25:44Z")
I’ve heard of one elderly woman named Clyde, after the river in Scotland. I don’t know how common it was in the past though. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/52 "2009-06-01T15:54:59Z")
> [@thetruewheel](#): > > Emmett > Charlie > Rowan > Dylan > > Or so sayeth the Internet… As usual, the internet is wrong. Dylan is first attested in the fourth branch of the _Mabinogi_, a medieval Welsh narrative, and there it is clearly a male name. After he is born, his uncle says “Mi a baraf uedydyaw hwn… sef enw a baraf, Dylan,” “I will have him baptized… this is the name I will give, Dylan,” where _hwn_ is the masculine pronoun (_hon_ would be the feminine). Morgan, as well, is first attested as Morcant, though it is already a woman’s name in the medieval Arthurian material. Rachel Bromwich discusses the name in _Trioedd Ynys Prydain_. Given the evidence, Morgan may be another one that was originally given to either gender, but it’s clearly a male name from way back. Both Rowan and Emmett were surnames before they were male given names [Rowan is either the plant or an anglicization of Gaelic _Ruadhán_, "red (of hair) + diminutive), depending on what part of the British Isles the surname comes from], but Emmett seems to derive from a diminutive of Emma, a female given name, so that’s another contender. Charlie needs no comment. From earlier posts, _Christianus_ is just the Latin adjective for “Christian.” I can’t find out whether it was originally a woman’s name in England, but it’s the source of Scandinavian Kristen and Kirsten which as far as I know have always been women’s names. _Julian_ is another masculine name, from _Julianus_, ultimately from _Julius_ (though like many Roman names there was a feminine form, _Julia_, and the only reasons I have for saying the masculine form is primary are social). ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/53 "2009-06-01T16:42:41Z")
My stepfathers middle name was Hyacinth. He was born in Co. Fermanagh, Ireland ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/54 "2009-06-01T17:10:28Z")
Originally a guy: [wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_(mythology)). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/55 "2009-06-06T17:33:03Z")
What about Stacey? I tend to associate it more with actor Stacey Keach than anyone else, but I think it was orginally feminine. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/56 "2009-06-06T21:45:28Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What about Stacey? I tend to associate it more with actor Stacey Keach than anyone else, but I think it was orginally feminine. Most Staceys I know are female. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/57 "2009-06-06T22:58:59Z")
Again, from the Oxford Dictionary of First Names: “Stacey (f.) English: of uncertain derivation, perhaps originating as a pet form of Anastasia, and respelled as a result of assocation with Eustace.” [This doesn’t ring true to me.] “It is not clear why this name, together with its variants Stacy and Stacie, should have become so common in the 1970s and 1980s. It is now also occasionally used as a male name.” If this source is to be believed, and it’s usually a pretty reliable book, that would meet the conditions of the OP. Still, another source (the Wordsworth Dictionary of First Names) lists Anastasia \> Stacey (f.) and Eustace \> Stacey (m.) as separate, parallel developments. Complicating matters further, there is a surname Stacy / Stacey, from Eustace, which seems to predate the given names. Eustace is ultimately a Greek male given name. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/58 "2009-06-07T04:27:26Z")
How about Hunter? Oddly enough, a female name, perhaps from Diana, the Huntress, it is now also a man’s name, as in Hunter Thompson. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/59 "2009-06-07T04:48:54Z")
I know this is GP, and therefore opinions aren’t welcome, but in this case I just want to add my opinion that in most societies, any name commonly given to a woman is “sullied” for men. Just as it’s considered quite normal for a girl to want to be a boy (i.e. a “tomboy”), there doesn’t seem to be any stigma attached to a girl with a man’s name, but the reverse is not true; a man with a “girl’s name” is scorned. Just another lagging indicator in the gradual equalizing of the sexes… What has occurred to me is that sooner or later the girls are going to have almost all of the names, and leave about five that are viewed as solidly masculine. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193/60 "2009-06-07T06:24:11Z")
Interesting thread. Just dropping in to thank **Dr. Drake** for taking the time to post so many relevant tidbits from his/her remarkable little source. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-feminine-names-that-became-masculine/498193.md?page=4)