# Curious: Unisex Names **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520 "2005-05-19T02:02:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/41 "2005-05-19T17:10:18Z")
Laurie ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/42 "2005-05-19T17:12:42Z")
Cameron (Diaz). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/43 "2005-05-19T17:22:19Z")
My Grandfather was named Marion. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/44 "2005-05-19T17:33:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Post #10. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/45 "2005-05-19T17:34:46Z")
There used to be a woman named Kevin working here. I’m thinking this is still pretty rare, though. They are nicknames, but I also know women who go by Donnie, Tommy, and Frankie. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/46 "2005-05-19T17:36:55Z")
Over 40 posts and no one mentions Jamie/Jaime? Is one spelling considered the more masculine verson and one the feminine? ---
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/47 "2005-05-19T18:16:27Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Over 40 posts and no one mentions Jamie/Jaime? > > Is one spelling considered the more masculine verson and one the feminine? Actually, it only took 12. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/48 "2005-05-19T18:26:26Z")
Darcy ---
**Author:** ![Palikia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@Palikia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palikia)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/49 "2005-05-19T19:00:31Z")
Frances/Francis ---
**Author:** ![Emony\_Dax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Emony\_Dax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emony_Dax)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/50 "2005-05-19T19:10:29Z")
My best friend will be having a little girl next month. They’re going to name her Hayden. I warned her that people will think she’s naming her daughter after Darth Vader 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/51 "2005-05-19T19:26:37Z")
> [@Salem](#): > > Actually, it only took 12. 😉 :smack: That’ll teach me not to read properly. ---
**Author:** ![Penchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Penchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penchan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/52 "2005-05-19T20:49:34Z")
Jesse/Jessie ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/53 "2005-05-19T21:47:52Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Shirley and Hazel used to be men’s names. Oh! That’s one thing I always found puzzling about the Anne Of Green Gables series. She had all those kids (like 7) and she sticks one of the _boys_ with her maiden name? It never occured to me that Shirley might not have been weird for a little boy back in the day. I’m a Shannon(f) and have met a few guys with the same name. They seem to hate it as much as Courtney hated his name in college. My grandfather’s name was Pearly. That always struck me as being girly, yet I’ve never run across a female Pearly, just Pearl. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/54 "2005-05-19T23:13:50Z")
> [@Lisa-go-Blind](#): > > [Evelyn](http://www.catholicauthors.com/waugh.html). > > Anne Rice’s real first name is Howard, but I doubt that name’s going to become wildly popular for girls any time soon (not to mention all the female Southern writers with family names as first names - O’Connor, McCullers, Lee). > > I’ve never heard of a guy named “Erin.” Are you referring to “Aaron”? That’s a homonym but I wouldn’t consider it to be the same name. Feh. That’s what I thought until I worked with a male jerk named Erin. I blamed his name for his foul personality. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/55 "2005-05-19T23:59:24Z")
Some parents seem to think that any boys name ending in -an (-anne) is fair game for girls, thus Ryan becomes Ryanne, Logan becomes Loganne… others don’t bother to modify the spelling. Four years ago, I would have said Riley was a boy’s name. Now it seems to be more of a girl’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/56 "2005-05-20T02:39:39Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > It never occured to me that Shirley might not have been weird for a little boy back in the day. [Shirley Povich,](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/povich.htm) the noted sportswriter whose son Maury gained fame as a talk-show host, died in 1998 at the age of 92. > [@](#): > > My grandfather’s name was Pearly. That always struck me as being girly, yet I’ve never run across a female Pearly, just Pearl. [Pearl](http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/zgrey.htm) was the actual first name of the novelist who gained fame as Zane Grey. He and your grandfather could have commiserated. Journalist [Ulysses Torassa](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/02/MNGB32OFC31.DTL) was formerly employed at the (Cleveland) _Plain Dealer_, my old hometown newspaper. I always (quite reasonably, I thought) assumed Torassa was male until I read a column in which a woman named Deborah Winston described the vacation she took with several female colleagues, including Ulysses! Deborah’s photo often appeared in the paper, but I never saw Torassa’s until I found the linked story a few minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/57 "2005-05-20T09:31:19Z")
_hijack_ **cornflakes** there are Clyde rivers in Scotland, Canada and Australia, but not in Ireland. _hijack over_ Sean/Shawn is Irish for John, I’m not entirely sure how it got to be a girl’s name. Nor am I sure why Rory is unisex either. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/58 "2005-05-20T09:42:42Z")
Jan Florence I’ve read the whole thread and I don’t think I saw either of those. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/59 "2005-05-20T09:49:28Z")
The lady who played the mother in The Waltons was called Michael Learned. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520/60 "2005-05-20T09:55:51Z")
Oh, yeah, I forgot. My daughter has two friends named Avery, one male, one female. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-unisex-names/304520.md?page=4)