We had both in an office of only thirteen.
Lindsay Mulkern and Lindsey Something-or-other (personally I’ve always found triple barrelled names pretentious but I always referred to her as The Ice Queen anyway).
I have this theory that ending -say signalled male and -sey female, but it looks like I should revise that. Neither are very popular nowadays for as new kids names in the UK.
I did a similar thing recently with a Shelby in a business situation. It probably should have registered as a gender-neutral name for me, but I wrongly assumed female.
According to a name popularity site, at its peak popularity the girls outnumbered boys by 20 times. So much for having the odds in my favor.
Sean Young is an example of a female Sean. But a female Jake is a new one for me as well.
I have known a couple of women who have used “Jake” as a nickname for “Jackie” and its variants.
Particularly if the dot on the “i” is a heart?
Sean Young came to mind, I may have met a woman named Sean, but I think it’s pretty rare. Never heard of a woman named Jake except maybe in some fiction. Sounds like an old oater thing where the head honcho named Jake turns out to be a woman.
Of course I meant Stacy Keach, and his son, Stacy Keach, Jr.
Damn you, autocorrect!
My paternal grandfather was David Ashley Lastname. I named my son Eric Ashley Lastname. He took a lot of teasing about having a girl’s name. I more or less thought Ashley was gender neutral.
I once knew a couple when I was a kid whose names seemed reversed. His was Lynn and hers was Shane. Screwed everyone up, it did.
The distinction between items two and four in this list is a bit too subtle for me.
I’m somehow not familiar with her, although it appears I have seen a few movies she’s been in. I’m terrible with actors’ names.
…
You see, the first is the male version of “Lynn”, whereas the second is the female version that the poor unfortunate chap got tagged with.
“My name’s Lynn.”
“Lynn? that’s a girls name!”
“Yeah, I know.”
I may have mentioned in the past that when I was in college, I had a male roommate named Kim Leslie. He was always getting mail addressed to Miss Kim Leslie. So he started filling out all forms as Kimbrough Leslie, which was actually his first name. And then he started getting mail addressed to Miss Leslie Kimbrough.
There was an actress who used to go by James King, but then eventually changed her name to Jamie King.
Lindsay = female, Lindsey = probably female but often male. I wouldn’t assume.
Kim I assume is female if not a Korean surname. It’s more common as a male name in Britain than in the US, but I encountered a male Kim recently.
I’ve never met a female Jake or heard of a female Sean aside from Young (and she is apparently a crazy person, so I don’t know if they’re related). Or the bassist from White Zombie, but her real name is Shauna. Yet this is the **third **thread that suggested it was unisex, so some Dopers apparently run in some unique circles.
Aside from the Gone With the Wind one, the other famous Ashley has a chainsaw for a hand and kills Deadites, so I’d say it’s a pretty manly name by default.
The OP asked for examples, and I think that Madison counts in this case. Prior to the year 1985 only men are named Madison, so if you’re older than that you don’t expect to meet women named Madison.
Lindsay or Lindsey, both definitely female. Same with Leslie, Robin, Tracy, Whitney, Kim, Marion, and a host of other names that once were used relatively often for boys and men and now are vanishingly rare among males.
I would have made the same mistake as the OP did.
According to the Baby NameVoyager, the male version died out by the 50s, but became popular again as a male name in the 80s. Keep in mind that the male popularity was absolutely dwarfed by the female: 50/million of males in the 90s, while the female version was 90x more popular and the 3rd most popular name at its peak in 2006. Some parents should’ve skipped the middle man and just named their kid “Madison 5” because every class will have at least 4 others.
I personally know Lonnie/loni/lani lony Lonny is male and female …
I know a (now former) couple who are Lindsay (male) and Brennan (female), which definitely used to trip people up a lot.
I’d like y’all to meet my uncle Leslie. And his daughter, Leslie.