# Girl names that used to be boy names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371 "2009-10-02T17:35:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ThirdOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@ThirdOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThirdOne)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/41 "2009-10-02T21:23:18Z")
Rory Calhoun is/was an actor, starred in western b&w movies years ago. Jody also used for both. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/42 "2009-10-02T21:27:11Z")
My great-grandfather’s (b. 1891) name was Shirley. My mother is named after him. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/43 "2009-10-02T21:32:21Z")
> [@Oni no Maggie](#): > > And isn’t one of Demi’s girls a Harper too? No, but one of Ms. Moore’s daughters is Scout, named after Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the narrator of Harper Lee’s _To Kill a Mockingbird_. [Quote=Jelymag] When I first started hearing the name Rory it was only for girls, and now I hear it more frequently for boys. [/quote] The first Rory I heard of was the (male) actor [Rory Calhoun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Calhoun) (originally named Francis Timothy McCown). Before agent Henry Willson settled on the Calhoun name for his protégé, the young thespian was dubbed Troy Donahue, a name later recycled for the benefit of one [Merle Johnson Jr.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Donahue) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/44 "2009-10-02T22:34:33Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I’ll bet this’ll surprise you: TIFFANY. > Yep. Famous last name (Breakfast at, etc.), not so usual but definitely male first name in the 1920s. Do you have some examples of this? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/45 "2009-10-02T23:40:38Z")
Rory or Ruairi is pretty much exclusively a male name here in Ireland and a fairly common one to boot. The only female Rory I’ve come across was on that Gilmore Girls show. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/46 "2009-10-03T00:02:28Z")
I knew a Kelly. He would be my age now (27). A professor of mine years ago had a wife named Kevin. For male to female, how about Carol? Or Meredith? I know a Carol and a Meredith, both in their early 60s, and both of them male. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/47 "2009-10-03T00:17:00Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Can anyone think of a SINGLE female name that’s become a male name, either in equal amounts or exclusively? I cannot think of one. For the most part it seems once a name’s become feminized, it’s no longer used for boys at all (big surprise). Riley may be one that is M and F. I know a Courtney that is a male. Vivian, Evelyn, Beverly, Florence/z, Meredith, Marion, Stacy, Tracy ( I think), Jordan, Francis/ces ( boy/girl) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/48 "2009-10-03T00:34:07Z")
Tracy, Terry, Leslie, MacKenzie, Dylan, Riley, Kerry, Cary, Drew, Tory, Carol. I can’t remember any more just now. I know someone who had 3 kids: Jo, Sam and Andy–Joanna, Samantha and Andrea. They had Will some time later… ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/49 "2009-10-03T00:58:01Z")
I will never be able to stomach McKenzie as a girl’s name, no matter what kind of tortured girlie spelling (Makenzie, Makynzi, Mykenzie, etc.) is applied. It will always be a crotchety old fart name. Soon we’ll be seeing little girls named Arthur, Ralph and Manchester. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/50 "2009-10-03T02:04:45Z")
Rene’ has swung both ways in my lifetime. Valerie is pretty much just for girls now. My first job out of college I worked for a fellow named Lynn…he’s probably about 70 now. My grade school in the 70’s was full of Kellys of both sexes. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/51 "2009-10-03T02:32:12Z")
Laurie was the boy in Shirley Jackson’s short story “Charles” (“Charles was bad again today”). I guess it wouldn’t have worked so well the other way around. Lots of Southern(USA)ers with last names for first names, either male or female. The Frances/Francis distinction was explained to me when I was a (male) kid but I still felt sorry for Frank Sinatra and Fran Tarkenton (“this Fran Tarkenton…who IS she?”–WJM sportscaster). Of course, Frankie and Johnny were lovers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/52 "2009-10-03T02:43:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I used to date a girl that’s mom was named Dale. Was she married to Roy Rogers? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/53 "2009-10-03T08:07:48Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Growing up, I knew a guy named Leslie. That was my Dad’s name. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/54 "2009-10-03T09:06:17Z")
A lot of names have male and female versions, and in some cases one or another version has become unfashionable. They might come back. A name gets popular for a while, then, 60 or 70 years later it is an old person’s name that you would not want to give to your children. Another generation or two after that it is an unusual but traditional name, ripe for revival. Anyway, as I learned it, **Leslie** is a male name, and the female equivalent is **Lesley**. I expect the distinction (as with **Francis** and **Frances** ), has been eroded by people who can’t spell, or who think alternative spellings (that they probably imagine they have invented for the first time) are cute. I had an uncle **Vivian** , and an aunt **Vivienne** (the wife of uncle **Vivian** ’s brother, just to make things confusing). **Laurie** is surely one of those names that started out as abbreviations or diminutives of other “real” names. Men named **Lawrence** or **Laurence** often get called Laurie, and presumably amongst women it is (or was originally) a diminutive for **Laura** or **Lauren** , and perhaps **Lorainne**. I rather think, though, that male Laurie’s (though always as a diminutive of Lawrence/Laurence) are more common in Britain, and female Laurie’s (sometimes as a diminutive, and sometimes as the actual given name) are more common in America. In America, **Robin** seems to generally be used as a female name, but in England (when I was a boy anyway) it was as masculine as Peter or George, and I rather think it is still used as a boy’s name there even now. Despite the tights, there was nothing girly about Robin Hood. I would not be at all surprised, however, to learn that girls are also being named Robin in England these days (people will have learned it from American TV and movies). Perhaps, though, the belief that Robin is a girl’s name has something to do with the strange way Americans often pronounce “Robin Hood”. They say it with a strong emphasis on the first syllable **Rob** in Hood. Americans do not do this with other names. Normally, in both American and British English, either first and last names are are stressed equally, or else there is a somewhat greater stress on the surname. In Britain “Robin Hood” is no exception: it is said like a normal name (which it is). I am just guessing here, but maybe the strange American stress pattern arises somehow from a discomfort with such an obviously masculine character having what, to Americans, seems to be a thoroughly feminine name. (I would be interested to hear other theories about this odd phenomenon, however.) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/55 "2009-10-03T10:51:02Z")
Names like Vivi-AN a man and Vivi-EN a women were common spelling varients. Like Francis (man) and Frances (woman), for that you remember, Francis with an “I” is the same as hIM and Frances with an “E” is the same as hEr. All the male Leslie’s I’ve known have shortened it to Les. I think there should be a distinction between shortened or nicknames and whole names. I mean Chris is unisex, but it’s short for Christopher or Christine (or variants). I would imagine no woman (or very few) are name Christopher. I’ve known males named Kim but it was always short for Achim or some other non-English, non-IndoEuropean language type thing. The thing is females are pretty much free to take a male name then the men stop using it. Now-a-days, the name Alex, I find is just as often a woman as it is a man. And I definately know more females named Sam, though again those are shortened versions of the female variant of a male name. Once you get rid of the shortened versions or nicknames it is less common. Most names have male and female versions. Marc/Marcia, Michael/Michelle, Laura/Lawrence, Robert/Roberta, and so forth so it shouldn’t be surprising ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/56 "2009-10-03T12:34:16Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > In America, **Robin** seems to generally be used as a female name I believe the female spelling is now **Robyn**. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/57 "2009-10-03T14:34:33Z")
How do you all see the name Tristan? I had a female student last year named Tristan and this year, I have a boy named that. The only previous person I “knew” with that name was Tristan in Stardust, who is male. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/58 "2009-10-03T14:40:39Z")
To be honest it doesn’t even sound like a name to me. It sounds like a nationality or a religion. Tristan. Christian. Indonesian. Martian. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/59 "2009-10-03T14:41:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I believe the female spelling is now **Robyn**. Prediction: Next year it’ll be Robynn. ---
**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:** [October 3, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/60 "2009-10-03T15:07:16Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > To be honest it doesn’t even sound like a name to me. It sounds like a nationality or a religion. Tristan. Christian. Indonesian. Martian. Ultimately it’s a Welshname (Drystan), and masculine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371.md?page=4)