# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/121 "2011-10-04T19:05:24Z")
Among some Spanish and French speakers, it’s acceptable to give a person a middle (or second given, however they characterize it) name of the opposite sex, for example “Jose Maria (Joseph Mary) Lopez” would be a guy. A girl could be “Maria Jose” Lopez. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/122 "2011-10-04T19:17:44Z")
Sasha is the Russian nickname for Alexander, but here it sounds feminine. I don’t know about Frank, but Fran as a nickname now sounds like a shortening of Frances more than Francis, unless you mean Fran Tarkenton John Wayne’s real first name was Marion, but it sounds too much like Marian to be used as a boy’s name now. Maybe there are even girls named Marion now. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/123 "2011-10-04T19:25:01Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I know of one Frank that was a Model! That was so Last Year though! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/124 "2011-10-05T01:22:38Z")
We have a 70-ish female friend of the family named Michael. Her father was disappointed she wasn’t a boy, they didn’t have a girl’s name picked out, and her mother was out of it after giving birth, so her dad named her Michael anyways. I have an uncle named Leslie, he goes by Les. I know of several male 30-somethings named Robin and Kelly. They’re all hockey players from Canada, if that means anything. Male customers at work named Lynn, Kim, and Dana. All are 40-50ish. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/125 "2011-10-05T11:55:28Z")
There are some female Andrews and Drews about the place. Robin was a female character in the British “Chalet School” series of girls’ boarding school books from the 1930s. Other than that, in the UK it is mostly male. The female equivalent is Robina- shortened to Bina by the two girls I’ve known. I have any number of patients called Caitlín- it’s pronounced Kathleen for all of them bar one- who is Katelynn, and whose mother is American. So there you go. I love the name Sydney for a girl (Sidney, being, of course, the masculine version- see Sidney Poitier and Sydney Poitier), but unfortunately our last name is also an Australian city, so it would be too cruel to land an Irish child with such an Aussie name. I’m not sure I love the occupation-as- female-firstname fashion that seems to have taken hold: Hunter Harper Fisher Cooper Archer Baker Carter Fletcher Smith Bailey Carver Marshall Mason Sawyer Tanner Tyler etc. I mean, seriously- ‘my 4 year old daughter’s name means “one who cures animal hides”- isn’t that just darling?’ I don’t get it. ---
**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 5, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/126 "2011-10-05T11:58:54Z")
Do you have any patients called Shakira? Apparently it’s common enough in Derry and Strabane. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/127 "2011-10-05T14:27:03Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I just realized that this is a zombie thread, and that that much of the stuff I posted yesterday, particularly about Laurie, I already posted two years ago. :o However, I can’t let the following nonsense go: > _Florence_ was originally (the English version of) the name of a city. [Florence Nightingale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_nightingale#Biography) was born there and named after the city of her birth (and because her parents thought it was a romantic place, I think). It became a popular female name because Florence Nightingale became a famous and much admired woman. > > As **FairyChatMom** points out Zeigfeld (not “Zeigfield”) was called Florenz, not Florence. There is no real connection… But Miss Nightingale was beaten to it by [Percy Florence Shelley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Florence_Shelley), born six months earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/128 "2011-10-05T15:35:29Z")
> [@Mahna\_Mahna](#): > > Don’t forget Ashley. It’s exclusively a girl’s name now. I was coming in to mention Ashley. Semi-related: I had a fraternity brother named Ashley. I’d only seen one person make fun of his name. Everyone else learned from his mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/129 "2011-10-05T16:31:13Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Remember when Gail or Gale could be male? One from each sport, from the 1960’s–footballer Gale Sayers, basketballer Gail Goodrich, and baseballer Gail Hopkins. > > I don’t see too many Gails of either sex these days, although Abigail seems to be making a comeback. Another male (albeit fictional) Gail was Gail Wynand from Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead,” who was a tough-as-nails ex-street kid who rose to run a major newspaper (think William Randolph Hearst). I was put off a bit at first by the fact that he had such a feminine name, but by the time I finished the book it seemed perfectly natural. The only male “Robyn” I’ve ever encountered is Robyn Miller, brother of Rand–they were the creators of the old “Myst” game. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/130 "2011-10-05T16:47:25Z")
Aren’t there a couple of young actresses now named Evan? That was only a boys’ name when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/131 "2011-10-05T16:53:53Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > There are some female Andrews and Drews about the place. > > I’m not sure I love the occupation-as- female-firstname fashion that seems to have taken hold: … I mean, seriously- ‘my 4 year old daughter’s name [Tanner] means “one who cures animal hides”- isn’t that just darling?’ > > I don’t get it. I know of two sisters (who graduated from college several years ago) named Drew and Devyn, the latter being an example of the common but irritating “make it a girl’s name by overlaying Ys and Ks” convention. As for the “occupation” names, you’re missing a step. The trend is to name girls with erstwhile last names, many of which are occupation derived. This used to be done for both genders, especially where the maternal line had a prominent name - for example “Rutherford B. Hayes”. Now it seems to be a much stronger trend for girls’ names, responsible not only for names like Tanner or Mason, but also the aforementioned Mackenzie and Skylar (Schuyler), and probably many others I desperately don’t want to think about. Heck, my own son Kendall suffers from this - he got a first name that’s really a last name, and it turns out it’s become wildly more popular as a girl’s name since the late 1980s or early 1990s (which caught me by surprise as he was born in 2003, but I had yet to meet or hear of a female Kendall until after he was born). ---
**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 5, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/132 "2011-10-05T16:56:39Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > I had yet to meet or hear of a female Kendall until after he was born). That would be a Barbiedall. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/133 "2011-10-05T17:22:24Z")
I heard a song once of a boy named Sue. Seems he ended up in a fight with his father or something. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/134 "2011-10-05T18:05:19Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Leslie is not really a crossover, more an spelling mistake. It used to be Leslie for a man and Lesley for a woman, but you are right that female Leslies have started appearing (and male ones have probably become rarer). > > Laurie, for a man, is an abbreviated, nickname form of Laurence (or Lawrence). It fairly common in Britain, and perfectly masculine. I don’t think there are any (certainly not many) women or girls called Laurence. I think Laurie for a woman is generally a nickname form of Laura, and found more in the U.S. than the U.K. Anyway, Laurie is not a crossover name, merely a result of the ‘contraction’ of two different, distinctively male and female names happening to lead to the same result. > > The same goes for Lou I think. It is a contraction of either Louis (male) or Louise (female). > > Was Alexis once exclusively male? You still occasionally find a male Alexis, but I think its more commonly female now. > > Over fifty years ago, my sister took ballet lessons from two women (sisters themselves) named John and Dick. (I think the story was that their father had really, really wished he had had boys.) Those don’t seem to have caught on as girls’ names. alexis (aleksay) is still exclusively male in slavic countries. the only name i can think of that went from girl to nearly only boy is douglass. they drop the second s for a more manly looking name. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/135 "2011-10-05T18:05:54Z")
There were four that astonished me. The first three have already been mentioned but not, I think, the fourth: Evelyn, Shirley, Beverly, Joyce. In French the name Chantale used to be unisex (yes, even with the “e”) but is now almost exclusively female. There are a few (Michel(e)) that add an “e” for female and at least one (Claude) that is totally unisex. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/136 "2011-10-05T18:27:35Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Aubrey. My wife’s grandfather is Aubrey Daniel, her father is Daniel Aubrey, and our daughter is Aubrey Danielle. I have a second cousin who was named Aubrey. Or maybe it was his wife who I was related to, her name was Marka. Part of a large family from NW Arkansas. They are either very old or dead by now. It was a big family and I am not in contact with many of them anymore. But I always though of Aubrey as a kind of cool name for a guy. ---
**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 5, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/137 "2011-10-05T18:48:13Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I have a second cousin who was named Aubrey. Or maybe it was his wife who I was related to, her name was Marka. Part of a large family from NW Arkansas. > > They are either very old or dead by now. It was a big family and I am not in contact with many of them anymore. But I always though of Aubrey as a kind of cool name for a guy. [Aubrey de Grey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey) is the only Aubrey I ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/138 "2011-10-05T20:05:36Z")
> [@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. In the Byzantine Empire, during the Middle Ages, Tiffany was a shortening of the name Theophania, which was a female name. Although I suspect there has been more than one derivation for the name. In the first Tiffany Aching book Pratchett suggested a different one. Something like Wave Under Rock (Ground? Fields?) ETA - I opened the tread with three suggestions, but they’ve already been given. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/139 "2011-10-05T22:15:14Z")
No current Shakiras- have treated one in the past. I know there is a Hannah Montana McDonagh somewhere. A friend swears there’s a 10 year old Pocahontas in the Ballymena area, although I have no first hand knowledge. ---
**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 5, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371/140 "2011-10-05T22:25:24Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > No current Shakiras- have treated one in the past. I know there is a Hannah Montana McDonagh somewhere. A friend swears there’s a 10 year old Pocahontas in the Ballymena area, although I have no first hand knowledge. There’s at least one in Dublin too. I hoper her middle name is Dorothy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-names-that-used-to-be-boy-names/512371.md?page=8)