Interesting–without reading the OP I too immediately said “female,” because basically everybody I’ve ever known with a name like Lindsay is female and (currently) under about 30.
But like a couple of others, when I read it was middle-aged and British I said, 'Oh, wait a minute…maybe it’s male."
And now that I think about it, I would have almost exactly the same response with Robin.
Or Evelyn or Meredith or Leslie or Ashley or Winifred or Hilary…
It always goes one direction. Boy names easily get adopted as girl names. But never in reverse. Never, never, never, with only one known exception: Sue K. Hicks. Because it’s disgraceful for a man to have any feminine attributes, while women get vastly more leeway about taking on masculine attributes. Is there any way to interpret this phenomenon other than that masculinity is valued while femininity is devalued?
First I think male, then I think either a female chav or an American woman or a female American chav (or whatchamacallit, white trash or something).
I recently had to email a Lindsay, but it was a Dr so that was easy! I guessed man for him though, because he was English, and I was right.
I get emails back all the time saying “Dear Mr [my name]”, I’ve sometimes wonder if I should put something in my signature, like Ms? But that’s so weird. Maybe I should just get a PhD too, just to help people out.
I’m sure the suspense was killing you, so I will reveal that the person in question was male.
In my experience, Lindsay with an “i” and an “a” is usually male, Lindsey or (especially) Lyndsey is female. Below the age of about 30, though, all bets are off.
I went to school with a male Ashley, born in the late 1970s. One of my female friends is married to another male Ashley of a similar age. I reckon they must be the last of the breed, though, as Ashleys nowadays are all irritating American high-school girls.
I’ve always thought of Lindsay as a girl’s name. I always wondered why Lindsey Buckingham had a girl’s name.
I think of Nat as a nickname for Natalie, which is definitely a female name. I can’t think of a male name which would use Nat for short, except for Nathaniel, but that would more than likely be Nate.