# Names that have changed sex... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065 "2001-10-02T23:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HomeSlice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9d8465/32.png) [@HomeSlice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HomeSlice)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/41 "2001-10-03T15:53:31Z")
My sister’s name is Jordan. ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/42 "2001-10-03T16:52:54Z")
Ashley is still more of a male name than a female name here in the UK. I know a male Ashley. Rather well, as it happens — he’s my SO. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/43 "2001-10-03T17:54:33Z")
What with all the Presidential names kids are getting these days, why do you suppose that “Jefferson” and “Jackson” go to boys, but “Madison” is generally reserved for girls? Was James Madison one of our more effeminate presidents? And how come there are no little Hardings or Tafts or Nixons running around the playgrounds? We named our son “Quinn” nearly six years ago, and later found out that about 20% of the new “Quinns” in the USA are girls (no sweat; that means about fourteen kids). I named my kid after Dylan’s Eskimo; why the hell would you name your daughter after Daria’s irritating sister? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/44 "2001-10-03T18:14:02Z")
My middle name is Dale, and last time I checked I was female. There’s an interesting story behind it. I was born in 1970, and at the time, my mother’s youngest brother had just been drafted to go to Vietnam. His name was Dale, and my parents gave me his name as a middle name because they were worried he might not come back. He was shipped out a few days after I was born. The hospitals back then wouldn’t allow anybody but the father to visit, and my uncle wanted to see me before he left. So he went to the hospital and claimed to be the father, just so he could see me. He left for Vietnam shortly afterwards, and lucky for us, he made it back. I still have a Vietnam era military green hat he brought me, with my first and middle names on it. I think he was tickled they named me after him. My mother’s middle name is Lee, after her uncle, so it’s sort of a family tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/45 "2001-10-03T18:19:15Z")
Jefferson=Jeff Jackson=Jack Madison=Maddie, which can also be short for Madeline, which has been another popular girls name lately. You just wouldn’t call a boy “Maddie”. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/46 "2001-10-03T18:49:24Z")
I went to school with a male Kerry. I used to work with a male Casey, and a male Francis. My brother has the Spanish version of Francis (Francisco), as does his son. I do work with a male Kim. I also work with a male Marion and a male Lindsey. My cousin’s son is Robin (age 6). And yes, this all in the USA. I don’t know what all the fuss is about, especially when so many people have never even _heard_ of my name (Laird), and can’t figure out the gender. ---
**Author:** ![Payne\_N.Diaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Payne\_N.Diaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payne_N.Diaz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/47 "2001-10-03T18:51:56Z")
FWIW, I have a sister in law named Dayle, one named Robin, and a niece named Michael Ann. She’s always been Michael Ann, I guess to avoid the confusion. I also had an uncle Marion, and my grampa’s name was Leslie, as was my girl cousin (his granddaughter). My mom’s name is Eberle, which isn’t even a first name. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/48 "2001-10-03T19:08:59Z")
I think Madison got its start from the movie “Splash.” I don’t recall hearing it much before then. So many preschoolers are trotting about named after a random street sign. Good thing its wasn’t West 63rd. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/49 "2001-10-03T19:22:13Z")
Claire is Unisex? I’ve never heard of/met a male Claire but I certainly know one… if I didn’t that would be bad as it is my middle name and the name I go by. One name that I love but that I know is supposed to be a boy’s name is Kenzie. I have a young cousin named that. Another name I love is Kaelin which is another boy’s name but the one’s I know are both female. (One spells it Kaelin the other Kaylin) My parents stuck to names that show our sexes. They also named us after relatives. (me my Grandma’s my brother our Great Grandfather’s) There was a whole thing in the journal about this today… Living section if anyone wants to see if they have it n their site. (Edmonton Journal fyi) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/50 "2001-10-03T20:19:00Z")
Kim Herring started at safety for the Baltimore Ravens in the 2001 Super Bowl. Kim Bokamper was a starter on defense (either LB or DB) for the Miami Dolphins in the 1983 Super Bowl. Even if you don’t know me, you can probably guess why I remember all this. 😃 ---
**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:** [October 3, 2001, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/51 "2001-10-03T20:37:49Z")
Claire, like Carol, is one of those names that is supposedly unisex, but you rarely come across males with those names. For the record, my name is Carol, and I was in my 20’s before I even heard that it could be a man’s name, and I’ve still never met a male Carol. I know of only one, and it is spelt Carroll. Oh, and the pope’s real name was Karol. Still, I figure we’re talking English names here, and the pope is Polish. If we were including foreign names, then Andrea is a boys name in Italian, and girls in English, Jean is male in France, female in English, etc. In answer to earlier posts, I’m pretty sure Sydney started life as a male name (my great grandfather was Sydney), and when Frank Sinatra was born, Frances was already well established as a female version of the male name. I have instances of that name in my family tree dating back a century before Frank’s birth. I was going to have a male cousin called Casey, but I think his parents planned the name for a boy or a girl. Sadly, he was stillborn. I have a male cousin with the middle name McKenzie, named after his grandfather. I understand it’s now really popular as a girls name, and I think my great aunt’s granddaughter just had a baby girl named McKenzie. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/52 "2001-10-03T21:01:35Z")
Somebody named their daughter Weslie. Apparantly any boy’s name ending in ‘y’ can be feminized by turning it into an ‘ie’. If it ends in ‘lee’ sound, it can be flipped with a ‘leigh’. I can’t wait for Wesleigh! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/53 "2001-10-03T21:14:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Obsidian Flutterby \* > **Claire is Unisex? I’ve never heard of/met a male Claire but I certainly know one… if I didn’t that would be bad as it is my middle name and the name I go by.** Claire Chenault, founder of the Flying Tigers, of WWII fame. ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/54 "2001-10-03T22:02:05Z")
My understanding is that its all in the spelling…my male cousins name is **Robin** (although he was born in England, so that could explain that), and eventually I came to the conclusion that **Robin** denotes a boy, while **Robyn** denotes a girl. This all reminds me of years ago, when I started university and moved into a dorm. I was very nervous about my new roommate, and when we got to the dorm I ran up to room 218 (or whatever), and saw on the door two ‘welcome’ signs. One bore my blatantly female name, the other said ‘ **Michael** ’. WTF, I thought, I can’t live with a boy in my room! He’ll see my bedhead in the morning! (I was only 17). Anyways, I was plenty freaked, and worried about this all night, until in the morning a girl arrived in the room, and said “Hi, I’m Michael”. Ever since then I’ve just taken it as a rule of thumb to assume nothing. ---
**Author:** ![lestrange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@lestrange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lestrange)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/55 "2001-10-04T01:40:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by naughty wicked zoot \* > **parents hate when you ask that question. what i hate is when i do my “what’s your name” bit and the parent says (baby voice)" tell her, my name’s daltry" or “taylor” or “tyler” or “delaney”, or any of the other myriad of names that can go either way. thanks, mom, that’s a big help. now i have to make you mad by saying “and is daltry a girl?” don’t get PO’ed at me if you gave the kid a name that tells me nothing about your child’s gender!!! i’m not gonna take off the baby’s diaper to find out. if i have to ask, just answer the question without the “well, if you can’t tell…” attitude. name the kid “john” or “mary” if you don’t want people asking!** I’ve always been sort of puzzled by people who get hung up on a baby’s gender. I’m not talking about you, **Zoot** –I understand wanting to know. I’ve asked a time or two, myself. I just don’t understand parents who get all upset if you ask, or people who mistake the gender and then get all upset that they guessed wrong–either they’re incredibly apologetic, nearly to the point of abasing themselves, or they get indignant that I don’t festoon my daughter with pink ribbons or deck my son out in footballs. I just don’t get it. If someone asks, I’m happy to say. If someone guesses wrong, well, big deal. There is, as **Zoot** said, only one way to tell with babies, and it’s not usually on public display (outside of the house, anyway). Even more puzzling to me are the people who can’t seem to relate to babies at all unless they know their gender. I’ve seen sweet old ladies approach, inexorably drawn by the cute baby in the shopping basket. They’re all ready to smile and coo, the only thought in their head that moment is talking to the cute baby and maybe copping a tickle under the chin, but they turn aside before they engage to ask me the gender. 'Cause they can’t say “cootchie coo” unless they know the shape of Punkin’s genitalia. I just don’t get it. I am, incidentally, guilty of the unisex name thing. The eldest lestrangelet has a name that is pretty unusual in the US (though becoming more common) but is a boy’s name where it comes from (although I read recently that it actually had been used, rarely, as a girl’s name in medieval times. I didn’t know that when I chose the name). She’d have had the same name if she’d been a boy. The youngest has a name that’s gender-appropriate, but extremely unusual. So no one can guess from names at our house. And I kind of like it that way. I don’t really like the idea of pigeonholing little kids by gender so early in their lives. I do think it’s a shame, though, that once a name has “gone female” it’s considered more or less untouchable by males. A tremendous shame. ---
**Author:** ![naughty\_wicked\_zoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@naughty\_wicked\_zoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naughty_wicked_zoot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/56 "2001-10-04T13:55:02Z")
**lestrange** , i understand what you mean. and i don’t dislike the names themselves, just the parents who seem to feel that i should telepathically know the child’s gender. in my line of work, i HAVE to know the gender of the patient. it’s extremely dangerous if i don’t- we could send out the wrong test results to the wrong patient, or even do all the wrong tests. i think some of the names are quite cute, but if i can’t tell the gender of the patient by the name, and i have to ask, i feel that the parent has no right to get rude with me. and they do. really, REALLY rude. i had a mother tell me, “well, the name’s taylor, what do you think that means?” and i said, “well, my little neighbor boy is named taylor.” she said “that’s a girl’s name.” i wanted to say “actually, it’s a surname!!” but she probably wouldn’t have known what “surname” meant. and as for pigeonholing little kids according to gender, MAN, have seen some scary examples of that! i once saw the new baby of someone i worked with. not closely, but we would say “hi” in the halls. i walked up and said “what a beautiful baby!” and the dad turned around and said “he’s a boy! don’t call him beautiful!!” wow, got some issues there, dad?:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/57 "2001-10-06T00:12:42Z")
originally posted by **Elenfair:** > [@](#): > > Nikita. > > If I remember correctly, it’s actually a MALE name. > > In North America, it’s become a female name. And a TV series. The only image it calls up is the bullet-headed, bellowing Soviet leader pounding his shoe on the table; how feminine is _that?_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_O.Pinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/839c29/32.png) [@Frank\_O.Pinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_O.Pinion)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/58 "2001-10-06T21:32:16Z")
I swear I heard somewhere (probably Whose Line Is It Anyway?) that Drew Carey’s middle name is ‘Alison’. There’s a guy in my sister’s class at school named Loren. He has a female cousin that was a year older than me in school named Lauren. Little confusing. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/59 "2001-10-06T23:14:14Z")
it’s in the spellings vyvyan/vivian i know male and female vivs. robin/robyn since when was robin female? robin hood, you know. francis/frances shortened to frankie and fran or franny. fran healy (lead singer of travis, and male)is an example. leslie/lesley know plently of both genders lindsay/lindsey know countless females and 1 poor male. kelly/kelley kelly is welsh, and male. as in kelly jones, frontman of the stereophonics. rohan/rowan know guys and girls with this name. sidney/sydney yup. carey/kerry know both here too. the worst was a friend of mine whose daughter is georgina harriet…they can’t decide whether to call her george or harry! also, in ireland jackie is a male name, as is pat (james and patrick). but then majella (???) is a fairly common girls name here… lots of modern babies of either gender called jordan, brook/e and taylor/tyler. which are just confusing. surnames as first names strikes me as quite odd. however, my son will have my last name as a first or middle name (but it’s a name that works that way) and my daughter will have my grandmother’s maiden name (lehane, pronounced laine) as a middle name. family tradition and all that. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065/60 "2001-10-07T01:30:29Z")
I always joke that I turned out gay 'cos of my grandparents, Eddie and Carroll. Eddie (or Edde, or Eddy, depending on how she felt) was for Edna, and Carroll, well, that’s as in O’Connor. Grampa, poor man, was named Carroll Laverne \_\_\_\_\_\_, can you imagine growing up with that? My own given name, Christian, has been much more of a problem than parents ever dreamed. They gave it to me because they liked “Chris” but didn’t like “Christopher;” plus, Christian sounded nice and Scandinavian in combination with my last name. Of course, in my parents’ generation Chris is virtually unknown for either gender - their only peer with the name is from Germany. Little did they know that suddenly everyone in The Entire Freakin’ Country would simultaneously discover Chris. Or that half of the babies getting that name would be female. I stopped going by Chris when I started in college - I was getting whiplash from always turning my head when I heard my name yelled out. The added insult is that I have a common last name, so I figured using “Christian” would at least let me get my mail properly. It helped - for a while. In law school I started sending out resumes, with my name: Christian P \_\_\_\_\_\_. Fully a quarter of my rejection letters were addressed to “Ms. Christian P Johnson.” I blame it all on 80s hair band Night Ranger - remember their dreadful ballady song “Sister Christian”? I distinctly remember an interview with the lead singer, who said that his sister’s name was actually Christine but the rhythm worked better as Christian. (I think I’d have fictionalized it more - the song basically sez, “Hey Sis! You know I love you, but you’re a big ole slut and I wish you’d keep your legs shut.”) So professionally, I go by Christian Peter - at least until I’ve met someone in person or by phone. It’s the only way I can convey gender and have it stick. Oh, and in law school I knew a Whitney Dickinson, who was female. The only-last-names-no-first-name seems especially common in the South - Whitney was from South Carolina. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-that-have-changed-sex/85065.md?page=2)