Although it doesn’t end in -y, I believe Meredith was also once an exclusively male name. I think it has it’s roots in the Welsh language.
I think people who want unique spellings of common baby names should look to these, rather than making up a spelling on their own.
My sister is due with her first child at the end of the month (I’m going to be an aunt! 
). If it’s a girl, they’re thinking of naming it Evelyn. In addition to being, IIRC, another girl’s name that used to be a boy’s name, it was my grandmother’s name. She wants a unique name for her baby, but is going to old-fashioned names rather than making up a different spelling for a currently common name (for example, Jacob is the most common male baby name for 2005).
Piper Gaby, huh? So her folks watched Charmed then Desperate Housewives every Sunday, too… If it had been a boy, and they’d prefered Wednesday night TV, maybe they’d of had Sawyer Russel:p
Speaking of names, I read recently that Jack is the most popular baby name in the UK currently. POTC probably has some part in that, but what I’m wondering is the boys’ name is really Jack on their birth certificates, not Johnathan like most Jacks in the US? I have an uncle Don (legally, not Donald) so I know it’s sometimes done, but for something normally a nickname to be the most common boy name surprises me.
It’s happened before- the name Nancy supposedly started out as a diminutive of Anne, and Nancy has been the more popular of the two names in a number of years. There are almost certainly other examples.
I’ve heard of females with gender-ambiguous names getting nasty notes from Selective Service, reminding them to register. I don’t know what’s involved in convincing the government that you’re actually female…
I used to work with a girl named Piper about 15 years ago. She said she was named after a plane.
Probably no harder than mailing in a notarized copy of a birth certificate or passport.
And the strip search, of course.
My name is Mark. I know 4 or 5 other Marks. When I was in I believe 4th grade, there was 4 Marks in the class. If you look at this site, Mark has been a relatively common name, especially in the mid 50’s when I was born.
I met a little girl recently named Cadence.
My son’s class this year included 3 Taylors. Two boys and a girl.
Last week, I met a boy named Hawk. Today, the goofspelling Charals for the perfectly normal Charles. I’ve also met Merile (male) and Geronimo. Then there are the brothers…Dakota and Lakota.
It’s harder than that. My sister, who has a strictly female name, got a letter from the Selective Service when she was 21 telling her to register. (The SS doesn’t waste time, huh.* :rolleyes: ) She had to get ahem confirmed by a doctor. That must have been rather awkward.
- For non-Americans: all U.S. males (and only males) must register for potential military drafting soon after turning 18.
Last year, a female applicant for one of our programs at work/school (college) was named Michael Gene Something. It really threw me off the first time I called to speak with “him”.
I’m guilty of the trendy name sin. When my friend J was pregnant at 19 (and I was 17… I’m blaming this on the young & dumb theory) we decided that Kyrsten [Keersten] would be a cool name for the kid. K grew into the name (my pet name for her [in my own mind, not out loud] is fireball demon from hell) and those who can’t say it just call her Krissy.
My parents told me about their friends the Bottomlys. They named their son Rocky.
I don’t know how they died.
Tris
I offered my daughter $20 to name her dog Evelyn, but she wouldn’t go for it. Even though she likes Frank Zappa.
I’ll wade in here and take my beating: we named said daughter Tasman Elizabeth. So far (first 10 years) she’s taken virtually no shit for it and has had a lot of compliments. And we gave her a very versatile middle name if the need arises.
I have a very good female friend (50 years old) named Kevan. Lest there be any doubt regarding her gender, her middle name is Lee. :rolleyes:
Overall observation: Even John will be a girl’s name someday. All the rest are.
As far as “potential playground problems” go (as one baby-naming guide I saw a few years ago ranked things), there are fully grown men playing Major League Baseball named Coco Crisp and Milton Bradley…
What gets me isn’t so much the “creative” naming of children (particularly girls) after various nouns (“Lexus”), adjectives or place names (“Brooklyn” is apparently an increasingly popular, but surprisingly enough, not “Weehawken”), but “creative” spellings of names, generally featuring K’s for C’s or Y’s for I’s, doubling N’s or L’s, and the like. So you like a name but thought it was too common, so decided just to change the spelling to stand out? Stand out how… on tax forms and lunch bags?
To me it all seemed to start with Caitlin, a traditional Irish form of the name Catherine with an English pronunciation-correct form of Kathleen (like Shawn for Sean). Frequently mispronounced as “KATE-lin”, it became particularly popular with the funky-spelling crowd in 5 or 6 different forms: Catelyn, Kaitlyn, even Kaytlynn… Arrggh!
Some friends of mine adopted a girl a few years back and named her not Katrina… But Catryna (pronounced the same). And my wife’s sister named her daughter not Kira, but Kyra. (Which always makes me think of Kyocera, the cell phone manufacturer). Are these girls expected to grow up to become wymyn?
I have a friend whose 15-year-old daughter’s name is Stevie Rae.
Not Stephanie Rae (which I think would have been beautiful), using Stevie as a diminutive, but Stevie.
That’s a cold shot, baby.
I’m pretty sure that Kyra is currently a *more * popular spelling than Kira. I don’t know a lot of women with that name, but the few I know all use the y.
On the other hand, anyone who names their kid “Lexus” should know that when that child kills them in their sleep, no jury will convict them.
My 6-year-old neighbor is named Denver. Not too bad, he’s actually named after his grandfather (or great-grandfather, I’m not sure). Other kids at his school:
Wolf
Tiger
Gryphon
Nautica
Halle Wood
General
Major
Talon
King Butcher (my current favorite)
My godson is named Dear, pronounced De-air. I bought him weights for his 5th birthday last month.
I always wanted to marry someone with a last name such as Wood and name my daughter Holly. Or Hills, Beverly.
Eventually, there will be a backlash or the oddly named ones naming their children John and Mary, which will seem avant gard!
I’m sure she’s their pride and joy. :rolleyes:
When my son, Charles, was born, we had two close friends also have children around the same time. Both named their sons Caleb. The didn’t know each other and both thought they were being unique and totally not trendy. When my son was 4 there were 4 Calebs in his preschool (of only 40 kids or so), plus the two we were friends with. Funny how names just sorta become trendy.
HAW!
Best one-liner I’ve heard all day…