What do people here think of surnames (Lindsay, Madison, Peyton) and boy’s names (Cameron, Darren, Finley) etc being used on girls in modern times?
Reported for forum change.
It’s been going on for a long time, it’s not a modern trend.
I’m on the fence on this one. Does the list of acceptable names really have to be bounded?
On the other hand, a given name that does not resound with the linguistic environment can be a huge burden for a child that has no (immediate) recourse.
I don’t care.
Don’t get me wrong, I can be as sniggery and judgemental about parents’ name choices as the next person. But thinking ‘girls should have GIRL names godammit’ is something I really can’t get behind. Any more than forcing all young girls to paint their bedrooms pink, as seems the current world we live in. Thank god I grew up in the 70s before such nonsense. I would have been a miserable tomboy.
But it only seems to go one way: You’d name your daughter Daryn but you wouldn’t name your son Brittany.
Welcome to the patriarchal society. Boys don’t get to wear dresses much either. Not something I agree with, for the record.
I think the use of surnames as first names is goofy. It’s also very, very common among my peers, though IME more so for boys. I have no feeling either way on “girls’ names for boys,” though I feel bad for the boy named Brittany and the many, many beatings he’ll get at school.
As America seems to be becoming more multicultural, and traditional naming practices seem to be waning, the practice cited by the OP is only one development. The more traditional part of me prefers that I be able to identify the gender of an individual by their given name. But the realistic part of me acknowledges than a parent can name their kid whatever they want with no regard to my preferences.
My personal preference is to use the unusual names as middle names. But again, no one needs to follow my preferences.
What I think is especially amusing, is when I get the impression that the parent is trying to be unique or creative, yet the kindergarten class ends up with 5 Madisons and 4 Taylors - of both genders.
Heck, I’d also prefer non-“creative” spellings for traditional names. And I’m not a huge fan of many African-American given names. And don’t get me started on multiple, hyphenated surnames. But the reality is that I have to get used to more Asian, Arabic, African, and non-western names.
Like I said, name your kid whatever you want, and I’ll do my best to pronounce it as you prefer and remember to call each person by whatever they prefer.
I think that surname-as-given-name can be a really nice way to acknowledge a maternal lineage.
Also, there is such diversity of given names these days that you have to be really, really unusual to actually register. There’s no point in wondering how people would have reacted to “Ophelia” in your kindergarten class: she won’t be in that class.
My sister told me of recently taking her grandchild to the playground. As she told it, she heard many kids called by name, but realized was unable to guess the gender, ethnicity, etc of any kid from the name. Not saying it is good or bad, but it definitely seems to be trending. Of course I if I have noticed it, the trend is likely past! 
Maybe to be REALLY out there, you might name your baby Joe, or Mary! 
True. And once a name that has traditionally been used for boys gets widely used for girls, it tends to go from boy to unisex to girl. Boys quit getting that name. Because for a boy to be girly is a very, very negative thing, culturally/socially. And why open your son to the teasing?
Moved from Great Debates to IMHO.
Thanks for the report. Generally, unless it’s spam we prefer to not publicly indicate a post report.
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My daughter’s name is Lindsay. And androgyny didn’t bother my uncle Leslie, who named his daughter Leslie.
If you spend any time on pregnancy boards, you’ll see two major trends:
- A desire for a “classic” or “old fashioned” name, and disdain for “made up” or “trendy” names.
- A desire for an “uncommon” name, and a disdain for any name too high up on the popularity index. Everyone is trying to avoid being Eva #5 in preschool.
If you think about it for a second, there is a bit of a contradiction there. There aren’t a lot of names that hit “classic” and “uncommon” at the same time, and the pressure to signal your social status via this type of naming is so intense that names are rocketing from “charmingly old fashioned” to “overplayed” at breakneck speed. It’s like a constant arms race to find a plausibly traditional (well, traditional to a certain group) name that hasn’t yet broke the top 50.
Surnames and gender-changing names have become one solution. They have a “classic” aspect and are familiar, but still feel fresh and different.
Frankly I think it’s all a bit ridiculous. Can’t we just name our kids how we like, and stick to clothes and zip codes or whatever to signal our class/status/ethnic aspirations? New parents have enough to worry about without worrying that they are going to condemn their kids to a lifetime of pain because their name doesn’t precisely hit the ever-moving target considered acceptable traditional-unusual with the self-declared arbiters of middle class names.
Kinda this.
Plus, I occasionally worry, Will we run out of masculine names if the girls keep taking them all?
I think anyone should name their child whatever they want, and much prefer the US system of allowing this over the strict rules in some countries.
That said, certain names will bias me into making negative assumptions about the parents’ judgment and intelligence, and therefore also the child’s intelligence. It’s not something I’m proud of doing but probably has some accuracy. That said, the two categories in the OP are not the most bothersome and (I think) falling out of fashion. I am more bothered by the recent plethora of -en ending names, many of them khreatyvely spelled or made up whole cloth.
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I’m kind of torn also. “Ryan” turning into a girl’s name hit me hard for some reason.
I imagine companies reading resumes and having no idea of the gender of the applicant. In a way it’s a good thing, so they have no preconceived notions, and on the other hand it’s something interesting to know about the applicant.
I’m giggling at the idea of sweet, feminine little Thudlows. 
Naming children seems to have become a strange and confusing thing now days.
If i had a daughter (yea i know, fat chance) i would name her a nice simple proper girls name.
Annastasia Kataraina Marguerite Marie von Familyname*
See? nice proper name for a little girl.
You may call her Baroness for short.
*yea no, not printing family name, too easy to mail boxes of dog shit to me