# surnames and boys names on girls? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 30, 2017, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711 "2017-05-30T12:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/41 "2017-05-31T13:02:13Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > 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. “The US system” may allow it, but it’s also real bad at dealing with any name structures other than “one-word firstname, one-word middlename, one-word lastname.” ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/42 "2017-05-31T13:39:00Z")
A whole thread and no one’s mentioned the “Orangejello/Lemonjello” urban legend? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/43 "2017-05-31T16:29:26Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > “The US system” may allow it, but it’s also real bad at dealing with any name structures other than “one-word firstname, one-word middlename, one-word lastname.” Jim Bob and Billy Bob would disagree, if they could read. And at least two companies, one a government related agency seems to have gotten by fine, even if their parents chose the creative spellings FNMA and SLM. 😃 I was born with a double barrel name and got by fine. I later changed it but only because I didn’t like it. > [@Princess\_Perfume](#): > > A whole thread and no one’s mentioned the “Orangejello/Lemonjello” urban legend? Yeah, but it’s spelled La-A. Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/44 "2017-05-31T16:53:38Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > “The US system” may allow it, but it’s also real bad at dealing with any name structures other than “one-word firstname, one-word middlename, one-word lastname.” Though I guess you’re referring to among other things, Raul Garcia Fernandez being called Mr. Fernandez when the correct courtesy should be Mr. Garcia? So he was to choose between being wrongly referenced, dropping his mother’s name, or combining them into one legal name? Right, no good solution to that, although its common in a lot of countries. Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/45 "2017-05-31T18:54:48Z")
How about last names that sound like first names? I grew up with a last name that sounded like a girl’s first name, and it did confuse people. I guess if I had been a boy it would have been a little more obvious, which of the three names was the last name. But I knew people whose last names were Evelyn, Valerie, Barbara (they pronounced it bar-BEAR-uh), Lucy, Lily, and Alison, plus more that I noted but have forgotten. I don’t know why but that seems worse than having a last name that could be a male first name, like Henry or Scott. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/46 "2017-05-31T19:21:42Z")
As someone who grew up sharing my first name with lots and lots of other kids (for most of my childhood, I had at least 2 friends with the same name, covering a total of 6 kids sharing that name), I have no problem at all with diversifying the pool of names. What does bother me is people who pick a “It sounds the same but is spelled oddly” sort of name. They are dooming their child to a lifetime of spelling out their name to everyone that needs to write it down. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/47 "2017-05-31T19:59:42Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Recently, some A-list celebrity named her new baby daughter James. I know I shouldn’t judge, and most of my fellow Americans seem to think its fine to name your kid anything up to and including Late-For-Dinner, but come on now, really. James? Why would anyone do this? I do object to unconventional or gender-contrary names whose main objective is apparently for the parents to show off their “creativity”. There is an actress who used to be known as James King, but I guess she decided it was too confusing for people to realize she was a woman, and now is billed as Jamie King. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/48 "2017-05-31T21:17:18Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Though I guess you’re referring to among other things, Raul Garcia Fernandez being called Mr. Fernandez when the correct courtesy should be Mr. Garcia? So he was to choose between being wrongly referenced, dropping his mother’s name, or combining them into one legal name? Right, no good solution to that, although its common in a lot of countries. > > Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk There’s more than just that. What if you have one of these kinds of names — - family name, first given name, second given name - family name, second given name, first given name - family name, hyphenated double given name - single letter, single letter, given name (no family name) - given name (no family name) - given name, patronymic (no family name) — granted, this will fit U.S forms, but will defy the foe rations if you try to apply it throughout your family. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/49 "2017-05-31T22:34:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Every name was once used for the first time. Every popular or conventional name has at one time or another been unusual or unconventional. This isn’t always true; for example many German names evolved over time from the words for desirable personal qualities or the attributes associated with them. “Adalbert” “noble+renowned” evolved into “Albrecht” and several similar variants. A parallel development in early English brought about “Albert”; although English has lost nearly all of its Anglo Saxon given names. Such evolution of names is obviously similar to that of ordinary words. It often happens that a name will “immigrate” from one culture into the next repeatedly. “Nestor” is a reasonably common name in Spanish speaking countries today, because Homer cast a “Nestor” into the _Iliad_, which was adopted as a founding myth by the Romans, after which the name was passed down to the various Romance-language speaking cultures of southern Europe. So from a contemporary viewpoint the name Nestor has just “always been there”. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/50 "2017-05-31T22:36:52Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > If you spend any time on pregnancy boards, you’ll see two major trends: > > 1. A desire for a “classic” or “old fashioned” name, and disdain for “made up” or “trendy” names. > 2. 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, **Myrtle**. My grandmother’s name - classic AND uncommon. Still, nobody wants it :D. Some names will just never be popular. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/51 "2017-05-31T22:53:41Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > This isn’t always true; for example many German names evolved over time from the words for desirable personal qualities or the attributes associated with them. “Adalbert” “noble+renowned” evolved into “Albrecht” and several similar variants. A parallel development in early English brought about “Albert”; I bet you that there was someone rolling his or eyes at the “creative” variation the first time someone was called Albrecht instead of Adalbert. > [@](#): > > It often happens that a name will “immigrate” from one culture into the next repeatedly. “Nestor” is a reasonably common name in Spanish speaking countries today, because Homer cast a “Nestor” into the _Iliad_ And someone was rolling his or her eyes at a parent naming a child after a character from entertainment. Why, right here on these boards someone was aghast in one of these “crazy parents and their silly baby names” threads someone was aghast at encountering a child names “Anastasia,” because that’s a character from a Disney Cartoon!, don’t you know, even though it has been a normal name for centuries. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/52 "2017-06-01T18:43:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I recently had a brief encounter, at an airport, with a [smokin’ hot female who called herself Mercedes](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/avatars/f117fte_1328320495_280.jpg), flying a [smokin’ hot sporty home-built airplane](http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/001216719.html). That’s apparently her real name (actually, I think it’s her middle name) – I found she has some non-zero internet presence, including a LinkedIn profile. More in [this recent post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20228416#post20228416) over in the Ongoing General Aviation thread. Sounds like when my one friend mentioned a guy she liked, named Hector, and my other friend said “HECTOR?!? Like in the Trojan Wars?!” She apparently wasn’t aware of Hector being a common name among Latino people. Similarly, Mercedes. There’s also Portia. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/53 "2017-06-01T20:31:21Z")
Wow. I never knew that Mercedes was a real, established female person’s given name, or any person’s given name. First time I ever saw or heard of it. Was this also some god or heroic character from some ancient mythology? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711/54 "2017-06-01T20:33:11Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Wow. I never knew that Mercedes was a real, established female person’s given name, or any person’s given name. First time I ever saw or heard of it. > > Was this also some god or heroic character from some ancient mythology? It’s one of those Hispanic names that’s a shortened form of a title for Mary. Maria de los Mercedes, Mary of the Mercies. Like Maria del Pilar, Mary of the Pillar, Maria del Consuelo, Mary of the Good Counsel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-and-boys-names-on-girls/787711.md?page=2)