# Would you give your newborn son a stereotypically female name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 26, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585 "2015-04-26T17:30:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/41 "2015-04-27T01:03:14Z")
I don’t know why a parent would give their boy a name like Susan, Mary, Alice, Jennifer or so forth, unless to make some sort of socio-political point - and if so, I think it’s pretty unfair to the child to have to suffer teasing and mockery just because their parents wanted to make a political point. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/42 "2015-04-27T01:20:20Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Sean used to be only a boy’s name but now has become as much or more a girl’s. No it hasn’t. [Not even close.](http://nametrends.net/name.php?name=Sean) [Shawn had a brief spike where female use became noticeable, but never matched males, circa 1970, and that dropped off.](http://nametrends.net/name.php?name=Shawn) [Shaun was similar, though with a smaller spike.](http://nametrends.net/name.php?name=Shaun) ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/43 "2015-04-27T01:59:51Z")
Like **Monstro** said, I wouldn’t _go out of my way_ to name a boy with a name traditionally associated with girls, or to do it to prove a point, but I would be cool with using a name or nickname that I had some legitimate affinity for even if it happened to more typically associated with girls. I went to school with a male Elin, who was from a culture where Elin (said exactly like Ellen) is traditionally a male name. If I had married some guy from that culture who was really invested in naming a son after his beloved grandfather Elin, I could get on board with that. (I was a little surprised that the male Bonnie turned out to have Bonnie on his ID … I would have guessed it was short for Bonaventure.) ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/44 "2015-04-27T05:46:22Z")
No. I work with a man named Lindsey whenever I talk to him I always avoid using his name. It feels wrong somehow. It effects my interactions with him in some minor way because I can’t get over the fact that his name is _Lindsey_ which to me is exclusively a girl’s name. I know it used to be a man’s name, but every Lindsey I’ve ever encountered up to him was an attractive young woman. Wouldn’t do this to a boy. No way, No how. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/45 "2015-04-27T05:58:34Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > We had a beloved poster (now deceased) whose handle was “Askia”. Initially, I was not familiar with that name, so for a long time I thought “Askia” was a girl. Now when I look at it, it screams “masculine” because **Askia’s** personality was masculine. > [@WhyNot](#): > > I’d forgotten that [Askia was his real name](http://thetandd.com/news/local/obituaries/askia-moshe-hale-atlanta-ga/article_14019d0c-836c-5e80-b811-ede5df63968c.html). It’s an [old, somewhat famous name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askia_Mohammad_I). That was a bad loss and at such a young age :(. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/46 "2015-04-27T06:05:53Z")
Oh and re: the OP, my mother apparently at least semi-seriously considered naming me [Joyce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_%28name%29) :eek: ( yeah, I’m a guy ). Thankfully she got talked out of that moment of insanity. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/47 "2015-04-27T06:49:42Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Depends on how stereotypical. Morgan, Sean, Kyle, Jamie, Hunter, Jesse, Kelly, Madison…not a problem. (In fact, one of those is my son’s name. Another is my daughter’s middle name.) Kim is pushing it, although worldwide it’s used more for boys than girls, but not in my group. Alice? No. Allis, maybe (that was one of my grandmother’s names.) Jane? No. Jayne, maybe, but I’d also dress him in a little brown coat and a silly hat. 😉 Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I knew of at least a couple of guys named Kim, though it was somewhat rare; still I don’t remember them ever being hassled about it. There was a Robin, too, although I remember only one male and at least two or three over the years who were female. I wonder what Kim is short for, as a male name? ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/48 "2015-04-27T06:52:17Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I knew a woman named Milo. Does that count? Some Hollywood mega-celebrity couple recently named their newborn daughter James. The thought of it makes me cringe; why would anyone do that? ---
**Author:** ![jezzaOZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jezzaOZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jezzaOZ)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/49 "2015-04-27T07:09:15Z")
Leslie (Nielsen) Lindsay (Buckingham) Meredith (Wilson) Evelyn (Waugh) Dana (Andrews) Sandy (Koufax) Abbie (Hoffman) Stacy (Keach) Kelly (Slater) Jean-Marie (Le Pen) Plus plenty of older generation males with completely female middle names such as Anne or Mary - usually from some immediate relative ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/50 "2015-04-27T07:13:14Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I wonder what Kim is short for, as a male name? [Kimberley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Hughes), same as for girls. It’s a [place](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Norfolk) [name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Kimberley), that ironically partially derives from an old [Anglo-Saxon girl’s name](http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Kimberley_f). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/51 "2015-04-27T07:35:36Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > When I was much younger I knew a boy named “Sharon” pronounced Shar-ran in Texas… He had 2 older brothers with typical male names. He was a holy terror… That’s probably not where it came from, but “Sharon” is a gender-neutral name in Hebrew, although it’s pronounced “sha-RONE”. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/52 "2015-04-27T08:16:28Z")
Perhaps Vivian after Sir Vivian Richards. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/53 "2015-04-27T12:30:28Z")
I would neither give my son a feminine name nor my daughter a masculine one. Kids are cruel, and as a result, I’m a bit of a conservative when it comes to names. Alexander is my first choice for a boy, Julianna for a girl. Now, if my son Alexander wants to wear pink and dance ballet and Julianna discovers that she’s actually not she, and wants to go by Julian, then I’d support them without blinking. But at birth, best to play the odds. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/54 "2015-04-27T14:48:00Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I wonder what Kim is short for, as a male name? In some Asian countries, it’s a name by itself, not short for anything, kind of like “Soo,” or “Suu” as an Asian name isn’t short for anything. > [@jezzaOZ](#): > > Meredith (Wilson) If you mean the author of \*The Music man, \*it’s Willson, two Ls. Also, John Rosamund Johnson, who usually just went by Rosamund, without the first name, wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing (The African American National Anthem).” Lately, people have been sticking the John onto his name, because of the assumption that he is a woman. > [@](#): > > Plus plenty of older generation males with completely female middle names such as Anne or Mary - usually from some immediate relative I always thought those were confirmation names, but recently someone told me that when a woman died in childbirth, her surviving child was usually named after her, and if it was a boy, her name was used as a middle name. I don’t personally know of any examples, and I couldn’t find this on [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) as true or false, but I have no reason to doubt it. > [@Small\_Hen](#): > > I would neither give my son a feminine name nor my daughter a masculine one. Kids are cruel, and as a result, I’m a bit of a conservative when it comes to names. I agree, albeit, kids can make fun of anything. My son’s name is John, and it doesn’t get much simpler than that. I expect he will get toilet jokes some day. He will handle it. It could be much worse, and at least he won’t be the only John around, so he won’t feel singled out, the way he would if it one-of-a-kind name were being made fun of. Also, I’ve sort of been on both sides: I lived in Jewish neighborhoods in New York, where Rivkah is a pretty common name-- so common that I got called “Rivkah Chaya,” to differentiate me from the four other Rivkahs around. In Indiana, no one had heard of the name at all. People asked me if my parents made it up. I even went by Rebecca for a while, but cut it out when people started calling me “Becky” without asking. I _hate_ “Becky.” ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/55 "2015-04-27T15:34:47Z")
A large amount of now-common girl names used to be boy names. You can see a big list in **Ascenray** ’s post (some more that I know of are Madison, Meredith, Lauren, and Allison as originally boy names). Are you folks simply putting some sort of “time limit” on the name changing? As in, if the change happened more than X number of years ago, it’s a girl’s name now? Now granted, a lot of these names were only 100% boy names at the turn of the century, and gradually became girl names over the next hundred years. Some didn’t reach the majority point until the 1980s, though. So those who would never name their girl a boy name, are these names off your list? Or is there some sort of time limit that makes it OK for you? I’d be all for naming a boy Ashley or Leslie, I think those names are quite handsome really. But does it count if they were originally boy names anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/56 "2015-04-27T16:03:32Z")
How about [Shirley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Crabtree) for a boy? ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/57 "2015-04-27T16:10:21Z")
No I would not. It wouldn’t be on my radar to consider it. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/58 "2015-04-27T16:52:39Z")
I would not because I’m not looking to start a trend or single my kid out for being picked on ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/59 "2015-04-27T17:58:25Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > More accurately, Marion used to be a man’s name and Marian used to be the female version of the name. In my teaching career I taught at least three Marions and all of them were girls…I don’t think I ever taught a Marian. The only Marion male I ever knew was a great uncle, born in about 1912. I bet if you looked it up you’d find that the name was deader than a doornail for little boys…and has been that way for decades. Marion was John Wayne’s true given name, but he was born in 1907, years before your relative. The “Marion” spelling has been used for women as well as men for a long time. I had a great aunt Marion who was born in 1901, she was the baby of the family and my grandmother was her 13-years-older sister. I know that makes me sound like I’m about 70 myself, but I’m not; generations run long in my family. I knew a Marion in college, but I can’t remember any others. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585/60 "2015-04-27T18:06:24Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Depends on how stereotypical. Morgan, Sean, Kyle, Jamie, Hunter, Jesse, Kelly, Madison…not a problem. (In fact, one of those is my son’s name. Another is my daughter’s middle name.) Kim is pushing it, although worldwide it’s used more for boys than girls, but not in my group. Alice? No. Allis, maybe (that was one of my grandmother’s names.) Jane? No. Jayne, maybe, but I’d also dress him in a little brown coat and a silly hat. 😉 My given name’s in that list, so I guess that tells you how my parents would respond. 🙂 The Firebug already had a name that we liked when we adopted him from Russia (thank goodness his name wasn’t Igor, which is not an uncommon Russian name), but if we’d had to give him a name, it would have been an unquestionably guy name, like David or Michael. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-give-your-newborn-son-a-stereotypically-female-name/718585.md?page=4)