"Girly" sounding boys names

[vandychick]

Perhaps Babylemonade could comment on whether there is also any influence of French names in Canada in terms of unisex/girlier names, since some French male names might look girlier to those from a more English descent. Example, I know one male Danielle from Canada.

I am not Babylemonade, but I am an American living in Canada with my French-Canadian husband. I don't think there is much influence from Quebec when it comes to unisex or girly names. In fact, it drives my husband nuts when people use names that are traditional male names in France/Quebec as girls names in North America. Patrice and Remy come to mind immediately. We considered Remy for a long time and got really annoyed with the number of people who said, "Isn't that a girl's name?" I think it's listed as unisex in a lot of name books because of its use in North America, especially in New Orleans.

It was very hard for us to find a name for our son that was French and would be perceived as masculine in a mainly English-speaking environment. There are a lot of French names where the main difference between the masculine and feminine is one of spelling and/or slightly different pronunciation. If your friend's name is really Danielle and not Daniel (pronounced like dan-yel) it would very unusual.

My name is Leslie and I have to correct the spelling all the time here, something that only rarely happened in the US. Here the girls version is lesley, and the boys is Leslie. I honestly never met a male Leslie until I moved to Canada. I do find people are willing to look at more unisex names, but not really when it comes to French names.

[cka]

These are all people I actually know through work and not personally so I just checked and I made a mistake. It's not Danielle, it is Daniel. I was thinking of Dominique who is also male, but a name that I had always thought of as female until I met him. The other interesting male name, is Florentin.

[cka]

My name is Leslie and I have to correct the spelling all the time here, something that only rarely happened in the US. Here the girls version is lesley, and the boys is Leslie. I honestly never met a male Leslie until I moved to Canada.

From what I remember Leslie is the boy spelling in the UK too. There was one boy I knew with that name and one girl with the name Lesley.

I am not 100% sure but I think the name Lindsay and Lindsey may be switched around between the UK and US too in terms of gender dominance.

[withinreason]

Reading these two posts again made me wonder if a link is being made here (intentionally or not) between gender roles/traits and names. Are people saying that more blurred gender expectations is a good thing and specifically in this context that guys should be expected to take on more traditional female traits and duties. And that furthermore, blurring of the gender distinction in name (again in this case boys being given more unisex/girlier names) will either lead to that, or just reflects that desire/shift?

Generally, I think U.S. citizens claim they want "equality" between men and women (at least in the workplace). I think it is a bit murkier of an issue when it comes to interests or domestic issues whether or not traditional female traits and duties should be expected or favorable.

I think giving a boy a unisex name reflects an acceptance, vs. a desire, to blur the gender lines. However, the pesky little issue of girl associations being "less than," is clearly still a check point which society has delineated for the projected "type" of adult we want our boys to become (ostensibly "not girly" is a qualifier when it comes to naming boys). I think today's parents (who are actively naming their children) still worry about a name jumping from "unisex" territory to "girl only territory." The general opinion seems to be once it becomes identified as girl, it cannot be brought back to simply unisex.

Since the word "unisex" wasn't coined until the 1960's, society is still trying to grapple with what it means. In terms of naming, it seems like most could agree a "unisex" name has to be be considered strong.

[namefan]

Interesting observation. I have also subjectively noticed the same thing about the UK, US and Australia. It seems to me that Australians have a higher acceptance of what some consider girlier names, such as Ashley, Brooke, Kelly and others that I have heard which have surprised me in the past but I've forgotten now.

From looking at stats from various countries, of those three names Ashley is the only one that I'd say has more masculine usage outside of North America. Brooke and Kelly appear to be mostly feminine in all of the countries/subdivisions (where they rank at all) that I have stats for. (Now how the individuals you described handled their names is a different story.)

Now onto the subject that was going to be the original "second post" I described earlier in this thread. Within the U.S., believe it or not unisex names for boys appear to be more common in the "red state" areas. For example take my own name, Kelly. Using a tool at a competing baby name site, one of the states that Kelly (m) was most used was Utah. I also discovered that the region which has the least usage of unisex names for boys is the Northeast (that region also has the greatest difference in the percentage of boys vs. girls given a top name, indicating that the differing standards in naming by gender is greatest there).

[cka]

Now onto the subject that was going to be the original "second post" I described earlier in this thread. Within the U.S., believe it or not unisex names for boys appear to be more common in the "red state" areas. For example take my own name, Kelly. Using a tool at a competing baby name site, one of the states that Kelly (m) was most used was Utah. I also discovered that the region which has the least usage of unisex names for boys is the Northeast (that region also has the greatest difference in the percentage of boys vs. girls given a top name, indicating that the differing standards in naming by gender is greatest there).

Speculation. Could this be because uptake of unisex names on girls is greater in regions such as the Northeast and parents then see these names as more common on girls and so don't use them as much on boys.

Or, is there a socio-economic factor here. Aside from red-state and blue-state, is there a higher or lesser chance of boys having unisex names in families that are wealthier or poorer and so differences may show up more in poorer vs richer states? Would an investment banker dad and his lawyer wife be more willing to name their daughter Reese than they would name their son Ashley or Madison for example. My gut feeling says yes and ties into the comments made by babylemonade before, but I think such parents would see an advantage in naming their daughter with the strong name but not their son. But that said I don't have a sound reason for why parents lower on the socio-economic scale would be more willing to go the other way, and as I say, it's more speculation on my part anyway unless someone has some stats.

[vandychick]

I was thinking of Dominique who is also male, but a name that I had always thought of as female until I met him.

I think that Dominique as a male name came about after the popularity of Dominique Wilkins. It's listed as the French version of Dominic in Baby Names Now, but that's not correct. It's the French feminine version of Dominic, which follows the Frederic/Frederique pattern.

French is different in the sense that most of the most traditional names have both a feminine and masculine version. Joseph/Josephine, Jean/Jeanne, Martin/Martine. They are not really ambiguous (at least when written) and you would have to be making a very deliberate choice to name your child the opposite gender version.

[cka]

I was thinking about Brooklyn Beckham's name this morning and wasn't sure how established the name was for girl's when he was born. In 1999 it ranked 182 on the girls list. It has risen steadily since then to be number 37 for girls in 2009. There doesn't seem to have been any significant uptake in use for boys, despite a celeb naming their son that.

I realized also that there are some parallels between me and Brooklyn re: names. Both named after places. Both considered girl's names. Both not common girl's names when used. Both soared in popularity after the name was given and so became more strongly identified as a girl's name. This just struck me as kind of interesting.

I wonder if the Beckham's would have named Brooklyn this if they had foreseen it reaching number 37 for girls ten years later. Being celebs maybe they would have, but then maybe not. What do others think re: that?