Middle name for Casper (Girl)

Hmmm, I’m not sure about the argument that children won’t know who Casper the Ghost is. There was an animated series on Cartoon Network and Netflix recently. My kids watched it and it would definitely their first association with the name, although that’s not necessarily a negative thing as they loved the character!

Ah yes-all those gender bending pioneers talking about “strong” boy’s names for girls, and worrying that Ellis is too “feminine” sounding for a boy. And the empowering fact that once a name becomes established as a girl’s name, people no longer use it for boys. Yep. All part of a new dawn of feminism.

Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why boys don’t get called Emily. Everybody knows why, of course.

Uh-huh, because the world's not ready for it yet. We've come far enough that thankfully gender-bending one way is getting a teensy bit more acceptable, but we haven't quite achieved it in reverse.

That'll be because historically the masculine was more highly valued than the feminine, but even before that the men had to be masculine and the women had to be feminine. We're halfway there when girls can safely be masculine (and have a boy's name, for example).

Just because we haven't made it the whole hog doesn't mean you can sneer at those who are putting themselves out there with what little we've achieved so far. We need more muddying of the idea that some things are for boys and some are for girls, and this sneery "oh, well you'd give your girls a boy's name but you wouldn't give your boys a girl's name" is completely counter-productive!

Anyway, having spent perhaps 25 years behing teased for a rhyming name I am disappointed when people make this a possibility for their child.

For every one person who had no problem with a particular sort of name there will be a handful of others who did.

Reese Witherspoon got mentioned... she is actually called Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon and Reese is her mother's maiden name.

Yep. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why boys don’t get called Emily. Everybody knows why, of course. Which is why the question gets studiously ignored.

Funny how it never works the other way - a girls name used for a boy.

you should've said one of the parents was American, it would be then less puzzling as to why someone think it's a good idea

Exactly, nobody under the age of 40 will even remember Casper the Friendly Ghost by the time shes at school, unless there's a remake. And that can happen at any time anyway. My scottish friend has a teenage Archie who now gets called Archie Andrews because the Riverdale TV series came out. He doesn't care. Remember all the pissed off mc mothers with their trendy Rubys when one turned up in EastEnders?. It van happen anytime and most kids are resilient enough to be able to handle it.

People get hung up on the associations they have, which will mean nothing to a generation 2/3 down from them. My cousin called her son Dylan and the elderly aunts went oh noooo you can't call him that, thats the druggie rabbit from The Magic Roundabout! Like a 15 year old now guves a shit about a kids TV program that hasnt been on TV simce the 70/80s

Poor kid. She'll spend her life explaining it to people. Some people are just so selfish.

But if they're that kind of person then that's just what people/kids do with any names, isn't it? My name is Louise and the boys at primary school used to have great fun making up sentences with all the words which rhyme with my name.

Does it matter though? Do you think poor Mickey is scared for life because school friends called him Mickey Mouse? You can make a nickname or association with any name.

Mickey and Donald, absolutely Ask any Mickey or Donald in the English speaking world what their nicknames were at school.

I live in a non English speaking country and my name is Lisa. Guess what everyone's first reaction always is?

I'd roll my eyes at any name so connected to a cartoon character.

What like Mickey, Donald, Maggie, Lisa or Tom?

Suggest "Caspita" to her which is Italian slang for "Christ on a bike"

It's not the unisex (or not) bit about Casper. I'd roll my eyes at any name so connected to a cartoon character.

Not to mention Daryl Hannah, Drew Barrymore, Glenn Close and Cameron Diaz.

I work with Americans and regularly chat with a Read, a Barbi, a female James, a female Cal, a Garry, a Carey, a Desi and a Cody. Nobody gives a shit about unusual names. Luckily for baby Casper, they seem less moribund by tradition ans propriety regarding names in the US.

Casper will barely register, especially in a class full of multicultural names, as nost children now experience.

Good for therm, I like Casper Rose. Its not more out there than Reece Withherspoon, Blake Lively (hasn't hurt them) or many other names used in the US, where I think you said she will live?

Firstly, yes- it would be very rude for OP to state it the way you did.

Secondly, even if OP followed your advice, it is incredibly unlikely it would make the parents change their mind and very likely that it would offend them and cause a family argument. Not worth it. At most, OP might tentatively suggest that, in OP's opinion, it wouldn't suit a girl, if OP was asked.

That comment wasn’t aimed at you directly, it was in response to all of the comments about bullying, confusion, hassle etc.

I didn’t think it was. Nor did I say what will happen, as you claimed, simply what happened to me.

Hard pass.

Does one imagine there were similarly pedestrian conversations to this one in the past when parents decided to bestow upon their daughters other hitherto "male" names such as Evelyn (which was also a surname -shock, horror), Carol, Beverly, Vivian, Meredith, Lauren, or Alison?

Not rude - necessary for the sake of her niece

And they ignore her but now there's a massive rift in the family. It's considered quite rude to do what you're suggesting OP does, you know.

Reagan they say to their sister that name is a terrible mistake. Don’t do it! Your child will hate you forever and you’ll have name regret from after she’s 5 months old until the rest of your life