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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

James as a girls name?

135 replies

CaitlinEJ · 22/06/2019 17:01

Hi all,

I met a little girl called James the other day, at first I thought it was weird but now I’ve got to know her it’s really cute and suits her. I’ve heard of a few other girls names James and I was wondering what everyone thought of it as a girls name?

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BikeRunSki · 23/06/2019 13:25

Jack Monroe deliberately uses a gender neutral pen name. Her real name is Mellisa.

Fullmoons · 23/06/2019 13:23

There's a food writer called Jack Monroe who is a woman.

WhiteLightTrainWreck · 23/06/2019 13:14

I love it! If my DC was to come out a girl I really want to call her James... if my dp would let me but he wont 😂

diddlediddle · 23/06/2019 13:05

@Mrsjayy 🤪 it's called an analogy! Read the whole thread...

daisypond · 23/06/2019 12:29

There is a female form of James- Jamesina.

Mrsjayy · 23/06/2019 11:15

Diddle what are you on about this is about james as a girls name nothing to do with perceived class.

trinitybleu · 23/06/2019 11:00

I knew a girl called Felix.... Not a nickname. As she was a baby when I first met her, I had assumed she was a boy.

diddlediddle · 23/06/2019 10:10

I'm interested in whether the people who are adamant that James is a boys name because it is more commonly given to boys would also think that a name like, for example, Lacey-Rae, is a "working class" name, because (and yes, I am guessing) that the statistics show it is overwhelmingly given to children in working class households.

I have seen many threads on mumsnet arguing that there are no names that "are working class" or "posh", despite statistics (likely) showing that certain names are in fact associated with different social-economic groups. Would it be cruel for one group to give their child a name associated with another group?

I personally think there is a difference between saying that a name is "more commonly given to [boys; children in working class households; Scottish children; etc]" and saying blankly that "its is a boys name" and that anyone who does differently is doing something wrong/abusive to their child etc.

daisypond · 23/06/2019 09:48

I wouldn’t have any problem with Innogen, as I know that Imogen is meant to be a mis-spelling or printer’s error - one of the reasons I dislike Imogen as a name! But I get the point.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 23/06/2019 09:33

I know someone who is male but is called Michelle.

Not French Michel or Italian Michele, both of which are equivalent to Michael? Poor sod if it is Michelle. I'd have hated to go through life with a name of any sort that constantly led to tiresome repetitive questions.

I always think of a woman I met once whose parents thought they were being incredibly clever and original calling her Innogen, which is apparently a name from legendary early British history. Imogen only arose as a name from a misreading/misspelling of Innogen, so it was much more authentic to go for the original spelling, even though Imogen has completely replaced Innogen and Innogen does indeed look like Imogen written down in certain fonts and when handwritten, so was bound to lead to confusion.

Predictably, their daugther had spent her whole life saying 'No, it's Innogen, not Imogen' and then having to talk about it. She looked utterly fed up when I made the mistake of saying 'Oh, that's unusual!' Blush

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 23/06/2019 09:21

Forgot link! Blush www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 23/06/2019 09:20

James is a common girls name in America.

No, it isn't.

[]] It doesn't feature in the list of top 1000 names given to US baby girls in 2018. Jamie is 614 for girls and 722 for boys. James is no. 4 for boys.

DonkeyHohtay · 23/06/2019 09:11

Also the "surnames as middle names" is very common in Scotland, the northeast of England and I daresay in Scandinavia too.

I have two friends called things like Laura Ross Jones and Sally Matthew Smith - Ross and Matthew are surnames with family meaning, just like Graham.

Eliot, Cameron and James are boys names, whatever American filmstars might call their kids.

daisypond · 23/06/2019 09:01

origami- her name is Caroline Graham Hansen. It may be that she has decided to use her middle name now but she was given the very normal female name Caroline.

origamiunicorn · 23/06/2019 08:34

There was a girl in the Norwegian football team last night whose name is Graham.

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 23/06/2019 07:43

Jamie is more often used as a girl's name than a boy's but James definitely a male name . Appreciate people should be able to call their children what they want but also have to think about the hassle it's going to cause the child

MashedSpud · 23/06/2019 07:43

Laughable.

Fullmoons · 23/06/2019 07:36

It's becoming more fashionable in the US to give girls boy's names. Cameron, Elliot, James are all girls I know in the US.

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 23/06/2019 03:17

Bloody awful calling a girl James. So try-hard.
Parents would only do such a thing to make themselves look cool, but in fact it makes them like ridiculous twits. And their poor child is the one who will bear the brunt of the ridicule.

And yes, “James-but-a-girl” would be their inevitable moniker.

Chocolatedeficitdisorder · 23/06/2019 00:41

I once knew a very elderly lady called Nicholas.

BikeRunSki · 22/06/2019 23:02

Alice Cooper is the stage name of Vincent Furnier. Chosen for the shock value of a man having a feminine name; that name in particular as she was a notorious medieval witch.

Spooksandchocolatecake · 22/06/2019 22:56

Love it

FrancisCrawford · 22/06/2019 22:53

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FrancisCrawford · 22/06/2019 22:52

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FrancisCrawford · 22/06/2019 22:51

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