Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

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

Naming your daughter a boy's name, yes or no ?

181 replies

Momto2girliess · 12/06/2021 20:45

My sibling named her baby girl a classic masculine name ( Think John, Robert , Thomas). I am never going to say anything to her. I am just curious to know people's opinion on it.

She always wanted a boy.This is baby girl n°5. Do you think it is a bit strange to name your girl a very masculine name?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
LobotomisedIceSkatingFan · 14/06/2021 05:10

[quote ChrisOnTheBeach]@fretfulpig

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher.

LOL of course Christopher is a masculine name. It's a BOY'S name.

What is masculine to you then? Butch? Rocky? Baratheon? Blade? Hunter? Thor? PMSL. Grin

Ronnie is also a girl's name. I wonder if you would have told Ronnie Kray his name was feminine?!

Also, James Alexander, and Martin are never, ever used as girls names. And neither is Christopher.[/quote]
It's simply not true that James is never, ever used as a girls name 🙄

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 21:32

@GreyhoundG1rl

Strange posts? I know which ones I find strange... 😂
Yes we all know you find my posts hilarious.
GreyhoundG1rl · 13/06/2021 21:29

Strange posts? I know which ones I find strange... 😂

ChrisOnTheBeach · 13/06/2021 21:17

@fretfulpig

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher.

LOL of course Christopher is a masculine name. It's a BOY'S name.

What is masculine to you then? Butch? Rocky? Baratheon? Blade? Hunter? Thor? PMSL. Grin

Ronnie is also a girl's name. I wonder if you would have told Ronnie Kray his name was feminine?!

Also, James Alexander, and Martin are never, ever used as girls names. And neither is Christopher.

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 21:16

What a strange couple of posts. I’m not sure I know where to start.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 13/06/2021 20:55

It’s entirely possible OP knows the reason but still disagrees with the name and so has chosen not to share the reason here so as to keep the responses negative.

What reason could there be, though? Even if it was a traditional family surname, you'd still say "well, she's a girl and because Christopher, when used as a first name, is unequivocally a boy's name, we'll need to think of something else". Use it as a middle name, if you really must, but why throw your daughter under the bus by giving her clearly a boy's name?

Any of us may end up hating the names our parents gave us enough to want to change them once we're 18, but I'd assume that, in most of those cases, the parents meant well and it was just a very marked difference in preferences. Whatever would make you think of deliberately giving them a name they would suffer with for 18 years and then be counting down the days until they could legally change it themselves?

It just seems such a passive aggressive move to pull on somebody whom you're supposed to love and, when they enter the world, cannot possibly have already done anything deliberately for you to dislike them.

It would be like deliberately bringing your child up to speak a single language as their mother tongue that is foreign to where they live and with which nobody in the family has the remotest connection - just because you think it's kind of quirky and a bit funky to have a British child growing up in the UK, with British parents and wider family, who turns up on their first day at school in the UK only being able to speak Japanese or Icelandic.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 13/06/2021 20:44

Why on earth is it sticking one to the patriarchy by adopting one of their names? If anything, I'd have thought it was a way of 'admitting' that they were 'better' all along and that you want to try to emulate them, rather than remaining happily and unashamedly female, but every bit their equal.

Why not go the whole hog and start referring to your daughter as 'he' and 'him', or just calling her a boy, if you believe that a female identity is somehow automatically inferior?

MissCruellaDeVil · 13/06/2021 20:21

Poor kid will be bullied for life.

TheRebelle · 13/06/2021 20:20

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher

WTF? They’re all masculine names, they have female equivalents but I’d be very surprised to meet a woman called Martin and not Martine!

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 15:41

Well I'm guessing it's probably not a family name given the OP is her sister and would have made this connection.

It’s entirely possible OP knows the reason but still disagrees with the name and so has chosen not to share the reason here so as to keep the responses negative.

GreenCrayon · 13/06/2021 15:32

@UhtredRagnarson

I’m sure anyone naming their daughter Christopher has reasons other than just wanting to make a point. OP hasn’t been back but I’ll bet further investigation would reveal it’s a family name or something equally as valid for choosing it.
Well I'm guessing it's probably not a family name given the OP is her sister and would have made this connection. Nevertheless the fact it clearly states in the first post that this is girl 5 and she's always wanted a boy is probably the biggest clue as to the meaning behind the name.

I just sincerely hope this poor little girl doesn't grow up to hate her name, feel unwanted and not good enough but sadly I fear that's quite unlikely.

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 15:23

I’m sure anyone naming their daughter Christopher has reasons other than just wanting to make a point. OP hasn’t been back but I’ll bet further investigation would reveal it’s a family name or something equally as valid for choosing it.

GreenCrayon · 13/06/2021 15:19

Which is why is said I had named my son a “girls” name. Because at the time of naming him it was (and still is) a girls name.

Which is your perogative. Nevertheless at least you can show him that there were people in the past with his name of he ever questioned your decision rather than having to explain you gave it him because you wanted to make a statement or because you wanted a girl.

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 15:17

If 1 man was called this name historically then its quite likely that there were others who may not have been recorded but the name was more popular for girls.

Of course, but I wasn’t naming my child several hundred years ago when it may have been used for boys. I was naming him this century where it is used for girls. Which is why is said I had named my son a “girls” name. Because at the time of naming him it was (and still is) a girls name.

GreenCrayon · 13/06/2021 15:13

@UhtredRagnarson

I said it was originally (as far as records show) used for a (Singular) male. Not that it was a boys’ name.
If 1 man was called this name historically then its quite likely that there were others who may not have been recorded but the name was more popular for girls.

Either way you didn't choose it to make some point about names being for all or as some sort of punishment for the child not being the preferred sex so at least your son knows his name wasn't chosen simply to make a point.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many of those using traditionally masculine or feminine names for their children of the opposite sex.

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 14:47

I said it was originally (as far as records show) used for a (Singular) male. Not that it was a boys’ name.

GreenCrayon · 13/06/2021 14:43

It’s a historical name originally used for a male, however it is now and has for a long time been used for girls with a slight change in pronunciation but same spelling.

If its historically a boys name then I don't see how you have named your son a girls name even if the name has since become more popular for girls?

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 14:40

Of course I haven’t said what the name is! Grin how identifying would that be? It’s nothing as dull and unoriginal as Emma or Ashley. It’s a historical name originally used for a male, however it is now and has for a long time been used for girls with a slight change in pronunciation but same spelling. I used it because I like the aesthetics of the name and the sound of the original pronunciation along with the history of it. There is now one other boy that I know of who has the name. After his mother heard my son’s name and chose it for her baby.

MilduraS · 13/06/2021 14:30

@UhtredRagnarson You haven't said what the name is. Is it a very girls name like Emma, Sarah, Rachel etc or is it more a unisex name like Ashley or Francis?

If it's the former, like the other posters I'm curious about why you decided to chose a girls name.

BiBabbles · 13/06/2021 14:16

I like many names that are unisex or can have a unisex nicknames, but no for Christopher. For a 'Chris' name, Chrysanthi/Chryssa are probably my favourite, though there are so many options that it does feel very much a point to use Christopher.

My younger sister had this - not quite as masculine as Christopher, but close at the time, because yes my mother wanted another son. I almost had it too but my mother picked something she'd heard on TV while in hospital instead, once pushed to actually agree to name me.

My sister had so many issues, mostly from adults -- twice got put into the wrong PE group, she had a lot of medical appointments when young and would get 'his mother is here to pick him up' so much. I always warn against it having seen the frustration she went through even though her name has shifted to being seen as more unisex over the years.

blacksax · 13/06/2021 14:13

Among the sensible replies, the crackpots are out in force this afternoon, I see.

percheron67 · 13/06/2021 14:00

No.

oystercatcher44 · 13/06/2021 13:50

She is setting the child up to be bullied for life.

I had a female cousin called Jean whose family moved to France. She suffered her entire life!

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/06/2021 13:50

Maybe your comprehension skills are a little rusty.

fretfulpig · 13/06/2021 13:50

@Momto2girliess

Juanbablo

No, it's Christopher.

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher