The name Darcy

[HerRoyalGoddess]

My DS is 9 and when he was born I called him Darcy (using the boy spelling) after Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice (my all time favourite book) it wasn't a popular name and the only other person I'd heard of was Darcey Bussell (ballerina, notice the difference in the name spelling). When I was in the hospital at the time every single nurse asked "Did you name him after the guy in Neighbors?" WTF!?! No I did not, I politely told them why we chose the name Darcy.

Everything was fine, as far as I was aware there weren't any children in my town called Darcy, my son loves the fact that I named him after my favourite character from my favourite book but...over the past two or three years I've noticed more parents (one being a parent at my sons school) calling their daughters Darcy and when I say Oh that's a nice name my son's called Darcy but I spell it CY for the boy spelling they say "But that's how we spell it as well" and then they give me a look as if I'm the strange woman who's given her poor son a girls name.

I just want to punch them in their smug faces.

There's a lot of names which are both male and female, often spelled the same.

Some quite famous people too - did you know that John Wayne the actor was christened Marion Robert Morrison? That Big Daddy ('70s wrestler) was Shirley Crabtree?

Its just unfortunate when a celebrity of the opposite gender to a DC comes into the limelight IMO

OP; don't stress out! I love Darcey for both boys and girls. Fab name.

I think there is a female model called Jack. Other gender neutral names; Jo, Sam, Leslie/Lesley, Robin..lots.

My name is a 'unisex' name, there is a 'boy' spelling and a 'girl' spelling. However, people still are slightly surprised when they meet me for the first time and see I am a woman. My MIL always says that she doesn't understand why my parents gave me a masculine sounding name when they have two boys - even though I was born first! I have learned to love my name, even though I would have loved something 'prettier' as a child. I think Darcy is a lovely name for a boy (or a girl). Your son likes it, that is the most important thing.

I know a male Darcy. Having read P&P I was surprised when I first heard it as a girl's name, and that was the dancer Darcey Bussell.

Names like Jordan and Ashley are unisex. Robin and Kim? Another one that isn't exactly common is Dana. I wouldn't stress about the 'e'.

Chin up OP, it's an attractive name whatever, and if it gains in popularity, even better.

I know a male Darcy aged about 50 ish. He loves his name.

But are you not being smug as well with your 'oh I chose an unusual name after a character in a book' talk ?

Its the only problem with striving to be different.... eventually otehrs have the same idea. I know someone who thought they had chosen a very different name from an Australian baby name book, only 18 months after a certain actress called Kylie came onto the scene

The only Darcy I know is Darcy Brown, the clothes label, and that is definitely a female Darcy.

I had a mate at university called Jamie, a girl. We flat-shared for a while and my parents were doing disapproving faces for some time when I first told them, it took three weekend visits home before I worked out that they thought I was disgracing the family by living in sin with a man!

2011 name stats:

Girls:
Darcy rank 110 520 babies
Darcey rank 131 433 babies
Darcie rank 132 421 babies
D'arcy rank 2636 9 babies

Boys
Darcy rank 852 34 babies

So, whether you are right ot wrong, I think you're going to have to get used to it!

"But are you not being smug as well with your 'oh I chose an unusual name after a character in a book' talk ?"

I generally feel that way about kids called Atticus.

I know a 5 year old called Orson. Sounds cool but everything I see him I can't help but think about his name.

Oooh should I be bitchy about his name?

No.

I have never heard of any Darcy but the bloke in that book, so it will always be a boys name to me.

Well no, it will always be an adult male character's name to me, but between boy/girl it'd be boy.

Darcy is a pretty cool name for either a boy or a girl.

Other names which are OK for boys and girls: Kim, Lesley, Shirley (Big Daddy was Shirley Crabtree), and even Michael (which came in the top 1000 for popular girls' names in the US 1990 census).

the only Darcy I know is a litte girl, and that's how it's spelt

I think if you are going around telling people they've used the "boy spelling" on their girls name you are going to get looks TBH

I agree with ILoveSaladReallyIDo.

Darcy isn't a 'boy' spelling. Mr Darcy's sister Georgiana was also called Darcy.

As a first name it's very modern, and seems to be spelt in a host of different ways, it can't really be compared with a well established name with male female spellings such as Francis/Frances.

I'm not surprised the other parents were giving you looks to be honest.

Everybody mentions Big Daddy. Nobody says that Shirley is an awful name for either boy or girl. Kim is a very crap name for a boy. He'd get the piss taken. Michael is never a girl's name, it's Michaela. Ignore my blunt fuckerness I'm drunk, tired and under the mistaken impression that anyone gives a shit what I think :(

Tbh if you pick a name like Darcy you should have expected confusion. It's a nice name, but it's not obviously male or female.

What about Michael from The Bangles? She was definitely a girl.

I went to school with a kid called SomethingOrOther Darcy. To me it's a surname, so you shouldn't be surprised or affronted if others use it as a first name for a girl, as it was never meant for either sex as a first name.

And YADBU to double-barrel it with another name .

Damn, pressed post too soon!

Michael Steele from The Bangles

My DD is Darcy
I wanted to spell it Darcie but EVERY congratulations on your new baby girl 'card came with it spelt DARCY
So I went with that as it seemed that was the 'usual' spelling

It is at times like this that I think that if I ever got my hands on the levers of power I would make it mandatory for all babies to be called John or Anne. The two most straightforward names I can think of. Thus saving us all this bullshit over a made up name Darcy-Alexander I ask you! (Hyphenated and all fuck's sake!)

Boomer - you're absolutely right of course... I was partly stirring the hornets' nest.

Nevertheless, let it be known that another famous female Michael is Sinitta's mum - stage name Miquel Brown, real name Michael Brown.