To say that 'Beau' is not a girls' name?

[mrsb26]

Over the past few months, I've come across an increasing number of baby girls named 'Beau.'

Am I wrong on assuming that this is French in origin, meaning 'handsome?' (or the masculine form of beautiful). Surely Belle is then the feminine form?

One was even spelt Beaux. This is the plural, right? The X doesn't make it feminine?!

Idk, maybe people don't really focus on definitions of names. Just found it a bit odd that it's becoming a bit of a trend.

I know of a few Beau's - mostly middle names (girls ages 7 and 4). Isn't Ulrika's daughter a Beau? She's like 18/19.

My niece is an Isla Beau and I think its quirky and pretty. It suits her perfectly and who cares about it being a traditional boys name!

It's an awful name for a boy or a girl, but especially daft for a girl, and even more so with an X.

If you're from the US and there's a good chance you'll never travel much outside your own country then that's one thing. If you're from the UK you're basically choosing a name for your kid which means they can't travel to one of our closest neighbouring countries without everyone they meet thinking their name is absurd.

That is really odd.

Especially since her name is actually Marie-Christine but she uses her husband's first name so she can use the princess title.

I’m a french teacher at a secondary school. There’s a girl in one of my classes called Beau- you can imagine the hassle she got when they were learning French adjectives and this one came up! She was very embarrassed!
But then there’s also one called Snow White 🤷‍♀️

I know a "Bo". I think it's quite an odd name to choose to be honest - out of the millions of names available. It's more of a nickname.

I like it.

Yes masculine - think of the American singer / musician Beau Diddley, he was a man.

Yes, it's a joke.

I thought Bo was the fem Verison of Beau. As in Bo peep

Awful name, agree with you OP.

It's a family nickname for all the girls in my family but not spelt Beau.

It's unfortunate to name a girl Beau. Along the same lines, my uncle is married to a woman called Michel ( pronounced Michelle).

Girls can be handsome. 🤷🏼‍♀️

She’s called Bo.

But are they male?

As a French speaker, I feel incredibly sorry for the little girls given a name that makes them sound stupid. By the time they are old enough to realise, they'll have been using that name for long enough for changing it to be problematic.

They don’t need to be male to have a word that means attractive in a male way as a bame. Many many people have names that were originally meant for the opposite sex for instance.
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of female Bronwyns in the world, even though that is the male form.
Feeling ‘incredibly sorry’ is way over the top. The Beau I know who is female doesn’t care that her name is a ‘male’ name. She loves it. And if they don’t, changing a name is really easy. People do it all the time for all manner of reasons.

This post is originally from 2016 and has been resurrected 3 times

I had a female colleague called Beau. Her dm's maiden name was Beaumont and she used to get called Beau as a nickname, so named her DD in homage to her family name.

I’m in my late 50s. And have a unisex that is most commonly used by males . I always disliked that so many people who didn’t know me iresumed I was a man!!! Very irritating. Many a time on the phone people would ring and ask for me by name … then say no I want to talk to a man 🙄probably not done now being ox ect but it is disconcerting that people are unsure 🫤 f you sex !!!