to use James on a girl?

[AyGirl]

Am overdue. Baby has not arrived. Do not know gender. Have finally after much indecision, decided a girl will be Iris James. Mentioned to DB who got very upset and kept on saying it's not a girls name. Mother has rang me this morning and said he was so upset because he wants to name a son of his James. Keep in mind he is not married or having a child. I do think they are TTC. But I want to use Iris James!!!!! She said that I shouldn't and should save it for him because it will be his first child and a son. So what, the two beautiful little girls I've delivered into our family are nothing. A boy will probably be Gage Theodore.

My older DDs are Hattie Juniper and Cleo Annika so we use quite different names.

change you own name to Edward or Alfred or something traditionally male - and you take the mockery
Now that's a really good idea. For all those parents who think they have the right to give their children any name they want - when they are not the ones who have to live with it

My best friend at school had a very unusual middle name (it sounded made-up), she was regularly mocked for it.

She's possibly giving birth....

Just noticed the "overdue" bit. Good luck OP whatever name you choose and please let the sentimental old slushpots of either, any or even no gender know!

Poor kid! Working in a school, kids are very quick to pick up on this, even if it is a middle name. I've seen kids going through absolute hell, having been called names that rhyme with something, the name itself, the initials, etc. For the poor child's sake, please rethink. You don't wasn't to lumber your poor child something that they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives! 😵

And he said, "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong"

He said, "Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do
But ya ought to thank me, before I die
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
'Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you Sue"

Well what could I do? What could I do?
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my paw, and he called me his son
And I came away with a different point of view
And I think about him, now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him..
Bill or George! Any-damn-thing but Sue!

(All that said, Johnny Cash, I still like the name James for a girl).

Well I love James for a girl so yanbu

But then again, my daughter has a 'boys' name so maybe IABU

Surnames are fine as middle names yanbu

I think Iris James is a lovely name for a girl. In America i think James is sometimes used as a girls name. When you look at the most popular names for babies now days they are all quite non traditional so i doubt that it will be a problem amongst her friends as she grows up, i seriously doubt she would get teased. If she doesnt like it herself its only her middle name as well not her first name!
I think your brother is being unreasonable. I dont think you should ever tell family members the name before the birth because there will always be someone that hates something and feels the need to tell you!
I chose a slightly unusual but well known name for my son and i had my grandmother saying 'who on earth would call a baby something like that the poor child!'
At the end of the day its your daughter so chose something that you love as her name. People can be teased for anything, i was teased about what rhymed with my name and ive got a very normal name. When it came down to it though i love my name because my parents who loved me chose it for me because they loved it.

Mo choose something you like and which is not likely to get her teased. You can't be sure of course. Think of all the little Emmas when Frozen escaped was released!

*No not Mo

I see nothing wrong with the name except around here it is the male equivalent of Mai/Mae/May and every household seems to have one, but I guess that's because it sounds a pleasant monosyllabic middle name.

However I do take exception to your brother thinking he can have 'dibs' on a name when his hypothetical boy may never exist.

Gage is awful, awful. Please don't inflict that on your child

Haven't read the whole thread but I just wanted to say that I think James is a beautiful name for a girl!

I'm sorry but when you say Gage I think of green gages.

Call her James, it's a beautiful name. I was born 3 months before my cousin and my mum called me by the name my aunt wanted to call her daughter... so my cousin has my name as her middle name. Your brother can still call his child James if and when he has one.
I love names like Billie, Bobby and James. My sisters are called Jordan and Courtney after Michael Jordan and Courtney Pine, both men, both traditionally male names... things change.

I know it's a 'thing' in celebrity circles so I'd just assume you were a big fan of sleb culture. Bloody awful name for a girl though. So very 'oh look at us, unconstrained by societal naming norms'. Bet you wouldn't give a son an obviously female name as his middle name though. Not as unconstrained as you'd like to think.

James is a silly name for a girl.

Also, please don't call your son Gage. Watch Pet Sematary and you'll see why! Awful.

Osirus My eldest son has Gage as a middle name. Precisely because it was in Pet Sematary. It was a name before Stephen King picked it for the movie, and it is a name after. Should we also remove the names Randal, Nadine? Floyd? George? Bill? Ben? Mike? Bob? Those are all names King used in his stories and some are the names of some rather awful characters.

All this angst over a middle name. Really?

Who cares what others think? It's a middle name. If your child doesn't like it she just won't tell anyone.
If you change the name you will always regret it.
I think it's pretty.

Would you give your son a girl's name OP? If not then don't call your daughter James.

HTH.

Iris James is an absolutely beautiful name. Gage Theodore sounds like a character in a dodgy made-for-TV movie; or a really daft first novel.

You would have had your baby by now. I hope if you had a girl you stuck to your guns and named her Iris James.

Between my husband and I we have 6 children. Three of the boys share middle names. Thomas is used by all 3. Lloyd is used by 2. My dad also has three cousins who are brothers all with Edwin as a middle name. I even have a cousin who shares the same first name as me: Courtney.

Courtney also happens to have been a BOYS name long before it was used on girls.

If you want to give your daughter and traditional boys name as her middle name then go for it. Nobody has the right to tell you what you can and can not name your child.

As for your mothers argument of saving it for your brothers "first child which will be a boy"......how does she even know your brother WILL end up have children and more to the point IF he does have children that any of them will be a boy? He doesn't own the name. No one has exclusive ownership of a name.