AIBU to not understand this recent trend of giving baby girls male names?

[LaLuz7]

James, Ryan, Dylan...

I can't wrap my head around the idea of purposefully choosing a very traditionally male name for a girl.

Why would you? What message are you trying to send? Why don't you ever see it done the other way around (female names for boys)?

I personally feel that if I had gotten a male name it would have made me feel like my parents really wanted a boy and were disappointed in me. It would feel almost spiteful and it would give me inadequacy feelings.

My other gripe with this is that it doesn't sit well with me from a feminist perspective. By giving girls male names (but never ever the other way around) you are perpetuating the idea that masculinity as a trait is desirable and valuable above femininity.

Can someone explain it to me?

I much prefer girls called Dylan and Ryan than Nigella, Albertina, Donalda, Georgia, Olivia all just men's names with an a stuck on the end.

Often when the father didn't have a son.

Research has shown that gender neutral names on cvs are more likely to get interviews than feminine names.

While James or Gary certainly sounds ridiculous for a girl, its really a matter or getting used to. Nobody bats an eyelid at Sigourney Weaver.

Her real name is Susan.

There's a sprinter called Daryl. But like you, I always think it's a male name

Darrell Rivers: Malory Towers schoolgirl c.1940s

😂

Nigella is actually a flower. www.rhs.org.uk/plants/nigella

I don’t get it either but it isn’t new. Miley Cyrus has a sister called Noah for example… Lots of male biblical names seem to be used as girls names, I think Ryan Reynolds has a daughter called James.

I like Darrell for either sex
It's a nice name

He does. It was to honour his father who died after she was born.

James and Ryan for girls FFS. It's just dire. I'm with you OP, I hate the rejection of all things remotely feminine. There's nothing wrong with being a girl.

Good grief. Ryan has been unisex for decades. I went to school with Ryan’s of both genders in the 90s and no one batted an eye. It was considered normal.

Never heard of a female Ryan in my life.

This was one of the main reasons we deliberately chose a unisex name for our daughter. She's actually named after a man, but I've never actually met anyone with that name and it's not at all common so I don't know if anyone would consider it a specifically male name.

Both my boys have pretty ambiguous names too, but they have long hair, so people usually assume that they are girls anyway!

And…

names.darkgreener.com/#ryan

Orange on the graph are boys, grey are girls. Not a lot of female Ryans 🤷🏼‍♀️

names.darkgreener.com/#jamie

Jamie to compare.

Well this is awkward. I’ve never been called dire before 😂

I completely agree with you!

Nobody said there was anything wrong with being a girl. I’m a very proud woman, I just happen to have a name that’s typically male. That doesn’t mean I reject femininity or that I’m not a woman.

And there really isn't one on every street corner, despite how normal you insist it is 😂

My friend chose Hilary for his confirmation name after St Hilary (male). Also met a girl called Aiden.

And now you have.

Everyday's a school day.

Also just because a girl has a name typically associated with the opposite sex where you live it doesn't mean they aren't feminine, and vice versa.

Where did I say there was and one statement doesn’t dictate insistence.

Only pointing out simply because you didn’t grow up with any doesn’t make it not normal or weird. I didn’t grow up with men named Ashley, but I know they exist and don’t assume because I have never heard of it doesn’t mean it is strange.

Does just your own environment dictate what is normal?

As I said upthread, a lot of this so-called name stealing is pretty ridiculous when you look at the origins of many names and how they’ve changed and evolved over the centuries.

*it, it must be strange or wrong.