Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

304 replies

LaLuz7 · 29/01/2023 10:40

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?

OP posts:
TheOriginalEmu · 04/02/2023 14:50

phoenixrosehere · 04/02/2023 14:37

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.

Show quote history

Completely agree.

The entire idea that it’s a recent thing is nonsense too. It has always happened.

Slutdrop · 13/03/2023 21:24

HeavenIsAHalfpipe · 29/01/2023 11:07

I don't know anyone who has given their daughter a boys name tbh. Confused

I have never known a girl be called James, Ryan, or Dylan.

Not in the UK anyway.

I don't know any Kelly, Tracy, or Evelyn under 40 either. As for Shirley and Beverly. I don't know any under 55.

Where are you @LaLuz7 ?

My friends granddaughter is named Dylan.

KimberleyClark · 13/03/2023 21:33

Reugny · 01/02/2023 15:36

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

Show quote history

I always think it sounds like a bacterium. There is one called Shigella - I can imagine someone thinking that would be a nice name.

CharitySchmarity · 14/03/2023 10:13

Darrell Rivers: Malory Towers schoolgirl c.1940s

Darrell is quite a rare name for both sexes, but did you know that, at the time, the author was married to a man called Darrell?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page