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?

How sad to start a brand new thread just because you didn’t like somebody else’s baby’s name on another thread - so pathetic!

Storm
Rowan
Ashley
Blair
Blake
Max

Id say these names, amongst others, are truly unisex.

And surely its MORE of a kick in the teeth to get the family name but feminised? Eg Roberta . As though you can't quite have the family name?because as a woman, you're different to the family?

I'd prefer the feminine version x100 rather than going through life being called Robert. I would feel like a joke.

Why would you go through life with a name you didn't like? It's up to the individual to either stick with or reject their name

That’s a kickback to the church registering names in Latin and putting the feminine ending on for girls. I read -don’t ask me where now - that some names were given equally to boys and girls, saints’ names, but they were being recorded differently in written records until they eventually became names in their own right.

Ok, maybe not through life, but I would have to be it at least until 16. That's a long time to live with a name you despise.

Charlie - definitely unisex still. I know slightly more boys called Charlie than girls.
Sydney/Sidney, I actually know 2 girls with this name, still makes me think of Sid James though.
Robin/Robyn - I think this one has swung over to being a girls’ name.
Rhys - never have I heard this used for a girl!

Bollocks

An example of a traditional (Welsh) girls name being used for a boy - footballer Rhian Brewster.

I’m a 40 something yr old James… do not a new trend.
I don’t think my parents wanted a boy (they had 2 already and 1 more after me) but I do hate my name and have spent my entire life explaining it / myself .

Care to make your case? Bollocks is hardly a well thought out argument...

I do hate my name and have spent my entire life explaining it / myself

Why don't you change it?

Laziness… I don’t use it in every day life so can’t be bothered with all the effort of changing it for those few occasions I need official forms.

I have sons and their names have been recently co-opted by this trend. They are very clearly and obviously male names but now we find ourselves having to explain that they are indeed boys not girls and it's infuriating for me as a parent and moreso for my sons!

have spent my entire life explaining it / myself

Sounds like it may be worth bothering? I found it very easy indeed - write your own deed poll (free template online), send it to the DVLA - everything else goes from there.

we find ourselves having to explain that they are indeed boys not girls

Who do they have to explain themselves to? Why does this matter?

I don’t get it either to be honest.

Does everyone who "doesn't get it" or is calling it a "trend" also subscribe to other gender affirming ideology? If not then you're a hypocrite.

Have you never heard of a boy named Sue?

I don't understand what you mean by gender affirming ideology

All three of those are also surnames, though, which might account for at least part of their being treated as "unisex". I know an 18 and a 23 year old Dylan, both women, but the (non-Welsh) male Dylans I know are in their 40s-50s. (Purely anecdotal).

Michael Learned, who played Olivia on The Waltons, was originally billed as "Miss Michael Learned" in the credits because she was fairly unknown at the time and the producers didn't want any misunderstandings. (This was 1972; she was born in 1939.) The "Miss" was dropped after a few seasons. She was often asked about her name in interviews and said that her parents had always told her they'd picked out two names in advance: Michael for a girl and Caleb for a boy.

Barack Obama's mother's name was Stanley. (Yes, I watch too many quiz shows).

It could be anything. There could be someone in your parent’s life that had a really positive impact on them. A character in a book or someone in history. When we looking to name our DD and I was flicking through the baby name book as soon as I saw the name I thought of it really strong character that had the name in a drama, she was intelligent, positive, successful and I knew I wanted to name her that. DH liked it and agreed too. When she was about 18 she said that she wasn’t keen on her name as she felt like it was a little girls name. I explained the rationale behind choosing it and she was touched that I chose a name for her based on a strong female role model. I wanted to name our DS Kelly after Kelly Jones from Stereophonics but DH vetoed it.

It isn't subscribing to anything. If a name is truly unisex (like some mentioned above) where there is a universal acceptance that the name can go in either direction it's not a problem. But the adopting of names that clearly are male or clearly are female is being done to make a statement.

It's not gender bollocks. I'm a feminist but I can see the need for differentiating between male and female by name. How many posters on this site call themselves gender critical and ask for female spaces to be protected? Are names not included in this?

The idea that gender stereotypes are real and important, e.g. the existance and adherance to 'girl's' or 'boy's' names, toys, clothes etc, rather than it being a reductive social construct that does more harm than good, on a wider scale.