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?

Also just remembered another one, who coincidentally was friends with Michael and she was called George, and her dad was called George, and her son was called George

Why does it bother you what other people call their children? A name is a name and for the person named it whether male or female!

Because I know a couple of women called James, it's not masculine on them.

Exactly this! This whole post is ridiculous! Seems to me the real issue is OP not liking their own name and is taking it out on the rest of the world!

My sons are all in their 30s. When each was born it was really hard to find a name that wasn't overused without being "out there". It's easy to find a girls name that fits the bill but boys names are much harder.

We considered Paris for the youngest, after the Trojan saga, only to find that most of the little girls in our area born that year had been given the name. Not only did I not want him to be one of 6 in his class with the same name, he'd have hated having the same name as 5 GIRLS in his class.

I'll accept the "all names are unisex" argument when we have boys being named Elizabeth, Rebecca and Sarah.

Totally agree with this. It'd be different if I felt there was a high likelihood of Emily entering the top ten boys' names sometime soon but the shift is always in the same direction - male to female with a unisex spell in between.

Good point.

I think it's less about sexism against women and more about restrictions on men.

I too would never give my son a female name nor put him in a dress and I wouldn't go out of my way to put him in pink.

However, i'd be far happier to give my daughter a more masculine name, let her wear boyish clothes, play with stereotypically male toys etc.

So if anything OP i'd say boys just have a narrower field of what society deems acceptable for them and women have far more freedom in that respect.

I'll accept the "all names are unisex" argument when we have boys being named Elizabeth, Rebecca and Sarah.

I know a man named Stacey. I'd never even heard of it as a male name until I met him - to me, all that came to mind was the Malibu Stacey doll from the Simpsons!

Surely this is a TAAT 🤣

OP, you're entitled to your opinion it doesn't make it right.

Exactly!

This is exactly a TAAT! OP had posts deleted for being nasty about a little girls name

My name is Diana. Which is classic and lovely and very international. My parents did really well in naming me :)

It does happen the other way round though.

There's a thread up right now of someone asking whether they should call their baby boy Sky or Hazel.

According to BabyCenter, Diana is also a male name.

www.babycenter.com/baby-names/details/diana-552645

Yeah right! The world is full of little boy Dianas running around 🤣

I gave my son a name that's more used for girls in this country. In America/Australia I think it's far more unisex.

I specifically chose it as I liked it and I don't personally know any boys called it. Quite a few people have mentioned they really like it.

I mean, there are some. Over 1,000 in the US alone.

www.everything-birthday.com/name/f/diana

My name is also a male name in many parts of Europe - so again, it's very cultural.

I have a long, feminine name and when I was a child my DM absolutely refused to call me by the common, shortened version instead - because it's a boy's name. She called me an alternative nickname instead, which she didn't realise was an abbreviation for tampons - so I was ribbed mercilessly about it at school when fellow children heard....

I'm now in my 40s and I can't quite remember how it happened, but for as long as I can remember, I'm known by the shortened, male version of my name. And my DM uses it now too 😅

I'm self-employed now, but when I was employed and dealing with people via email, I quite liked the ambiguity of my shortened name. It was helpful that correspondents didn't know if I was male or female. Nothing wrong with my full name but I only tend to use that in formal situations.

I have twin DC now - a DD and a DS. My DS has a unisex name. Because I have twins, if I mention DD first, people will assume that DS is also a girl if they hear his name. There's a famous male actor with the same name and he's the person that I would think of when hearing this name (although I didn't name DS after him!!) But it seems that most people associate the name with girls now. It doesn't bother me or DS. DD has a short name which is unequivocally female (flower type name).

Agreed

Jaime is a Spanish boys name, pronounced Hay-mee

Aha! There you go then!

😂😂😂

I love the names Kim and Sasha. For lads, not lasses though.

Well it wouldn’t really be the parents rejecting stereotypes it would be the baby wouldn’t it? And they wouldn’t have much choice in the matter. I don’t think your children should be the living, walking proof that you reject societal norms - change your own name if you feel that strongly about it. I often feel parents name their kids things they wouldn’t really want to be called themselves but ‘embodies’ what they want the kid to be.

This reminds me of a colleague who thought it was somehow indelicate to call female university teachers "lecturers" and always referred to them as "lady lecturers"