Please don't tell me Ellis is more of a girls name?

[DomesticG0ddess]

Expecting DS2. Ellis is the one name we both really like. Goes well with DS1 (uncommon but not weird), our families are all from Wales, and I just really like it. But I did a search on it on mumsnet and it seems to come up more for a girls name choice than a boys!

What do people think of Ellis and is it completely unisex, or have you heard it used more on girls than boys? I don't know any Ellis' btw.

There are Dillans as well as Dylans in the part of Wales we are from, honest! - and Ellis is a common surname, not pronounced with a LL sound. I guess it depends which part of Wales - the variations are probably quite wide. I have come across one Elis, from South Wales.

It's my son's middle name. I've never heard it being used for a girl. We are Welsh by the way.

I would have definitely said boy's name not girls. I really like it for a boy.

Marilyn, activate??

Ellis to me says 'boy'. Actually, it says 'surname' but as a first name, I would think it was a boy.

Thanks for your feedback - I will definitely stick with it unless another name grabs me in the next few weeks, which I think unlikely!

I think of Ellis as a girls name. I wouldnt personally use it for a boy.

ellis i know is boy.i like it

I had an ex boyfriend called Ellis. Deffo a lad's name.

yeah, there are Dillans but it's not Welsh, it's just people spelling it a different way and in Welsh the double 'L' would be a different sound making it sound nothing like Dylan - honest.

morganlebuffay - yes Marilyn is a boys' name, too and I can never really get my head around 'Marion' (John Wayne's real name), 'Hilary', 'Vivian' (not sure if there's a male spelling) as male names. However my DD's name 'Romilly' is also a boys' name - but mostly used for girls now. I think it's what you get used to - I grew up with male 'Ashleys' too - but now they are all girls.

DS is Ellis. It was actually his Scottish grandfather's name, although I'm Welsh. I thought that strictly the Welsh spelling would be "Elus"?

I know 2 other "Ellises". One an adult man, one a boy.

Interesting you should say that Patsy our boy has middle name Elus, acutally Welsh spelling of the name seems to be Elisud, which is derived from Welsh word elus, which means kind so we seem to have named our boy kind in Welsh rather than giving him the Welsh name meaning kind iyswim. I'm Welsh but born and brought up in England and not a Welsh speaker.

And a very nice middle name that is too.

I think "Elis" must be more correct in Welsh than "Ellis" given the "ll" sound.

interesting thereisalight... but...but... how is Marilyn a boys' name? I thought it was created as an elaboration of Mary... is there a notable male Marilyn I should know about? The others I can understand, as Hilary & Vivian really were 'proper' male names derived from the Latin, while Marion - though a female name, French derivative fo Marie - also happened to be the surname of an American war hero (Francis Marion) so it got used a bit for boys over there. Feeling sorry for any men called Marilyn as it is so Monroe!

I think if a name is unisex it will eventually become a girls' name.

(ehem, Marilyn Manson, google, I feel a bit sorry for him myself)

Marilyn Manson is a stage name! His real name is Brian something . He chose Marilyn from MMonroe, and Manson from Charles Manson. (Why do I know this??)

John Wayne's real name was Marilyn

Can't say I blame him for changing from Brian...

ahh google-mojo proves a brain-fart

John Wayne's real name was Marion (not Marilyn)

so I shall hastily edit all previous posts to make the same point

ah yes but Marion was a girls' name first and foremost...

I am now imagining John Wayne in Marilyn Monroe's dress doing that famous "gust of air up skirt" pose

I always thought that Ellis was a man's name.

However - someone else will know this - when the Bronte sisters gave themselves 'male' pseudonyms, weren't they deliberately not-particularly-male male names? (Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell)

I'm not sure about how unisex the Bronte's were aiming to be. I know the writer of the Cadfeal books (Ellis Peters) used her brother's name.

Darn it - I googled and didn't read it properly. Serves me right for trying to be clever! Yes - there's Marilyn Manson - but like you say, his real name's Brian (!) and then there's 'Marilyn' friend of Boy George and 'star' of the 80s. Can't imagine he was born a Marilyn either.

I know two little Ellises and they're both boys.