Unisex names / "boys" names for girls

[Afreshstartplease]

What are people's thoughts on giving girls what are usually "boys" names e.g. Dylan, Elliot etc ?

Or unisex names?

Have you given your dd a name like this and regretted it!

[Alligatorpie]

Both my dds have names that are traditionally 'boys' names. Neither has had any issues...apart from occasional " your name is ...?" Both names suit them.

Where I come from, Jamie is a unisex name. Equally popular with both sexes.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

As well as Lindsay and Hilary, Kelly, Kerry and Kim are also traditionally male names - I really don't know about Casey and Jodie. I'd suspect that Casey is as well as it's more of a surname which in the main indicates that it's probably a name traditionally given to boys.

Michel and Nicholas are also perfectly normal male names.

There is also Vivian.

There are some some names that have survived unisex use such as Frances/Francis, but they are few and far between in the UK anyway.

[Strokethefurrywall]

We were going to call DS1 Dylan if he'd been a girl, our front runner was Harper but the Beckhams had their Harper a couple of months before ours arrived so we decided against it.

[robynlaurie]

It's tradition in my family to have a boys name, I'm Robyn, my sister is Devon and I just called my little girl Eddie but it really suits her! Not everyone's cup of tea but she will be going to school with kids with really 'out there' names so I'm sure she will be fine

[Strokethefurrywall]

Hit send too soon.
Neither of us liked traditionally popular "girly" names. Both DSs have surnames for first names, if we were to have a girl now I doubt we'd use Harper or Dylan but wlildntbgo down the "frilly" name route.

[Strokethefurrywall]

I love Devon, excellent name!

[Strokethefurrywall]

The thing is, nobody thinks it's that weird when you meet the person.
Nobody looks at Cameron Diaz and thinks she's got a male name. They just think she's Cameron Diaz, that's her name.

[Hawkmoth]

I've got a Bobbie, short for Roberta.

[LadyAntonella]

There are some which work and some which don't I think. Jessica or Lily for a boy, probably not. Frank or David for a girl, probably not.

I really like Jodie for a boy and also Joni (as in Mitchell), Cassie and Kristen.

For girls I love James, Jamie, Rory and Robyn.

[JingsAndCrivens]

Bet they'd find it weird if they met a boy called Isabel though.

[Sadik]

I like unisex names - and it does work both ways, I think, particularly once you include shortenings and nicknames.

Just off hand thinking of boys/men I know with names more commonly used for girls I can think of Kim, Cat, Willow, Ashley, Sunny, Jay and Joss (which I'd tend to assume was short for Josephine).

[MiddleClassProblem]

I like Kim from a boy. Especially as Kim from Home and Away became Thor.

I don't like Lesley on a man though, soz.

[BertrandRussell]

There's no such thing as a unisex name. There are boy's names that people give to girls.Which very soon become girl's names, because people don't give girl's names to boys.

If you think it's OK to call a girl Eliott, you must also think it's OK to call a boy Sarah.

[JingsAndCrivens]

It doesn't really work both ways though. I understand that it's trendy in celeb circles these days to call your daughter James. One of the most common boys' names in the English speaking world. I'm not sure what the female equivalent of James would be, maybe something like Sarah? I can't see Hollywood types rushing to call their sons Sarah any time soon!

[JingsAndCrivens]

Oh, you got there before me with Sarah Bertrand!

[Strokethefurrywall]

Friends have just named their baby girl Rory. I thought it was unisex anyway.

I know a male Vivian - I don't think it's weird.

[MiddleClassProblem]

Surely Ashley is unisex? Obviously someone somewhere in history was the first person to use that name and it must have been x gender

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

Joss will be short for Jocelyn, a traditionally male name.
Jay is traditionally a male name
Sunny I presume is from India or that background and probably short for Sunil
Kim is a traditionally male name as already covered
Ashley is a traditionally male name

That leaves you with Willow and Cat.

[JingsAndCrivens]

Rory means 'red king' I think.

[LadyAntonella]

No I don't think anyone would use Sarah for a boy. But then I don't like, for example, Donald, Brian, Gary, Jonathan or Andrew for a girl. I'm not saying that misogyny doesn't exist, on some level, when certain people call their girls 'boy' names, but would balk at using a 'girl' name for a boy. I personally would have no problem calling a boy a 'girl' name though. I quite like Ruth for a boy as well as the ones listed above. Why not?

[JingsAndCrivens]

In Scotland they used to stick an 'ina' onto the father's name and call their daughters awful things like Jamesina, Donaldina, Douglasina.

Poor sods!

[Sadik]

"There's no such thing as a unisex name."

But then what about names where you genuinely would have no idea if the person was male/female without seeing them?

So, for example, Rowan or Morgan - I know equal numbers of men and women with both names, and if I was ringing a new client with either name, I'd have no idea which to expect.

[LadyAntonella]

jings. My DD would have a corker of a name in that scenario!

[MiddleClassProblem]

I knew a Stuartina

[JingsAndCrivens]

Stuartina!

Sounds like some kind of fungus.