Maxwell too masculine?

[othership]

I love Maxwell (nickname Max) for our girl, but is it too masculine?
I do prefer more unisex names (Ryan, Rhuaridh, Blair) but worry they might be too masculine

Maxine is lovely ! 😄
Aurora (Rory).

I once met an American girl named Rori. The ‘i’ rather than ‘y’ at the end seemed to make it a little less masculine. It was her full name, not an abbreviation.

Just remember that your child will have to deal with people assuming she's a boy whenever they see her name - it may be more upsetting for her than you imagine.

My name can also be used on boys, but with a different spelling. Despite the fact I definitely have the feminine version, when I was about 7 I moved to a new school and someone looked at my name and put me on the boys register. So my name was read out, in front of all my classmates, in a list of boys names and I had to line up with the boys until a teacher corrected the mistake. I was an extremely shy child and it was mortifying for me, especially as the other kids were giggling. It sounds like nothing as an adult, but at the time it was awful.

Are you in the UK OP?

Maxima is a lovely suggestion if you like the Max nickname.

Those are all boys names

Rory from Gilmore Girls is definitely short for Lorelai (started watching it on Netflix recently and in the first couple of episodes it's mentioned a few times) after her mother

The US seems more accepting of boys names being unisex, but in the UK they're very much boys names only

It doesn’t really matter what a name is classified as in a baby book or how it’s occasionally used in the USA. Unless your child will be living their whole lives in either of these places

Rather than using a boys name and telling everyone it’s unisex, why don’t you use a girls name and tell everyone it’s unisex?

Eg “ Shes called Eva. But it can be a boys name you know I read it in a book once. And a sleb from X well known Tv show has a son called Eva so that proves it. “

What about Mackenzie, nn Max?

I love max for a girl, had never considered Maxwell but I don't hate it. I'm also a fan of Ryan for a girl.

I much prefer Maxine.

No one is lovely.

No!!!
I got a message and didn't see it had corrected Maxine to no one.

Maxine is lovely

Maxwell is a very masculine name... There's a famous person with a daughter named Maxwell, I think, but the vast majority of people will see it as a boy's name.

Maxine is nice. Maxime is also lovely :)

I will state we are Scottish and I had 3 female Blairs at my school as well as 2 males so for me it’s unisex and always will be.
We don’t want to use Maxine as I had a friend called Maxine who wasn’t the nicest and I still see her quite often (she will say I named my child after her).

And for those saying that you wouldn’t do the same for girls names there’s Ashley, Tracey, Lesley, Rowan, Kendall, Alexis, Casey...

Surely she'll still think you named the child after her if you're calling her Max?!

A lot of the names you've suggested in your last post (Casey, Kendall) are very American. It's an American trend to use surnames as first names for girls.

The others (Lesley, Tracey etc) have been established unisex names in the UK for decades. Maxwell hasn't. In the UK (where you live I assume), Maxwell isn't a unisex name, it's a boy's name. If you want to give your little girl a boy's name that's absolutely fine, just don't do it thinking you're giving her a unisex name, it just isn't.

If all I had to go on was the name, I’d 100% assume that a Maxwell, Ryan or, Rhuaridh was a boy. I’ve never heard of girls with those names. I’ve heard of girls called Blair before, so would be more unsure about that, but would guess a Blair would be more likely to be a boy than a girl.

If you like Max as a nn, then I’d try to find a more feminine name that would give Max as a nn.

I know you’ve given examples of other names that were once considered boys names and are now considered girls names, and for all I know the same may one day be true for the names you’re considering - but personally I wouldn’t want to be one of the first female Maxwells or Ryans in the UK and be constantly having to deal with confusion over having a name that’s normally a male name.

If I heard of a girl called Maxwell I would assume her parents had copied Jessica Simpson.
And personally, I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I’d copied any celebrity, let alone Jessica Simpson.
What about Dweezil, MoonUnit or Heavenly Hirani? 😂

In regards to Blair I know about 5 women called Blair and 3 little girls - I think the girls are named after GGs Blair Waldorf

Maxwell is a boys name. Totally.
So yes. Too masculine.

I know a woman called Gordon. It doesn't make it a woman's name though.

I think it's fine OP. There are dozens of female Maxwells in the Scottish records, and it's far more traditional here to use surnames as first names than it is in England. So if you still live here you're not likely to encounter anyone throwing up their arms in horror!

Alternatively, you could opt for Maxwellina, of which there are 11...

Why this current trend to give female babies male names? Do you think its cool? Yoonique? Are you just desperate to be different? Maxwell is a boy's name and a fucking awful name for a girl.

OP, can't you find another way to show people how 'cool' and 'edgy' you are?

They are such common boys names though, that's the problem. At least Blair isn't top ten for boys, so she might be the one people associate with the name. For something like Maxwell or Rory (in Scotland) people will know so many boys already that they do jump straight to assuming it's a boy. My DD has two of each in her class so if she was called Max, it would be: Max A, Max B and Girl Max.