Jess or Cass? (for a boy)

[Messalena]

Which do you prefer? We prefer these to any of the longer forms.

ouokhun would it be your definition of a nice person to say "good for you" and encourage someone to give a baby a boy a girl's nickname as their full name? Nice warm and fuzzies all 'round now, sod the child themselves once they hit secondary school at the latest.

Give the child a choice by giving them a name that doesn't put a target on their back and shortening it to the nickname, so they can choose which to use as they get to school age, and change their mind if they want.

No point-making intended! We know a (male) Jess and like the sound of it and similar names, and as far as I know our Jess has never had any issues with people calling him a girl or whatever the problem is supposed to be.

Fair enough not liking the names but “shitty parenting” feels a bit strong (as if I’m not nervous enough already!)

Thanks to those who have given non-judgemental responses, positive or negative. Plenty to think about. Sorry to hear your son has had such a rough time of it, Peanut.

I do think Jess in particular sounds like a girl's name because I've only ever known women called that as a shortening for Jessica. Jess by itself just makes me think of falconry. I've only ever known female Casses too, but not many. Cass just looks a little unfinished - cuss, cash, casser, kassa, case.

Cass - lush name 👌

Cass, definitely.

Jess reads 100% feminine to me - probably because I've known a couple of Jessica's who went solely by Jess in their professional lives, so the association has stuck.

Cass feels more unisex to me. It probably helps that it's the name of the male angel character in Supernatural (short for Castiel in that case though).

These are both girls’ names, OP.

Pregnancy hormones, eh?

Throw Kit in the mix ? (pet form of Christopher)
Jed rather than Jess ( Jethro)

I’m going to go against the grain and say Jess. I like it, reminds me of Jess from the Gilmore Girls, who was admittedly a brat in his teens but grew up into a lovely man.

Cass on its own seems a bit unfinished to me, but I do like Cassius.

I know a man called Jess (full name) He is pretty traditionally 'manly' and also a knob and also a few Jesse's. I like Cass more but would assume short for cassius.

Cassian - Cass for short. Awesome!

Very girly. You might like girly names for boys but I doubt your son will enjoy being teased because of your choice, Call him John rather than Jess!!

I suppose it's a bit of a balance to all those threads about giving traditionally masculine names to girls but I'm not keen at all. Given the choice I prefer Cass because Jess makes me immediately think of a girl/woman as Jess is a fairly common shortening for Jessica and Jessica is relatively common name. I guess you could get Jess from Jesse, but Jesse is not commonly used and doesn't really need to be shortened so I'd be really pretty surprised to meet a male Jess. Cass on the other hand is probably as likely a shortening of Cassian/ Cassius as for Cassandra/ Cassia so less obviously feminine and much more unisex.

I much prefer longer names in any case as it gives children choices which (speaking from experience) is nice to have.

Plus Casian is cool :)

Both very feminine.

I would assume a Jess, particularly, was a girl. But would assume Cass was a girl too as I have known countless Cass/Cassie/Cassandras and no male Cass'.

Cass as less girly

What about Caden or Caddy ?

I don't know if it's the same meaning as the Scottish posters but round here in Yorkshire "Jessie" is a bit of an insult for a boy.

Cass

Cass. Like a pp it reminds me of Castiel from Supernatural.

Thanks. Cass seems to be the clear winner, even if lots don’t like either! I think it goes better with our surname too. We do have a few other options in mind (Ray, Flynn, Sol, Jem...) but these two are similar enough that I only really want to put one on the list.