Opinion

[kayleighd]

Hi all,

We are soon to welcome our baby girl and are both pretty fixed on the name Aubree. However my in-laws hate it and say it's a mans name. I am aware that it was popular in the 1920s or earlier for a man being spelt Aubrey but I feel that it sounds feminine and with our spelling adds to that. Plus Shirley and Beverley were once men's names!

I am generally a people pleaser and now am casting doubt on my choice, what are your thoughts on the name pls?

I don't mind it, but spell it properly.

I thought it was a man’s name. You can compare it to Shirley and Beverly if you want, and if you want to be the first to use Aubrey as a girls name go ahead, but you can’t blame others for rightfully viewing it as a man’s name.

Certainly wouldn’t be the first @Pinkblueberry. It is statistically far more popular for girls now than it is boys. Ranking 279th for girls and 749th for boys in the most recent statistics provided.

Fair enough CBeebies I stand corrected and will eat my words

I think of it as a man's name because I know of a guy with the name. Much prefer Audrey for a girl - it's a lovely, ancient name, its meaning is "noble stength" and it makes me think of the glamorous Audrey Hepburn.

By the way, not sure if you care about name meanings, but Aubrey means "King of the elves", which, while a very cool meaning, is masculine.

If you do use it, I would spell it the normal way. Double E endings make a name look incomplete, and kind of un-rounded (I always imagine there should be a missing letter N at the end, for some reason...) Aubree will mean she'll have to spend her life telling people that she's Aubrey-with-two-E's, which can be frustrating. At least people know how to spell Aubrey.

Bree/Ree are cute nicknames but I think that there are more feminine names that could be used like Brianna or Rihanna

I dont mind Aubrey but I have to be honest I would never spell it with a double e.

I'm embarrassed that I know this but theres a woman on Teen Mom who has a daughter called Aubree spelt with a double e. She has said previously she wishes she spelt it Aubrey.

Definitely stick to the standard spelling. People will assume that you are uneducated or were drunk when you registered her.

I've personally only ever known female Aubrey's, I went to school with one, but I wouldn't spell it with the double e, really for the same reasons PPs have given.

You know which other names until recently used to be considered man only’ names?

Not just Beverly or Shirley, but Hilary, Leslie, Sasha, Allison, Ashley, Bailey, Dana, Kelley, Harper, Kim, Lauren, Leigh, Lindsey, Meredith, Paris, Morgan, Sandy, Shelley and Taylor.

Do not even worry about it having been a boy’s name. Anne Rice the author’s real life first name is Howard. People are calling their daughters Michael and James all the time.

Call your daughter Aubrey and don’t bother trying to girl-ify the spelling. It’s a fine name and soon no one will question it, any more than they now say ‘A girl named Allison? But that’s such a masculine name!’