‘boy’ names for a girl?

[MaiaRay]

What’s your opinion on using a traditionally/commonly used ‘boy’ name for a girl? Too weird or do you like it?
I’ve heard names like Wyatt, James, Billie, Jude, Rory etc all being used for girls and wondered if this was something you loved or hated!

I absolutely hate this. You never see hirls names used for boys and there seem to be less boys names to me so it's giving us mums of boys less choices.

Girls not hirls.

I find it very surprising that women still think that one thing is for males and one thing is for females and lines cannot be crossed. If you don’t think genders can share a name but can share a job title I find that a mixed message

The point is that the movement is always away from the feminine: i.e. females taking on male names, never the other way around. As others have said, when people start calling their sons Susan and a Jane then we’ll see that feminine is regarded as equally desirable and to aspire to. I’m not holding my breath.

And boys have always been called Bertie, Teddy, Ollie. There have always been diminutives, those short forms are not remotely new. The queen’s father was Bertie, and an American president Teddy. What’s happening now is that parents are dispensing with the “full name on the birth certificate” that used to happen, becoming less formal with the paperwork, that’s all. This has nothing to do with becoming more feminine, those are not female names.

Even worse is using a boy's name and adding a hyphenated filler middle name e.g. Finley-Rose or Riley-Grace.

Interesting.

I know a Grace, a Hope and a Faith, all boys. To me they seem to work okay.

Also boys called Jesse, Valentina, Bela and Sou. However these are boys' names that sound like girls' names not girls' names crossing over.

I don't think girls are often given actual boys names - Jamie, and Jack but not James; Toni not Anthony; Mattie not Matthew; Billie not William; Bobbie not Robert.

I know a Grace, a Hope and a Faith, all boys. To me they seem to work okay.

Are they of African heritage? That wouldn't sound out of place to me, but it would seem very strange for a European male.

Also boys called Jesse, Valentina, Bela and Sou. However these are boys' names that sound like girls' names not girls' names crossing over.

Jesse is a boy's name - there was a male Jesse in the Bible. There was also a (male) Elishah, but very close variants of that (in spelling and pronunciation) are now considered 100% female names - to the extent that any boy given the name would probably be teased for having a 'girl's' name.

Are Valentina and Bela from central/eastern Europe? There are a number of continental male names ending in 'a' - Andrea, Nicola, Sacha etc. - that are perfectly fine for people from there but would sound weird for a British person. Also, I'm guessing that 'Sou' isn't really related to 'Sue' (as a diminutive of Susan or Suzanne), other than happening to share the same common single-syllable sound?

The old crooner Val Doonican (younger MNers: ask your GPs!) was actually called Valentine (not Valentina, though), and he stated once that people thought his full name sounded like a woman's name. Unlike Pat or Chris, though, I can't actually think of a male name for which Val would be a short form. Valbert (husband of Ictoria)?!?!?!

The boy called Grace is white British. Hope is African-American. Faith is white but no idea his cultural heritage. Jesse is white British.
Valentina is Russian heritage born here. Bela was Romanian, Sou I have zero clue, could be Chinese.
Valeri is another male Val name.

Ah, yes - Valeri - that's a common male name in Russia (and probably other countries too), isn't it?

Evelyn
Vivian
Hilary
Joslin
Kim

As compared to:

Stephen/Stephanie
Charles/Charlotte
Francis/Frances
Edward, Edwin/Edwina
Henry/Henrietta
Louis/Louise, Louisa
Julian/Julia
Alexander/Alexandra

I prefer the full name to be used with the nn as a diminutive.

@HeyChubbee

I really like Sydney for a girl.

I have one and it's fabulous!

@merlotormalbec

Blake Livelys daughter is called James and I much prefer it for a girl than a boy!

I feel like Blake gets away with it because Blake is quite a "boys" name too, and they're famous haha but I quite like it too - fun fact it's Ryan's granddads name, he wanted to use it as a middle name and Blake was like nah haha

Clive James' birth name was Vivian, which was a traditional male name at the time, but he was on record as saying "after Vivien Leigh played Scarlett O'Hara the name became irrevocably a girl's name no matter how you spelled it", so he was allowed to change it.

I'm guessing that watching The Young Ones a few decades later did nothing to make him regret having changed it

It would seem like it was a theme that ran in the family, as Vivian's (from TYO) 'cousin' who appeared in Bottom had the name Edward Elizabeth Hitler.

"Hitler? That's an unusual surname. Any relation?"
"I've got a mum."
"I meant Adolf!"
"Yep, that's her!!!"

James Corden's middle name is Kimberley (traditionally/historically a male name, of course) - but Richard Gere's middle name is Tiffany!

My US family gave "boy names" to the girls - they did this in the 1950s. I have an unusual nickname which is generally a boy's name.

As soon as names cross over to be regarded as feminine, parents stop using them for boys.
I don’t know any young male kimberleys or Viviens.
There is always the stigma of being female, always.

Is it the stigma of being female, though, or the stigma of being thought to be female when you aren't?

Most women wouldn't want to be mistaken for men, just as men wouldn't want to be mistaken for women - it doesn't mean that either sex is better or worse, just distinct one from the other.

Generally, parents restrict their name choices to the thousands of names which are associated with the sex of their baby, as your sex is part of your identity, so why wouldn't they discount names which have become perceived as unisex? We didn't consider distinctly Japanese, Icelandic or German names for our DS, because he isn't either of those nationalities and we don't live there (or have plans to), so they aren't part of his personal identity.

Others may disagree, but I get the impression that parents calling their daughters James or William are doing it more for attention or to be deliberately quirky than because they genuinely prefer those names more than every traditional girl's name out there.

because he isn't either of those nationalities

ANY - either makes no sense there!

Seeing what my sister went through having a boy's name put me off any idea of using masculine names for girls (twice put in boy's PE after a move, dealing with staff saying "Can come to the office? His mother is here." as she had multiple medical appointments, and of course the 'did your mother want a boy?' comments which were more awkward as yes, she did). before getting into debating sexism in the issue.

I do like unisex names (I chose one for my first name, though in the UK it's closest to feminine name in writing, though in pronunciation is closer to a masculine name so I get all sorts), but I'm glad to have given my daughters' feminine names, though one of them (and one of their brothers) has a name commonly shortened to unisex nicknames.

The original St Valentine was a young man. In some languages, the final vowel becomes an 'a' or an 'ah' sound. Just because that's traditionally a female signifier in England does not make that "the use of a boys name for girls".
For Val, Latin has two sex-specific variatins: Valerius for males, Valeria for girls.

Similarly, there is a long European-wide tradition of naming girls after male saints, or giving them female equivalents ( nb = equal ) of male names. So for centuries, Bobbie has been short for Roberta, Jo has been short for Josephine, Willa or Mina has been short for Wilhelmina etc etc. This does not make those names male names used for girls.

I should have said that in Latin, Valentine would have been Valentinus.
If he'd had a sister, her name would have been Valentina.

I love the name Dale for a girl/woman, it was on my shortlist for if we had a daughter.

I know a few woman with unisex names Frankie, Jamie, Alex etc,

Doesn’t bother me whatsoever.

Ashley, Courtney, Jamie, Taylor, Skylar were names held by girls when I was growing up and I’ve seen both men and women have names like that and it doesn’t change my opinion on them whatsoever nor do I see it as try hard or quirky. Saying that I’m not a fan of traditional or popular names because I don’t want my children being one of many in their class.

Plus, I really don’t see the issue. What if I want to name a child after my beloved grandmother, should I only be able to if I have daughters? What if I never have daughters and there is no male equivalent? If someone can’t handle someone’s name because it doesn’t in their mind fit their sex, that is their problem.

One of mine has a unisex name, it’s met with a few ‘isn’t that a boy’s name’ IRL yet on here it’s almost always ‘I prefer it for a girl’

I love it but as a nickname eg

Aurora - Rory
Persephone - Persey (Percy) & Peri
Matilda- Mattie

I wonder if the mystic Julian of Norwich was one of the first - or whether Julian was another of those names that used to be a girl's name back then?!