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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Naming your daughter a boy's name, yes or no ?

181 replies

Momto2girliess · 12/06/2021 20:45

My sibling named her baby girl a classic masculine name ( Think John, Robert , Thomas). I am never going to say anything to her. I am just curious to know people's opinion on it.

She always wanted a boy.This is baby girl n°5. Do you think it is a bit strange to name your girl a very masculine name?

OP posts:
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WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 13/06/2021 20:55

It’s entirely possible OP knows the reason but still disagrees with the name and so has chosen not to share the reason here so as to keep the responses negative.

What reason could there be, though? Even if it was a traditional family surname, you'd still say "well, she's a girl and because Christopher, when used as a first name, is unequivocally a boy's name, we'll need to think of something else". Use it as a middle name, if you really must, but why throw your daughter under the bus by giving her clearly a boy's name?

Any of us may end up hating the names our parents gave us enough to want to change them once we're 18, but I'd assume that, in most of those cases, the parents meant well and it was just a very marked difference in preferences. Whatever would make you think of deliberately giving them a name they would suffer with for 18 years and then be counting down the days until they could legally change it themselves?

It just seems such a passive aggressive move to pull on somebody whom you're supposed to love and, when they enter the world, cannot possibly have already done anything deliberately for you to dislike them.

It would be like deliberately bringing your child up to speak a single language as their mother tongue that is foreign to where they live and with which nobody in the family has the remotest connection - just because you think it's kind of quirky and a bit funky to have a British child growing up in the UK, with British parents and wider family, who turns up on their first day at school in the UK only being able to speak Japanese or Icelandic.

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 21:16

What a strange couple of posts. I’m not sure I know where to start.

ChrisOnTheBeach · 13/06/2021 21:17

@fretfulpig

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher.

LOL of course Christopher is a masculine name. It's a BOY'S name.

What is masculine to you then? Butch? Rocky? Baratheon? Blade? Hunter? Thor? PMSL. Grin

Ronnie is also a girl's name. I wonder if you would have told Ronnie Kray his name was feminine?!

Also, James Alexander, and Martin are never, ever used as girls names. And neither is Christopher.

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/06/2021 21:29

Strange posts? I know which ones I find strange... 😂

UhtredRagnarson · 13/06/2021 21:32

@GreyhoundG1rl

Strange posts? I know which ones I find strange... 😂
Yes we all know you find my posts hilarious.
LobotomisedIceSkatingFan · 14/06/2021 05:10

[quote ChrisOnTheBeach]@fretfulpig

Christopher isn't a particularly masculine name, like James, Lee, Martin, Alexander....they're softer sounding and suit either. I quite like it, and Kit is a traditional nickname for Christopher.

LOL of course Christopher is a masculine name. It's a BOY'S name.

What is masculine to you then? Butch? Rocky? Baratheon? Blade? Hunter? Thor? PMSL. Grin

Ronnie is also a girl's name. I wonder if you would have told Ronnie Kray his name was feminine?!

Also, James Alexander, and Martin are never, ever used as girls names. And neither is Christopher.[/quote]
It's simply not true that James is never, ever used as a girls name 🙄

VenusClapTrap · 14/06/2021 09:47

I wonder if people would wonder if the child was non binary or trans. Christopher but dresses like a girl. These days probably!

I know an eight year old male Christopher who dresses as a girl.

InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/06/2021 13:49

@UhtredRagnarson

What a strange couple of posts. I’m not sure I know where to start.
It's a shame you find the name Emma 'dull' and 'unoriginal' and yet you have saddled your son with a girls name that he may well hate you for-time will tell! I have an Emma and I find it a classic and beautiful name. Call your kid whatever ridiculous name you want but at least refrain from shitting all over everyone else's perfectly lovely choices.
Awwlookatmybabyspider · 14/06/2021 13:57

Surely though a non binary child would have a Unisex name.

UhtredRagnarson · 14/06/2021 14:31

It's a shame you find the name Emma 'dull' and 'unoriginal' and yet you have saddled your son with a girls name that he may well hate you for-time will tell!
I have an Emma and I find it a classic and beautiful name. Call your kid whatever ridiculous name you want but at least refrain from shitting all over everyone else's perfectly lovely choices.

Shitting all over? That’s very melodramatic. I said they were dull and unoriginal. That’s a very mild description of a name. I’m sure you think the same and worse about lots of names, I’m sure you’ve said as much too on occasion. It’s not shitting all over them, it’s a personal preference. I’m sure if Emma wasn’t the name suggested you wouldn’t have had any reaction at all to my opinion.

InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/06/2021 14:40

@UhtredRagnarson

It's a shame you find the name Emma 'dull' and 'unoriginal' and yet you have saddled your son with a girls name that he may well hate you for-time will tell! I have an Emma and I find it a classic and beautiful name. Call your kid whatever ridiculous name you want but at least refrain from shitting all over everyone else's perfectly lovely choices.

Shitting all over? That’s very melodramatic. I said they were dull and unoriginal. That’s a very mild description of a name. I’m sure you think the same and worse about lots of names, I’m sure you’ve said as much too on occasion. It’s not shitting all over them, it’s a personal preference. I’m sure if Emma wasn’t the name suggested you wouldn’t have had any reaction at all to my opinion.

No, actually, I wouldn't have 'said as much'. I like or dislike names. I don't label them dull or unoriginal, that's bloody rude.
UhtredRagnarson · 14/06/2021 14:46

It’s not. It’s a opinion. Just like your declaration that it’s “bloody rude” is an opinion.

Monsterjam · 14/06/2021 18:22

@ChrisOnTheBeach James is used as a girls name. For sure

GreyhoundG1rl · 14/06/2021 18:28

[quote Monsterjam]@ChrisOnTheBeach James is used as a girls name. For sure[/quote]
Not very widely. Outside Z list celebs...

Monsterjam · 14/06/2021 18:38

@GreyhoundG1rl I didn’t suggest it was

DipperandMabel · 14/06/2021 18:40

I think it’s strange tbh. I can’t imagine most men would want a girlfriend called John or Dave either… I wouldn’t want to call my DH Michelle or Claire (would be happy if it was a DW called a girl’s name obv) but just seems a strange thing to do!

bridgetreilly · 15/06/2021 12:19

I think it is a desperately sad reflection of just how sexist our culture continues to be and I would never, ever do it for that reason.

No one ever calls their baby boys classic girls names. It's always girls getting boys names. Which implies, of course, that boys names are better and/or that boys are better. Because it would be awful for a boy to be mistaken for a girl, but cool for a girl to be mistaken for a boy.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Tal45 · 15/06/2021 12:33

OP said her SIL wanted a boy - surely that is the reason she has chosen a boys name after having 5 girls. I'd be concerned about the MH of her SIL and how she is going to treat the baby tbh.

elvis4nuts · 16/06/2021 14:02

I love the name Elliot for a girl but I can't get my husband on board 🙄

Momto2girliess · 16/06/2021 15:14

Hi everyone

It is not a family name. Nobody knew what she was going to name her girl. The other 4 have very feminine names.

OP posts:
GreenCrayon · 16/06/2021 15:30

@Momto2girliess

Hi everyone

It is not a family name. Nobody knew what she was going to name her girl. The other 4 have very feminine names.

So as suspected it appears to be some form of pretty act on her behalf simply because her 5th child happened to be a girl.

Poor child doesn't appear to stand much chance of a happy childhood. Sad

Lenny86 · 21/06/2021 21:10

It’s the trend by us - I know girls called Leonard and Elliot.

CatsArePeople · 21/06/2021 22:32

what? Christopher? They're mad

felulageller · 21/06/2021 22:57

I think it's strange that Noah has become so popular for boys.

It sounds like a girl's name.

Oscar was originally a girls names so goes against the grain of boys names being used for girls.

Babydust13 · 22/06/2021 00:29

Poor girl will grow up thinking her parents definitely wanted a boy and couldn't even be bothered to pick her a girls name. She'll probably get teased at school as well

Her parents really haven't helped her start in life

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