My friend hates my baby name

[Reagan37]

Me and OH have agreed on a name for our daughter that we both love. I told one of my friends our choice and she said it’s ridiculous for me to pick a “plain boys name” for a girl. We aren’t changing our minds, and we are very set on this name for our baby. I just hope if people don’t like the name and are rude about it when she’s here, it will grow on them the more they think about it. Should I be worried?

It is a boys name,it would be like calling a girl Nigel or Colin.

Ye gods, spiders. I am ABSOLUTELY not getting at you personally, but surely we all need to do what we can to make sure that our girls are not discriminated against because they have 'female' names. They should be proud of being who they are. And should be given equal respect with boys (or indeed any other), based on their achievements, their skills, their personalities, their potentials...
Gifts/aptitudes are distributed equally across all sexes/genders, but sadly are so often not given the equal opportunities to be fulfilled.

Just as bad, your son should not be discriminated against because he has a name that some people might think might be female. I'm really shocked to hear that.

We need to STOP discrimination on perceived gender/sex bias for all children, boys and/or girls. To my mind, giving girls boys names - as in the topic of this thread - really, at the moment, does not help us achieve that aim.

I think it’s odd to choose a welsh name when you’re not welsh and I think most people will assume it’s a boy’s name because of brynn from Gavin and Stacey (tell me you don’t have a nephew called Jason…?). But if you like it and don’t mind those factors, who cares? Your friend has been tactless to be so blunt about it.

As a welshie a Brynn is a masculine name. I had a friend called Bryoney who’s nickname was Bryn but I think I agree with your friend

@User527294627

I think it’s odd to choose a welsh name when you’re not welsh and I think most people will assume it’s a boy’s name because of brynn from Gavin and Stacey (tell me you don’t have a nephew called Jason…?). But if you like it and don’t mind those factors, who cares? Your friend has been tactless to be so blunt about it.

You're not allowed to use names outside those of your heritage?

That's such a silly thing to say.

In my area of the USA, Brynn IS a girl's name.

@scottishnames Totally understand and I don’t disagree with you. My comment was more of a sad reality - the thought occurred to me while I was typing. My DD has an unmistakably girly name so it’s not something that would affect my decision making. Maybe in the next 20 yrs there will be so much progress it won’t be an issue by the time OP’s baby grows up, but I bloody well doubt it.

Women are treated differently in the workplace and there are numerous stories of females who have disguised their sex deliberately when communicating via email/letter. I agree it shouldn’t be the case but it is. I think the things that are particularly hard are when there’s nothing specific to object to, but just a very general “tone”. It’s much easier to point out and stand up to clear incidents of sexism but when there’s just a general undercurrent it’s very hard to change things.

But that’s a whole other discussion and I don’t want to derail the thread 😂 It was just one possible consequence of having a male-sounding name.

I absolutely love the name Brynn (----but disappointed you didn’t say it was Dave)

I agree with your friend.

Tell your mate to get in the bin

My best friend has a daughter called Brynne. She really suits her name. Welsh family and noone has assumed she was a boy /called her Brian / called her Brine. It's a lovely name OP.

Does anyone else saying girl watch RHONY?

I think Brynn sounds like a girl's name! I like it.

Thanks, spiders . As I said, I don't want to criticise anyone individually. But - I'm an oldie now - to me it seems as if so many of the "liberal" things we fought for when young are now being disregarded/not understood. Progress seems to be going backwards. (For example, my comment re 'feminazi' above which would have been unthinkable to most previous feminists - and, I suspect, still is to many today.)
To my mind, I think the longer that women hide their identity, the longer the problem of discrimination persists. But it needs large-scale collective action to achieve 'breakthrough'; it's not fair to ask individuals to suffer for the cause.
One of the things that has really changed, in my experience, over the past 20 years, is the disappearance of collective progressive female solidarity. We're all encouraged to be individuals now, and to compete with each other in, what all too often, seems like a race to the bottom in all except purely financial terms.

Barry would be nicer.

It doesn't matter what your friend, or anyone else, thinks about a name you like for YOUR baby. Sod her. Have the name.

Chumleymouse
You can bet all the lads at school will take the piss she she’s older, “0i Brian want to come for a kick about after school “ 🤣

You obviously think you're hilarious, but they really won't.

Actually I have a friend called Briar Glover and all throughout school she was called Brian Glove 😬

I absolutely love uncle Brynn!

@2reefsin30knots

Brynna or Brianna or Brienne maybe- with 'brin' as nn?

These are all really lovely! Also Brinley/Brynley possibly? OP maybe you could use one of these and Brynn as a nickname?

That's a lovely name. Your friend is an a-hole. Ignore her & get a new friend 💕

My niece is brin. It’s perfectly fine for a girls name

This is an issue with taking a name out of a culture that you don't understand.
Of course you can give your dd a male name but you can't be surprised if people comment on it.
If enough people do it however it will become normal like MacKenzie.

@maddiemookins16mum with Island as a middle name

I can see her point.

My first thought was Bryn Terfel the opera singer. Very much a man's name.

@GeorgiaGirl52

In my area of the USA, Brynn IS a girl's name.

We’re not in the US and Wales is part of the UK. Culture is everything.

In Italy Andrea is a male name, in the UK it’s female name.