Is Evelyn truly a gender neutral name?

[yellowmeerkat]

Just curious really - only recently found out the name is unisex and used for males too. Never come across a male Evelyn in the UK. What’s everyone else’s experience?

Well traditionally yes but it’s long since been exclusively female.

I think the fact it starts with Eve would make it even harder to use than Jocelyn, Hilary and Vivian, which are also unisex names that have become pretty much female.

I knew a male Hilary and a male Vivien so I wouldn't find a male Evelyn too out there.

Clive James was born Vivian - but once Vivien Leigh came on the scene and made everybody consider it a female name (however spelled), he begged his mum to let him change it.

Girls name to me.

I know a male Beverley

At school there was a male staff member called Kim. I haven't met any other males called Kim since.

Vivian- MALE, - female or even Vivienne - female. I like Viv as a male name.

Vivien or Vivienne - female, I meant. We all know fashions for names change anyway.

There are names -Evelyn, Hilary and Vivian -are examples which were originally boy's names, but people started to use them for girls. Which meant that they fell out of use for boys-because heaven forfend that a boy might possibly have a name associated with a girl! So not unisex. Just boys names girls started to use and therefore made them unacceptable for boys.

No.

There are a lot of names in the UK that are seen as female but other countries they aren’t.

I don’t think I’d bat a eye if I met a make Evelyn, I’d worry about bulling in the UK though.

John Wayne’s real name was Marion and I remember Big Dayy from the 80s first name was Shirley. There are definitely make Beverley’s although I can’t remember if I’ve met any, I do remember watching a movie where a man was called Beverly, also vaguely remember reading a newspaper article years ago about Beverly being a common name for prisoners in US prisons.

In NZ & Australia Kerry is a very common man’s name as well as woman’s. I also know both male and female Lesley’s, in fact I remember having neighbours when I was little both husband and wife were called Lesley.

I know male and female Ashley’s, Riley, Kellie, Darcy’s & Shannon’s.

• That was Big Daddy

I used to know a male Leslie. The female version is spelt differently, Lesley.

I always think Robin is a beautiful name for a male or female.

I used to know a couple called Rae and Ray

Interesting responses. To me, Evelyn is definitely viewed as pretty much an exclusively female name in the UK now, although appreciate that historically this was not the case and that perhaps in many other countries it is still utilised in a more unisex fashion.

Yes it used to be a boy's name, then it got given to girls, and nobody wants to give their boy a name they associate with girls.

"To me, Evelyn is definitely viewed as pretty much an exclusively female name in the UK now,"
It is. The only people who try to argue it isn't are the people who want to deny that giving a girl a boy's name is deeply, deeply misogynist.

"Evelyn. That's unisex. I know 12 people called Evelyn. 6 are men and 6 are women.

As a young person, the names mentioned in this thread aren’t unisex. I haven’t come across any men named Evelyn, Hilary etc

It might be a surname in that case. Posh ppl sometimes use a surname to keep it going in the family.

Thinking of the diarist John Evelyn. But as a girl name it seems like a derivative of Eve?

My DGS is called by a name that is female in the US, but male in Ireland! Another example is Sidney which can be either m or f.

Its a girls name

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I only ever knew Sidney as a boys' name for a very long time until one or two celebrities called their daughters that - in the UK at least.

I'll never understand why some parents want to deliberately store up issues for their children by giving them wrong-sex names. As per the old MN trope, I wonder how many of those parents would willingly change their own names and then introduce themselves to strangers with "Hi, I'm Timothy, Evelyn's mum - and this is my husband Jennifer"?

As a young person, the names mentioned in this thread aren’t unisex. I haven’t come across any men named Evelyn, Hilary etc

There's Dr Hilary Jones and Hilary Benn - but they still sound very out of place to me, even though you don't meet all that many female Hilarys these days.

Evelyn Waugh (the writer of some of the funniest books written in English (and Brideshead Revisited which has funny bits!) married Evelyn Gardener. They were indeed known as Hevelyn and Shevelyn. Quite a decent joke actually!