Fowey - boy or girl?

[OneAliCat]

As in the Cornish town. Pronounced Foy. Considering as a middle name since the place is special to us.

Would you think of it as male, female or gender neutral?

Boy and I like it

I live there and believe me most English people don't know its pronounced Foy. Why would they?

This.

Or CatchFrench, Indian Queens, No Man’s Land, London Apprentice - we’ve lots of unique village names in the Cornish lands

I was going to suggest Grumbla.

If you really want it then go for it, I can imagine a William Fowey or some other v traditional boy name.

If you want foy write foy

Would have to be for a boy as the rhyme is too strong and I think a girl called foy would get teased

@CornishDew

Or if you want to spend your time forever correcting the pronunciation you could try Launceston or Mousehole.

It’s fine for either as a middle name. There isn’t going to be any confusion as it will always be used in conjunction with the first name, unless they have a unisex first name too. Pronunciation isn’t really an issue either because how often will strangers be saying their middle name out loud?

It’s neutral to me.

@1dayatatime Mousehole would be an awesome middle name. Even better for a cat!

Totally fine for either for a middle name.

I live near Fowey and find this hilarious.

Mevagissey on the other hand is a great name! How about Mevagissey Perranporth?

“Not Fowey to rhyme with Bowie” He’ll get sick of correcting people.

Like Frome- Not as in “ Rome” ( as I assumed) but Froom as in broom.

Really like this idea (but I’m local-ish and have fond memories of Fowey too!). Not a place name but DS has a Cornish family surname as a middle name and it’s special to us. Doesn’t one of David Cameron’s children have Endellion as a middle name? And someone on another thread suggested Lerryn and Sennen, which is the same idea. I’d say Fowey would suit a boy more than a girl.

Foy is a surname so why not use that if spelling is a concern? That said, middle names are rarely used except on forms so it's no big deal.

I like it (Fowey is gorgeous and I'm not usually a fan of Devon/Cornwall).

Hyperbolic MN response to any non-Sophie/James names as usual. Place names are perfectly normal as first names as they indicate heritage and even if they DON'T who cares - Ross, Chester, Alexandria, Charlotte, Georgia, etc get through life fine.

If you're called Clare (ALSO A PLACE NAME) you have to constantly explain the spelling so what's the big deal?

Perranporth has red-trouser-tweed-blazer Peregrine vibes (although I know the place isn’t like that 😄)

Actually come to think of it, I think Mevagissey is two saints’ names in one? Meva ag Issey?

I went to school with a Zelah in the 1980s by the way. Which is also a place name in Cornwall. Gorgeous name (and very pretty girl) which was on my longlist for a while. Only had boys though.

When was the last time a stranger read aloud your middle name? The last time I can think of was at my wedding almost five years ago. Before that I really don’t know. My experience is it’s not something which happens at all let alone something with any kind of frequency that someone would get sick of.

Its lovely.no need for people to pronounce a middle name.

Boy, but it's not a name. I suppose it's not too bad as a middle name.
My dad used to work at the secondary school there 😂 would feel like naming my kid Solihull to me.

We love Fowey too but I’m not sure I’d want to saddle a child with it as a name. That said middle names are not used that much and there are lots of people who have second names that are meaningful for the family, so if you like use it. Boy or girl I don’t think it matters.
The only thing that would concern me is that the vast majority of people won’t pronounce it properly if it’s spelt like Fowey is. If I hadn’t spent lots of time there when I was a young I would say Fow (like how) ee

So maybe 'Foy'? Then the pronunciation will be clear and for the parents it'll be a lovely subtle secret?

Otherwise, for this Englishwoman, it's a river/estuary/town.

And there's Stroud vs Strood if we're thinking about place names.

Maybe on my regular hospital trips where it's quite important that they can distinguish the various potential Jane Smiths (not my actual name) who potentially share the same date of birth.