Francis

[Girlmamaplus1boy]

Is Francis too old fashioned? Is it too girly for a boy? Nn would be Fran

My girls are Beatrice (Bea) and Maeve

Francis is a great name. Not getting the "wimpy" vibe from it at all. Can't think of any names that make me think wimpy really.

Fran is fine as a nickname too although it's always odd to me to plan a nickname ahead of time.

Love the highly appropriate typo here!

Which one?

Fran is too girly. Francis- feels a bit like you're honouring the pope it he's born anytime in the next few months.

I know female Frances's- i understand the spelling is different but I'm not sure boys love having a unisex name.

Francis is one of our family names, down generations

I know Frans that are both male and female and love it for both

St Francis is the patron saint of animals which is a bonus in my view.

Irish Catholic here too @bittertwisted

But girls, of course LOVE having unisex names! Well , according to Mumsnet they do. Strong and sassy.

MN is not a hive mind. Personally, I hate the trend of giving girls male names.

And on MN any name can be unisex if you like, but it only works for boys names being used for girls.

Want to call your DS Fran - eek, no, it's sissy and wet. Want to call your DD James, Harry or Dylan and the response is - that is so cool.

IMO, a male Fran is fine, a female Dylan is not fine.

Someone always makes this point and I do get it. I see it as similar to how women wear trouser suits at work to feel empowered but men tend not to wear skirt suits at work (IME)

It isn't exactly fair or feminist that the double standard exists. But I would still avoid using a girls name for a boy. As unfair as it is, society hasn't caught up and it would be harder for a boy to pull off a girls name. I do think there are some genuinely unisex names around now though and I love Francis

I agree.

there are some genuinely unisex names around now
They tend to be faddy and once they start being used for girls they fall out of favour for boys.

I am not really talking about British/America names tbh. If you live somewhere quite multicultural you hear more genuinely unisex names (IME)

I agree that things like Elliott, Riley or Blake for a girl are possibly a bit faddy/trendy. But that wasn't the main point I was trying to make in my last post

I can think of a few unisex names like Nour (spelling?) and Rowan. They're not faddy.

Names I consider faddy are things like Casey, Riley, Ashley etc.

Frank is the British shortened name for Francis. I work with men in their 90s, 80s and are called Frank born Francis. I love the uniqueness how Brits shorten names. That could be a whole new thread 🇬🇧

Shortening names isn't unique to the British. I can think of names from other languages that get shortened.

I agree… love how names are shortened and people are called ‘pet names’. My son and daughter have at least another 10 names each and don’t get me started on the dog 😬

Our boy is Francis. Good name: good range of shortenings/nicknames and other versions when he’s older.

If (as a PP has said) he’d need to be a strong character to pull off the name later on, he’s definitely that! 🤣

Yes-it’s usually me! 🤣 I wouldn’t give a boy a “girly” name either-and for the record I think Fran is too “girly”. I am sceptical about the people who claim to know lots of them-I suspect they might know one elderly Irishman. There was a man called Florrie on the Irish side of my family-that’s no reason to do it again!

😂 I haven't noticed it being you every time, but maybe it is! Wouldn't put it past you 😜

I grew up in Ireland and knew more than one man with the middle name Mary.

I love a soft name, especially for boys, and now I’m trying to work out what Florrie could be short for (on a boy) because I love it! 🤣

edit: Flawrence is all I’ve got so far 😭

my middle name is frances and was totally mortified as a teen but now i like it

I think it’s twee and wet sorry

Love it, classic strong name, St Francis of Assisi is a great connotation, has a fab prayer atrributed to him which even if you're not religious (I'm an atheist) has a meaning to aspire to. Fran is a short strong nn
Fran Berry- jockey
Fran Healy - singer

Florian would be my first thought.

I love it, it was one of my favourites for DS, Fran is so lovely and works for all ages.