Finn… for a girl

[whiterabbity]

DH has just announced that the name we would have used for a boy, he wants to use for DD. He loves it but I remain unconvinced. Tell me your honest opinion please, we are in Scotland.

No but i don’t like it for a boy either. Makes me think of fish

Tell him his luck's in. There are thousands of such unusual names for girls to choose from: they're known as boys' names.

It is my surname, and I have certain friends who call me just "Finn" or "Finnegan" since my teens to tease me. Really don't like it, nothing feminine about it, and even as a surname I'm not keen - it is blunt and also boring.

There are a good number of Finns (as surnames) where I grew up. I had a friend known solely as Fish during her teenage years. My Dad was Sharky and my sister was nicknamed Huckleberry as school.

I really like it, and I wouldn't think a female Finn's parents had tried to be 'quirky'.
Much nicer than Fiona, IMO, which sounds old-fashioned to my ear.

Fenella is about as unusual as you can get without it being not used at all. She can be Fenn or Nell.

Yes, I like it.

Love Fenella actually

I know a female Finley. Much prefer Fiona.

No

My son is called Finn, but I do actually really like it for a girl aswell. Another poster who poo pooed the name in general mentioned a character from home and away called Finlay who regularly went by "Fin" and I don't remember it seeming out of place at all. Doesn't sound like you are convinced though so I think you need to find something you both like rather than forcing yourself to like your husbands choice.

I love the name.. for a boy
Fiona is lovely and I considered this for a girl but had boys
Ffion is a Welsh version which is the closest I can think of

Awful name for a girl and setting her up for a lifetime of confusion over forms and explaining that she is femalw
not male.

However, the actress/dancer Finola Hughes has a lovely name, which could be given the nickname of Fin/Finn.

Lovely name for a boy

The funniest thing about misogyny is that it eats itself. Once a boys name becomes popular for girls, people stop using it for boys because it’s too “girly” (inferior).

You could tell him about my mother’s school friend, whose parents, almost a hundred years ago, called their daughter a boys name. Because her father wanted a boy. She hated both it and her father. She went away to university, changed her name, and as far as my mother knew, never went home again.

Fiona is fine, as long as you like it too. Or what about Fern ?

I know a Fin. She's an adult and her full name is Finola or Fionnuala, I think.

Fiona is pretty.

It's as much a boys name as Dave or Steve....

It's not a neutral name like Danny or Frankie....

Ffion is a nice alternative. And Ffion Davies (Judo/MMA ledge) is a good role model.

I think Finn is quite elfin to be truthful, it could work. People would adapt. It's up to you though innit?

Fiadh

I think the Kelce family in the USA have just done this, Kylie ( she has a big podcast) and Jason Kelce ( recently retired American footballer)
All of their girls have boyish names and the one who has just been born is called Finn.

I know a teenage girl Finn, and I’ve met another. It’s a lovely name on her, and no one where I live would bat an eyelid at a girl Finn. But we live in a multicultural city where people are generally more open minded, and not judgmental about names in the way many posters seem to be on MN. One of my daughters has an extremely unusual name (with a nn more commonly used for boys in the uk). It’s regularly complemented and she’s never once been teased about it. But she goes to school with kids with names from all over the world, and less conventional names are for British origin kids are pretty conventional here.

Are the people so open minded that you would name a boy Fiona?

I think an important point is being made about the social hierarchy of male and female names.

It's not radical to give a girl a traditionally masculine name, though it is likely to make her life more complicated.