Anyone else dislike traditionally boys' names being used for girls?

[Innitoutit]

Does anyone else hate the trend of giving girls traditionally boy names (Elliott, Ezra, James, Scottie, Tommy, etc.)? Currently pregnant and had a family member suggest one of these types of names for our daughter and almost rolled my eyes when she said it. I don't understand why it's so popular at the moment and why so many parents seemingly want their daughters to be seen as masculine. Maybe it bothers me because you never see it go the other way round. You never see feminine names become unisex. It does seem to be more popular in America (thankfully), but I can see it increasing in popularity here.

Stacey is an abbreviation of Anastasia.

I saw a comment on Facebook earlier from a Joshualynn. Come off it 😭

im with you op, and all the others who’ve said it implies girls names, and by implication girls, are weak.

It's a surname.

Yes, but mainly because there are sooo many gorgeous girl names that it feels like a wasted opportunity

I wasn’t aware of this trend but it does sound very silly.

All the Ashleys and Sydneys I know are girls. I know two small girls named Elliott. They are called Ellie in daily life. The male Elliotts I know (and all related spellings) are all in their mid 30s and up.

I know equal numbers of male and female Logans, Dylans, Rileys, Cassidys, Caseys, Ryans, Ezras, Micahs, Glenns, and Jordans.

There are some surnamey names that are exclusively used for girls, as far as I can see - Harper, Kelly, Carrington, and a few others.

Some of these names are used because they shorten to recognizable girl names (Carrie from Carrington, for example).

For the most part, people using surname names for girls are following old Southern and WASP tradition though.

I'm in the US. People here tend to be polite about others' choices, but you can tell that some families prefer traditional names.

I do agree with you for the names you’ve used as examples. However, my absolute favourite type of names are proper girls names (the more “frilly” the better) that have traditionally masculine nicknames.

EG a Lavinia who goes by Vinnie. A Leonora who goes by Leo. A Josephine who goes by Joey. I don’t know why, I just think it’s very chic!

Chic?

Imagine a story about red-haired sisters, Burleigh and Raleigh, who timeslip to the Tudor age. Their foe is a boy named Marion. I would read it.

@NamingNoNames that’s my opinion!

Nigella!! We have a lot of this going on in our family as there were 7 sisters and only 2 brothers and a lot of guys who needed naming after apparently

Robyn not a fan

It’s almost exactly the same

Meant to type Colina but Dolina is an anglised, feminised Domhnull (Donald in gaelic)..

It's terrible. It is as if girls need to over power a boy name to be strong. Like being feminine is not enough.
Imagine if boys needed to be named Pamela or Elizabeth to exert their caring natures.

A Boy Named Sue is a song where a boy is ridiculed for his name.

Yet more googling, and I have discovered “Davina” is…. a female version of Dave! Dave-ina.

Who knew? 🤣

I went to school with a male Stacey...

No Gavin is a boys name. Its no more unisex than something like Allan or Graham

Doesn't bother me at all - and I say that as someone with a name which is normally used for boys these days but was a common girls name many hundreds of years ago. I love my name, and my mum most definitely wanted a girl.

Yes you do. Look up John Wayne's real name...

A lot of surnames are derived from first names, such as Johnson (John's son) and Price (ap Rhys), so why not the other way around?

John Wayne was not called a girl’s name. He was called a traditional male name that became exclusively female. This is a regular pattern- once a male name starts to be used for girls it suddenly stops being used for boys. Because it is seen to be weakened and demeaned by association with girls. That is why girl’s names are NEVER used for boys.

Yes it's really different here in the UK. I know one Cassidy, who is a woman (it is so similar to Cassie it doesn't sound masculine to me), and one female child Ezra (which raised eyebrows). I'm aware of Glenn Close. I don't know any girls called any of your other examples. Sydney and Ryan are hideous for a girl to me.

Not in the UK, it's an English surname that then became a boy's name.

@Needspaceforlego , No Gavin is a boys name. Its no more unisex than something like Allan or Graham They're unisex too.

@buymeaboaanddrivemetoreno It’s almost exactly the same
There's a difference in that something like Philippa doesn't make you think that it's a boy/man in the way that Philip does.

@Tigerbalmshark , did you really not know?

@selffellatingouroborosofhate , because a lot of surnames 'son of [name]' or are an occupation. Something like Madison is like calling a girl 'Matthew's son'