Any examples of a feminine name becoming a male name?

[redrubyshoes]

I can think of hundreds of names that are feminised from the masculine but I am stumped to think of a single name that is the opposite

Roberta
Louisa
Frederica
Josephine
Alexandra

etc etc

I mean bloody hundreds.

Any example of a female name becoming masculine? I mean a common everyday name.

Maybe Lindsay which was a male name in Scotland but is now considered female....................

My name is feminised by adding an 'a' at the end.

[somewherewest]

You also used to get men with 'Mary' as a second name in Ireland i.e. the poet and revolutionary Joseph Mary Plunkett.

[TunipTheVegemal]

I learnt the other day that in 1711 an aristo who was very keen for the queen to come and visit named his son Anne, as a compliment to her. She never came and it failed to catch on.

[Puremince]

In Scotland, a family surname used as a first name used to be unisex. So, if the mother or grandmother's maiden name was Douglas / Cameron / Innes / Harper etc, it could be used for either a boy or girl. As Primrose is a surname, you occasionally got boys called Primrose.

Now the tradition of keeping the maternal family names alive in the form of first names is much weaker, and individual names have polarised into being either male or female.

[LeggyBlondeNE]

There was a female St Julian but I think that was in keeping with nuns taking male saints names (e.g. sister Mary Clarence in 'Sister Act'!)

And of course it comes from the Latin male name Julius, and the Romans didn't use female given names until later on (previously they'd be Prima, Secunda etc).

There's almost no names that go from female to male. Plenty that have gone the other way.

[Lancelottie]

How about Julian? That was a female name in medieval times, I think.

[dangerousliaison]

kim

kelly

[SweetTheSting]

I figured the name came from a surname eg Percy Bysshe (sp?) Shelley rather than from the nickname for Michelle (which I assume originated from '"Michael"?)

[LynetteScavo]

Yes, he's American. Maybe there are two! Or maybe we know the same one.

[SweetTheSting]

I know one too, Lynette. He's American (wonders if it is the same one!)

[LynetteScavo]

I know a male Shelley, but I think he's probably the only one.

[PamBeesly]

TeiTetua

[scrablet]

point of op as far as I can tell is which names started asgirls and became boys. so saying about John Wayne being Marion doesnot help asis obv other way, as are most examples.

[TeiTetua]

Marian haste, repent at leisure, eh.

[PamBeesly]

Yes lovecat it was, lots of men in Ireland born in 1954 have Marian as their middle name, after the mother of Christ. 1954 was the Marian year here

[Lovecat]

John Wayne's real name was Marion, wasn't it?

[PamBeesly]

We are big Blackadder fans TeiTetua so it was going to be Rowan for a boy or girl :)

[TeiTetua]

Dr Williams has done some good work by being a well-known male Rowan. That might hold the line on that particular name for a while.

[PamBeesly]

I'm a Ciara cloudbase and think it comes from the Saint probably is a female version of Ciaran though.
I have a little boy called Rowan, I'm not sure if it was a female or male name first

[alexpolismum]

In Greece the name Artemis for girls is changed to Artemios for boys, although it is quite rare.

Marius for men already existed before Maria for women (remember General Marius, Julius Caesar's uncle or whatever he was, predating Christianity)

Also Dimitrios for boys comes from the feminine (ancient goddess Dimitra/ Demeter)

[freerangeeggs]

ohdobuckup, Jadon is a Biblical name I believe but I think it's current usage is more inspired by the popularity of Aidan in the US. Lots of similar names, like Kayden, Rayden, Zayden (yes, I'm not kidding) are pretty popular. I even saw a Maiden online once - maybe that counts??

I was going to say Marie/Maria and Douglas, but I think a lot of names on this thread were historically masculine until quite recently (Evelyn, Lesley etc).

As soon as a name starts to be used on girls it becomes unacceptable to use it on boys. For example, look at Ashley. I teach in SE England now and all the Ashleys I know are male; when I taught in Scotland, all the Ashleys I knew were girls. It wouldn't have crossed anyone's mind to use it on a boy.

There's a bit of a trend in the US at the moment to use traditionally male names on girls. I suppose it's kind of like trousers - boys can't wear skirts but girls can wear both...

[CuttedUpPear]

Tracey used to be a boy's name.

[ohdobuckup]

Lesley/Leslie...' 'I's for ''im'', 'E's for 'Er..''

Ashley..Ashleigh..Ashlee started as boy name I think, now mixed

a bit off topic, but where does a name like 'Jayden' come from..? Who was the first one, and why?

[misslinnet]

Pretty sure that there was a man called Oscar in Irish mythology.

As I recall, names like Tracey, Sidney, Lindsay, Shirley, Beverley started out as surnames, then started to be used as given names for boys, and then, maybe because the 'y' ending sounds a bit feminine, started to become popularised as girls names. Douglas also started out as a Scottish surname.

Robin was originally a nickname for Robert, so male first.

[EdithWeston]

Cruz.

In US, Aubrey and even Maxwell