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Help[Opinions] Re: Iris... but on a boy.
in reply to a message by Gaia
It's not a unisex name. It's not a surname. It's not even a purely nature name because it's the name of a goddess.
All things are not equal. Dylan might get used some on girls, but that doesn't mean it's equally acceptable to name a girl say, Leonard, or a boy Gladys. (Before anyone comes yapping along with "Anne Rice was named Howard! Barack Obama's mother was Stanley!" I'd remind you that both those ladies chose to go by female names.)
I don't even like Iris for a girl. It has a sour, sullen sound.
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
All things are not equal. Dylan might get used some on girls, but that doesn't mean it's equally acceptable to name a girl say, Leonard, or a boy Gladys. (Before anyone comes yapping along with "Anne Rice was named Howard! Barack Obama's mother was Stanley!" I'd remind you that both those ladies chose to go by female names.)
I don't even like Iris for a girl. It has a sour, sullen sound.
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
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Giving Anne Rice and Ann Dunham as examples is a bit unfair because there are all sorts of examples of women given traditionally masculine names who do go by them in everyday life. Many of them are actually going by their middle names -- Reese Witherspoon, who is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon on her birth certificate, actually goes by her second middle name. And in the American South, where Witherspoon is from, you don't have to limit yourself to famous examples. I went to high school in Lynchburg, Virginia with three young women who were Elizabeth Winston, Barbara Michael, and Barbara Quentin on their birth certificates, and who were always called Winston, Michael, and Quentin. (Oh, and they were all in my graduating class, so they are all 70 now, no longer young!)
Sexism means that it has been common in English speaking countries for girls to be given formerly masculine names, while nearly unheard of for boys to be given formerly feminine ones. That's led to there being scores of names which were originally "male" which are now seen as "female", from Hilary to Shirley to Ashley to Reese. Seems a bit unfair to me -- perhaps we should be thinking of traditionally female names that would work well for sons to balance things out. And Iris sort of does have a sound to me that might work as a masculine name in 2022.
Sexism means that it has been common in English speaking countries for girls to be given formerly masculine names, while nearly unheard of for boys to be given formerly feminine ones. That's led to there being scores of names which were originally "male" which are now seen as "female", from Hilary to Shirley to Ashley to Reese. Seems a bit unfair to me -- perhaps we should be thinking of traditionally female names that would work well for sons to balance things out. And Iris sort of does have a sound to me that might work as a masculine name in 2022.
This message was edited 5/2/2022, 9:01 AM
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