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The reason many people prefer Ariel on a boy is because it traditionally is a boy's name (check the link for its history). It was not widely used on girls until very recently, and a lot of that is from the Disney character you mentioned. And a lot of people on here (me included) prefer traditionally boy's names on boys. Also, looking at Ariel's popularities, you can see that there are still some parents who name their sons this, despite the movie. I think that by teaching him about the historical and other male namesakes of this name, you can counteract the mermaid association (which is very recent compared to the other associations) enough to make the name tolerable for him.

This message was edited 11/28/2004, 10:32 AM