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Re: American boys with girls' names?!!
in reply to a message by Pie
Actually, Jessie, Marion, Pearl, Florence, and Frances (Francis) are considered to be male names. I think even Marie and Allison are consider male even though they aren't listed as unisex on this site. I still think it's very possible quite a few to be errors. Back then they didn't have birth certificates and records weren't always clear. Then again I'm sure some are really men with those names. I can't give an explanation other than the parents just wanted to name their son Elizabeth or Irene just like parents today name their daughters Dylan and Hunter. Maybe some were family names and the parents didn't have a daughter to pass them down to.

This message was edited 7/24/2009, 4:00 PM

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Thanks! Marion on a man I think I've heard before, and Jessie and Frances are obviously just Jesse and Francis with different spellings. But I had no idea about the others. I guess Florence is a city and Pearl is a precious stone, so there's no real reason why they shouldn't be girls' names, but it's still really surprising.
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