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I like Ezra as a guy name. As a name for a woman it seems acceptable, but to me undesirable. I don't think it's that bad to use it for girls, but I wouldn't want to be a female Ezra at all. Because it's a classic masculine name and I feel sure it'll remain so, and any girls named Ezra during the height of its popularity where it "crosses over" genders, will seem to have mannish names when they get older. Like the female Dales born in the 1950s, female Adrians of the 70s, female Kyles of the 80s, somewhat the female Jordans of the 90s, female Ryans, and possibly female Rowans someday. I'd be very surprised if it became so much more common on girls that it "switched genders" or even began to be perceived as unisex - I guess it could happen but it's hard for me to imagine. I would not mind having a name perceived as unisex, but I wouldn't want to be a woman with a name perceived as a man-name.

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Also, Ezra on a girl seems sort of artificial - like a respelling of Esra meant to deliberately obscure the sex of the bearer, hedging bets because the feminine name Esra exists.

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I like Esra, by the way, and Isra.

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- mirfak

This message was edited 7/12/2015, 7:37 PM