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I guess it sounds more like a name than some states, but it isn’t as name-y as something like Montana, Nevada, etc.

None.

*snaps fingers like Tennessee Ernie Ford*
It has flair, and I like it as the name of a state. As a first name, it feels stagey like someone trying to break into the country music genre.

Well, it is stately. :D

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I like how it sounds, the woodsiness of it, and that it's got some flair yet seems mellow, but also it's silly: it didn't start out as a personal name, and no one even knows what it means.

I love the sounds. I prefer it on a boy.

I really do like it! I have a cousin named Tennessee, and I think it works well for her.

No. There are a few states in which I don't necessarily mind it as a name. Dakota, Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, Virginia, maybe Alaska. But Tennessee isn't one of them. Plus that old "you're the only 10 I see" joke.

This message was edited 2/2/2022, 8:15 AM

Leave it to Tennessee Williams. It's a one-person kind of name, like Siouxsie or Madonna.

I have a GP type affection for it. I would never use it and perhaps even roll my eyes if a celebrity were to use it, but I definitely think it has charm.

I wouldn’t be shocked to meet a little Tennessee. My first thought is the song Tennessee by Sugarland and the Tennessee in the song is female. However as others have mentioned there is also Tennessee Williams so it could work on a boy or girl.

No merit in my eyes. Perhaps slightly better than Gauteng or Middlesex.

Not really unless you’re Tennessee Williams, whose real name it wasn’t anyway.

I have always loved it on a girl.

No, not at all

I think Tennessee works as a given name. I do prefer it for girls rather than boys, as in the name of the famous 19th century feminist Tennessee Claflin:

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https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/claflin-tennessee-1846-1923

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The names of almost all the American states have been used as given names on occasion, by the way. Vermont Connecticut Royster (1914-1996) was an editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was named after his grandfather. His great-grandfather, a North Carolina farmer, had named his sons Arkansas Delaware, Wisconsin Illinois, Oregon Minnesota, Vermont Connecticut, and Iowa Michigan; and his daughters Louisana Maryland, Virginia Carolina, and Georgia Indiana. (This family would of course have been born in the middle of the 19th century.)

It's rather interesting. Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Indiana and Florida are more usable, but Tennessee has a historical and country vibe I like.

I actually like it! While I've not particularly enjoyed the Tennessee Williams plays I read, he's a fascinating figure and a worthy namesake, IMO.