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Re: Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively's kids
How far did that "first daughter gets a masculine name" go back, anyway, or is Blake the start of it?
Because James on a girl is stupid. It's not a unisex name. Period.Inez and Betty sound like sisters ... sisters in their eighties.
Olin sounds like an old man in his eighties.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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I did some snooping, and found out that Blake's grandma was a Willie and her great grandma was a Mattie. But Blake's mother is Elaine, and Blake is also a family surname. Sounds like maybe they are trying to create a tradition out of coincidence.
Or justifying James on a girl to themselves. Which, if you feel you have to do that, maybe you ought to rethink it entirely? lol
I'd never consider Mattie a unisex name. I've known a ton of Matthews, but none of them went by Mattie; they were all Matt.
Even Willie was popular on girls back a hundred or eighty years ago.
Did Mattie start as a guy’s name?
Mattie used to be a common short form for Matilda but it was also a nickname for Matthew. I'm not sure which was more common, especially in the 1800s.
I know a Matthew who was known as Mattie as a child.