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There are some occasions where parents have created masculine forms from feminine. I know of at least one man named Darl who was named after his mother, Darlene.

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Thanks for your answers!

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n

Evo (Evo Morales, President of Bolivia)
Isabelo
Margarito
Mario (used as a masc. form of Maria, but not actually etymologically related to it)
Emmet / Emmett
Madison

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There are many more, but I can't think of any at the moment. Sorry!

Mariano is used in Italy as a male form of Mary or Maria (basically given to honour the Virgin). I've seen the name Mario used in the same way (the person in question celebrated his name's day on St Mary, rather than St Marius) though of course etymologically it's incorrect.

A few Greek names and related forms...

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I can think of a few examples that are for certain derived from feminine names originally. Demetrios / Demetrius / Demetrio (and other related forms) come from the goddess, Demeter. Artemesios (and related forms) come from the goddess, Artemis. Herakles (Hercules), Herakleitos (Heracleitus), and Heraklios (Heraclius)/ Heraclio are all related to the goddess, Hera. Kassandros is the Greek masculine form of Kassandra. The Margaritos and Margarito are both forms of Margaret. They aren't very common, but they do exist. Nikephoros is supposedly unisex now but started as feminine, however other nik-/nic- names (like Nikolaos / Nicholas) that stem from the Greek word for victory (nike) don't seem to be derived for the sake of the goddess, Nike.

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Edit: Added hyperlinks

This message was edited 9/28/2007, 2:47 PM