Message: "Names" - Behind the Name

Names

by Rachel (guest)

9/12/2016, 6:35 PM

Ok look, I would really like to know if there are more names for a female because I find it weird that there are more And, one more thing. Is Isabella in any of the categories that you have on this website??

Thanks!
Rachel

Replies

- Sabertooth

9/15/2016, 11:34 PM

For us, it seemed to be easier to be creative with girl names (6 of 8 not in top 1K) than with boy names (2 of 14 not in top 1K). Both kinds had to sound gender-appropriate against the existing roster of culturally accepted baby names (including pronunciations to facilitate the American tongue), but we wanted a less-common Biblical feel, too.

GIRLS

JoHannah was uncommon (and related to my wife's middle name).
Jubilee was one of my wife's nicknames.
Maranatha sounded like Miranda + Samantha .
Nissiah sounded similar to Nissa .
Shiloh sounded like Sheila + Marlo .
Joshana sounded like a more exotic version of Hosanna without the cliché.

BOYS

BenJudah was a rare compound name (for gentile Americans) that was related to my name.
Jordan wasn't in our baby name book, but sounded like George + Gordon .
Uriah was rare (and a Biblical hero).
Jeshua was a rare variant of Joshua .
Hezekiah was rare (and a Biblical hero).
Zephaniah was rare.

This message was edited 9/16/2016, 12:12 AM

- thegriffon +3

9/13/2016, 11:22 PM

I think people get more creative with girls names, at least in spelling. For historic names, ignoring such spelling and dialect variations, there are more boy's names, simply because they are more likely to be recorded in tales and historical documents such as histories (male-centered political and military focuses), land grants, charters etc. E.g. in king lists, a kings son's may all be named, but daughters, if even mentioned, may not all be named.

- Sabertooth +2

10/27/2016, 7:08 AM

Quote...but daughters, if even mentioned, may not all be named.

They had to have some way to distinguish which daughter they were addressing... (at least better than "Hey, you...")

This message was edited 10/27/2016, 7:09 AM

- Uhtraed +1

11/3/2016, 9:13 AM

Well, spealing as somebody with more than one daughter and a poor memory in the heat of the moment, sometimes you do end up resorting to such things! ;)

In general though, what many people are hinting at in replies here is the fact that the nature of the English language, in terms of the tools it puts at our disposal and the range of things thought "acceptable", means that there's probably a little more room for playing around with female names. English is a bit short on diminutives, compared to many other languages, and many that we do have are not associated with male names or maleness in general.

This message was edited 11/3/2016, 9:15 AM

- Sabertooth

11/9/2016, 8:57 PM

My generic address for our unremembered children's names was "Hey, Bible dude or Bible chick..."

- elbowin +4

9/13/2016, 2:06 AM

At least in the USA, there are more feminine name forms than masculine name forms. From the latest available Social Security data, there are 18993 different names given to at least 5 baby girls in the USA in 2015 and only 13959 different names given to at least 5 baby boys.

-- elbowin

- LiaMaria (LMS) +3

9/17/2016, 1:40 AM

But this also takes into account the variations in spelling and there just seem to be way more variations for females than males. If you count the names and all its variations, I don't think the difference would be that vast between the genders.

- elbowin

9/19/2016, 2:08 AM

Unfortunately, it is an very tedious task to come up at numbers with spelling variants normalised. My gut feeling tells me, that spelling normalisation will not change the overall picture, that there are more names for girls than for boys.

--elbowin

- Sabertooth +1

9/18/2016, 12:16 AM

Would there be a distinction between variants vs. derivatives?

TOMAS is a variant of THOMAS , but TOM would be a derivative.

- LiaMaria (LMS)

9/19/2016, 1:11 AM

Yes, I would say there is a distinction between a variation in spelling and a 'related' name.

- LiaMaria (LMS)

9/12/2016, 9:50 PM

There are an infinite number of names. Just because this site may have more female names listed doesn't mean there are more female names than male in existence. This website is not an exhaustive listing.

Isabella is here: http://www.behindthename.com/name/isabella

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