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HelpRe: Hayes instead of Hazel
in reply to a message by Wraith
The name Hazel, when it was first used, was a male name. Also, an example of a female Hayes used in media that I found was Hayes Morrison in the 2016 ABC show "Conviction". In 2020, 98 girls were named Hayes. Also Madison, Avery, Ashley, Harper, Addison, Kennedy, etc...are all surnames that are used as girl given names. I don't see why Hayes would be any different, especially with its close phonetic relations to Hazel making it sound like a softer version with a cool spelling. Hayes is less boring than old lady Hazel. Maybe not traditionally, but today Hayes is a gender-neutral given name (& surname)!!
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Are you seriously citing network TV as a source? No. Just no. So people use masculine/surnames names on girls - and yes the ones you cited are masculine, usage does not change history and meaning, just saying it doesn't make it so. People also use titles and random nouns as names - I know kids called Tequila and Camper. There's no accounting for taste. Just because you can do something it doesn't necessarily follow you should.
Hazel was never exclusively a masculine name. When it first came into use as a name during the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was used as a gender neutral name. There are plenty of surnames that are used as first names and some lend themselves more to use as a first name than others. If all surnames are gender neutral now then let’s call our daughters Fraser and our sons Hannah. While as a last name Hayes is as a technically gender neutral in my mind it lends itself more to a masculine name than a feminine name. Hazel Elena is pretty and you can always use Haze as a nickname.
Have you got a source for Hazel as a male name?
I've come across a few examples, all black and from tnt early part of thr 1900s.
It also charted in the US as a male name.
It also charted in the US as a male name.
This message was edited 6/22/2024, 2:14 PM