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ArchivesRe: name changes
in reply to a message by roy
Hi Roy ,
Two that were fairly common in the late 17th-early 19th centuries in my family's neck o' the woods (eastern Scotland) were Nicholas and Christian .
Both were used there during that period exclusively as FEMALE names, but later reverted to male-only.
Of course, there were many others elsewhere (e.g., Shirley , Evelyn , and Jocelyn in England), and the trend continues in our culture to co-opt male names and transmogrify them into feminine monikers. For understandable reasons, the opposite hardly ever occurs...Freeborn in your family being a notable exception, but that's not a name that's obviously gender-specific to start with.
Can anyone on the board think of examples of obviously female-origin names that have shifted to predominantly male usage?
- Da.
Two that were fairly common in the late 17th-early 19th centuries in my family's neck o' the woods (eastern Scotland) were Nicholas and Christian .
Both were used there during that period exclusively as FEMALE names, but later reverted to male-only.
Of course, there were many others elsewhere (e.g., Shirley , Evelyn , and Jocelyn in England), and the trend continues in our culture to co-opt male names and transmogrify them into feminine monikers. For understandable reasons, the opposite hardly ever occurs...Freeborn in your family being a notable exception, but that's not a name that's obviously gender-specific to start with.
Can anyone on the board think of examples of obviously female-origin names that have shifted to predominantly male usage?
- Da.
1
Replies
Quite true. Altho I personally know or know of guys with each of those names (except Courtney and Bailey), the only little people I've heard them attached to lately are girls.
rst
rst
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Didn't Morgan start out as a female name?
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I believe that the Welsh name Morgan started out as a masculine name, despite Geoffrey of Monmouth's popularizing it as a feminine name in the Arthurian tales.
And, of course, the name Morgan has been in the lead as a feminine name in the U.S. -- from the 1980s up until the present.
http://www.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=morgan&gender=both&srpf=p
-- Nanaea
And, of course, the name Morgan has been in the lead as a feminine name in the U.S. -- from the 1980s up until the present.
http://www.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=morgan&gender=both&srpf=p
-- Nanaea
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"Douglas"
http://www.scot-irishpets.50megs.com/scottishnames.htm
"Though it was originally a girl's name, by the 19th century Douglas
was used for boys."
http://scottishculture.about.com/library/blnames_de.htm
"Douglas was unknown as a forename until the 16th century - when it was used as much as a girl's name as for a boy."
-- Nanaea
http://www.scot-irishpets.50megs.com/scottishnames.htm
"Though it was originally a girl's name, by the 19th century Douglas
was used for boys."
http://scottishculture.about.com/library/blnames_de.htm
"Douglas was unknown as a forename until the 16th century - when it was used as much as a girl's name as for a boy."
-- Nanaea
1