51–60 of 159 posts
At the risk of turning an innocent topic into a political discussion, I wonder how much of this trend can be explained by societal privilege. Ie, parents (consciously or subconsciously) want their daughters to benefit from appearing male (at least on paper) and so give them ambiguous or masculine names. And of course, the same parents would do the exact opposite for their sons, by not selecting any name that might be…
First, this is a great and original (AFAIK) post. Kudos to the author! Second, I actually find the most interesting fact to be completely unmentioned by the author: that in the first chart (greatest absolute changes), of the 30 biggest swaps, only two were female->male, while the other 28 (over 90%!) were male->female. It's a remarkable fact -- makes me think of how it's historically been much more acceptable for wom…
This is still the case today. I feel like the two are entirely unrelated, actually. If anything, we’ve seen the opposite phenomenon happen in every market. Buffalo Wild Wings commercials that cater to masculinity, Dr Pepper marketing towards men who typically don’t drink diet soda, hair salons that play sports, scents that smell like trees, etc.
At the risk of turning an innocent topic into a political discussion, I wonder how much of this trend can be explained by societal privilege. Ie, parents (consciously or subconsciously) want their daughters to benefit from appearing male (at least on paper) and so give them ambiguous or masculine names. And of course, the same parents would do the exact opposite for their sons, by not selecting any name that might be…
It also reminds of a study I read about a while back where the researches tried sending out resumes that were all identical except that half had very common names and half had names that are more commonly African American. Probably unsurprisingly, the first set of names received more interviews.
I know much of the story of my name. I’m named after my great-grandfather, with first and middle names reversed. His middle name was “Lindsey”, after his grandmother’s maiden name. (... and back and back and back ...)
I named my eldest daughter Lynzy, to continue the tradition. I’ve apologized for her having to go through life with a “boy’s name” :)
First, this is a great and original (AFAIK) post. Kudos to the author! Second, I actually find the most interesting fact to be completely unmentioned by the author: that in the first chart (greatest absolute changes), of the 30 biggest swaps, only two were female->male, while the other 28 (over 90%!) were male->female. It's a remarkable fact -- makes me think of how it's historically been much more acceptable for wom…
In particular, naming your male a "female" name (or vice versa) that has not switched would really do a better job at showing what society thinks of this. Especially because a singular event in pop culture can switch the public perception of the gender-ness of a name: e.g. the election of John F Kennedy turning "Jackie" into a "female" name practically overnight.
At the risk of turning an innocent topic into a political discussion, I wonder how much of this trend can be explained by societal privilege. Ie, parents (consciously or subconsciously) want their daughters to benefit from appearing male (at least on paper) and so give them ambiguous or masculine names. And of course, the same parents would do the exact opposite for their sons, by not selecting any name that might be…
Is that really a thing in the US though?
I've never heard of, let alone met people with, many of these names. Kenyatta, Jael, Gentry, Aven, Daylin.
Just for your information : Kenya’s 1st and current (4th) presidents are named Kenyatta. But they're the source of that name, anyway.
It predates the US, but the name switch that has astonished me the most is "Anne" which was unambiguously masculine and is now so unambiguously feminine that it looks strange to see it used for a male in a historical context.
Different language families. It is/was feminine in the Latin world, and masculine, related to germanic Arne, in some pockets of Western Europe [Frisia, Scotland, France]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne