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The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

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Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#81

Post by andrewem »

mr_tristan wrote: post #73

What's weird is that we don't get any sense of popularity, and a lot of the names here are not very popular spellings. I suspect popularity would yield pretty different insights, especially if you could see more "sounds like" patterns. For example, my name: Tristan, isn't on the list, but Tristyn is. Tristan is _much_ more common. I found this site that also provides some insight that I think is the same SSA data, th…

I think that in your examples "Austyn" and "Tristyn", the POINT of the "y" replacing "i" is to signal that the name is feminine. Namely, you're having a girl but want to name her Austin, but not have her be assumed to be male. Therefore, roughly 40% of the time you choose Austyn with a "y" (if my calculations from your ratio are right; 85 girls Austyn, 129 girls Austin).

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#82

Post by polymeris »

TheAsprngHacker wrote: post #78

The fact that the name "Yuri" is on this list is interesting because "Yuri" is both a masculine Slavic name and a feminine Japanese name. The rapid switch could be due to the growth or decline of one of these names, where the two usages of Yuri are distinct (from different languages), as opposed to one name whose associated gender changed.

Similar for Angel, which probably includes Ángel. I would consider them the same name. Even with the shared meaning, the pronunciation is different enough.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#83

Post by DonHopkins »

"My name is Sue! How do you do? Now you're gonna die!"

I wonder if there was any fluctuation in "Sue" after Johnny Cash's recording of Shel Silverstein "A Boy Named Sue" spent three weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969 (second only to the Stone's "Honky Tonk Woman"). He even performed it in the East Room of the White House by request of Richard Nixon on April 17, 1970!

Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue (from Man in Black: Live in Denmark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ3tFPTUhAE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Boy_Named_Sue

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/johnny-cash/a-boy-named-sue

>Bailey from Moses Lake, Wa: Did you guys know that this song has some historical significance. There was a court case in 1925 called the Scopes Monkey Trial (having to do with the teaching of evelution in public schools). The original prosecutors in the case were two brothers named Herbert E. Hicks and Sue K. Hicks. They were both friends of Scope. Anyway, Sue got his name because it was his mother's name and she died giving birth to him. The rumor has it that Johnny Cash or Shel Silverstein or whoever wrote the song thought that the fact that there was a boy named Sue was funny, and then wrote a song about it. So the boy that was named Sue actually had some significance. Yup and that's my bit to put in.

>-Thank you AP U.S. History!! Bailey Wa.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#84

Post by cossray »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #59
cossray wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for your information : Kenya’s 1st and current (4th) presidents are named Kenyatta. But they're the source of that name, anyway.

That's a last name though, not a first name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhuru_Kenyatta

If you are the first man to use a name, it matters less where you decide to put it, first or last.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#85

Post by DonHopkins »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

I find the Krishna name interesting. Krishna is a male Hindu deity. However, it seems a lot of people were naming their girls Krishna. Now, it is a boy's name again. My speculation for the cause of this is that Hare Krishna became popular among certain US groups in the 1970's and a lot of them named their daughters Krishna. Then, in more recent times, there has been a lot more immigration from India into the US, and…

Jesus is a regionally popular name in states along the Mexican border including Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico.

https://flowingdata.com/2013/11/18/regional-names/

I wonder why more people don't name their children God? Maybe because it becomes problematic during the teenaged years.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#86

Post by kaitai »

Zarath wrote: post #79
whack wrote: post #45

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…

I disagree, I just think it's far easier for femininity to coop masculine concepts than the reverse. Just in my personal view, it can be seen as "cute" for a girl to have a masculine name which sort of juxtaposes their femininity against a previously masculine name. Also in my experience, there is a lot more at stake for a young boy with a "girl's" name than for a young girl with a "boy's" name. Feel free to contradi…

I feel like you're agreeing with the previous poster: "masculinity would be called into question throughout their life", and "far easier for femininity to coop[t] masculine concepts than the reverse." That's exactly what the previous poster said.

(Check out the story of Steve Shirley for a computer-world related example.)

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#87

Post by harryxps »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

I find the Krishna name interesting. Krishna is a male Hindu deity. However, it seems a lot of people were naming their girls Krishna. Now, it is a boy's name again. My speculation for the cause of this is that Hare Krishna became popular among certain US groups in the 1970's and a lot of them named their daughters Krishna. Then, in more recent times, there has been a lot more immigration from India into the US, and…

My mother's name is Krishna, born in the early 1940s in Jhang ("West Punjab" then immigrated eastwards with partition). Just a random data point for you.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#88

Post by trophycase »

kaitai wrote: post #86
Zarath wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, I just think it's far easier for femininity to coop masculine concepts than the reverse. Just in my personal view, it can be seen as "cute" for a girl to have a masculine name which sort of juxtaposes their femininity against a previously masculine name. Also in my experience, there is a lot more at stake for a young boy with a "girl's" name than for a young girl with a "boy's" name. Feel free to contradi…

I feel like you're agreeing with the previous poster: "masculinity would be called into question throughout their life", and "far easier for femininity to coop[t] masculine concepts than the reverse." That's exactly what the previous poster said. (Check out the story of Steve Shirley for a computer-world related example.)

are we looking at the same post?

GP: girls can benefit from some aspects of male privilege (the parts where only a name is given) by taking a male name

parent: masculinity is more rigid in its ostracizing of feminine ideas

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#89

Post by fenomas »

crazygringo wrote: post #41

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…

I don't have a specific source but I believe that masculine names shifting to become feminine, but not the reverse, is a common thing going back at least a few centuries.

E.g. Leslie, Allison, Meredith, Lauren, Stacey were all predominantly male names until the 19th or 20th century. Often the shift seems to be due to a celebrity - the change in "Lauren" being generally attributed to Lauren Bacall, etc.

Re: The Most Gender-Switched Names in the U.S.

#90

Post by [deleted] »

Zarath wrote: post #79
whack wrote: post #45

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…

I disagree, I just think it's far easier for femininity to coop masculine concepts than the reverse. Just in my personal view, it can be seen as "cute" for a girl to have a masculine name which sort of juxtaposes their femininity against a previously masculine name. Also in my experience, there is a lot more at stake for a young boy with a "girl's" name than for a young girl with a "boy's" name. Feel free to contradi…

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