Carrol (with the two Rs) is hanging in there. We've had a couple splendid examples (admittedly both of an older generation) with Archie Bunker and the Shelby Cobras.
How very interesting Dean. Yes, the names have surely changed. Aunt Beverly would chuckle ;-)
(By the way, give her a call Thursday night. I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow due to Dave's open heart surgeory.) Prayers are needed for Dave Cruse May 31st.
Apparently there is a long tradition of names that had been for boyd being adopted for girls and then eclipsing them in popularity. Not the other way around.
I wasn't aware of some of the ones listed, and in the case of Carol/Carroll (or Carrol) there is normally a distinction in spelling, but it's definitely a fascinating thing. You can see it if you play with the Baby Name Voyager (searching should get you the URL).
Sam is normally short for Samantha, as opposed to Samuel, but in any event it's not unusual for girls to be called that. I've known both.
I am not sure which was normal or what the trend is, but Rory was used as a nickname for Lorelei Jr on Gilmore Girls, but before that I knew it as a male name.
Names fascinate me. I owned a baby name book for decades before there was any chance I'd need it for anything but inspiring fictional names. Now I think we have three of them, besides the online resources available.
"Casey" seems to be going in that direction. I can't recall meeting a guy Caaey in while (although there's actor Casey Affleck) while I have met several gal Caseys. There's one at work in fact.
Oddly enough, every gal Casey I've met has been really good-looking.
Another oddly enough: I get called Stacey and Tracy quite a bit. No idea why people get those three names mixed up...
I personally think we should be allowed to change our names automatically at the age of 18 to whatever we want. When we try and come up with something "cool" to name our children, we've already started down the wrong path of trying to live vicariously through them. What's in a name....?
I personally think we should be allowed to change our names automatically at the age of 18 to whatever we want.
We can. The filing fee used to be around $50 in most jurisdictions. And I think in most jurisdictions you can also call yourself pretty much anything you want, as long as there's no attempt to defraud. The filing costs are only if you want to change your name in Social Security and military and similar records.
But I've seldom seen this turn out well. The people I know who opted for the name change route were almost always trying to rebel against or escape from their families, and the name change was a way to rub their noses in it. While I do understand that escaping some families is really smart, it always seemed like the folks who changed their names weren't really escaping, just wallowing. If you want to escape a bad family, just go. Don't sit around, demand they call you a different name, and think that's really sticking it to them. That's just keeping the fight going. Just leave. Git!
Name changes for marriage or divorce or adoption, I can see. Name changes after you leave the family, as a way to cut ties, I can understand. Name changes for spite or rebellion just show you're as screwed up as they are.
Yep, Casey is another. My cousin has a baby girl named Casey and it still seems funny to me to use that name.
Kim is a huge unisex example. Seems like most of the Kims who blog are male, while most or all of the Kims I've ever met in person are female.
I worked with a guy who had his name legally changed to Pan. Just Pan, no surname. Which meant his name was "Pan X" for employee dayabase purposes in which last name couldn't be blank. I think I also might have seen "Mr. Pan" used. He was eccentric.
Also, I think Jordan and Morgan are still very much in play as unisex names. At any rate, I happen to know young people of either gender with those names.
Sidney is another name moving femward. I've known two female Sidneys, the older would be a couple years older than myself, but according to some list it is now becoming a not uncommon girl's name.
I know a boy named Sue. Well, it's actually Su as he's Asian, but, hey. And it was probably his last name for starters. Poor guy. He's a Marine.
Have also encountered a couple of male Caseys, (not including Cindy Sheehan's boy) went to high school with a Sydney (as in Frances and Francis, the spelling changes the gender) and now I'm finding male people named Tori, which is my granddaughter's name.
My brother, who is 24, has a male friend named Lindsey who is a year or two older. Back in the early 80s, Lindsey was a "unique" boy's name that almost immediately became popular as a girl's name, but poor Boy Lindsey's parents were a little late to the trend party.
I have a friend in his early 40s named Ashley, but it's a family name, not a nod to Leslie (ha) Howard's Gone With The Wind role.
Ooh, I forgot to mention that one of the odder boy's names I every encountered was a guy named Kerry. I think it was kerry, rather than being spelled Kerri. IIRC it's traditional for i at the end to be female and y to be male in names that are otherwise the same, like Andy versus Andi, or Terri versus Terry. Both of which are normally short for other names like Andrew, Andrea, etc. I wonder if Kerry is one that was once common for males.
Sidney has actually been a female name for ages, to some degree. My late aunt through marriage went by her middle name, Jean, but her first name was Sidney. She'd be around 75 or so if she were still alive. Perhaps that could have been a regional thing; yet another factor in names. She was from Georgia.
Speaking of Jean, there's one that can be male, if rarely and normally only because of French influence. Gene short for Eugene merely sounds the same. Guys named Eugene are much in demand these days, hired to make faces so we can study Gene expression...
I've known two or three guys named Kerry, Jay. They were older than me, so they'd be in their mid- to late-40s now. That's about the same age as all the boy Kims I've known too, so maybe it was an early 60s thing.
I think "Sam" is just Dean preparing everyone for naming his next one after a Day-by-Day character ;)
Names and timing are funny things. I felt extra-bad for the Director of Sstudent Housing when I was in college. He was named ... Kermit ... before the frog was popular.
The Kerry I knew worked for a place where we used to buy computers and parts. He was the best person there so I wish I knew what happened to him after he left. Anyway, he was twenty-something, circa 1999, so maybe more of a mid-seventies thing.
I didn't notice Kerry/Kerri/Keri coming into vogue for girls until I think the late eighties, though at that point I first noticed it on girls in their teens.
Aubrey is another name with confusion between the sexes. Bread did the song "Aubrey" about a girl, and I believe I've heard of there being at least one actual girl named Aubrey. I never had any idea it was a boy's name until the mid-nineties, when my employer hired a great maintenance guy named Aubrey. He was probably in his forties. Every other Aubrey I've heard of, including those who blog, has been male. Yet I got so conditioned by that song that I still find it odd.
Commenting on Dean's World is a privilege, not a right. Dean is your host, you are his guest, and you should behave in that fashion. Dean is not your babysitter, nor is he your punching bag. Please remember this. In general, you are free to disagree with anyone on any subject you wish, but abusive behavior will not be tolerated.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.
(By the way, give her a call Thursday night. I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow due to Dave's open heart surgeory.) Prayers are needed for Dave Cruse May 31st.
I would have no problem naming a boy Jordan, Peyton, Tracy, Taylor or Dana.
Well, maybe Peyton.
I wasn't aware of some of the ones listed, and in the case of Carol/Carroll (or Carrol) there is normally a distinction in spelling, but it's definitely a fascinating thing. You can see it if you play with the Baby Name Voyager (searching should get you the URL).
Sam is normally short for Samantha, as opposed to Samuel, but in any event it's not unusual for girls to be called that. I've known both.
I am not sure which was normal or what the trend is, but Rory was used as a nickname for Lorelei Jr on Gilmore Girls, but before that I knew it as a male name.
Names fascinate me. I owned a baby name book for decades before there was any chance I'd need it for anything but inspiring fictional names. Now I think we have three of them, besides the online resources available.
Well, one thing's for sure. Never in the history of the human race was a girl named Arnold.
(Any of you want to call me a sexist over that snide remark? Just piss off.)
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Everybody's too lazy to call them "Samantha".
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Oddly enough, every gal Casey I've met has been really good-looking.
Another oddly enough: I get called Stacey and Tracy quite a bit. No idea why people get those three names mixed up...
We can. The filing fee used to be around $50 in most jurisdictions. And I think in most jurisdictions you can also call yourself pretty much anything you want, as long as there's no attempt to defraud. The filing costs are only if you want to change your name in Social Security and military and similar records.
But I've seldom seen this turn out well. The people I know who opted for the name change route were almost always trying to rebel against or escape from their families, and the name change was a way to rub their noses in it. While I do understand that escaping some families is really smart, it always seemed like the folks who changed their names weren't really escaping, just wallowing. If you want to escape a bad family, just go. Don't sit around, demand they call you a different name, and think that's really sticking it to them. That's just keeping the fight going. Just leave. Git!
Name changes for marriage or divorce or adoption, I can see. Name changes after you leave the family, as a way to cut ties, I can understand. Name changes for spite or rebellion just show you're as screwed up as they are.
Kim is a huge unisex example. Seems like most of the Kims who blog are male, while most or all of the Kims I've ever met in person are female.
I worked with a guy who had his name legally changed to Pan. Just Pan, no surname. Which meant his name was "Pan X" for employee dayabase purposes in which last name couldn't be blank. I think I also might have seen "Mr. Pan" used. He was eccentric.
Come to think of it, my friend's name (he was a he) was Kelly.
And I've known a man named Lynn. And a fellow named Courtney.
Have also encountered a couple of male Caseys, (not including Cindy Sheehan's boy) went to high school with a Sydney (as in Frances and Francis, the spelling changes the gender) and now I'm finding male people named Tori, which is my granddaughter's name.
And wasn't John Wayne a Marion?
Yep. He was born Marion Morrison.
I have a friend in his early 40s named Ashley, but it's a family name, not a nod to Leslie (ha) Howard's Gone With The Wind role.
Sidney has actually been a female name for ages, to some degree. My late aunt through marriage went by her middle name, Jean, but her first name was Sidney. She'd be around 75 or so if she were still alive. Perhaps that could have been a regional thing; yet another factor in names. She was from Georgia.
Speaking of Jean, there's one that can be male, if rarely and normally only because of French influence. Gene short for Eugene merely sounds the same. Guys named Eugene are much in demand these days, hired to make faces so we can study Gene expression...
Names and timing are funny things. I felt extra-bad for the Director of Sstudent Housing when I was in college. He was named ... Kermit ... before the frog was popular.
I didn't notice Kerry/Kerri/Keri coming into vogue for girls until I think the late eighties, though at that point I first noticed it on girls in their teens.
Aubrey is another name with confusion between the sexes. Bread did the song "Aubrey" about a girl, and I believe I've heard of there being at least one actual girl named Aubrey. I never had any idea it was a boy's name until the mid-nineties, when my employer hired a great maintenance guy named Aubrey. He was probably in his forties. Every other Aubrey I've heard of, including those who blog, has been male. Yet I got so conditioned by that song that I still find it odd.
Jamaal
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.