'Women's names that used to be men's names' thread:

Chime in with a favorite, will you?

Leslie, Vivian, Marion, Beverly, Florence, Dana.........

Got any more?

They went by "He-Evelyn" and "She-Evelyn" to their friends (they pronounced it "EVE-a-lin.")

Guys used to be named beverly, vivian and dana? :D

were named Cedric and Vivian.

(Yes, he was gay, but he was married, at least until his wife found out that he was gay.)

Dana, and there was a male movie star of the 1940s and 1950s named Dana Andrews.

Forgot about him

spelled his younger son's name "Vyvyan". I believe the older one's name was Cyril,and he died during WW I. Vyvyan had a son rather late in life(the late 1940s). His name is Merlin Holland and he resembles his grandfather quite a bit(at least in looks)

You've heard of him, right?

--bkl

:shrug:

Taylor, maybe?

Bruce was fortunately very attractive. Cheerleader, all that rot. I'd hate to imagine her life it she hadn't been. Kids were pretty brutal in my school.

The Third Man was Sir Carol Reed.

Hockey player, late 60's, early 70's.

Kim (spy Kim Philby), Terry (still a fair number of them in the boomer generation), Shelley (comedian Shelley Berman), Jan (tenor Jan Peerce).

I really dislike this trend of giving girls boys' names. What's the point? There are plenty of fine girls' names, and the stock of boys' names is shrinking by the minute.

The last is pronounced "Yan", since he's from Denmark, though. The only "Shelley" I know is actually named "Sheldon".

once a name has been appropriated by girls, it becomes unusable for boys.

How about Ashley? James?

Oops I forgot Shirley.

Someone's calling girls James? It's such a traditional boys' name.

As a shortening - Sam. I would assume it's short for Samantha, but my parents would assume Samuel.

when they were born but now their name is a girl name. That could screw with your head...

Was a male name until the mid-1950s when a popular novel (I forget the title, it was pop trash anyway) featured a female protagonist with that name.

Casey's becoming a popular female name, too, I've noticed.

That's from "The Shining", right? Man, that movie gave me nightmares when I was a kid. I had even read the book already.

/Steals the sig. (right click, save as)

It's a little cartoon of me, done by a violist friend.

Thanks Spartacus & Blue Jay - yeah, it's "The Shining." That scene takes all of three seconds in the movie, but it freaks me out even worse than the twins or room 237, 'cuz like WTF?

Actually, the first week and a half I had it, nobody replied to any of my posts and I was worried that maybe the pic was spooking people. But now in the last couple of days a lot of folks have kind things to say about it, so it's good to know my handiwork wasn't alienating everyone - it must have just been that my posts were lame.

That saxophone animation rocks, BTW. Hats off to your violist friend.

:shrug:

Hey...Bambi the deer was a boy. The only person I've ever met named Bambi was a girl.

Cody might be from "Buffalo" Bill Cody. It used to be mainly a boy'd name, but has recently switched over.

Similar story for Jody/Jodie/Jodi, except both genders have used the name, though it was more popular for boys until about 1960.

"Tiffany" comes from Theophania, which was originally a man's name, Theophanus. The modern use probably comes from the jewelry company, which is a family name.

--bkl

So quit saying that!!

The name Tracy was always a mans name until Hepburn played Tracy in "The Philadelphia Story".

to go with Tracy. Yep, used to be a guy's name.

Nowadays he'd get assigned to the wrong gym class. :-)

Bradley (remember Hey Dude!?), when I first moved into the dorms there was girl named Mykal that went to school here, and I know several girls and guys named Micah, with several different spellings.
Duckie

(I know someone already said Shirley, but it struck me as funny to see them together.)

I recently have seen LaVerne twice as a man's name.

Peter

Dallas, two of them (seems more like a man's name to me)

Richard (went by Dickie, though)

Seeing as how that's my name :-).

Interestingly, two of the first three other Leslies I knew were men (elementary school PE teacher and band director). If it hadn't been for my Aunt Leslie, I would have wondered why I had been given a boy's name!

The name may be more common for men in the UK than for men over here, perhaps. I base that on my experience during my semester in London several years ago -- I frequently had people inform me that I was spelling my name incorrectly (ha ha ha), only to find out that in the UK the distinction in spelling for males vs. females is still maintained (Lesley vs. Leslie).

I don't suppose the guys have lost too much on this one, given that it was never a very common name. I admit, I do kind of enjoy the fact that people reading my work, etc. still can't be entirely sure whether I'm male or female from my first name alone...possibly fewer preconceptions that way. Though it is rather irritating to get junk mail addressed to "Mr. Leslie XXX." :-)

n/t

however you want to spell it, I think it was a Spanish man's name, since about 1/3 of the crew of a 1690 galleon's roster had it in one of those forms.

My daughter is Jamie.

what do your parents call you for short?

my Jamie gets James, JamieBoo, JayJay

as in Christopher Robin.

Nickname for Robert.

and my first name. =)

Sheridan, Tyler, Shelby,

It's almost like a version of penis envy when a girl gets a boy's name....

Ryan pisses me off because that's my name.

My son's name...

those are the daughters of a friend of mine.