<p>Interesting article </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28wwln-idealab-t.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28wwln-idealab-t.html</a> </p>
<p>about which names are considered boyish these days, which are considered girlish, and which are chosen by parents of either boys or girls.</p>
<p>“My name is Sue
How do you do?
I’m gonna kill you!”</p>
<p>– Johnny Cash’s song, “A Boy Named Sue” who meets his father…
who explains to the son he chose that name because he knew he’d not
be around so the boy would need to be tough.</p>
<p>Then reflecting on how much strength it gave him to have this
challenging name, the Boy named Sue concludes:</p>
<p>“And when I grow up, I’m gonna name my kid–
[ Sam or Paul or Kip ] –
ANYTHING but Sue!”</p>
<p>My name is mentioned as one of the boy’s names which became girl’s names and now are rarely used for boys.</p>
<p>Oh well-- their loss! :)</p>
<p>My D’s name seems to be used both ways–I thought of it as a girl’s name, but apparently others hear it more often as a boy’s name. (it wasn’t in the article.)</p>
<p>I find it surprising that a 4-yr-old boy would be that sensitive to the gender connotations of his name. Kelly. It’s been awhile but I don’t think my boys would have cared one way or that other at that age.</p>
<p>I think my son was at least six before he decide that pink was no longer his favorite color…</p>
<p>I had a cousin “Andy” who became “Annie” ten or fifteen years ago. We found it very disconcerting but she apparently got tired of having a boy’s name, even if it was only a nickname.</p>
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<p>I don’t think poor Kelly minded the gender connotations of his name so much as he clearly minded being teased about it. The childhood playground hell can begin at a very early age.</p>
<p>I noted in the birth annoucements of our local paper that a couple named their child “Addison” – moving into the population from Grey’s Anatomy presumably…</p>
<p>I had a friend in high school with a very long last name. Her parents gave her the first name Victoria, but because of the long last name, the school system’s computers cut off her first name after “Victor.” She had to fight every year to get her name changed – especially when she was assigned to the boys’ locker room for physical education. </p>
<p>Who would have thought that there would be a gender problem with naming your daughter Victoria?</p>
<p>My sister has a first name that can also be a family name. When we were kids, for years she worried about the (remote) possibility that she might meet and want to marry a man whose last name was the same as her first name. I guess with so many young women keeping their original names nowadays, the female Madisons and Addisons of this world don’t worry about this sort of thing anymore.</p>
<p>My mother knew someone named Carol Carroll.</p>
<p>I have a name that’s been unisex for centuries; there’s a slight spelling difference between the masculine and feminine versions. I have constantly been referred to as “Mr.” And I even once got a draft notice! (This was one time that the government was able to correct the problem quickly; I only got one notice.)</p>
<p>What really hurt is when my alma mater sent a fundraising letter to “Mr. Chedva”. I was there for several years; you’d think they would have noticed I’m a female? (And no, they didn’t get any money out of me!)</p>
<p>I know a couple named Terri and Terry! They have twins (a boy and a girl), but, fortunately, did not name their kids after themselves! That would have been really confusing!</p>
<p>I have a unisex name too and was horrified in 7th grade when i was placed on the girls gym roster. It was quickly resolved much to my relief.</p>
<p>I know a Patrick who married a Patricia. Luckily, she goes by “Trish”.</p>
<p>Many years ago on the ‘Donahue’ Show, people with odd or funny names included a woman with the first name of Terri whose husband’s surname was Terry. She was emphatic about using her middle name after the marriage.</p>
<p>Also, I knew a William McWilliams, who also used his middle name instead.</p>
<p>I felt sorry for a boy in my daughter’s Tae Kwon Do class who had the name Austin Power.</p>
<p>DD has a unisex name. Her first, middle and last are used now as unisex first names. (She complains that her full name sounds like a law firm!) </p>
<p>She receives a very nice Gillette razor kit every year addressed to “Mr. XXX”.<br>
Just received a letter from a college that denied her for undergrad (safety-- no other caucasian girls in engineering, the gc said). The letter was “Dear MR. XXX, Would you like to apply for graduate program?”
One nurse at the doctor’s office always called me “Mrs. Last name” and then spoke to DD as “Last name”.</p>
<p>Another cross to bear and more fodder for the “Mommie Dearest,” book later in life…</p>
<p>I know a Pat Patrick, a Davy Davis, and Dicky and Dixie Dixon (a married couple).</p>
<p>My d has a name that can be for a boy or a girl.</p>
<p>She actually wrote a funny essay for college apps about her name, which also seems to be very popular with “hippies.” She has been asked numerous times if her parents smoked a lot of weed. </p>
<p>When I received her official birth certificate–she was listed as a boy. The hospital in Chicago put her down as a boy when they reported the birth to Cook Cty.</p>
<p>I went to school with a boy named Kelly. He hated his name. I asked him once why he didn’t go by his middle name, and he said, “Lynn?”</p>
<p>I know a husband and wife named Lynn and Lynn.</p>