<p>I guess my father’s mother wanted girls! My fathers name was Robert LaVerne and his bother was Norris Carroll.</p>
<p>My FIL was Lowell.</p>
<p>22 years ago named my D1 Taylor, which was my maiden name. Never heard of a girl named Taylor at the time! Cannot stand when I see Tayla and Tayler.</p>
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<p>Bookiemom, I’d have been Lella Lillie! :D</p>
<p>It bugs me that the trend is for baby girls to be given names that were formerly boys’ names. The first one I heard was Carson, and that was 15 or so years ago. Now it’s very common to do that. I think it’s bad because girls can be given boys’ names and I guess it’s supposed to sound sophisticated or something, but boys CANNOT be given girls’ names because it sounds effeminate (cannot in the sense that hardly anyone would). So, it’s like the girls are stealing all the boys’ names!</p>
<p>Loved the “Here Come the Brides” reference. Bobby Sherman! <sigh!></sigh!></p>
<p>Our last name is very common. We gave both of our sons names that were solid and normal and not trendy at all, though S2’s name was #21 the year he was born. So now he is a film student. On IMDB, which is the film industry database, he is the seventeenth person who has registered the same name. He’s thinking of using his first and middle names for his “movie name” (since he’s not an actor, he doesn’t think it would be a screenname). 
His middle name was his grandmother’s maiden name, so it works as a last name. There is only one other on IMDB with that name, so that might work.</p>
<p>We named our D Lara (“Lar” rhymes with car), and I’ve always felt it was a good choice. I read some trend book that said it would be a top name in 2020 or something like that. With Lara Croft, I’d think it would have gotten more popular, but it didn’t. It’s somewhere between #400 and #900 depending on which site you look at. My D always resented that she couldn’t buy stuff like keychains that had her name on them.</p>
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[quote[The first one I heard was Carson, and that was 15 or so years ago.
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<p>Not Shirley? Or Ashley? Or Lesley? All these were boys’ names at one time, but try naming a boy “Shirley” now!!</p>
<p>Well, Marion Barber is not a bad football player…even if on Dallas.</p>
<p>If I’d been named after my grandmothers, I’d be Mary Rose, or Rosemary. Not bad, though not my style. Glad no one thought of it.</p>
<p>Comedian Bob Hope’s name by birth was Leslie(spelling?) Hope
I knew a guy first name Ben, names his first born son Ben(not uncommon), but his next child was a girl, callled be Benita.</p>
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<p>They are pronounced differently.</p>
<p>But it was still a lousy thing to do.</p>
<p>I think I know of the same family. Aren’t Don, Jr. and Dawn twins?
I also knew of brothers named Shawn and Sean (which was pronounced See-in).</p>
<p>Along the lines of the ant/Ahnt divide, there are those who pronounce the M words in the following sentence differently, and those who pronounces them all the same:</p>
<p>Mary was merry when she got married.</p>
<p>Do you pronounce Larry/Harry so that it rhymes with hairy? Or differently?</p>
<p>Don for me rhymes with “on,” while the vowel in Dawn sounds like “awe.”</p>
<p>For me:
Mairy was mehrry when she got married.</p>
<p>Larry/Harry do not rhyme with hairy, they rhyme with Berry.</p>
<p>Don rhymes with On, Dawn sounds like Awe.</p>
<p>But I have a weird accent. Raised in NJ with parents who were born and raised in SC (and eventually returned there), but now I live in New England. I sometimes have a mild southern accent that comes and goes depends on who I’m talking to.</p>
<p>I was raised saying Ant, but in MA everyone says Ahnt and makes fun of Ant. So when speaking to locals I say Ahnt, but within the family we use Ant.</p>
<p>I am a kindergarten teacher. This year I have four Sophias. I have had many Emilys, Emmas, Mackenzies, Alexandras, et al. We have had many Jacobs and I have my first Isaiah. I am a Jane, and I FINALLY got one last year!</p>
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<p>Marion is the boy’s name, Marian the girl’s, and pronounced the same way (at least where I am, and the name “Marion” as in “Barry” is often heard on the news, alas!).</p>
<p>This is a fun thread. We have lots of young children in our extended family with “old” names: Ira, Gertrude, Genevieve, Nathaniel, Eleanor, Caleb, Simon, Rose, Mabel, Sadie…and these are all chosen by different sets of young parents in different parts of the country so it is definitely a trend. I am a Carol and was one of many in my grade school years…but Carol (or Carole) never has seemed to recycle out of the 40s/50s. Linda and Susan seem to be artifacts of that era also. I wonder if someone has calculated average “cycles” of names…</p>
<p>^^ Gertrude? GERTRUDE??!!! I thought that died in the '40s. Apparently not.</p>
<p>fafnir605: I’m a Jane too, but I never run into any young ones any more. When I was in elementary school, 25% of the girls in my class were named Jane!!</p>
<p>Is it my imagination or is every other boy (the ones not named Aiden/Jaden/Caden) named Liam these days? I like the name, I just have to chuckle when the parents say “I wanted something different”.</p>
<p>^^We have a little Liam whose last name results in a name that one of my former colleagues always called “ethnic dissonance.”</p>
<p>Larry/Harry do not rhyme with Berry, for me. They rhyme with Barry. An ah sound like bat, not an eh sound like bet.</p>
<p>My D has a name with a similar vowel issue, and when people pronounce it the same as the name with the other vowel, it drives me nuts.</p>
<p>I’m named after one of my grandmothers, but I’m glad that I’m not named after my grandma Claudia! ;)</p>
<p>Awww…I like Claudia. I’m just lucky my Mom bypassed my Grandmother’s name…Thelma.
My sister got the other Grandmother’s name…Ruth (as a first name) but goes by her middle name.
I know someone with a ten yr. old named Mary Claudia and calls her by both names.</p>
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<p>Like Carey and Kerry and Carrie, or Aaron and Erin. :)</p>
<p>There was a very amusing article in the NYT years ago on this subject. A family was often asked why they had given their son a girl’s name. His name was Ian. :D</p>