 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture dkline wrote: >It is quite fashionable these days in the US to give girls first names that >commonly used to be boys names, like Sidney/Sydney (on one end of the scale) >to Forest (on the other). I've had Logans, Alexs, Camerons, Hunters, Evans, >Jacksons, Seans, Adrians, Jadens, Johnnies/Johnnys, and many others, of both >genders. That's a trend that's been going on for quite a long time. And quite a few of these names were originally surnames and then became male given names before migrating to the female side. Madison, Michael, Mackenzie, Jordan, Taylor, Bailey, and London can be added to the list of modern examples. Madison is among the most popular girls' names at the moment -- ironically, since like a few others you can still discern the "-son" ending. In living memory, Ashley, Stacy, Tracy, Dana, Kelly, Leslie, and Marion have also changed gender. So has Robin, but only in the US I think. (I think I remember hearing it's still a male name in the UK.) Sadly (?!) it seldom goes the other way. As one onomasticist of my acquaintance says, "Once a name acquires 'girl cooties', it stops being used as a male name rather quickly." About the only exception I can think of at the moment is Douglass (which was female in the 16th century). I actually recommend said onomasticist's book _Baby Names for Dummies_ by "Margaret Rose" (a pen name) as an interesting source of information on name trends. (Behind the pen name is Dr. Heather Rose Jones.) ____________________________________________________________ 0 Chris Laning | <[log in to unmask]> + Davis, California http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________________ ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html