[BrandyHagz]

My husband and I have been talking about baby names for years…I am unable to conceive, so right now were just kind of having fun with it. Adoption is definitely an option, but most likely in a couple of years.

We’ve been providing foster care respite in our area for about five months, and love every minute of it.

Anyway, so, I have this boy’s name that I LOVE for a girl…my husband, on the other hand, hates it…even has a boy’s name. Will we use it? Who knows…but it did bring up one question…how do names transition from boys to unisex?

I went to school with a “Michael” in middle school, and I don’t recall her every running into any problems.

I also went to school with a guy who had a brother named “Brandy” and while I thought it was weird (and I’ve never heard it sense) I don’t think he had any problems either.

I’m not counting all the male Ashley’s I knew…which also brings up girls names that are used for boys…like “Peyton”.

If I choose to use a primarily male name for a female child, am I doing her an injustice?

[spaypets]

No, but it really stinks for all the boys who are named Riley, Ryan, Reese, Cameron, Lesley, Shirley and Carroll! It's so hard to find a good boys name that it's really infuriating to discover the latest movie ingenue is going by it.

[echaos]

As a female Andy, I say go for it!!!

In my case I only became Andy at 21 when I was in University, and my Mother and Grandmother still insist on calling me Andrea!!! So it is a bit different then starting a child off with a unisex name but I see no problem with it.

The biggest *risk* that I have seen is when I attended a friends wedding that went like this :

"Do you Jody take Jodi to be your wife?"
Do you Jodi take Jody to be your husband?"



They now go by Jodi-girl and Jody-boy.....

I have known Hilary's of both genders, Carole's etc.... I've even known a boy named Sue!


However, you do run the risk of ignorant people making assumptions, something that I had to address today. I have been in email correspondance with a business. My email autosignature has Andy. This is a reply that I sent them today after receiving an email addressed to Andrew:

Tiffany, Thanks so much for you feedback and quick response.

I would like to politely point out that you should not make assumptions about people's names. My signature in my email is Andy, which is the name I go by. Your changing it to Andrew to use to address me in this email is quite rude. I'm sure that you would not appreciate it if people took the liberty to call you "Tiff" or any other . And the bigger error that you have committed is your assumption of gender. In my case Andy is the short form of Andrea as I am female.

[mess]

In my case I have more experience with the opposite. Some men I know have names that are seen primarily as 'girl' names.

Brooke and Cassidy

Now Cassidy calls himself Cass, and is quite happy with his name, but Brooke wishes that there was no 'e' on the end of his name - mostly because everyone tends to assume that there is no e, and his name always gets misspelled.

Personally, I feel that if you love a name, and you give that name to your child with love, it will work. (within reason)

[spaypets]

LOL! Isn't there a couple on this list named Stacy and Stacey?

[BrandyHagz]

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!

I know how the misspelled name thing goes...I actually did misspell my son's name on his B/C but elected to live with it, since it costs so much to change.

Everyone spells it correctly...and he always has to say, "No its J-e-r-r-e-t-t not J-a-r-r-e-t-t"...this year, he has decided, much to my dismay, that he wants to go by "Jerry" instead of Jerrett...lol

[kiwi]

As you know I have my opinions on certain names, but it is true that people make their own name suit them.

One option is to pick nicknames that can be elaborated into a "full" name:

Charley= Charles or Charlette
Mike= Mikayla or Michael

That would also give the child the option of changing their name to what they want to be called once they are old enough to have an opinion.

[mess]

Another way to do that is to call them by the nickname, but put the 'full' name on the birth certificate.

I've always loved the idea of picking names with many possible abbreviations. I grew up with a name that could be abbreviated 2 different ways, and I loved it. I now associate different shortened forms of my name with different groups of people and different times in my life.

For example, family friends refer to me with one short form of my name, and my school friends refer to me with the other.

It's always nice to have options.

[BrandyHagz]

That’s one of the reasons why I named my son what I did.

He has a first name and two middle names…I wanted him to have options, because I didn’t. My name is Brandy LastName, and that’s all its every been…talk about plain Jane.

[kiwi]

My husband goes by Michael, it's his middle name, but he's always gone by it. I immediately know who he went to high school with because they'll call him Mike. He only used that nickname for a couple years because so many people assumed he went by Mike that he didn't correct them! He's now fairly passionate about being addressed properly

One of the actor's on That 70's Show was on Letterman. He said he'd be introduced a Christopher and people would "nice to meet you Chris" and he'd add "...topher, my name is ChrisTOPHER"

... now he goes by Topher.

[Jensboys]

Well since I know "mess" in real life .,.. I am pretty sure she was referring to my husband. Shelby. Shelby HATES the movie Steel Magnolias because since in came out there are a million little girl Shelbys running around.

In our church at one point there were 3 female Shelbys under the age of 8 and then my dear husband.

I have always threatened that if we ever had/adopted a daughter we would call her Shelby after her dad. HE HATES THAT!.

lol so I think it is much easier to name a girl a boys name than vice versa ... but you probably are still going to make things hard on them.

[mess]

Hey Jen,

Yeah, it can be hard on guys to grow up with a name like that. Brooke loves it though. There are little girls all over the place with the name Brooke, or Brooklyn, and he teases them mercilessly.

Funny thing though - this summer, Wyatt made friends with a boy down the street from us - and his name is Brooke!! We were so suprised.

Anyway, maybe the guys should form a support group. heh heh...