Baby Vuolo Is a Girl

[neurogirl]

12 hours ago, кошка said:

Beverly, Shirley, Carol, Kelly, Shannon, and a lot of other "girl" names were once names for boys.  I think we cringe at calling a boy by a "girl" name because we still all were raised with the thought that men are more powerful, and calling a boy a "girl" name is a step down, while calling a girl a "girl" name isn't a step anywhere.  Power means survival.  A lateral step is neutral.  A step down is threatening.

I have mentioned this before on FJ, but I love softer-sounding, older names for boys, like Robin/Ellis/Theo, still boys' names...but no one I know agrees with me. My fiance hates the idea of a Robin even though we both love Robin Williams, and his mom had a visceral (though to her credit, silent) reaction to it. I'm still holding out hope since we have no plans for children in the immediate future, but yeah coming from families with traditional male names (the ever popular Thomases, Jameses, Edwards, etc.) my suggestions are considered far too feminine, and Robin is seen as purely as girl's name even though its historically not! I've had too much toxic masculinity in my life and that is very probably why I like the less macho names by today's standards. 

The girls' names they as a collective like are very feminine though, so its not so much as "women are lesser" as "strict gender identities are to be assumed." To be fair, I like the very soft girls' names too. 

[seraaa]

10 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Like Natasha "Sasha" Obama

Mind blown that this is actually her full name

[SapphireSlytherin]

5 hours ago, neurogirl said:

My fiance hates the idea of a Robin even though we both love Robin Williams, and his mom had a visceral (though to her credit, silent) reaction to it.

Robin would fly (pardon the pun) better in the UK than the USA. It’s much more common there, at least from my own experiences. 

Naming a child anything that could easily be construed to be a name for the opposite sex is fraught with unintended consequences. Children are bullied over the slightest differences, and names are so much a part of who a person is...  Names that are trendy or creatively spelled don’t get near the amount of negative attention that “girl names” for boys do. It’s a sad fact that the name you bestow on your child, no matter how much you like it, could cause him a lifetime of grief and humiliation from his peers.  

[Four is Enough]

I have a BIL whose given name is Robin. We only found out on his wedding day because he always goes by Rob.

[VelociRapture]

7 hours ago, neurogirl said:

I have mentioned this before on FJ, but I love softer-sounding, older names for boys, like Robin/Ellis/Theo, still boys' names...but no one I know agrees with me. My fiance hates the idea of a Robin even though we both love Robin Williams, and his mom had a visceral (though to her credit, silent) reaction to it. I'm still holding out hope since we have no plans for children in the immediate future, but yeah coming from families with traditional male names (the ever popular Thomases, Jameses, Edwards, etc.) my suggestions are considered far too feminine, and Robin is seen as purely as girl's name even though its historically not! I've had too much toxic masculinity in my life and that is very probably why I like the less macho names by today's standards. 

The girls' names they as a collective like are very feminine though, so its not so much as "women are lesser" as "strict gender identities are to be assumed." To be fair, I like the very soft girls' names too. 

Naming babies can be really tough. It took us next to no time to pick girl names for some reason. We picked our daughter’s name about three years before she was born. I suggested one version and after a few weeks he countered with an alternate version. We ended up picking his version because we both liked it more and, I have to admit, he did a fantastic job because it really suits her. We picked our second girl name when I was still pregnant with our daughter. 

But boy names are another story. My husband knew what he didn’t like, but not what he liked. He literally likes three first names I’ve suggested for a boy and it took forever to find them. We already ruled one out because of an episode Key & Peele (we love them, but how they pronounce Aaron is ridiculously funny and my husband and his brothers would 100% pronounce it that way as a joke. It would drive me crazy. Lol!)   So we’ve settled on James or Brandon paired with his father’s first name as the middle name. 

You could always try to sell Fiancé on a compromise - you select one masculine name and one softer traditional boy name, then pair them together. For instance:

Robin James

Christopher Robin (I know, I know, but it’s a really sweet name!)

Joseph Ellis

Theo Paul

You get the idea. I know it’s not ideal, but at least you’ll both have a name in there that you like and it’d give any possible sons options for what they want to go by too. 

(I should suggest this to my sister. She’s expecting her second son this year and they’re having a tough time picking a name - I don’t know the exact names, but she wants a more traditional one like their elder son has and he wants a less commonly heard name that wouldn’t exactly flow with the rest of their names. Personally, I’m secretly on her side because I have a feeling she wants to honor our side of the family. Their son’s first and middle names honor his father’s side. Regardless, I’m sure whatever they pick is going to be great and I’m just really excited to have a tiny baby to cuddle again. Lol!)

[albanuadh_1]

Robin is a nickname for Robert. We North Americans think of the bird. Perhaps that's why we tend to use it for girls???

[Gobsmacked]

1 hour ago, Four is Enough said:

I have a BIL whose given name is Robin. We only found out on his wedding day because he always goes by Rob.

My younger cousin Robin, turned 40 last week. He has never shortened his name. He quite likes not being one of a crowd of Robs!

[Nargus]

40 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

We already ruled one out because of an episode Key & Peele (we love them, but how they pronounce Aaron is ridiculously funny and my husband and his brothers would 100% pronounce it that way as a joke. It would drive me crazy. Lol!)   

That sketch is why Jaqueline and Denise are on our list of 'hard no' names for our baby girl 

[VelociRapture]

10 minutes ago, Nargus said:

That sketch is why Jaqueline and Denise are on our list of 'hard no' names for our baby girl 

I know!!! I love Key & Peele so much, but they absolutely ruined a few names for me with that sketch. My husband, his brothers, our friends... we’re all fans of the show and there’s just no way someone wouldn’t pronounce Aaron that way. 

For anyone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, behold the sketch in all its glory:

 

[HarleyQuinn]

That Key and Peele sketch reminded me of a sub I had in high school that would rename kids as jokes and be super dramatic about it. I was "Holly"

[tabitha2]

2 hours ago, albanuadh_1 said:

Robin is a nickname for Robert. We North Americans think of the bird. Perhaps that's why we tend to use it for girls???

 Yes.And  if you have this name the dumb jokes just keep coming and coming... 

[SapphireSlytherin]

There are robins (birds) in the UK too.

And I went to school with an Aaron who pronounced his name A-ron (long A). My husband pronounces Aaron more "Arr-on" where I say it such that it rhymes with Erin. I have two cousins:  Aaron and Erin; they are differentiated by using Boy-Aaron and Girl-Erin because they're pronounced exactly the same. lol

[FundieCentral]

Oh dear, loved the sketch @VelociRapture! It's nice to be caught up on popular culture

I will have multi-cultural children, so I'm desperately trying to find names that work in all three languages and cultures, and for good measure, in most other ones too because I don't want my friends struggling either. Thus far, we've got... Maria. This will be a long and hard road...

 

[CorruptionInc.]

8 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

We already ruled one out because of an episode Key & Peele (we love them, but how they pronounce Aaron is ridiculously funny and my husband and his brothers would 100% pronounce it that way as a joke. It would drive me crazy. Lol!)   So we’ve settled on James or Brandon paired with his father’s first name as the middle name. 

LOVE Key & Peele!

Deeee niiiiiiiice instead of Denise; that was a great sketch.

[JillyO]

3 hours ago, FundieCentral said:

I will have multi-cultural children, so I'm desperately trying to find names that work in all three languages and cultures, and for good measure, in most other ones too because I don't want my friends struggling either. Thus far, we've got... Maria. This will be a long and hard road...

 

I feel you. We're not even trying yet, but I already keep trying to come up with names that work well in both German and English that I actually like (obviously Mr. O would have to like them too, but we're not at that stage yet ). There are tons of names that exist in both languages of course, but they are usually pronounced very differently. Ideally I'd like to find names that are pronounced as similarly as possible so that potential future child doesn't feel like they have two completely different names.

[Feminist_Defrauder91]

Before they announced the sex I had a dream they were having a girl and named her Claire, so I'm going with that name. 

I'm spending too much time on FJ

[Million Children For Jesus]

I know boys under age 10 named Kelly and Ashley, but not any young girls with those names. They were very popular names for girls when I was growing up. I think the boys are reclaiming those two. It would be interesting to see data, but not interesting enough for me to look it up myself.

I just asked my teenage sons and they said Kelly is unisex, Robin is a boys name, and Ashley is a girls name. The only Robins they know of are Christopher Robin, Robin Williams and Robin Thicke. They don’t have any friends their age named Robin, and I also do not have any friends with that name, so they’ve never met or heard of a female Robin. I have, of course, but based on their life experience, it’s a boys name. They also said they prefer Kelly as a boys name because of Kelly Slater, so that makes it cool for a boy, but they feel it is boring for a girl. Although they do know my friend’s son, Ashley, and have seen Gone With the Wind, they said they had forgotten about both of those, and that’s why they said girls name for Ashley, not unisex.

Coincidentally, I watched the Long Beach Grand Prix today, and there is a driver, male, named Kimi, who has a son named Robin. It made me think of FJ all day.

[Ivycoveredtower]

2 minutes ago, Million Children For Jesus said:

I know boys under age 10 named Kelly and Ashley, but not any young girls with those names. They were very popular names for girls when I was growing up. I think the boys are reclaiming those two. It would be interesting to see data, but not interesting enough for me to look it up myself.

I just asked my teenage sons and they said Kelly is unisex, Robin is a boys name, and Ashley is a girls name. The only Robins they know of are Christopher Robin, Robin Williams and Robin Thicke. They don’t have any friends their age named Robin, and I also do not have any friends with that name, so they’ve never met or heard of a female Robin. I have, of course, but based on their life experience, it’s a boys name. They also said they prefer Kelly as a boys name because of Kelly Slater, so that makes it cool for a boy, but they feel it is boring for a girl. Although they do know my friend’s son, Ashley, and have seen Gone With the Wind, they said they had forgotten about both of those, and that’s why they said girls name for Ashley, not unisex.

Incidentally, I watched the Long Beach Grand Prix today, and there is a driver, male, named Kimi, who has a son named Robin. It made me think of FJ all day.

now you got my curiosity up so I checked the social security data base. these are all for 2016( 2017 will come out sometime next month. I believe) 

Ashley 101 for girls down from 85 in 2015 so I would guess it's even lower on the list in 17 

it has not been in the top 1000 for boys in any year starting from 2000

Robin ranked 969 for boys in 2015 but that is the only year since 2000 that it ranked in the top 1000 the last year it ranked for girls was 2004 and that was at 955

Kelly ranked 514 in 2016 down from 479 in 2015 for girls and the last time it ranked in the top thousand for boys was 2002 at 884

[emmeline]

9 hours ago, Feminist_Defrauder91 said:

Before they announced the sex I had a dream they were having a girl and named her Claire, so I'm going with that name. 

I'm spending too much time on FJ

I could see them going with something like Claire (love that name!). Also Clara, Isabelle, Ella, Amelie, or similar - something feminine and elegant. 

Now that I've said that, they'll probably end up with the female equivalent of Spurgeon  

[Nargus]

One of my friends in high school dated a guy who's oldest brother was Ashley, middle brother was Manly.  We used to joke about his parents must have hated realizing that Ashley was a unisex name, so they made sure baby #2 there was no doubt. 

The only other male Ashley that comes to mind is the guy from O-Town.

[Chevreuil]

11 hours ago, JillyO said:

I feel you. We're not even trying yet, but I already keep trying to come up with names that work well in both German and English that I actually like (obviously Mr. O would have to like them too, but we're not at that stage yet ). There are tons of names that exist in both languages of course, but they are usually pronounced very differently. Ideally I'd like to find names that are pronounced as similarly as possible so that potential future child doesn't feel like they have two completely different names.

We had to pick names that sounded good in both French and English. My daughter's name we use the French pronunciation almost exclusively but it pretty similar in both so there isn't much confusion for her. For the twins, I use the English pronunciation and husband uses the French. Oldest son is almost the same except I use the French pronunciation when I am losing my patience with him for some reason haha like how some people use the full name, I use the French pronunciation 

[Jana814]

I know a man named Ashley. He is a contractor and did our bathrooms. Where we are in northern New Jersey it's unusual to meet a man named Ashley. Also his wife is named Jamie both unisex names. 

[NanisBlessing]

11 hours ago, JillyO said:

I feel you. We're not even trying yet, but I already keep trying to come up with names that work well in both German and English that I actually like (obviously Mr. O would have to like them too, but we're not at that stage yet ). There are tons of names that exist in both languages of course, but they are usually pronounced very differently. Ideally I'd like to find names that are pronounced as similarly as possible so that potential future child doesn't feel like they have two completely different names.

I had the same problem many moons ago....Nick, Sammy and Daniel is what we came up with in the early 90's  

[CarrotCake]

25 minutes ago, Jana814 said:

I know a man named Ashley. He is a contractor and did our bathrooms. Where we are in northern New Jersey it's unusual to meet a man named Ashley. Also his wife is named Jamie both unisex names. 

If you see their names they could be gay men, lesbian women, male-Jamie&female-Ashley or the other way around 

I know a gay man who's name is Jose, which is actually a female name here in the Netherlands as well (pronounced Yo-say). Whe he and his husband write their names done most people assume they are a heterosexual couple 

[Jana814]

34 minutes ago, CarrotCake said:

If you see their names they could be gay men, lesbian women, male-Jamie&female-Ashley or the other way around 

 

Agree. Their kids went to the pre-school my mother worked at. They always list the parents name. I have to wonder if a few of the teachers thought they were a gay couple. Espically since Ashley is not a common man name in my area, but it is for a girl.