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Mar. 6th, 2006 12:54 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jessiac.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
babynamesI am quite interested about the issue of the name Ashley. I have always considered Ashley to be a predominately male name - I know couple of (male) Ashleys, and I always think of the Premiership footballer (soccer player) Ashley Cole whenever I hear the name! Is it really that popular a girl's name in the US?
Using the unscientific method of searching on google I found that:
Searching for the name 'Ashley' just in the UK returned, on the first three pages, the name 'Ashley' clearly as a forename in approximately 6 cases, all male. The other results did not mention the gender of the person.
Performing the same search, but excluding domains .uk, I found that the name Ashley appeared as a female name 6 times (twice for the same person, Ashley Judd), definitively, out of three pages, and once as a male name.
So my question is, why is there a difference at all between the designation of Ashley as a male and female name in the UK and the US? And is it that pronounced?
Using the unscientific method of searching on google I found that:
Searching for the name 'Ashley' just in the UK returned, on the first three pages, the name 'Ashley' clearly as a forename in approximately 6 cases, all male. The other results did not mention the gender of the person.
Performing the same search, but excluding domains .uk, I found that the name Ashley appeared as a female name 6 times (twice for the same person, Ashley Judd), definitively, out of three pages, and once as a male name.
So my question is, why is there a difference at all between the designation of Ashley as a male and female name in the UK and the US? And is it that pronounced?
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Date: 2006-03-06 07:19 am (UTC)http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
If you click just the "boy" box, you'll see that in its first round of popularity here it reached #663, and was only popular as a boy name. When it came back in the 30's, it stayed a boy name for a few decades, but then reached it's highest boy popularity at #357 in the 80's, after it was a girl's name as well. Even in the 90's it was on the chart for boys, it only dropped off completely in the last decade. I like it as a boy's name, but my husband would never go for it!
Madison follows a similar pattern, but later.