(no subject)

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

Recently, I've been loving equigender (is that the word? I'm completely blanking haha) names on boys. Morgan, Stacey, Ashley, Dana, Quinn and Tracy are on my favorite boy's name list now. Morgan and Quinn are probably in my top 10. What do you think? Any names along the same line?

Comments

[sweet-light.livejournal.com]

Courtney.

I don't really like these for boys, but they technically work.

[arbus.livejournal.com]

lindsey. i really like it on a boy, i would never use it though. same with ashley.

my brother-in-law to-be is named tracy, he goes by tracy james professionally. he is one of my favorite people, so i like the name now.

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

Lesley, Sidney, Jesse?

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

i like quinn a lot, i don't like morgan, tracy, stacey, or dana at all regardless of gender, and ashley just feels weird to me on a boy because it's my name and i'm a girl, and i've only ever encountered other female ashleys. i know it was a boys name long before it was a girls name, but since it had that spike in the nineties with so many girl ashleys, i can just never see it as a boys name.

[adamantplatypus.livejournal.com]

Shannon.

To me, Tracy and Stacey are girl's names, full stop.

[kaoriz.livejournal.com]

Jordan
Adrian
Taylor
more here (http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS255&q=unisex+baby+names&aq=1&oq=unisex+).

I'm not a huge fan of unisex names. It seems like a bit of a fad right now.

[lilacmermaid.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of the same way ... there are very few names like this that I like on girls, but the ones that I do, I LOVE on boys. Especially Morgan. It's kind of cute on a girl, but I love it on a boy. Jordan is the same way for me.

I can't really imagine using any of the other ones you've mentioned on a boy. Maybe Quinn. Or Lindsay could be another one. With most of the ones besides Morgan and Jordan, though, I like them more as middle names than first names.

[bugamok.livejournal.com]

I like Morgan for a boy and I know a guy named Loren. Quinn's a little overpopular right now but it is a good name.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

i like morgan, robin, ashley, casey, etc. on a boy.

other ideas:
robin
leslie
casey
jesse
rory
alex
sam

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

I used to really like Morgan on a boy but...bad associations now. :(

I fell in love with Stacey in the 6th grade after watching an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show where Rob's brother came to visit. His name was Stacey and I thought it was great. It's not really on my list anymore though. Actually, I know a Stacey who might name her child Morgan if it's a girl!

I went to school with a boy Ashley in second grade. That was the first time I wasn't the tallest in my class so I kind of resented him. Haha.

I can't stand Dana for a girl, but I think it is a GREAT name for a boy. The Quinn gender change over is a recent enough phenomenom that Quinn is still all boy to me and it irks me big time seeing it on girls. I love Quentin and Quinlann with Quinn for a nickname. Actually, my grandma's neighbor just had a baby girl that they named Quinlann and will be calling Quinn.

Tracy is okay.

What about Terry? I think Terry is pretty cool. I have an aunt Terri though so I would never use it.

Others: Lynn (my dad and grandpa's middle!), Laurie (technically, short for Laurence, I think), Jocelyn (SO a guilty pleasure of mine), Robin, Kelly, or Loren (which was already mentioned but I love (unfortunately, my name is Lauren))
[/novel]

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

Ooh I love Leslie!

[the-theorist.livejournal.com]

Leslie

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Equigender...is that the same thing as unisex? =D

Anyway...I love Morgan on boys. I can see Quinn and Tracy on boys too, but Ashley, Stacey and especially Dana are way too girly for me. But maybe that's just me! After all, some (or all?) of those names were originally boy names.

[ugottafriend.livejournal.com]

Equigender...now that's a new one on me. Very politically correct. :)

By cultural origin, all of those names are masculine in origin. They've just been taken by the girls and people now consider them unisex. My name, Kelli, is also in that category. Two others that come to mind are Valerie and Mallory.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

i like morgan and quinn, but more so for girls. i know that the rest of your names were traditionally for boys, but these days..i feel like it's kind of cruel to the kid since they're definitely seen as girl's names.

[tiphanism.livejournal.com]

Hilary and Evelyn both seem to have gone over to girls, but they used to be both.

There are things like Chris and Alex which could be short for various male or female names...

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

hmm..it may be hypocritical, but i think it's definitely harder for a boy to grow up with a girl's name than vice versa. that's not fair, but that's just how it is.

[kilobites.livejournal.com]

I like Quinn a lot, though I admit it would be equally pleasing to me for either gender, not just for boys. Morgan is really nice for boys too.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

hmm..i don't know about that just because most people aren't willing to give their sons girls' names like ashley, stacy, courtney, etc. but hopefully you're right.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

it's funny because kelsey grammer, who is a male actor has two daughters that have masculine names (spencer and mason). he also has a daughter named greer, which is unisex and a son named jude, which i suppose could also be unisex. maybe he likes having a "girl" name and passed this unusual occurrence down to his kids?

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's possible. i really love greer on a girl.

[stephxoxox.livejournal.com]

I knew a Morgan as a guy before I ever heard of it being a girl's name, so to me it is a boy's name. The others I don't like, especially Dana and Tracy.

[ironqueen.livejournal.com]

I love Avery for a boy and hate it on girls. lol

[awoodnymph.livejournal.com]

How about Blair and Skyler?

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

I absolutely hate unisex names, in pretty much every circumstance. The only "equigender" names I know are boy names that have been used on girls, but to me they are still strictly just boy names: Elliott/Eliot, Blake, Quinn, Blair,and Rory. :)

Also, I can't think of Ashley on a boy without thinking of Gone With the Wind.

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

Vivian? There's a male Vivian on The Young Ones, and one of Oscar Wilde's sons was called Vivian...

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

Avery was on my list a looong time ago, I completely forgot about it! And I really like Leslie. Thanks.

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

I don't know...I would agree with you for names like Kelly which i haven't seen on a boy ever, but all of the names I listed are ones I've personally met men or boys named, so I feel like they aren't completely out of the blue.

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

I don't think its such a fad to use unisex names on boys, do you?

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

Ooh I like Shannon, but it was my best (female) friend's name when I was growing up.

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

I think the term is ambigender? That's the word I've heard.

Avery. Rowan.

Morgan and Quinn are okay. Actually, I rather like them, too. And I love Rowan. I like that they're gentler than most boy names. But once you get to things like Stacey and Ashley, I have to call that just wrong. It can't be good for anyone's psyche to be constantly mistaken for the other sex. I think any parent who names their child something like that to encourage gender equality will be rather startled when their son becomes a hardcore Macho Man to overcome the teasing from his peers. (Boy Named Sue, anyone?)

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Thumb's-up for Jordan! Much better on a boy!

[skate97.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on where you live, too. I live in Boston and there are lots of Irish and Kelly isn't really uncommon for a boy around here...

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

The word's unisex, actually :)

I usually don't like unisex names. I have a guy friend named Morgan and I think he carries it well, for some reason. I also have a guy friend named Shannon and it works. I like the name Darcy on a boy (or a girl, really, the name's just cute). I've always liked the name Jordan, but not on girls. I also like Elliott on a girl, but really just on the Scrubs actress :D

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

Boys' gender roles and gender-specific behavior are policed a lot more heavily and defined a lot more narrowly than girls' in Western society. It's sort of a societal norm that a boy with a "girls'" name like Ashley or Stacy will have a harder time than a girl with a "boys'" name like Elliott or Avery. It's "cool" for a girl to "act like a tomboy" (and many a young woman proclaims that she was a 'tomboy' when she were younger, or that all her friends are guys) but it's not cool for a boy to "act like a girl" (young men don't reflect fondly on acting like a girl as a youngster or brag about having a lot of girl friends).

I mean, there are all sorts of cultural reasons for that.

(I study gender role development for a living so this is really interesting to me.)