Gender Confusion

[j0yous.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine on fb just had a baby with his wife. Name:

Blakely Ryan.

I thought it was a little boy until I saw pictures of the child wearing pink with a hairbow. It's a girl! I know Ryan is becoming more popular as a girl's name, but I automatically associate Blakely with boys. This happened to me once before with the name

Hayden James, also a girl.

Has this ever happened to y'all before? What do you think of giving a child two "androgynous" names?

Comments

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

Blakely is such an awkard-looking and awkward-sounding name..

[blosmbee.livejournal.com]

Y's in names always feel kind of girly to me for some reason. I think blakely and Hayden work pretty well as girls name, although I wouldn't personally use either of them. I think those names will fit in very well in a classroom of jaydens and avas.

[retrodancekitty.livejournal.com]

Blakely? Like BLAKE+liveLY ?

[http://users.livejournal.com/--stillframe--/]

Blakely is such a weird name to me. Maybe I'm not hip and cool, but I don't get it. :/

The only name I like of the four is James, which I LOVE for boys. Not so much for girls.

[regn-espere.livejournal.com]

I don't like Blakely, the ly just ruins it, but I do like more androgynous names or using boys names for girls because lets face it boys get all the cool names. There aren't that many female names I like at all.

[designingdreams.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who just named her baby girl Blake. I thought it was pretty cute.

But I agree- while I don't mind androgynous names on girls, I think they should be paired with really feminine, girly names.

[myiris.livejournal.com]

This.

[bambiblake007.livejournal.com]

hmm i don't think i've ever had this problem b4..but my chihuahua's name is Blake and one of his many nicknames is Blakely, so i associate the name with boys..

[jessicann00.livejournal.com]

I think if you're going to give your kid an androgynous first name, or a name more commonly associated with the other gender, you need to have a very girly/boyish middle name to go with it. A friend of mine is dead set on naming her second-born son Jayne, after a character on some show that she loves. However, Jayne will have a very traditionally masculine middle name.

That said, Blakely SCREAMS 'boy' to me, but I like Ryan, with two n's for a girl.

[http://users.livejournal.com/--stillframe--/]

Jayne from Firefly! <3

[jessicann00.livejournal.com]

That's it! I couldn't think of it. She tried to get me to watch it on Netflix when I went to visit her over the summer, but I couldn't get into it. :-)

[frost.livejournal.com]

Ia.

[frost.livejournal.com]

I don't like Blakely; it's just kind of...awkward.
Ryan and James will always be boys names to me- doesn't matter how many girls you stick it on.
If used, one of the names should be more obviously feminine.

[ber-waves-of.livejournal.com]

I think if you pick an androgynous name for a girl's first name, the middle name needs to be very feminine.

[winninghearts.livejournal.com]

it's funny, because I feel the exact opposite. There is not a single boy name that I really love.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

My husband works with a woman who named her daughter Carson. It annoys her when the people assume she's a boy. Um, then why did you give your daughter such a masculine name?

[longlostblue.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of androgynous names anyway (or using boy names on girls, or vice versa) but Blakely is especially clunky and trendy and generally awful.

[http://users.livejournal.com/--stillframe--/]

Oh man, I wish you loved it! I wish EVERYONE loved it! Haha.

[coffeecup37.livejournal.com]

My girl name list is about twice as long as my boy name list, haha.

[j0yous.livejournal.com]

I do like them on girls, I just don't understand why pair them with a traditionally male middle name.

[j0yous.livejournal.com]

I don't know, they may be huge Gossip Girl fans, haha.

[falls2climb.livejournal.com]

I'm annoyed by people who get irritated about people assuming their male-named child is male (or vice versa), but I'm more irritated by people who try to "feminize" it and name their daughter Karsyn.

[danne-gerous.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously considering Jayne for future use. Firefly love ♥ and Whedon love ♥