Madison

[eveyalecia.livejournal.com]

A male classmate of mine is Madison. I know that the name Madison was masculine at first, but it's much more popular for girls now, especially in my generation (I'm 20 and I've met A LOT of female Madisons). This is the first time I've ever met a male Madison, but now that I have, I think I actually prefer it on a guy. Most names ending in -son sound like boys names to me, with the exception of Alison. Thoughts?

Comments

[linipop.livejournal.com]

It has become a really popular girls name. I think it literally means "son of" so it is meant to be a boy name....

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I've never met any Madison, so I've never actually seen how it works on either gender. I know it's (originally) masculine, but now it sounds so feminine from all the little girls with it.

[charuby.livejournal.com]

I just can't see it as a boys name myself.

[mela-chan.livejournal.com]

Alison was also a man's name.

[eveyalecia.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know that all -son names are male names (since it means "son of") but for some reason Alison just strikes me as sounding more feminine than most of the others. It might be because I had a female friend named Alison when I was younger, whereas I've only known Madison's distantly. Or maybe because all the Madison's went by Maddie? Or because Alison reminds me of Alice? I don't know.

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

I'm 23 now, but 5 years ago, in my freshman of college, I knew a sophomore guy named Madison. One time, we somehow ended up talking about names, and he said, "'Madison' means 'son of Maude.' I want to tell people that when they say they named their four-year-old daughter Madison."

Also, the only Addison I've ever known personally was male, and I think he'd be 20 now. I prefer Madison on a girl, but Addison on a boy, though I really don't care for either.

There seems to be a double standard for gender-crossover names: it can only go male-to-female, but not female-to-male.

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

Or because Alison reminds me of Alice?

Alison/Allison/Alyson/Allyson means "Son of Alice," actually.

[eveyalecia.livejournal.com]

There seems to be a double standard for gender-crossover names: it can only go male-to-female, but not female-to-male.

This! Most people think it's cool for girls to have masculine sounding names so that they sound "tough" but no one wants their son growing up "soft." And it's sad that once a male name has become predominantly female, it's almost not fair to give the name to a boy because they'll be teased. I love the name Alexis, but I know if I named my son that he would never hear the end of it in school.

On somewhat of the same note, in one of the Artemis Fowl books, the villain teases Artemis for having a girl's name. Artemis retorts that he was named for a hunter and has successfully hunted the bad guy. When I read that as a kid I threw my hands in the air and cheered for him. :)

[shakeycat.livejournal.com]

I prefer Addison on Grey's Anatomy.