All valid concerns. I know a bunch of the names I’m willing to use for either sex are not the norm for everyone. I want to push the limit, but I also don’t want my child to be embarrassed by their name so it’s a lot to consider!
[name_f]Cosme[/name_f] has the meaning order, beauty, universe and I do love those meanings! But it’s a pretty out there name, in 2023 it was used for 10 boys and that’s it!
I find [name_m]Bellamy[/name_m] to be such a funny name in the US because some people feel VERY strongly that it’s a clearly masculine name, while to me I can totally see why it’s rising in popularity for girls for the reasons you mentioned! It was used for almost equal numbers of boys and girls in 2023. I don’t care if people think it’s more of a girls name, people will adjust their understanding just like you did with [name_f]Ariel[/name_f]! Living in the city, I know both male and female Ariels.
We’d pronounce [name_m]Valentine[/name_m] like the holiday, so no pronunciation concerns there.
I was recently thinking about names where I worry about them getting mispronounced, like [name_m]Leone[/name_m], or [name_m]Lionel[/name_m] (love the Messi pronunciation and not the big bang theory one), or [name_m]Lucien[/name_m] (vs Lucian). And I found it funny that I was worried about it for those names, but not for [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f], which has like 5 pronunciations lol! I figure we’ll pick one and correct people and it’ll be fine. [name_f]My[/name_f] name is constantly mistaken for a more common name that’s spelled and said differently and it doesn’t bother me to correct people.
[name_f]Isadora[/name_f] nn [name_m]Rory[/name_m] is also lovely! Maybe not obvious from my post, but I almost never go for a ending female names. [name_f]Cosima[/name_f] is by far the most traditionally feminine name I like and I think that’s mainly bc I prefer it to [name_f]Cosme[/name_f] and it’s so rare that it still appeals to me.
I love the nn [name_m]Rory[/name_m] also, though I am not sure I like how popular it is as a standalone name if we will be using the nn a lot!
Thanks for sharing your impressions and ideas! It’s helpful to hear reactions so I can decide if I’m cool with people’s potential first impressions, enough so to be able to still use the name.