With more and more names becoming “gender neutral” (AKA taking boys names and making them girls names), it got my more ‘mischievous’ side ticking and inspired me to try taking ‘old school’ girl’s names and refashioning them into boy’s names!
Adele
Adina
Aida
Alba
Alda
Aldona
Aleta
Aline
Alta
Alva
Alys
Ami
Aminah
Amparo
Andra
Annis
Antonia
Araceli
Ardath
Arlene
Armida
Audie
Aura
Bea
Beryl
Bev
Blanche
Breana / Breanne
Brenda
Brianne
Brittany
Calla
Cambria
Carin
Carlise
Carmel
Caroline
Catherine / Katherine
Caryl
Cecile / Cecily
Celeste
Chantal
Charis
Chelsea
Christa
Christen
Cierra
Clarice
Claudia
Cloe
Colleen
Constance
Cora
Corine
Dalia
Damaris
Danica
Daria
Darlene
Deanna
Deja
Delma
Delta
Diamond
Dina
Donna
Doreen
Doris
Dove
Eartha
Ebba
Edna
Eleanor
Elmira
Elna
Else
Elva
Enola
Eris
Erma / Irma
Essence
Estelle / Estella
Eudora
Eunice
Evelyn
Fawn
Fay
Florine
Francine
Freda
Gale
Garnet
Gena
Geneva
Giada
Ginger
Gladys
Gwyneth
Hayley
Heather
Helen
Honora
Ida
Iesha
Ina
Ines
Iona
Iva
Iza
Janis
Jody
Jorja
Joy
Junia
Justine
I can see [name_u]Alba[/name_u], [name_u]Alva[/name_u], [name_u]Antonia[/name_u], [name_f]Christen[/name_f], [name_u]Evelyn[/name_u], [name_u]Gale[/name_u], and [name_u]Jody[/name_u] on boys!
[name_u]Alva[/name_u] and [name_u]Gale[/name_u] actually seem more masculine than feminine to me. [name_u]Alba[/name_u], [name_u]Antonia[/name_u], and [name_f]Christen[/name_f] feel like they could be masculine due to their similarities to unisex or masculine names like [name_u]Alva[/name_u], Antonio/Andrea, and [name_u]Christian[/name_u]. And [name_u]Evelyn[/name_u] and [name_u]Jody[/name_u] feel very unisex to me.
hm, i’m not a particularly big fan of this trend (for either sex) but some of these could work!
i especially like heather, garnet (which i personally consider gender neutral and modern, not a classical girl’s name), fay, dove (also gender neutral to me - all word names are), chelsea, bea
some seem redundant, such as those that are feminizations eg justine being a feminization of the already male justin, freda being a feminization of fred, etc
i’m also not a fan of taking names from cultures that aren’t yours and gender-bending them, i think that can be cultural appropriation, in a way. as a greek person, i dislike the idea of a mythological name like eris being gender bent, and someone portuguese might feel the same way about inez
other than that, the rest aren’t my style but i could see myself liking them in certain male combos!
I actually know or have heard of boys named
[name_u]Alba[/name_u], [name_f]Beryl[/name_f], [name_u]Gale[/name_u], [name_u]Garnet[/name_u] and [name_u]Jody[/name_u]
Other ones from your list that I could see working
Amaparo, [name_f]Annis[/name_f], [name_f]Araceli[/name_f], [name_u]Damaris[/name_u], [name_f]Delta[/name_f], [name_u]Diamond[/name_u], [name_u]Dove[/name_u], [name_u]Eris[/name_u], [name_f]Essence[/name_f], [name_f]Fawn[/name_f] and [name_f]Gwyneth[/name_f]
Some of the ones that I think could work are [name_f]Alda[/name_f], [name_u]Audie[/name_u], [name_u]Damaris[/name_u], [name_f]Delta[/name_f], [name_u]Dove[/name_u], [name_u]Eris[/name_u], [name_u]Gale[/name_u], [name_u]Garnet[/name_u], [name_f]Iza[/name_f] and [name_u]Jody[/name_u].
I’m not a huge fan of this trend, either. But I could see some of these working.
[name_f]Christen[/name_f] (the spelling [name_f]Kristen[/name_f] is a male name in the Scandinavian countries; I know of a male Kristen)
[name_u]Jody[/name_u]
[name_u]Audie[/name_u]
[name_f]Carin[/name_f] (if it’s pronounced Car-in)
Thank you for your criticism! Unfortunately, many parents nowadays seem to not really care about the cultural and meanings of names and just chase trends and go for whatever sounds “cool”. Which saddens me, as many names from other cultures are taken and made strange by other cultures (such as the name [name_u]Artemis[/name_u] being used for boys). Call me petty, but I was trying to take a jab at those kind of namers with this list. I never meant to offend your culture, and if I did, I apologize.
no worries - i’m not offended, i was just pointing out a potential issue. i think as long as it’s not on a real baby and it’s just a list for fun, it’s not a big deal
