ie [name_f]Mae[/name_f] names sound country/southern to me. As in, [name_f]Ellie[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f], [name_f]Gracie[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f], [name_f]Annie[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f], etc.
I’m not sure what “country” and “Southern” are supposed to mean at this point. The terms certainly aren’t synonymous. On Nameberry, these words tend to just draw a list of names from Gone With the Wind and The [name_f]Beverly[/name_f] Hillbillies. Plus [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f]. Nameberry seems to think that Southerners are using [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] in droves, but we aren’t. Louisianians tend to have a different naming style than [name_u]North[/name_u] Carolinians who tend to have a different naming style than northern Floridians. There are a few trends prominent across the South – family surnames as first names, for instance – but I don’t know that there’s any one Southern naming style. And parents in rural areas aren’t still giving their kids names like [name_m]Jim[/name_m] [name_m]Bob[/name_m] and [name_f]Ellie[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f]. Country babies are just as likely to be [name_u]Jayden[/name_u], [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_m]William[/name_m], or [name_u]Madison[/name_u] as a child in [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_m]York[/name_m] City. I’m not attacking anyone on this thread. I just want to draw attention to the fact that I think suggestions in threads like this tend to rely more on stereotypes and representations of the South in pop culture than what parents in the South are really naming their kids.