I know for a lot of people the meaning of a name really doesn’t matter, however, I’ve been looking into a lot of names that have the gender literally in the meaning of the name.
For example, the names Emerson, Addison, and Madison all share one thing in common: And that is its suffix, -son. Emerson means “son of Emery”. Addison, “son of Adam”, and Madison, “son of Maud”. All of these names are all popular on girls. Mackenzie, McKenna, and McKinley also have “son of” in its definition, yet pretty popular on girls.
It’s also kind of like how Beau literally means “handsome (for male)”, but considered unisex and Benjamin means “son of the south/right hand” and considered unisex on Nameberry.
This can also be applied vice versa as well, with names that are fem by meaning like Talitha (“little girl”), Nina (“little girl”), Kaur (“princess”), or Isis (“woman of the throne”). But I think we all know good and well nobody would even consider these names for a son.
With that being said, the question basically speaks for itself. Does stuff like this bother you? Or would you still use it as a name either way? Oh and one more thing: How would you feel having this type of name yourself?
it would bother me, although more so if (a) the name is unisex and (b) if the meaning very specifically connnotes masculinity. one of my favourite names is caroline, which means “free man,” but i think that it can be extrapolated to just connote freedom. it’s harder to find a non-gendered meaning from “son of emery.”
It bothers me more for names/words that are taken from another language than it does for names/words of [name_f]English[/name_f] origin.
I don’t love it for [name_f]English[/name_f] names either, but language is ever-changing and I think a native speaker is allowed to be creative with it; however, I do find it very disrespectful if people use words from other languages without considering how they are used (or if they’re even used as names).
I’d like to see others from the culture do this for the sake of loosening gender barriers in language, but I wouldn’t do it for a language I don’t speak. I can’t think of an English name that I would use that fits this concept, but I have no problem with it in theory.
It wouldn’t bother me for the meaning of my name to be explicitly male, but I do prefer my name to be traditionally feminine which rules out this style of name for me.
I have lots of thoughts on this subject, but I’m not super sure about how to link them, probably because some of them conflict with each other.
As a rule, it does bother me. I have no idea why “son of” names have become so popular for girls. It probably started out as a way for people to subvert expectation. In their eyes, doing something they deem to me abnormal, i.e. giving their daughter a boy’s name, makes them more interesting. With names like Addison, you could make the argument that if they can only be used for boys, as per the definition, they should only be used for boys who’s fathers are named Adam, or Emery, as the case may be, but no one is going to agree to that, it’s just too restrictive.
Common use can change our perceptions of a name. At this point, I would never name a boy Addison, but, then again, I would never name a girl Addison either, the name just doesn’t appeal to me. To a certain extent, that is me allowing myself to be kowtowed by the general public. The general public happens to be wrong, but I’m still going along with it because I don’t care enough to take a contrary stand. If I absolutely loved the name Addison, I would give it to a son, and I would tell anyone who told me it was a girl’s name that they were wrong, and that they should do some research before they started telling people what’s a girl’s name and what’s a boy’s name. But that is not my fight.
So I guess the tl:dr of it is that, yes, it bothers me, but I’m not going to fight anyone on it unless it’s a name that I really love. Public perception changes. Common usage of names has gone back and forth between boys and girls for about as long as most of these names have existed, especially with English names, because the English language isn’t as gendered as a lot of other languages are.
This is an interesting question. I guess it depends on the name? Names ending in -son are so trendy so seeing a girl named [name_u]Emerson[/name_u] isn’t weird to me. [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] definitely isn’t gender neutral so that’s really strange, but I secretly love [name_f]Benjamina[/name_f] despite the meaning. On nameberry though, they claim that [name_f]Benjamina[/name_f] means “daughter of the right hand” but this actually isn’t true as “ben” in Hebrew means “son”. Adding an -A to feminize a hebrew name doesn’t actually change the meaning despite some believing it does. (It would have to be Batyamina/Batjamina/Batyamin, which I’m not sure if that name is even used). While I wouldn’t actually use a Hebrew name like [name_f]Benjamina[/name_f] for a girl (because of the meaning) I do understand why some people do. If it was a different language it wouldn’t bother me as much because I wouldn’t be constantly thinking about it haha.
For me it’s case-to-case.
The -son and the [name_m]Mac[/name_m]- names have been so popular for girls for so long, the literal meaning no longer makes it odd. Actually, even before they got popular, people were used to hear them on women all the time - as surnames. Language is defined by its use and (in countries that don’t have laws about naming) this includes names. Therefore I’d say the -son ending in firstnames has slowly moved to the female side.
[name_u]Beau[/name_u] is an odd one for girls, I don’t speak [name_u]French[/name_u] and still mostly see “pretty boy”, although I could accept it as a shortform of [name_f]Isabeau[/name_f].
I believe [name_f]Talitha[/name_f] not being used on boys is more about the feminine sound than the literal meaning. [name_f]Tabitha[/name_f] for example has a neutral meaning and still won’t be popular on boys. Kaur, on the other hand, I could totally picture on someone’s boy list, if they were oblivious to the meaning and going purely by sound.
In conclusion, I want to say it doesn’t bother me, but recently I was looking up the meaning of one of the names I would consider for my own daughter (Svenja), and finding out it’s basically the word “boy” with a female ending attached, I have to say it bothered me a little. So to answer the question, I’ll go with: It doesn’t bother me for other people.
@Babies123456 I’ve seen someone on here consider Batjamin! Was forever ago though, I don’t remember who.
Im not bothered much by name meanings in general. I do prefer names where you can tell if the person being referred to is a man or a woman for convenience sake but that has more to do with naming trends than name origins/meanings.
I’m not a huge fan of gender swapping names, but it doesn’t really “bother” me. I grew up with a ton of Allisons and taught numerous Madisons and I never considered them to be masculine or anything like that. But they aren’t names I’d go for.
However, I do get frustrated at how many traditional boy names get taken and put on girls, for the simple fact that it doesn’t go the other way and that is a deep rooted gender bias.
Gender as a construct has been harmful and restraining for a lot of people (I’d say everyone, though I’m sure some don’t agree), so I’m glad that gender fluidity is on the increase.
I’m not bothered by it. [name_m]Plenty[/name_m] of people would name a blond a name that means ‘redhead’, so in my eyes naming a girl [name_u]Emerson[/name_u] is acceptable. Also, females have -son last names, so why can’t they be first names? And it brings about greater acceptance for gender fluidity and gender neutrality, which I see as a plus.
Honestly I don’t understand why names “mean” anything to begin with. It makes sense culturally that new words and ways of identifying people came from a meaning or purpose (e.g., your examples above) where someone named their [name_m]Son[/name_m] [name_u]Emerson[/name_u] because their own name was [name_u]Emery[/name_u]. Yet, if you think about it names are just another group of words that are ever changing. Place names exist simply because people liked the sound or had a tie to those places (e.g., [name_u]London[/name_u], [name_u]Paris[/name_u], etc.).
So I don’t care about meanings of names at all. The meaning of names comes from what feeling that word elicits from you or a significance it holds. Using a name in remembrance of a person, your culture, a significant place etc. is really the only thing I’d take into consideration. It all boils down to individual perception.
I must also note that I’m not religious; however, I often find that the religious people in my life are the ones concerned with meaning in order to incorporate their faith into the way their child will be identified from birth on (unless they change it). I also accept the reality that gender is not binary! Simply put its a societal structure that came out of european colonization of many cultures. Many indigenous cultures did not adhere to a gender binary and part of my background includes these peoples. So, essentially I don’t see why I would extend the binary male and female perceptions of gender onto name meanings.
Sorry, I realize this is very [name_f]Meta[/name_f] compared to the answer you were looking for I’m sure. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] it provides an additional perspective!
I have a “son of” name and I don’t really care that much. I tend to use the meaning of the “of” name if I’m thinking of the meaning of my own name. Therefore, my name means son of Maud (some say Matthew but I prefer Maud so we’re doing Maud) and Maud means battle-mighty so Madison means battle-mighty.
When I’m looking at names for my own future Madisonsons (sons of son of Maud?), I do look at meaning but only to an extent. I make a list of names based on family connections and how much happiness the name gives me. Then if it came down to the wire and I’m naming a baby and we’re choosing between Nina and Nell, I might choose Nell “light” over Nina “little girl” with the meaning being a tie breaker. But I wouldn’t eliminate a name I really liked because it had a less than ideal meaning.
As shown above you can also extrapolate meaning in many different ways, with flower names I do what the flower represents/Victorian flower language instead of “red flower” or “botanical name.” I’ll also look up synonyms for a word so for Bram I use sublime or bountiful rather than father of multitudes. It may not be etymologically perfect but the original meaning probably isn’t either.
I think having a nice meaning is preferable, but it really isn’t a dealbreaker to me, and therefore neither is a gendered meaning! I truly am unbothered by any genderbending of names, and I actually think it’s so cool the way humans experiment with language and names and fluidity vs. binaries.
[name_f]My[/name_f] name is traditionally feminine, and I have female cousins and best friends with names listed in the original post. While I prefer to have the name that I do because I really love it, I would still probably enjoy having their names as well, and I’ve never heard them complain about the gender neutrality of their names.