Gender Spelling?

[peacebird10]

@stephykneejo

I don’t think this accurate. As the mother of two daughters, I absolutely imagine my daughters being adults and having a careers. Doing something they love and supporting themselves. I find it insulting you think a parent would consider their daughter as merely a “play-thing” or an “object”. Never once have I thought of either one of them as a doll. They may have unique names that are “cute”, but I never have doubted once that they will be successful or merely thought of them as an object to be primped and prettied. That is just ridiculous.

@lesliemarion

I think the poster was speaking generally, not about any one nameberry user or parent. After all, we don’t know each other personally on nameberry usually and girls often do get treated (and named) more as cute objects or dolls than boys do. I’ve taught school for 27 years and have rarely if ever met a boy with a cutesy, misspelled name while I have met dozens (probably hundreds by now) of girls with such names.

Absolutely, lesliemarion, I meant it as a generalization and even noted that I think this happens subconsciously and without any malicious intent. I know plenty of women who are raising girls who will become strong, successful women, and take that aspect of parenting very seriously. I also know women don’t, and will talk all day long about the purses and accessories they bought their preschool daughter and nothing at all about how she’s reading, what she likes to do, etc. I just happen to observe the latter with girls and not so much with boys, and I think this might have a connection to naming.

[ARead]

I have definitely noticed that boys’ names get more standarized spellings than girls’ names, but I never thought this had to do with parents (subconsciously or otherwise) thinking that their girls had less hope of a career or were more of a plaything than their boys.

Look at the top 10 boys’ names and the top 10 girls’ names in the US, UK, or any other country where you’re familiar with what’s considered traditional. I bet you’ll see a more traditional/classic choices on the boys’ list than on the girls’ list. I think there is a fear that a boy with a unique or kree8tif-ly spelled name will be made fun of whereas a girl with an original name is far less likely to incur teasing. That’s the reason my husband gave for veto-ing lots of my more creative boys’ choices but supporting the girls’ choices that were far from mainstream.

Girls’ names do seem to be more influenced by trends. Clothing follows similar trends: a B&W picture of a man in a suit could be from 1900, 1950, or 2000. The clothing of the woman next to him…well, that is going to give you a far better idea for the decade the photo is from.

Another similar thought: is this the same reason why boys’ names are more likely to migrate into girls’ territory (eg. [name_u]Ashley[/name_u], [name_u]Evelyn[/name_u], [name_u]Sydney[/name_u], etc.) than vice versa? Girls need to be trendy and pretty but boys just need strength and respect.

[iraasuup]

To be fair, in the prep class I co-taught a few years back there were very out there boys names too, both in spelling variations and just unusual names.

I always found it so odd that there was a little boy named Tarkyn who had a twin sister named [name_u]Skye[/name_u] and they had older siblings
with normal names (Can’t quite remember but along the lines of [name_m]Joshua[/name_m] and [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] or something)

[cengel73]

I think it is because to some parents unique spellings are cute. And girls are cutesy.