I’m toying with a story idea featuring a female detective. I decided to call her [name_u]Parker[/name_u] [name_m]Montague[/name_m]. I want people to be unsure she is male or female judging by her name alone. On a lark, I decided to check the social security site for [name_u]Parker[/name_u]'s name stats, and was completely surprised. In 2012 only 80 boys were named [name_u]Parker[/name_u], while 315 girls recived the name. I surely thought it would be split more evenly between both genders. What do you berries think?
I think you may have read the SSA list wrong. [name_u]Parker[/name_u] is #80 on the list for boys and #315 on the list for girls. In 2012 there were 1015 girls named [name_u]Parker[/name_u] and 5323 boys named [name_u]Parker[/name_u]. If I met a [name_u]Parker[/name_u] I would assume he was a boy but I wouldn’t be too shocked in this day an age if [name_u]Parker[/name_u] turned out to be a girl. I think [name_u]Parker[/name_u] is a fine name for your protagonist if you want to “surprise” people with her gender.
[name_u]Parker[/name_u] [name_m]Montague[/name_m] is completely a boy to me, I would be incredibly shocked if a [name_u]Parker[/name_u] [name_m]Montague[/name_m] turned out to be a girl.
Oh, okay. That makes a lot more sense. I feel silly now. Thanks for answering.