We are narrowing down our list before baby makes their arrival and these two gender-neutral names are in our top 5 if it’s a girl. Thought it would be interesting to put them up against each other.
Which one do you prefer? How come? Do they give off similar vibes to you or very different?
I dislike [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] because it reminds me of [name_m]Steve[/name_m]. But charlie could go either way because for a boy it reminds me of [name_m]Charles[/name_m] and at the same time it reminds me of [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f].
I absolutely love[name_f][/name_f] the idea of [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] for a girl. It gives me such a cool vibe – very [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] Nicks. [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] is also cute, but not a favorite. Also, for what it’s worth, I would assume that a female [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] has the full name [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f], whereas [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] I wouldn’t think was short for anything. Not sure if that makes things better or worse?
They very much have different vibes for me!
[name_f][/name_f][name_f]Stevie[/name_f] is fun and spunky. Very tomboyish, but still a girl. It’s quite a unisex nickname for me, honestly.
[name_f][/name_f][name_m]Charlie[/name_m] for me is still all boy. This is despite the fact that it’s been gaining popularity as a girl name / nickname lately. I even know a few little girl Charlies. However[name_f][/name_f], for some reason it comes across as a very strong, almost harsh and undeniably masculine name to me.
[name_f][/name_f]I think there’s two reasons that these are my instincts with these names. First, I’m almost 30, so growing up [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] was occasionally used by girls, most famously by [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] Nicks of course but there were many Stephanies and some of these went by [name_f]Stevie[/name_f]. There were almost no female Charlies, and [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] was a rarer name when I was growing up so I never encountered it as a nickname either. Of course that skews my perspective a little bit. But also…
[name_f][/name_f]I just feel like [name_m]Charles[/name_m] and [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] have been consistently used as male names for so long[name_f][/name_f]. Like, centuries. Of course, [name_m]Stephen[/name_m] / [name_m]Steven[/name_m] has been used for a long time as well but they tend to go by [name_m]Steve[/name_m] if they take a nickname [name_f][/name_f]- not [name_f]Stevie[/name_f], so that nickname has been more historically ambiguous. Basically, for most of history, there’s been more Charlies and they’ve mostly been guys, while there’s less Stevies and there’s a more even distribution of them.
[name_f][/name_f]That’s my long-winded way to say I prefer [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] to [name_m]Charlie[/name_m], but I don’t think [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] is a bad option for a modern girl. [name_f]Charli[/name_f] XCX is popular at the moment, for example, and of course there are many Charlottes being born who are going to go by [name_m]Charlie[/name_m].
I love [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] [name_f][/name_f]- so sassy, sparky and cool! I like it a lot! You can’t go wrong with either though
In this case [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] would be an honour name for my Dad (Steve, Steven) so the association is a good thing! But I get what you mean, that’s a specific case for us and not for everyone!
I think that makes things better! It’s reassuring to hear people say they would think [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] is a full name all on its own and not short for anything else. We don’t like [name_f]Stephanie[/name_f] or any of the other variations to get to [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] so we would just be giving her the name [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] and that’s it!
Thank you for the explanation! Now that I think about it, I think I agree with you that when comparing just [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] and [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] alone, [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] does seem more masculine. I think I am realizing that while I do like [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] a lot, I like it as a nickname for [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] and would prefer for her to have that full name if we went that route. Whereas with [name_f]Stevie[/name_f], I feel good about giving her just [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] and no other full name as it seems to work well on its own for a little girl.
[name_f][/name_f]Your post was super helpful! Thank you for helping me articulate what I was maybe already thinking and didn’t know it!
Thank you!! I do love [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] a lot and I think it’s growing on me more and more each day. I’m pleasantly surprised that this poll favors [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] over [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] too as I was sure it was going to be the other way around. [name_m]Charlie[/name_m] seems more popular in day-to-day life and [name_f]Stevie[/name_f] seems a little more “out there” to me so I figured more people would vote for [name_m]Charlie[/name_m]!