When I read Beyond [name]Jennifer[/name] and [name]Jason[/name], [name]Madison[/name] and [name]Montana[/name] I saw a list of celebrity girls with boy’s names. After reading the list of celebrity babies on here, I found a few celebrities who are bucking the trend and going the other way by using names that were thought to be lost to the girls (or in one case using one that is actually a feminine name). Here’s three I found (I did not include ones with names like [name]Riley[/name] which are still widely used for both genders):
[name]Julianna[/name] Margulies’s [name]Kieran[/name] [name]Lindsay[/name] (the middle name of [name]Lindsay[/name] is what brings this one onto the list)
[name]Isaac[/name] [name]Hayes[/name]'s [name]Nana[/name] Kwadja
[name]Elisabeth[/name] & [name]Tim[/name] Hasselbeck’s [name]Taylor[/name] [name]Thomas[/name]
Any other celebrity babies that fit this category that I didn’t include? Any other formerly boy’s names that have been “lost” to the girls that you think could be eked out for use on a boy again?
P.S. I came up with the idea for this topic before I heard news of [name]Lisa[/name] [name]Marie[/name] [name]Presley[/name]'s [name]Harper[/name] and [name]Finley[/name] (both girls).
Yes! I think that’s a great point. There is definitely a swing back where people seem more comfortable with very androgynous or almost feminine names for boys again. This is positive! Great examples too. And some of the girl names are getting very much more boyish at the same time.
I found another example at another site of a celebrity boy being given a unisex name, and it’s a celebrity with one of these types of names herself bestowing it onto her son: [name]Reese[/name] Witherspoon decided to use the very name that she herself propelled into unisex territory as her son [name]Deacon[/name]'s middle name.
By the way, [name]Reese[/name] is a name that I like for both genders (although if I were to use it for a boy I might consider spelling it [name]Reece[/name] or [name]Rhys[/name] instead). I also think that it’s one of those names which makes for a great middle name.
Another name that’s starting to be used as a substitute for [name]Reese[/name] is [name]Reeve[/name]–which, so far at least, is a 100% boys’ name (Now watch someone tell me they know a girl named [name]Reeve[/name]!)
I wonder if is [name]Elisabeth[/name] Hasselbeck is a big JTT fan? [name]Taylor[/name] is my maiden name, and I much prefer it for a boy than a girl. Same with [name]Lindsey[/name], to my ears on a boy it sounds strong and classic… but for a girl it just sounds silly and insubstantial. Can you tell I’ve never liked my name?
I agree, [name]Lyndsey[/name]. I find [name]Lindsay[/name]/[name]Lindsey[/name] on a guy darn sexy. Same with [name]Kelly[/name] swoon! My other half has "the guy’s name for our generation: [name]Ken[/name] and he always wished he had something a bit softer, himself.
[name]Pam[/name], I think it’s a pretty cool thing, to see the softer names on boys. But then, I wonder, is it a reaction to seeing things like [name]Taylor[/name], [name]James[/name] & [name]Reese[/name] on girls. The pool of boy names is shrinking and I’m supposing this ‘soft’ shift is a way of expanding it again?
Kind of like “take back the night”? I like to think that parents are getting as expansive in their visions of their sons’ gender roles as they’ve been about their daughters’. Yeah, it’s great to see girls doing everything only boys used to do…and it can also be great to see boys doing everything only girls used to do. That feels like real equality to me.
I agree with those who say that names like [name]Kelly[/name], [name]Lindsay[/name], and [name]Taylor[/name] have a different feel when used on a male. Going from a post I made on the “Geezer names for girls” discussion, I think that names like the aforementioned ones can work a similar way but in the opposite direction: They sound passe to me for girls, but sound fresh again when used on a boy.
Today I thought of another starbaby boy with an androgynous name: The Beckhams’ [name]Cruz[/name]. This one caught my attention because when I was learning some Spanish I recall the noun la cruz being gendered feminine, yet as a name it’s catching on more so for boys (maybe it’s a rare case of a gender transfer going the other way). (Another son of the Beckhams’ also has a gender-bending name: [name]Brooklyn[/name].)
There is a very famous girl named [name]Reeve[/name] – [name]Reeve[/name] [name]Lindbergh[/name], daughter of [name]Charles[/name] [name]Lindbergh[/name], author of several books. When I think of [name]Reeve[/name], I think of a girl. I did know a boy in school in the seventies named [name]Reeves[/name], but it’s a very feminine sounding name.
With these and others (like last year’s [name]Kelley[/name] [name]James[/name] by [name]Holly[/name] [name]Marie[/name] Combs, which I mentioned on here but not in this thread), it seems that celebs are now letting the androgynous trend go both ways (and as I’ve mentioned before the same thing appears to be starting to happen in the general population as well).
Dammit Namefan, i wanted to tell about [name]Holly[/name]'s son!
She is my favourite actress and made me notice and fall in love with [name]Riley[/name] and [name]Finley[/name], the names of her other two sons. [name]Kelley[/name] is the name of her third son.
However i like [name]Riley[/name] better for girls, [name]Finley[/name] for both and dont like [name]Kelley[/name] at all.
I was just noticing that [name]Reese[/name] is [name]Reese[/name] Witherspoon’s mother’s maiden name. I knew that [name]Reese[/name]'s birth name was [name]Laura[/name] [name]Jeanne[/name] [name]Reese[/name], but I had no clue it was her mother’s maiden name. Very neat. I think [name]Reese[/name] is a great name for a girl, or boy, but I love [name]Rhys[/name] for a boy…
And, as for the [name]Lindbergh[/name]'s, [name]Reeve[/name] for a girl wasn’t their only creative name! In addition to daughters [name]Anne[/name] and [name]Reeve[/name], [name]Charles[/name] and [name]Anne[/name] [name]Lindbergh[/name] had three sons, [name]Jon[/name], [name]Land[/name], and [name]Scott[/name]. [name]Land[/name] [name]Lindbergh[/name]? What a name!
