Its also worth noting names ending in a or uh sound thend to be genderbent from masculine to feminine in international waters.
Kind of how [name_u]Andrea[/name_u] is male Italian name, but female in many EU countries, or how [name_u]Nicola[/name_u] is mostly male male name in at least two EU countries, but its turned to feminine to other countries…
But i have not heard name that was female name, ended with a or uh sound and then turned masculine internationally. Mostly because a ending in many EU countries is usually female gender in both words (for those languages that have gendered words) and personal names or names are female gendered by defaulf if they end in a sounds.
I found [name_f]Sunniva[/name_f] pretty and feminine, but its not longer on my list because none of the letters are dainty, sounds harsher than other feminine names, and overall its kind of bleak in associations. I still love it, but i think of frozen cliff or fjord and cloudy skyes.
I would find it pretty strange to take a girls’ name from another culture and use it for a boy*. Unless you have some kind of strong cultural or personal reason for wanting to do that (rather than just “I think it sounds nice”). I also wonder how a teenage boy named Sunniva would feel about knowing he has a Swedish girls’ name, or people assuming he’s female based on his name.
(*I’m not saying that gender-bending of names never happens - of course it does - but I, personally, would find it strange in this instance.)
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would definetly work for a boy, but i do also think using for a boy (especially in english) would emphasise how its spelled sort of like a phonectic spelling of son of a
Having done some more research St [name_f]Sunniva[/name_f] was an [name_u]Irish[/name_u] [name_f]Queen[/name_f] and Norwegian Patron Sain. [name_f]My[/name_f] heritage is [name_u]Irish[/name_u]. When I say ‘Sunniva’ aloud it sounds more masculine to me. Thank you all for more insight. We could be having a girl so…
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