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giving a boy a unisex name that is trending feminine?
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Anonymous
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I had a male boss named Alexius, he went by Lex. Nothing feminine about him at all. Same with the males named Courtney, Ashley, and Tracy I've worked with in the past.
I think of Avery as a boy's name because of Murphy Brown, but then I'm old. |
Anonymous
I think of Murphy Brown, too. And I'm not THAT old. 
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Anonymous
| Good friends with a Kelly, Kelley, Shannon and Courtney. All four guys are very handsome (for whatever that's worth), at ease, confident, and never had problems making friends. (I met them in college - so, not sure about the Middle School years - never dawned on me it could be an issue - it was just who they were). |
Anonymous
Thanks. The other issue is that our #1 girl's name is Anastasia (from when I was a very little girl, and DH happens to love it too) and Alexei and Anastasia were siblings in the fallen Romanov family. It's total coincidence we like the two names, but we're worried that we'll look totally crackers if we use both of them. Anyway, I do love Avery, but I can 100% feel your conflict. To be honest, if I met your son, I'd probably be jealous that you were confident enough to go ahead with the name. The other thing we've thought of is using Alexei as a middle name, calling him that (so that we still get to use the name we love), but having him go by his first name as a general matter. Not sure if that's of any use to you. |
Anonymous
One of the "older" kids from my neighborhood was a boy named Shannon. To this day, I think of it as a 50/50 boy/girl name, probably because the first Shannon I knew was a boy. And WHAT a boy -- that kid had one energy level: HIGH. He was a riot. When he was older (and VERY good looking), girls would come over to my house to watch him mow the lawn. |
Anonymous
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There is a boy in my DD's class named either Alexis or Alexei (I think his official name is Alexis but it's pronounced Alexei?). Anyway, I always thought of Alexis as more of a girl's name, but when I hear it now, I think of a boy, and not as a girl name on a boy.
So I wouldn't worry too much about Avery as a 'girl' name. Even if people have the preconceived notion of a girl, when they see he is a boy, they'll get it (and if they don't, they're not worth worrying about). |
Anonymous
| We named our son "Caelan" - which is a gaelic, male name, but is starting to be used a lot for girls. (His middle name is Francis, for my dad, so I guess we actually gave him two trending feminine names). We basically felt that 1) it really is a boy's name and 2) in this area, he's unlikely to have problems. We might have selected a different name if we lived in rural Alabama |
Anonymous
| Johnny Cash would say don't do it. |
Anonymous
I know another boy with this name (different spelling). So your son isn't alone in this area! |
Anonymous
| My husband's name is Dana--it was 'cool' and trendy at one point, and then became 'female'....he find's it mildly annoying at times since we live in an electronic world now that all of his mail arrives Mrs. Dana XYZ. And he ended up putting Mr. Dana XYS on his emails signature block since people always assume he's a woman until they hear him. Same for one of my friend's whose name is Taylor, which trended female. Neither of them are embarrased by ir or anything, but have found it mildly annoying at times. It is something to consider. Personally I find trendy and gender non-specific names somewhat pretentious and affected anyway...nothing wrong with good solid classic names. (HATE DH's name, not that I tell him that) |
Anonymous
| I don't think I'd do it...Some of the names mentioned here are pretty unisex, but Avery is pretty popular as a baby girl's name. I had older male relatives named Meredith and Vivian (they were once male/unisex names) and they both went by their middle names. Who knows what makes one name turn completely female over another, but I wouldn't risk it on my son. |
Anonymous
| I'm in a similar quandry over the name Bailey. My husband and I both love it, but its currently 82 for girls and only 790 for boys on the SSA list. What do you guys think about it as a boys name? |
Anonymous
I though Bailey was a boy's name! Never heard it for a girl. |
Anonymous
Bailey is a kind of down-market name for girls about a decade ago. I lived in a very hick-ish area back then and knew a lot of little girls named Bailey (in all its various spellings...Baylee, Bailee, Bayleigh). I do love the name on a boy (like Bailey from Party of Five!), but I fear it's been taken over by the lower classes. |
Anonymous
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I have similar thougths about two of our boy names, Emerson an Adrian (Adrienne is the female version). Anyon have thoughts on those?
Avery seems perfectly fine for a boy or girl, IMO! |