Reply to Gen-Z naming trends

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are [b]Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers[/b].

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago. [/quote]

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).[/quote]

The read as girl names to you because they have become used as girl names. But like the other names discussed in the thread who were previously masculine names (or last names, which tend to trend masculine because of patriarchal naming traditions), they were once neutral or masculine. So just as Ashley is now virtually never used as a boy name anymore, even though prior to the 1960s it was ONLY a boys name. There was a time when if you heard the name Ashley, you would assume it referred to a man and would have been surprised to learn it was a woman. The same is true of the names above.

There is also something happening here where femininity can be expansive -- we have fought hard to ensure that femininity can also encompass things like sportiness, an interest in science or math, rationality, and other things that used to be considered "masculine" traits. But masculinity remains more restricted. We still struggle with the idea that masculinity can encompass things like  being a caretaker, qualities like kindness and empathy, or even interests in the arts or something like fashion. It's not impossible, and of course their are men who encompass these things, but there are still lots of people who struggle to associate these traits with men and masculinity.[/quote]

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