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[Opinions] Beverly for a boy?
I know this was once popular for a boy. Anyone think it would be ok to use it today?
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Abslutely NO!
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Alas, noI like Beverly for a boy, but I wouldn't use it nowadays for a boy, except maybe for as a middle name if it were a family surname.There has been one notable male Beverly in history: Beverly Hemings (b. 1798), possible son of Thomas Jefferson by his slave Sally Hemings. Interestingly, this Beverly also had a brother who was named Madison (1805-1877); his other siblings were Tom (b. 1790), Harriet (b. 1795), another Harriet (b. 1801), and Eston (male, b. 1808). See Sally Hemings on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings.
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not ever! a boy named Beverly is an open target!
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No way! The poor kid would be teased within an inch of his life.:)
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What she saidAnd it feels too 80's for me, anyways.
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Absolutely notBeverly is one of those male names that has permanently made the leap to being a girl's name. It's definitely not usable.
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I prefer Waverly, and think it could be pulled off better.
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It was never *popular* for a boy. Yes, it was sometimes used for boys, but very rarely. It was always much more popular with girls, going way back.No, I do not think it would work on a boy today. Beverly is much too strongly associated with women, and middle-aged and older women, to be a workable option.
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Probably not. True, it was indeed a male name many years ago, but seems now to be firmly female.
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HmmmThe only reason I am having difficultly is because of Beverly Hills, California. Its all I can think of.
I would never exclude a name for a boy simply because its been used on girls. I love Ashley, Sidney, Mackenzie and many more names for a boy that used to be used for boys that are now more popular for girls.So do I think you could use it for a boy even though it may be a "girls" name for some - Yes.
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No.It's been used too heavily for too many generations for girls.
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no way
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Ditto
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yes [m]I wouldn't stop using it, I love Addison for a boy. That's one of the top girls names right now. Beverly is underused for both genders. Go for it if you like it that much.
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apples and orangesI don't think Beverly and Addison can be compared like that. Addison has never been used much for either gender until just here a few years ago. Whereas Beverly has been used on women for quite a few generations and has already established itself, Addison is a trendy newcomer.
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well true how about Sidney then? I love that name for a boy!
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what about it?It's been used for men for a couple hundred years, and on women for nearly as long. Right now, on girls it's kind of trendy, and on boys it's very outdated. YOu don't see a male Sidney under the age of sixty, it seems, but you see female Sidneys/Sydneys from birth right up to old age.When I was little I liked a series of books about "ALl of a Kind Family." They were written by Sydney Taylor, a woman, who as near as I can figure was born right around the turn of the last century.I consider it to be truly unisex, because at one time it was as common boys as it is now for girls.However, having said all that... I don't like the name. The Sid sound is sly and sneaky to me. I picutre a male Sidney as being a smooth-talking, kind of oily, used-car-salesman/shyster lawyer guy. On a female I picture a snobby, "socialite" type woman who doesn't work, her whole occupation is buying things adn going to parties.The Sid sound also puts me in mind of SIDS, and Sid Vicious. Sidney Biddle Barrows, the "Mayflower Madam" (she really is the type of Sidney I described, and got into trouble many years ago for running a call girl ring.)There is Sidney Poitier, and some other Sidneys, and I know two Sydneys (both female) who I like, but I still don't like the name.
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Sidney/Sydney has been used for boys since the 17th centuryFor example Sidney Godophin (a poet, born 1610)There was some use for girls from the 19th but until the last few decades it's always been a lot more popular for boys. And here where I live (albeit England) I've seen it more on boys than girls in BAs.
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Yes but...Beverly was also an established male name. Its a surname, and therefore, despite loathing surnames on females (and in general for most cases), its been a long time tradition to pass on surnames to both females and males.
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ever notice...(in best Andy Rooney voice)That it's only a certain type of surname that was usually handed down as a fn? Beverly, Ashley, Sidney, Cooper, Tucker? You never see people with the first name oh... Feldman, Rivera, Lefkowitz, Shucmacher, Lefebvre, Spinelli?Basically it's a relatively small collection of "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant" type surnames that turned into first names.This topic would make somebody an interesting research paper, no? :)
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Oh, I was writing this research paper! But there were no print sources, as in books. Thousands of articles, but my teacher needed a book. So I had to abandon it and switch to Sylvia Plath. :'( But she's very interesting, too. So, it wasn't so tragic. : )
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You know...I was thinking about this the other night. If I would have thought of this even last fall I could have written that research paper. Too bad my paper writing days in college are over.
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