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Re: Is there a reason why Ashley "switched" genders?
Did you already have a look at this nice graph on this website?
http://www.behindthename.com/name/ashley/top/united-statesOf course it does not answer the question, but I think it narrows the question down to: Why did the US female Ashley start its strong rise somewhere between 1960 and 1970?As you can see, the US male Ashley was present as far back as the stats go, albeit on a low and nearly constant level.
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Wikipedia seems to think the steep US rise was due to a female character called Ashley in a soap opera, 'The Young and the Restless', in 1982:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_(name)eta: earlier female Ashleys may just have been due to a general rise in surname-names on girls in the US.

This message was edited 11/16/2016, 3:58 AM

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