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HelpRe: POLL RESULTS! Gendered Connotations
in reply to a message by Xena
Casey (m & f)
68% masc
32 % fem
Devon (m & f)
85% masc
18% fem
I wonder if Devin and Kasey would have been much different.
I was surprised Ash, Max, Logan, and Cameron were so overwhelmingly masculine. Those seem pretty unisex to me.
I like Fern for a guy, but I know that's unconventional, so that wasn't surprising.
I've never heard of Iphis.
68% masc
32 % fem
Devon (m & f)
85% masc
18% fem
I wonder if Devin and Kasey would have been much different.
I was surprised Ash, Max, Logan, and Cameron were so overwhelmingly masculine. Those seem pretty unisex to me.
I like Fern for a guy, but I know that's unconventional, so that wasn't surprising.
I've never heard of Iphis.
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I wonder about those spellings too!
I thought about giving a neutral vote option, but since the names were all technically gender neutral already, I wanted to see which gender people leaned toward if they had to choose.
I also think Fern is pretty masculine and was really surprised it was perceived so feminine! I wonder if it has to do with the popularity of nature names right now?
The Iphis I was thinking of was specifically from the myth "Iphis and Ianthe" There's a version written by Ovid, but there's also another version I read in middle English written by Gower.
I thought about giving a neutral vote option, but since the names were all technically gender neutral already, I wanted to see which gender people leaned toward if they had to choose.
I also think Fern is pretty masculine and was really surprised it was perceived so feminine! I wonder if it has to do with the popularity of nature names right now?
The Iphis I was thinking of was specifically from the myth "Iphis and Ianthe" There's a version written by Ovid, but there's also another version I read in middle English written by Gower.
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I’ve only ever heard of Fern as feminine, mostly old ladies/friends of my grandmas.
Then a few years ago met a young Hispanic guy, teenager-ish, named Fernando but typically called Fern his whole life. Kind of weirded me out for awhile, I’m thinking noooo this is little old lady name! I see grandmas church friend, and short chubby neighbor about 80 years old... they’re typical Ferns to me :)
Then a few years ago met a young Hispanic guy, teenager-ish, named Fernando but typically called Fern his whole life. Kind of weirded me out for awhile, I’m thinking noooo this is little old lady name! I see grandmas church friend, and short chubby neighbor about 80 years old... they’re typical Ferns to me :)
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Yeah, I think it seems usable as masculine to me because I have been influenced by knowing a couple Fernandos. Plus there's nothing particularly feminine seeming about the plants.
This message was edited 3/25/2019, 11:46 AM
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>I wanted to see which gender people leaned toward if they had to choose.
Yes, I think it's worth noting that, even if a name leaned "overwhelmingly" towards one sex in the polls, that doesn't necessarily mean almost everyone thought, for example, "That is absolutely a male name." It can also mean that a lot of people thought, "Wow, it's 50-50 for me, but if I had to guess, I'd say it leans ever-so-slightly male."
Yes, I think it's worth noting that, even if a name leaned "overwhelmingly" towards one sex in the polls, that doesn't necessarily mean almost everyone thought, for example, "That is absolutely a male name." It can also mean that a lot of people thought, "Wow, it's 50-50 for me, but if I had to guess, I'd say it leans ever-so-slightly male."
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Yep! And I think that's why the message board followup is helpful. People can discuss their votes and the connotations that lead them to lean one way or another :)
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In 2017, 41 girls were named Max, compared with 3,121 boys - a ratio of over 76:1.
1,103 girls were named Logan vs. 13974 boys, a ratio of over 12:1.
Not many babies of either sex were named Ash - 7 girls and 134 boys. Roughly 4900 girls had names beginning with Ash (I excluded Ashanti since it didn't seem likely to have a nickname of Ash) compared to over 9000 boys. On the other hand, I believe an older Ash is much more likely to be a nickname for a girl named Ashley.
There were 5925 male Camerons and 574 female Camerons. Respellings of Cameron didn't come anywhere near making up the difference.
Male Devins vastly outnumbered female Devins and male Devons outnumbered female Devons.
Male Caseys outnumbered female Caseys but female Kaseys outnumbered male ones.
Wisdom of the crowds confirmed!
I'm really surprised that Cameron and Ash- names turned out to be so male-dominant.
1,103 girls were named Logan vs. 13974 boys, a ratio of over 12:1.
Not many babies of either sex were named Ash - 7 girls and 134 boys. Roughly 4900 girls had names beginning with Ash (I excluded Ashanti since it didn't seem likely to have a nickname of Ash) compared to over 9000 boys. On the other hand, I believe an older Ash is much more likely to be a nickname for a girl named Ashley.
There were 5925 male Camerons and 574 female Camerons. Respellings of Cameron didn't come anywhere near making up the difference.
Male Devins vastly outnumbered female Devins and male Devons outnumbered female Devons.
Male Caseys outnumbered female Caseys but female Kaseys outnumbered male ones.
Wisdom of the crowds confirmed!
I'm really surprised that Cameron and Ash- names turned out to be so male-dominant.
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Thank you so much for these statistics! They're really interesting!
I knew one Max way, way back in kindergarten who was a girl and her name wasn't shortened from Maxine or anything. I actually never met a male Max until two years ago.
This is really interesting, just because some people like to talk about the trendiness of giving girls masculine names, when it seems that statistically that's not really happening all that much. Maybe like celebrities get a lot more of the spotlight for gender neutral/unconventional names too.
I knew one Max way, way back in kindergarten who was a girl and her name wasn't shortened from Maxine or anything. I actually never met a male Max until two years ago.
This is really interesting, just because some people like to talk about the trendiness of giving girls masculine names, when it seems that statistically that's not really happening all that much. Maybe like celebrities get a lot more of the spotlight for gender neutral/unconventional names too.
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