Re: A Question on Names

"Dan Goodman" <dsgood@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43ded836$0$49530$8046368a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Logan Kearsley wrote:
>
> > Noting that in most languages and cultures there is a definite
> > distinction between the names or kinds of names that are given to
> > girls and the names or kinds of names that are given to boys....
>
> In the US (and I believe also other mostly-anglophone societies), it's
> not unusual for what had been boys' names to become girls' names.
>
> Examples include: Beverly, Shirley, Robin. The same thing seems to be
> happening in the US to Sean, usually in a kind-of-phonetic spelling.
> (I'll go out on a limb and say this last is unlikely to spread to
> Ireland.)

As there now seems to be a marked lack of boys named Beverly and Shirley,
I'd take that as evidence of a division between which names are given to
girls and which are given to boys. Names just happen to switch sides
sometimes. With the occasional name like Terry getting stuck in the middle.

-l.
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