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'Boy' names and 'girl' names


AnomalyEternal

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There's also MacKenzie Phillips (sp?), actress and daughter of Michelle Phillips of the old band The Mommas and the Papas. But yeah, Mac = son of, so...

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I think of names as masculine, feminine, or neutral but don't necessarily associate them as being a boy's or girl's name. Like if I met a girl named Chris I wouldn't think that's a boy's name its just a boy-ish sounding name. Does that make sense?

As for my own name, while its usually a girl's name I recently found out its a unisex name which makes me really happy since I've been wanting to start living more androgynously. My name's Courtney and it means from the court and pug nosed which amuses me since I actually have quite a big nose.

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Sir Kittenpaws

Hi,

my real name is Anikó.

I had a failed try to convince my parents to call me Milton when I was a small kid. I hated my name so badly. It's a typical woman's name in my country.

Then the funniest thing happened: I left the country. My first invoice came to pay the internet and the envelope said "Mr Anikó" which made me happy that my name might not be that girly as it was back home. It actually sounds kinda like Nicolas.

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I've always wanted to have a more gender-neutral name (it's very easy to do that in Chinese; my cousin has one, and so does my best friend). My name is very obviously female, and I don't feel it fits me at all; it's a very "shallow" name that literally means "nice, pretty girl". The first character is also used in the description for being a "good, obedient wife", so double the bleagh. I wouldn't have minded so much if my parents went with the homonym that meant "intelligent" instead of "nice", but their excuse was that it shared a character with names commonly taken by Buddhist monks -- which is pretty ironic since not having sex or falling in love is pretty much what I'll be doing, ehe.

It's been pretty much of a letdown to me all my life, though I doubt my parents meant for it to have that much impact -- I guess I just happen to focus more on the meaning behind names. It's gotten to the point where I am very reluctant to introduce myself, and my name feels foreign and distasteful to speak. It's just that legally changing my name would be incredibly disrespectful to my parents, so I'm stuck with trying to introduce myself by my initials, or nicknames...

On the bright side, at least my surname is fairly okay, even if it's the most common one in China, ahaha.

Would it be better to ask your parents for permission to change it? I obviously don't know the culture as well as you, just a thought. In my family I only got something like that from my sister in law because I didn't ask my mom in the right way what to change it to, though I did ask for suggestions and thoughts. But, American culture is different, so you know what's best for you. Luck.

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I've always wanted to have a more gender-neutral name (it's very easy to do that in Chinese; my cousin has one, and so does my best friend). My name is very obviously female, and I don't feel it fits me at all; it's a very "shallow" name that literally means "nice, pretty girl". The first character is also used in the description for being a "good, obedient wife", so double the bleagh. I wouldn't have minded so much if my parents went with the homonym that meant "intelligent" instead of "nice", but their excuse was that it shared a character with names commonly taken by Buddhist monks -- which is pretty ironic since not having sex or falling in love is pretty much what I'll be doing, ehe.

It's been pretty much of a letdown to me all my life, though I doubt my parents meant for it to have that much impact -- I guess I just happen to focus more on the meaning behind names. It's gotten to the point where I am very reluctant to introduce myself, and my name feels foreign and distasteful to speak. It's just that legally changing my name would be incredibly disrespectful to my parents, so I'm stuck with trying to introduce myself by my initials, or nicknames...

On the bright side, at least my surname is fairly okay, even if it's the most common one in China, ahaha.

Would it be better to ask your parents for permission to change it? I obviously don't know the culture as well as you, just a thought. In my family I only got something like that from my sister in law because I didn't ask my mom in the right way what to change it to, though I did ask for suggestions and thoughts. But, American culture is different, so you know what's best for you. Luck.

Thanks! :) I'll think about it -- I do know someone who has changed his name, but it was hust adding an English name to it, I think.

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