A Boy Named Sue

[protege]

And I used to have a regular customer back at the WD days whose first name was Shirley. First time I'd ever heard of that name being used for a male - he was a good sport over it (nice older man with a great sense of humor, too.)

From what I've heard, it was a common name in the 1930s and '40s, when Shirley Temple was a star. In fact, one of my grandfather's friends was named Shirley. He never went by that name as long as I knew him though. He'd usually go by "Shirl." Nice guy, who got me an internship at a bank. He was on the board, Grandma told me to drop him a line, and the rest is history. Sadly, he was killed in a car accident a few years ago

But, one guy who I knew never used his given name...Sharon. That would be my paternal grandfather. Seems his mother (a bitch, and I'm being nice!) really wanted a daughter. Rather than simply roll with it and change his name, she kept it. Grandpa always went by "S.G." or "Bud." To call him Sharon...might get your ass kicked

[PepperElf]

Don't forget Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch! Or rather... Caroll Spinney

Other gender-neutral names I can think of (or have seen)... Terry, Shannon, Tracey, Jayne (points if they have cunning hats!).

oh and Wendy has some interesting uses too, including being a child's pronunciation of "friendy" in references to J.M. Barrie. (which also inspired his use of the name in "Peter Pan").

[wolfie]

Alice B. Tolkais brownies?

That's what the co-worker's girlfriend brought to the office, but what office was I referring to?

Another name I haven't seen mentioned here - in the TV series, Mickey Spilane's macho detective Mike Hammer was played by Stacey Keach.

[Merriweather]

I went to high school with a guy named Ashley...

I always think male - Ashley Wilkes (Gone With the Wind) when I hear that, even though I have a great-neice named Ashley.

I went to college with a guy named Tracy, and once worked with a man named Leslie.

We had a neighbor (male) named Connie once. My ex brother-in-law was named Leslie, he always said Leslie (pronounced with a high "s" sound) was a girl's name, his was Leslie (pronounced with more of a "z" sound, in a deeper voice)

Hello?

Remember Carroll O'Connor? Played Archie Bunker....

Carroll with that spelling is not usually a girl's name. Carol and Carole are much more common for girls.

Beverly was once a male name. Douglas was a name for girls. Hillary was a boy's name (JRR Tolkien's younger brother was named Hillary). Things change.

Then there are all the names that sound alike but are spelled slightly differently for boys & girls: Leslie/Lesley, Frances/Francis, etc. ...as well as nicknames like Pat that are unisex.

My sister had a male friend in school named Carroll, not sure how he spelled it. I've come across Hillary as a man's name in England quite often. And I've seen old Francis the Talking Mule movies (Francis was a male) where he would always state "That's Francis, with an "i" ".

I named my #1 son Lu Ellen...... I mean Llewellyn.

When I see that name, I hear the Welsh pronounciation, which doesn't sound like Lu Ellen at all (the double LL in Welsh has no exact equivilent letter combination in English)