If children prefer gender-specific toys, why mix gender names?

My name is Randi, my mom selected this name because she loved me and loved the name. People name things that they love. I personally HATE my name and think she did a very terrible job when naming me. But I do understand that the act of naming something is one of love. She thought it was cute and that I was cute too, that's all.

Growing up a female with the name of Randi... Well I can honestly say that I felt insecure and very unfeminine because of it (well I still do actually). I was a sweet little girl. Soft spoken, blonde, blue eyes, and always wanting to wear big poofy dresses. Yet I never felt girly enough. I wondered if I was supposed to be a boy or if maybe I wasn't pretty enough to have a girly name. I thought perhaps my mom wanted a boy instead of me. I constantly thought my voice was way too deep, when in fact my voice was very little and frilly sounding. Still everytime I hear my voice via recording it I am shocked that it's not masculine sounding at all. I just never felt like I was girly enough and I was the most naturally girly lil girl you could ever imagine.

Let me first start by saying I'm not a big fan of unisex names.

However, I do have a theory...

I grew up in a fairly affluent community so several girls I grew up with had unisex names (Reagan, Rowan, Ridgway, Teagan, Sloane, etc.). The majority of the parents were college-educated, white collar professionals. I'm thinking maybe this trend started to try to portray that men and women should be seen and respected as equals...?

Then, the trend got out of control and I've noticed most people think it's "cute" to name their daughter Riley or Hunter...

Either way, while I disagree that these names are "cute"... in fact, I believe they're ridiculous, the argument about children choosing their gender-specific toys and therefore should have gender-specific names is not really the way to go. I feel like that's one step away from taking this argument further in an even more offensive direction by saying something like we should go back to the 1950's and have the women stay at home and cook and clean and "take care of her man" while her husband is the bread-winner. I'm not saying that's what the intention of the article is, but I can just see people getting wildly offended, and coming back with a similar argument.

My personal argument as to why I love gender-specific names is b/c although I believe that men and women need to be seen as equals, that should not mean we need to give our children unisex or "gender-bender" names. Our gender does not define us, but it is a part of who we are and we should be able to be proud of our femininity and masculinity.

I think we're going to see a lot of gender confusion once kids hit school and boys find that there is a girl with his name and vice versa. Just even a few weeks ago, I liked some of the male names being used for girls (like Reese), but have since changed my mind as every day I see more and more people "taking all of the good boy names" and slapping them on their girls. When I think about how boys are and how important it is to them not to be considered "girly," I can understand how detrimental it will be for them to not have a name that is strictly a male name only b/c people decided they like it and used it for their daughter. Also, it creates a lot of confusion for everyone else as well. For instance, if you're a teacher and are assigning seats in a certain gender-related pattern before the year starts and see a kid named "Reese", you're not going to know whether it is a boy or girl. (That's a lame example, but I'm sure there are other scenarios where knowing the sex beforehand is a lot more important)

People always take the really pretty-sounding names, too. I have yet to see a question asking if Lester or Orville would be a good name to name their baby girl.

My daughter hated dolls too - but she absolutely adored Playmobil and anything else with little mini people in. I think that's fairly genderless, at least the sets that she enjoyed which were things like the playground set. But I did find it intriguing that she loved playing with little people if they were 3" tall but not if they were 12" tall. Someone who didn't know her very well gave her a Barbie once. The only person who has ever played with it is my son :) Edit: Smiling at people being shocked at "boy stuff"on a little girl's list. I just bought my goddaughter a Meccano set for Christmas, because that's what she wanted.

Unisex names do nothing to help children create a sense of gender. No wonder there are so many homosexuals today...not JUST because of the names being mixed up but because of that attitude behind it that gender is a state of mind.

I have a feminine name and am proud of it and don't know what I would do if I were named something like Sam...

The babies aren't going to know there name is for another gender.

Names are just names to children.

It's not until a child gets much older that she might find out her name is uni-sex, or a boys name. Either by someone telling her, or be realising that only the boys in her school are called Matthew!

That's when the problem might occur. Little James, who loves pink, loves fairies and wants to be a princess and thinks boys are yucky...yeah she isn't going to be happy when she finds out she has a boys names! hahah.

So, the baby won't care, the little girl will.

:-)

Yes, I agree with you, there so many pretty names for girls and boys and yet they name a girl with boys' name. The parents does realize that can cause problem when they grow up, especially in school, also when you get a job and for the computer purposes. We had a lot problem at the office due to the fact that we could not tell whether it was a men or a woman. In Spanish most male names end in letter O and female A with the exception of Ivan is male and Ivon is female.

LOL. =P

Why, thank you for asking; I'm curious to see the responses. I believe everyone has the right to have their own taste in names, but when it comes to using boys' names on girls...it just boggles my mind really.

I agree with Tasmin 100%. As much as I hate Taylor, Riley, Addison etc for girls, I grew up with a "unisex" name - two actually - and I'm not scarred for life, I quite like my name (although I prefer my middle name, I still like my first name). And seriously, only name nerds like the people on Y!A know that Leslie, Ashley, Addison Aubrey etc were originally boy names - they are so popular on girls and havent been used on boys for a long time so its just assumed they are 100% feminine.

Honestly, I agree with Tasmin again that unisex names arent given to be different, its because they genuinely like the name. Emmylee or Keishalyn is stuff given to be unique.

I still hate unisex names on girls, but I don't see your point and I think Im perfectly fine even though I was given a "gender bender" name - it hasnt changed my quality of life.

Most people who use names with masculine origins on girls percieve them to be feminine and pretty names for girls, and may have encountered them on girls so they consider them to be genuine unisex or girls only names.

Someone might have a few girls called Blake at their school, and might think Blake Lively is a pretty actress, and will think Blake is a unisex name, but someone else might not have heard of Blake Lively and will only know men named Blake, so they'll think of Blake is a very masculine name that is hideous for a girl.