Ah, you want to name your new daughter after Grandpa Chuck (Charles). No problem, options abound! The French versions Charlotte and Caroline are the current favorites, but you can suit almost any taste with variations like Carla, Carly, Carol, Carolina, Carolyn, Carrie, Charla, Charlene, Charlize and Charlie.
Don't get too comfortable, though -- that one was just a warmup. Suppose Grandpa is named Tom? Or Jim? Or Fred, or Ben, or...you get the picture. Not every classic male name is blessed with a smorgasbord of feminine equivalents. Once upon a time, though, the answer for all those namesake challenges would have been easy: just take a diminutive form of the male name and you're good to go. In the early decades of the 20th Century, girls' names like Tommie, Jimmie, Freddie and Bennie abounded.
Today, though, parents are less eager for their little girls to sound like little boys. (Today's androgynous girls' names sound more like grown men.) So the typical response to cross-gender namesake troubles is to trim the honoree's name down to an initial. Grandpa Tom gives rise to little Tatum, and we say "close enough." But what if you want to get even closer? Here's my starter list of creative choices for tough cross-gender namesake challenges. All derive from the same name root as the original. Can you think of more?
David: Davina (Scottish derivative of David, familiar throughout the U.K.)
Gregory: Greer (Surname derived from Gregor, the Scottish form of Gregory)
Matthew: Matea/Mattea (Occasional Spanish/Italian feminine form)
Philip: Pippa (English nickname for Philippa)
Thomas: Tamsin (An old nickname for Thomasina that's been revived in the U.K. in the past 20 years)
...and one the other way:
Jennifer: Wynn (Form of the Welsh root Gwyn, as in Guinevere. Jennifer is the Cornish form of Guinevere.)
Comments
Caren- my gf's name is Leonor, either lee-oh-nor or lay-oh-nor (depending on the accent of the speaker). I've always thought it was a really pretty name.
Theodore -> Dorothy
Composed of the same elements -- "doron" (gift) and "theos" (god).
I wrote out a really long post that somehow never made it up...
of the men in my family, Charles, John and James have been discussed already.
Others:
Mark--Maren using meaning (belonging to Mars according to one site
Dean --not a clue. Could use his first name, Clarence, but he hates that one so much it would be an insult!
Albert and Delbert--> Alberta I guess for the one but yucko. and Delbert pretty much has no redeeming features!
irl if I was to honor Mark and Albert I'd use Alden--to honor my stepfather's mayflower ancestors and the "Al" that is repeated over and over in my mother's family (Alan, Albert, Alvin, etc).
Maybe I missed this in Laura's post, but why are most focusing on honoring a male relative by naming their daughter after them? Although there's nothing wrong with it, many women ancestors have gone un-named for and unrecognized in many societies' histories. I should think the challenge to name a boy after a Dalia, Susan, or Rachel would be a bit tougher--and thus, right up the alley of our NE community here.
I don't have a lot of relatives with Western names. But here's a sampling of those who do:
Men: Maurice, Emil, William
"Corresponding" girls' names: Maura, Mauricia, Emilia, Emily, Willa, Billie, Wilhemina
Women: Elaine, Angela
"Corresponding" boys' names: Allan, Elmer, Angel, ?? (or, to get creative, maybe a boys' name of an angel, for example Michael or Gabriel).
Honestly, I would never name my kid after any of these people, though, save for Angela.
I'd like to add this note: I have known four different people of three different age groups who have come from large families with siblings all named after the father(two African-American; one European-American; one Irish; three middle-income, one lower-income--so, apparently, no demographic commonality here).
The names were stretched thin by the third kid:
Father: John
Kids:
Johnna (g)
Johnetta(g)
Johnisa (g)
John (b)
Johnathan (b--actual spelling)
Johnnessa (g)
Father: Darren
Darryn (b)
Darrenna (g)
Darreen (g)
Father: Gerald
Gerald (b)
Geraldine (g)
Gerryanne (g)
Gerard (b)
I would like to respectfully express my displeasure with this naming scenario. My personal belief is that a man who "needs" every child named after him (and a woman/women who agree with him) has some ego issues. Yes, I know a lot of people have large egos, and aren't children an extension of our egos, anyway? But. I think it's unfortunate that these kids had to wear those possible "issues" on their sleeves--or on their nametags, as it were.
oops--I forgot the last person. In case you're interested:
Father: Roger
Rogerika (g)(I don't know how this one was spelled--I knew it on sound alone)
Roger (b)
Rogerria (g) (I don't know how this one was spelled)
When I see lists like that how many kids they would have to have to run out of options. And I wonder how often the wrong kid comes running when the mom yells. And I wonder all the same things as you, easternbetty. I will respectfully add to your displeasure. We each get to name our own children. I love the job, but I never wanted clones.
ok. also to easternbetty. My grandma was Gladys. I can not/will not name a child Gladys. But I would love to honor her. Can you help me? My dad was Jerry, sometimes nn Jed. There is a semi-ok approval to use the name James Edward/Edmond nn Jed to honor him. But it is not quite hitting the right spot. Any other ideas?
Also, do any of you know anything about the name Cretora? (cree-tora)
Easternbetty--
Laura's post focuses specifically on male to female, both in the 'essay' part and in the examples. At the very end of the male to female examples, there is one female to male example, looking rather like an afterthought. Hence, posters have concentrated on male to female.
In my community, the Ashkenazic Jews, it is a firm custom/tradition to name children after deceased family members. That means that if the grandpas are living, but a grandma has passed away a newborn son will be named after the grandma, and so the female to male name issue will arise--double because both corresponding Hebrew and vernacular names have to be chosen.
In my case my grandfather died while my mother was expecting me, and both my grandmothers were living. The namesake was obvious.
When my cousin had her son, her mother, my Aunt Mildred, was deceased, but Uncle Joe was still alive. So my cousin named her son Michael after Mildred. This so incensed our Aunt Blanche, who wanted Milton and thought Michael was too far off course, that she turned around and gave my sister and me $5000 a piece just so she could snub my cousin by giving her zip. This was all the weirder because Aunt Blanche despised Aunt Mildred and hadn't spoken a word to her for twenty years....
I myself had the sad misfortune of having lost both my parents before my son was born, so I had same-gender names ready no matter whether I happened to have a son or a daughter.
As for egomaniacal fathers, George Foreman may take the prize. From Wikipedia:
"Foreman has 10 children, and each of his five sons is named George: George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI. He is able to distinguish one from another by the use of nicknames such as "Monk", "Big Wheel" and "Little George".[3] His five daughters are Michi, Freeda, Georgetta, Natalie, and Leola."
Egomania or sheer lack of imagination, that's six out of ten. Do you think Michi, Freeda, Natalie, and Leola feel left out--or grateful?
Hi Jessica,
Should I presume that you would only name a child after a relative of the same gender?
Either way, I've put (g) for girl and (b) for boy:
Gladys "Sound-alikes"
Glynis (g)
Glen (b)
Glenna (g)
Adyssa/Adisa (g)
Addie (g)
Addis (g/b)--also a little-used place name; great capital city :)
Gladys Meaning or Sound cognates
Farah (g) (gladness/joy in Arabic--for "GLADys" sound)
Joy (g) (")
Leticia (g) (")
Felicity (g) (")
Felix (b) "
Claudia (g)
(If I recall correctly, some sources believe Gladys is a Welsh form of this name, which means "disabled"--but I don't have my better books at the location I'm at, so I'll leave it to someone else to verify). I LOVE the name Claudia, BTW.
Claude (b) (")
Jerry sound-alikes
Jeremiah (b)
Gerard (b)
Gerald (b)
Geraldine (g)
Jerusha (g)
If I think of more, I'll post.
Miriam,
That's ashame about the rest of the Foreman children. Georgianna, Georgina, and Georgia are such pretty names! I suppose the last one could be Georgette, which seems easily distinguishable enough from Georgetta in a family of six Georges! Yeesh.
Winifred is a curious one. It comes from the Gwen root in Celtic, which has many variant spellings. My husband has one of these Celtic Gwen type names, and I've considered Winifred in honor of him. His middle name is Joseph and Josephine is actually the more obvious choice at the moment. If anyone has any beautiful suggestions for honoring a Roger, I would be most grateful.
John yields Jean, Jeannette, Johanna, Joanna, Joan
Jules (family name for us) could become Juliette, Juliet, Julianne, Julia, Julianna
William becomes Wilhelmina, but I wonder if Mina on its own would suffice? I also knew a girl named Billie.
Henry--> Harriet, Henrietta (was this one discussed?)
Peter--> Petra
Otto--> Ottoline, Ottilie
Karyn--You could go for something rhyming with Wayne, like Blaine, Duane, Jane, Laine, Shane, or Zane...even Elaine or Lorraine if you were okay with a slight stretch.
another amy--Dean could become Deanna or even Dina, or to continue the rhyming trend, Jeanne or possibly anything -ine.
Easternbetty--How was Rogerria pronounced?
Elisabeth,
I had the same thought about the Foreman daughters. I mean, why not Georgianna, Georgina, Georgia--and, while we're at it, Georgie Girl? BTW I had a colleague named Georgette whose brother was George--they weren't twins either.
I did give some suggestions above for feminine names related to Roger. Both Rose and Rowena come from the same initial root, Hrod/Hroth. Rowena is little used, and I quite like it.
Speaking of Rowena and unusual sibsets, a goodly number of years ago a colleague asked the Anglo-Saxonists' listserv members for help in finding an Anglo-Saxon name for his fifth child (second daughter). His first four children were named Herebeorht, Eadweard, Raedwald, and Emma. Well, the suggestions came in, Edith, Edwina, Godiva, Hild, Audrey (AEthelthryth), Fritheswithe, and so on, but in the end, he (and presumably his wife) chose Rowena. BTW the kids (all teens and young adults) go by Hereb, Ead, Raed, Rowie, and Emma.
about the foreman children..
don't worry about freeda, her middle name is george. :P
Let's see, going back for several generations, men on my side of the family are James and William. If I were to name daughters after them I'd probably go with Jemma and Willa, but I'm not, so there. :)
However, I'd love to name either a son or a daughter after my grandmother Jacqueline. The problem is DH and I don't really care for the names Jacqueline, Jack, or *shudder* Jackson. Well, the first two are okay, just not really my style.
If I have a daughter she's pretty much already named -- Isla Ruth after my mother Ruth Ailene.
What would be a male version of Ruth though?
I had a feeling somebody would ask "why not talk about naming boys after grandma?" :-) The answer is in the narrow way I framed the challenge: finding creative/unexpected names that *come from the same source name*. That's hard to do with women's names because historically they didn't spawn "spinoffs." It's a one-way street -- very few men's names are formed from classic women's names. So for these purposes, there's not much to play with. (You might notice that the Jennifer example above is rather a stretch.) I know that a handful of familiar surnames do come from women's names...anybody?
I knew a couple a few years back who wanted to name their child David after a relative. When the baby turned out to be a girl, the 'd' in David was changed to an 'a' to accommodate--and Davia was born!
I liked Njjm’s way of arranging this. I did my grandfathers, grandfathers-in-law, father, stepfather, father-in-law, and lastly my husband, who was the hardest.
Family Name: Charles
Standard: Charlotte
Origin: Carolina
Sound: Charity
Meaning: Leda
Family Name: Eugene
Standard: Eugenia
Origin: Owena
Sound: Eudora, Eustacia
Meaning: Adelaide
Family Name: Richard, called Dick
Standard: Ricarda?
Origin: Richmal (not sure how this is pronunced)
Sound: Dixie
Meaning: Alarice, Erica, Frederica, Harriet (works if you pare Richard down to the “ric” part)
Family Name: George
Standard: Georgia
Origin: Georgiana
Sound: Ginger
Meaning: Gardenia
Family Name: Michael
Standard: Michaela
Origin: Mihaela, Miguela
Sound: Michiko
Meaning: Angelina
Family Name: Victor
Standard: Victoria (best nickname ever for Victoria I heard on a young Russian girl: Vica, pronounced VEEK-a)
Origin: Vittoria
Sound: Vita
Meaning: Boadicea (coolest ever), Nike (also quit cool)
Family Name: James
Standard: Jamesina
Origin: Jaqueline
Sound: Jasmine, Jamila
Meaning: ?
Family Name: Joshua
Standard: ?
Origin: Josune, Jesusa
Sound: Sasha, Shoshannah
Meaning: Salvadora
I knew a woman named Danel (dan-NELL) named for her father (Dan or Daniel, not sure which).
I've always liked some less used feminine versions of masculine names like Raphaella, Josefina, Alexa or Alexis, Michaela, Antonia, Gabrielle, Georgia, Jordana. And I love Addison as a nod to Adam. NN Addie is positively adorable.
I always considered the name Teodora (Tay-oh-dor-ah) for the fem version of my grandfather's name, Theodore. I'd jump at the opportunity to name a child after my grandmother as well, Lorraine. But I'm not crazy about it and can't think of any masculine alternatives (Loren? Sounds too much like Lauren to me)
Kimberly - Rufus? I think you'd almost have to find the meaning of Ruth and then find the same/similar meaning even if it looks/sounds nothing like Ruth.
Jessica - Geri or geraldine/a?
Easternbetty - Knew of a family where the father was Robert and his oldest daughter was Roberta and his son was Robert. When Susan came along as the 3rd, she was crushed that she was the only child her father hadn't wanted to share his name with. :-)
Both DH and I hate the female names on his side, but I came up with the mn Jill to honor all 3 of his sisters who have the first initials L,J,and L. :)
I should continue on Jacqueline ... since I didn't really go down the whole list of names and why I don't really like any of them. I should say that my grandmother was not at all French and her name was pronounced the American way--JACK-uh-lynn.
Jacques - neither DH or I are at all french and it would be just weird
Jake - cute, but I don't like nn's for given names, plus it's a nn for ..
Jacob - cute, but 1) biblical and 2) the most popular boy name
Jacobo, etc - see above, plus it would be weird to use names from an ethnicity we have exactly 0 claim to
I guess Jacqueline is closely related to James, which leads to all the James names, but I don't really want a name that is obviously from James, since that would lead to major confusion about who, exactly, he's named after since my father, grandfather, brother and so forth are all James. Does that seem weird?
My grandmothers, grandmothers-in-law (combined Maria/Mary), mother, and mother-in-law:
Family Name: Anita
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Anatole, Anthony
Meaning: John
Family Name: Joan
Standard: John
Origin: Ian, Sean, Giovanni, Hans, Ivan.
Sound: Jonah
Meaning: Miles
Family Name: Maria/Mary
Standard: Mariono
Origin: Marion
Sound: Mario
Meaning: Merari (Old Testament name)
Family Name: Sally
Standard: Sal
Origin: n/a
Sound: Salvatore, Salim
Meaning: Cadfael, Rex
Family Name: Martha
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Martin
Meaning: Adam, Charles
Kimberly, how about Jacquetta? Jacquetta of Luxembourg (Jacquetta Woodville by second marriage) was the mother-in-law of Edward IV and great-grandmother of Henry VIII. So it's not a made-up name.
Laura, are you thinking of surnames derived from feminine occupational titles like Baxter and Webster?
For Ruth, which means "friend" ... all the "win" names mean "friend." There are lots to work with.
Considering my grandparents...
Grandfather Karl? Easy... Karla/Carla, Karly/Karlie, etc.
Stepgrandfather Lyndon? Also easy... Linden is a totally cute, yet strong, name for a girl.
Grandfather Graham and both grandmothers named Edith? That's more difficult...
EDIT to previous post:
However, Graham might work for a girl as well...
David (means beloved) you could go with a biblically related name or meaning. Abigail (one of David's wives) or Carina/Cara
Benjamin =thought of Jemima
Richard=Richelle
Frank=Frances
Wayne=Juanita for sound alike
Garry/Gerrit=Gerri or Gertie
Maurice=Maureen
Stewart=Going on meaning I had to stretch to "keeper" and then stretch further to "peaceful ruler" to get Frederica
Stan=best I could find was Constance or you could do the whole gem=stone idea and go with Jade/Jewel/etc. and Sidney means meadow so Stanley=Sidney Jade
Timothy=meaning is to honor God so Honor seems to be appropriate
Harland=Harlow
Joseph=Josie/Josephine/Josiane which could arrange to Josianna
Thomas=Tammy or derivative
Matthew=(on meaning also) Dorothy or derivative
Tempie=Tempe/Temperance
Bruce=Bryce/Brysen
Dean=Deena/Deanna
Arthur=best choice is Ursula
Warren=Samara
Donald=Donelle
Roger=Cayne/Corrigan/Gerri and derivatives/Trudy
Miriam-Love Zoe Irene!
Miriam-Immediately thought of George Forman also. Great minds think alike!
Rogerria makes me think of the aging disease Progeria. Definitely a deal breaker!
sdh-Like Holland and Holly is so cute (albeit a bit obvious) for a winter baby
Being intensely bored since every single person I know here is in Europe for the summer and I am not, I took up Laura's challenge to find surnames derived from feminine names and here's what I came up with. (Note: my fields are Old and Middle English , Old Icelandic and Germanic philology, so I didn't go looking for surnames which might also work in languages I don't know well.)
The obvious (infamous) one is Madison, son of Maud. Another obvious one is Marion, a diminutive of Mary, as in Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. Some less obvious ones are Kimberley (Cyneburga's field), Audley (Ealdgyth's field), Dwight (from Diot, a diminutive of Dionysia), Emmett (a diminutive of Emma), Evelyn (from Aveline/a, ultimately from Ava), Royce (Rose), and Wilbur (Wilburg/a).
Ones which look like they might fill the bill but don't:
Ainsley (Anna's field)
Eldon/Elton (AElla/Ella's 'tun' fortified settlement)
Both Anna and Ella are masculine names. (See King Anna of East Anglia and King AElla/Ella/AElle of Northumbria.)
OK, Laura, so what have I missed?
"Miriam,
I disagree that Frederick and Winifred are unrelated. Frederick is from the "Germanic" element fred/frid meaning peace and Winifred is from a Welsh name that used the Old English element frid (meaning peace). The Germanic family of language includes Old English, so I think that Frederick & Winifred meet Laura's criteria of coming from the same root."
Lysis, I forgot to comment on this.
WINFRED is a Germanic masculine name made up of the roots for 'friend' and 'peace' and so can be said to be related to Frederick. WINIFRED is a feminine name derived from the Welsh Gwenfrewi and has nothing to do with Frederick.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are another example - they have a daughter Willow, and a son Jaden. I think Willow especially is beautiful - and sounds so much more effortless than something like Johnetta, where you can 'see the joints'.
I always thought Erica was the feminine of Eric, but apparently it has a much more recent history and can be traced to the Latin for heather. So you could name a little Erica after either her dad Eric or her mother Heather!
Cringing at George Foreman's brood. Hang onto your boots for the Adam Clayton Powell clan...
Adam Clayton Powell Sr. (1864-1953) was a prominent pastor in Harlem (NY). His son Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972) was a civil rights leader and member of Congress. So far, nothing unusual...
*With his second wife, he had a son Adam Clayton Powell III.
*With his third wife, he had a son Adam Clayton Powell-Diago (b. 1962) (wife was Puerto Rican, so they were following Spanish naming traditions)--BUT, this ACP-D changed his name to Adam Clayton Powell IV in 1980.
*Aha, but there was already an Adam Clayton Powell IV (b. 1970) by then--the son of III. (This one became an engineer)
*The older Adam Clayton Powell IV has followed his father into politics--and named his own son Adam Clayton Powell V.
*So, to recap, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. had two sons who went by ACP III and IV, and two grandsons named ACP--ACP IV and V.
Are these people just unimaginative? Do they think they are being cute or funny? Or are they just following a family tradition? In any case, I think it's ridiculous! No wonder I have so much trouble finding all my John and Mary, Anthony's and Michael's in my Genealogy! Thank goodness I broke the trend.
Another celebrity father with a peculiar naming style (and a few other peculiarities) is Michael Jackson. He has two sons, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince") and Prince Michael Jackson II, and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.
I have a co-worker named Nicole who named her first son Nicholas. They now have 4 kids, but none of them are named after Dad.
Wow, Laura is right. It's really hard moving from feminine names to masculine ones, unless the female name is already a derivative or a crossover.
Family Name: Anita
Standard: n/a
Origin: Anibal
Sound: Anil, Andre
Meaning: Zayn (grace in Arabic)
Family Name: Phyllis
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Philip, Phelan
Meaning: n/a
Family Name: Shirley
Standard: Shirley
Origin: Sherwood, Riley
Sound: Sheridan
Meaning:
Something else I thought of earlier for my grandfather Gerard, and the person stumped by a Gerrit: for a "sounds similar" name, Greta is adorable I think.
It's been interesting to see all the creative solutions people are coming up with!
I know a brand new Stevie Elisabeth. No more than a month old, though I can't remembr her date of birth. I also know a Stevie who is probably 6 years old. Both of these are FEMALE Stevies.
I am not good enough, nor do I have the resources to comes up with some names from our family. I'm quite the newbie when it comes to loving names. Our family is mostly Charles/Charlies anyway, so Laura already did the work for me. :)
Okay, female names going to male. In my family:
My mom is Ann. her son is Andrew, but I don't think they consciously named him after her.
Wendy -- Wendell
Suzanna - Zander
Margaret -- Garret
Jewel -- Jules
Judith -- Jude
Linda -- Linden
Mara -- Mark
Hmm women to boys names...in my family I have Carol=Karol/Charles
Dorothy=Matthew(on meaning)
Vera=Vincent/Victor (on first letter)
Rose=Rowan(sound)
Margaret=Mark/Garrett
Ruth=Rudy (don't care for this at all though)might just go with initials if I had to. Her middle is G so RG could be Robert George or Richard Garrett or something like that. Rowan Geoffrey works too.
Maybe the classicists can tell me the problem with this thinking, but when I see names like Julius/Julia, or Alexander/Alexandra, I don't think oh, the male name is the "original"--they're just the male and female versions of a name, with equal claims on being "original" rather than derivative. (After all, there were always roughly equal numbers of men and women to be called SOMETHING, eh?)
So I'm not sure what the hold-up should be...
Louise's namesake is Louis, or Lewis, or Ludwig; Caroline's namesake is Carl or Charlie or Karol;
Julia's namesake is Julian, or Jules, or Julio;
Olivia's namesake is Oliver, or Olivier;
Marcia's namesake is Marc, or Marco, or Marcus;
Jane's namesake is John, or Evan, or Ian;
Lea's namesake is Leo, or Lee, or Fielding;
Etc. etc.
I was just thinking..changing the subject a bit, can we have 12 children in fantasyland named after the 12 months of the year?
Janus(b)January(g)
??(b)Violet or Amethyst(g)
Marcus(b)Marge(g)
Avery(b)Avril or April(g)
??(b)May or Maya(g)
??(b)Juniper or June(g)
Jules(b)Julie/Juley/July(g)
August/Augustus(b)Augustine(g)
Seth(b)Septima(g)
Octavius(b)Octavia(g)
??(b)Neve(g)
Declan(b)Holly or Winter(g)
Does anyone have any ideas for my blanks or alternate ideas for those I've posted?
Stephanie- a girl I used to work with had 2 children, and when her 2nd was born, really wanted to honor her dad. So she named her daughter (1st was a girl too) SteveAnn MaidenName (similar to Conangeli) LN. Her other daughter was Victoria.
January
Enero- Spanish
Garnet- birthstone
March
Marzo- Spanish
Jasper- birthstone
April
April
Abril- Spanish
Avril- French
May
Mae
Maggio— French could become Maggie?
Mayo -Spanish could become Maya?
June
June
Junio- Spanish
Juni -YOO-nee German
Pearl- birthstone
Summer
July
Julio-Spanish
Ruby-birthstone
Onyx- birthstone
Juli -YOO-lee German
August
August
October
Opal- birthstone
I seem to be very drawn to feminized versions of male names: my eldest is Philippa (Pippa) and for our other two girls we had Georgina, Theodora, and Cornelia (Cornelius is a family name for us) on our list at various stages. Possibly my favorite of the moment is Augusta (Gussie), since after three girls I'm starting to think I'm not capable of making the little Gus I have pined for for two pregnancies :) I also saw Angusina in a Scottish baby name book once!
Jodi-You know how Murphy likes to get his hand in on these things-LOL. Once you use up Augusta for a girl then you'll get pg with a boy.
JuBo-I like your idea of using birthstone names didn't think of that. Thanks. February and November boys names are still stumping me though!
It make me confuse.
i think have female name and male name. every words have the couple word.
man with woman, boy with girl, ect. just change into the couple.
Zoerhenne- how about Noel or Noelle for a December boy? or Noeline? I like the birthstone idea too- Maybe I could rename myself Ruby ( last week's discussion has tempted me)
The domestic goddess Nigella Lawson was named for her father, and her sisters are called Thomasina and Horatia. I think one needs to be screamingly posh to get away with those ones!
Jodi- The heiress who married Mr Elton after Emma Woodhouse refused him was named Augusta.....
Hi all, I've been a lurker here, but I couldn't resist since I've been thinking about this topic anyway. I'd only been thinking of same gender conversions for my hypothetical children. I'd come up with Garrett to honor my father Gary, but I also considered Gray which seems to me like it could be used either for a girl or boy. Particularly cute for a girl I think.
I do like the suggestion of Thomas/Tamsin since Thomas is my husband's father's name.
Both of our mothers are named Patricia. Obviously the direct idea would be Patrick, but I'm just not overly fond of that name. His family is very tied to the name Patricia (3 generations worth), so much so that I doubt he'd want a child named any variants on it, but I was just wondering if there would be any options, creative or otherwise.
AB: I know a Pascal who goes by "Pat". Also, it's not really done much anymore, but in the 1800s, "Patsy" was a common nickname for Martha--not sure why, but it was.
Oooh, also for the Patricia namesakes:
"Patsy is also an English diminutive of other names containing the syllable “Pat” or “Pet,” including Hypatia, Patience, Patrice, Patton, Cleopatra, Patterson, Petrona, Petula, etc."
Cleopatra would be mighty hard to carry (and I believe it's a popular cat's name), but Patience or Patterson I can see...
And don't forget the Irish Padraig/Padraic--just in case a different spelling freshens the name for you.
A few girls named after fathers from the popular media come to mind from the examples StevieAnn and others above:
- JonBenet Ramsey, I believe was named after her father
- JamieLynn Spears, also (Jamie makes for a cross-gender launch pad there)
But what to do if your male relative is named something difficult?
- Keith?
- Jeffrey? (someone suggested Freya for that)
- Stuart / Stewart?
- Bruce? (this was also mentioned by someone above, with no resolve)
- Scott?
- Clyde?
- Howard?
- Angus?
I guess for the truly stubborn there's still the ScottieLynn and HowardAnn route, but I claim that with some names you just have to stretch the rules, and reduce to initials, nicknames, meanings or sounds from within the name. If it really is that essential to insist that they were Named After Someone In The Family. :)
february boy-Valentino!
To add: there's also another, less common reason to give a boy's name to a girl: the parents wanted a boy so badly they refused to use anything but a boy's name.
For example, Barack Obama's mother's full name is Stanley Ann Durham, and she went by Stanley until college. This practice seems a little dated, though - or am I wrong?
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