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
Kat--I CAN"T BELIEVE that someone else is considering Peregrine. This is an old family name for my husband's family and I have been happily saving it for our future son. I hadn't ever considered it as a girl's name. My husband has a history of colorful names in his family--his name is Chauncey--a name I might consider for both a boy or a girl. Good luck and let us know what you choose!
I knew I had heard the name Sunday somewhere:
"My Gal Sunday: Henry and Sunday Stories
(1996)
A collection of stories by Mary Higgins Clark.
Henry Parker Britland IV is wealthy and worldly - a beloved former president who, still youthful, is enjoying early retirement. His new wife, Sunday, is beautiful, smart and seventeen years younger than he, and has just been elected to Congress in a stunning upset victory that has made her the darling of the media. Henry and Sunday make a formidable team of sleuths - and never more so than when they set out to solve crimes occurring among their friends in political high society..."
Thanks for fascinating info. on Sunday Reed. The only "Sunday" I'd heard of previously was the designer Sunday Hendrickson, who I believe is fairly well-known in her field. At the time I was immediately taken with her name-- it seemed to suit her sense of whimsy.
I like it too, because it pleasantly references the most important day for most Christians. Is not Nicole Kidman a believing Catholic? Nice. There's also the ancient rhyme (does it go back to Elizabethan times?) which supposedly "predicts" what children will be like based on their day of birth:
Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child has to work for a living;
But a child born on the Sabbath Day, is fair and wise and good and gay.
I'm normally bemused by the stereotypical celebs who strive for "out-there" names, but "Sunday Rose Kidman Urban" strikes me just right. Did you notice they went for multiple middle names, incorporating Miss Kidman's maiden name in the mix? I always like that, as we did it with our own son.
Would love to know what Connor and Isabella's middle names are...
Eo- The version I know of that rhyme says that "The child that is born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blithe and good and gay." Maybe Bonny and Blythe would be good sibling names for Sunday!! Not so sure about Gay.... ;)
Eo,
I believe the Cruise kids has the middle names, Jane and Antony, and if I remember well they also have Nicole's maiden name as a middle name.
How about Bryce as a way to honor Bruce? Although it's most commonly a boy's name, it could be used as a girl's probably without duress thanks to Ron Howard's daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard.
My 5 month old is named Willa, after my father's first name, William.
How about naming a boy July after Grandma Julia?
My grandfather's name was Oran, and I always thought that if I named a little girl after him I'd go with Oriana rather than the more obvious, and to my ears less pretty, Ora.
I know a woman who named her daughter Daylene after her father whose name was Dale.
I'm a British Tamsyn (the Cornish spelling, as opposed to the Anglicised Tamsin) and I'm twenty-eight. All the Tamsyns I've met have been my age or older, so it's been kicking about a fair bit longer than twenty years over here.
Other variants for Thomas: Thomasin, Thomasina, Thomazine.
Sorry if this is a repeat of someone else's thoughts, I admit I have not read through them all:) I was thinking about Mel, my dad and grandads name(Emile in french). My sister is Melody, but I was trying to comr up with some "newer" ideas..
Melia (Meleah)
Melynn (prob. pron. MA-lynn)
Amelia
In the south we just put "Mary" or "Anne" in front of a male name to make it work for a little girl. Examples from friends of mine:
Mary Charles
Mary Thomas
Mary Taylor
Anne Marshall
Mary Ryan
yes, they are called these full names. Do other people in other parts of the country do this too?
Ian is from John, meaning gift. Dora is a girl's name unrelated to John which also means gift.
Richard means strong ruler, Valerie means strong or valorous.
Rikki is a good fem version of Richard, too.
Or Erica.
Benjamin means favored son, Hannah or Anne means favored by grace.
Or Jasmine for the sound. Or Bonita for a sort of echo.
- Erin
Gerri
Wayne means wagon. How about Carter for a male or female?
The roots of the word wagon are related to the roots of the word go, so William and Guy and all their derivatives become cognates since their roots are also derived from the root of go.
Rayna means queen and looks like Wayne.
- Erin
My father's name was Orgal (apparently derived from a Muskegee Indian word that rhymed with older brother Virgil) and my mother was named Rilda (German meaning Brook). Thankfully, I'm Joyce Elaine in real life. :)
- Erin (online)
And what about Francis for Frances?
Paloma in Spanish can be used for either dove or pigeon.
As crazy as this may sound, I need some serious inspiration. Husband and I are literally on our last leg as far as naming our daughter, who is due in a month.
We want to name her after my beloved grandmother, Francesca (she Americanized it to Fran or Frances), but we don't want to give her the same exact name. We need something original, but we've got nothing...
Her family name was Tess/Tessa/Tessie, but my H sees that as too plain and common...
Our sixteen-month-old is named Xavier, if that helps.
----
To the poster looking for an alternate to Maria, what about Molly? Molly is a form of Mary which is in turn a form of Maria.
More ideas:
Margaret = Garrett
Elizabeth = Eli, or any name beginning with Eli which means "God," such as Elijah.
I can think of some cross-gender names for my family, but not many that I like. This is what I've come up with:
Family name: Orville
Standard: n/a
Origin: "or" (golden) + "ville" (city), which yields Oriana, Ora, Orinda, all of which mean "gold."
Sound: Ora, Orla
Meaning: Danaë, Golda, Marigold.
Literature: Since this name was invented by Fanny Burney for her novel Evelina, perhaps Evelina?
Family name: John
Standard: Jane
Origin: Johanna, Joan, Joanna, Iona, Ivana
Family name: Arthur
Standard: Arthuretta, Arthurine, Arthurine
Sound: Artemis
Meaning: The name has two possible meanings, "bear" or "noble." Ursula or Ursa both mean "bear." Adara, Adela, Adelaide, and Ethel all mean "noble."
Literature: Some names from Arthurian legend: Avalon, Morgan (his magical stepsister), Guinevere, Kay (one of Arthur's knights), Vivien (the lady in the lake).
Family name: Michael
Standard: Michaela, Michelle
Origin: Micheline, Mikaela, Mikayla, etc.
Sound: Micah
Meaning: Since Michael is an archangel, Angel, Angelica, Angelina, Malaika, Seraphina.
Literature: the name of another archangel, Gabriel (Gabrielle).
Family name: Mary
Standard: Marion
Origin: Mies (a Dutch diminutive of both Mary and Bartholomew, supposedly).
Sound: Marin, Mario, Marius
Meaning: From "beloved," there's David. There's also Rosario, which means rosary.
Family name: Magdalena
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Magnus? Not really...
Meaning: n/a
Family name: Virginia
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Virgil
Meaning: n/a
Family name: Patricia
Standard: Patrick
Origin: Padraic, Padraig
Sound: Patton
Meaning: Earl, which means nobleman.
Family name: Ann
Standard: n/a
Origin: ???
Sound: Anson (like "son of Ann"), Ander, Andrew, Anton
Meaning: Milos, Hannibal (Hann is the same root, and it means "grace"... ugh, though!)
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