Names: My newspaper column: now featuring The Old Man and the most famous spouse of witch

[Ormond]

11 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

Ormond, do you think parents are more likely to choose traditionally male name on girl or is it just nameberry site's things?

I am not quite sure what you are asking, but it is certainly true that people in English speaking countries are much more likely to give a traditionally "male" name to a daughter than they are to give a traditionally "female" name to a son. This is just sexism at work -- giving a daughter a "male" name elevates her to a higher status, while giving a "female" name to a boy would "contaminate" him, in terms of sexist beliefs.

[Lady Winter Rose]

17 hours ago, Ormond said:

I am not quite sure what you are asking, but it is certainly true that people in English speaking countries are much more likely to give a traditionally "male" name to a daughter than they are to give a traditionally "female" name to a son.

 

My question is - is this becoming more widespread?

[Ormond]

7 minutes ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

 

My question is - is this becoming more widespread?

Only in the sense that as modern parents continually search for "different" names for their babies that every way of doing this is more widespread.

[Ormond]

Here is today's column:

https://omaha.com/evans-we-can-thank-pop-culture-for-scores-of-gen-x-amys/article_bc61a822-7627-11eb-ae15-6b3ebb897de2.html

This was one of those columns I had a lot more information than I had room for. I did mention that back in the late 19th century Amy skewed toward African-Americans in the USA. I didn't get to mention that when it came back in the 1970s it was just the opposite -- it was a mostly White name then, with many Black parents in the USA avoiding it. Perhaps it was still associated with slavery in their minds. I found only two African-American Amys with any sort of fame in my research. Amy Dubois Barnett (born 1974) was the first African-American woman to edit a major magazine (Ebony). Though her parents always told her to identify as Black, her father is actually a White Jewish man from New York City. Amy Sherald (born 1973) painted the official portraits of President Obama and Michelle Obama. Her father's name is Amos, so her parents probably used Amy as a feminine form of that name.

Also -- every since I wrote this column I just can't get "Once in Love with Amy" out of my head!! That song sure was catchy. 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Ormond
adding a P.S.

[Ormond]

Here is the link to today's column:

https://omaha.com/lifestyles/trevor-was-a-grand-slam-in-the-1990s-thanks-to-baseballs-all-stars/article_3b1085f4-827a-11eb-8862-f359ebbe0cc5.html

Trevor is interesting as a name which will have a very different image for Americans than it does for people in the UK because of its usage pattern. The typical Trevor in England is turning 66 this year, while the typical American Trevor will be only 23.

[Ormond]

Here is the link to today's column:

https://omaha.com/cleveland-evans-kara-cara-holds-supergirl-appeal/article_4597beba-8cc1-11eb-a5d9-47cc566f50f9.html

Historically Kara has also been used as a male by-name and a surname in Turkey and Albania, where it means "black", with metaphorical connotations of "courageous" or "mighty". 

[Ormond]

Here's today's column. It will be interesting to see if this name does switch genders soon.

https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-percy-sounds-aristocratic-but-disney-series-could-change-that/article_e7e7f264-97b3-11eb-8485-4be578d031e5.html

[Maltaran]

The only Percy I know IRL is a spaniel

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, Maltaran said:

The only Percy I know IRL is a spaniel

Not surprising. Though Percy was much more common in the UK than the USA for men born in the early years of the 20th century, it's been extremely rare in Britain since 1940. 

[Lady Winter Rose]

19 hours ago, Ormond said:

Here's today's column. It will be interesting to see if this name does switch genders soon.

https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-percy-sounds-aristocratic-but-disney-series-could-change-that/article_e7e7f264-97b3-11eb-8485-4be578d031e5.html

noooo, I like Percy for a boy!

[Lady Winter Rose]

does anybody have text on different site because I'm European and want to read it.

[Ormond]

5 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

does anybody have text on different site because I'm European and want to read it.

If you send me an email address in a personal message I will be happy to send you a copy of the column. 

[Lady Winter Rose]

thank you, will read it now.

 

edit: read it, wonderfully informative, as always.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Lady Winter Rose

[Ormond]

Here is the link to today's column:

https://omaha.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/cleveland-evans-among-boomers-there-are-plenty-of-andrews/article_8180e954-a2a8-11eb-b652-af7720db3f8a.html

I do not know why the editors of the Omaha.com website wrote the headline they did, since the column itself clearly states that Andrew is more common in the USA among GenXers and Millennials than it is among Boomers. The headlines are not the same on the website as they are in the paper version, where the headline is "Staying Power Makes Andrew A Smash Hit", which makes more sense.

 

[Ormond]

Here's the link to today's column:

https://omaha.com/lifestyles/celebrating-mom-today-thank-anna/article_5b0e9cee-ada7-11eb-841e-fb4c59e4dda9.html

And happy Mother's Day to all!

[Lady Winter Rose]

Hey Ormond, are you doing USA top names analysis? Do you got any comments on the list?

Nameberry did this:

https://nameberry.com/blog/top-baby-names-2020-the-playground-analysis

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Lady Winter Rose

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

Hey Ormond, are you doing USA top names analysis? Do you got any comments on the list?

Nameberry did this:

https://nameberry.com/blog/top-baby-names-2020-the-playground-analysis

 

Yes, my column on Sunday will be my annual one on what the most common names really are when one adds together spellings that are probably pronounced the same. 

[Maltaran]

1 hour ago, Ormond said:

Yes, my column on Sunday will be my annual one on what the most common names really are when one adds together spellings that are probably pronounced the same. 

If you did that in the UK you'd probably get the various versions of Mohammed coming top every year.

[Ormond]

8 hours ago, Maltaran said:

If you did that in the UK you'd probably get the various versions of Mohammed coming top every year.

Quite probably, though the last year I can find quickly where someone has done that on the Internet for England & Wales is 2017.  Muhammad was #1 that year with spellings combined. (Scotland's data never seems to get added in to create an overall UK list.)

Muhammad was only #153 on my combined spellings list for the USA in 2020. 

[Tywin et al.]

@Ormond,

I meant to post this here a few weeks ago. Even if you don't care about pro sports, I think you'll have a blast with it. Click the link for a 43 minute podcast when you have some time.