Timeline for Determining someone's gender from their name
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 20, 2017 at 3:13 | comment | added | Robert Columbia | Great points. Some other masculine names that end in "a" are Joshua, Asa, Dana, Elisha, Nicola, and Sasha. Some (but not all) of these come from Hebrew. | |
| May 17, 2016 at 15:23 | comment | added | Martha | @adib: literal patronymics were used pretty much everywhere at various times in the past. Two forces have caused them to fossilize - turn into non-literal surnames - in most countries: bureaucracy, and people aping the nobility. The fact that Malaysia and Iceland use literal patronymics is not unusual or unexpected; what's unusual (or "behind the times") is that they still use literal patronymics. | |
| May 17, 2016 at 3:19 | comment | added | adib | @hammar Icelandic names are very similar to Malay names although they're originally half a world away. Interesting, doesn't it? | |
| Mar 15, 2016 at 17:47 | comment | added | ghostarbeiter | It is not a new phenomenon that some male names tend to turn female over time (it is hard to think of any example in the opposite direction). Evelyn Waugh was a man and Vivian was once a male name, but now both are popular female baby names in the US. Likewise for Beverly, although that one is so old that it has fallen off the charts for girls too. | |
| Mar 31, 2013 at 4:19 | vote | accept | Golden Cuy | ||
| Mar 21, 2013 at 13:48 | comment | added | Martha | @woony: in practice, it doesn't matter how many other people have the same name. What matters is how many people in your social circle have the same name, and that (1) tends to be a lot fewer people, hence fewer duplicates; and (2) there are easy distinguishing methods you can use, as the wikipedia article says, such as using the parent's middle name instead of/in addition to the first name, or adding grandparental patronymics, or whatever. Think of it this way: there are still people with the last name Smith who name their sons John. | |
| Mar 21, 2013 at 12:42 | comment | added | woony | @hammar wauw, that's crazy :-). Wouldn't that mean that a lot of people end up with the same name? I mean, there must be a lot of jons that have a father named charles for example? | |
| Mar 20, 2013 at 23:08 | comment | added | hammar | @choster: At least in Iceland, you can usually tell by their surname. | |
| Mar 20, 2013 at 18:05 | comment | added | choster | Indeed, even in countries which regulate names, the answer is not always definitive. An Icelandic girl named after a character in a famous Icelandic novel was denied her name because it takes a masculine article. It was not resolved until earlier this year. cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/03/iceland-name-fight.html bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21280101 | |
| Mar 20, 2013 at 16:22 | history | answered | Martha | CC BY-SA 3.0 |