So What’s In A (Boy or Girl) Name?

I know feminists devote a lot of energy and time to thinking about how people have a tendency to “gender” things (and why they shouldn’t be at all) but this last week, I sort of got a short introduction into what may be the hardest things we have when it comes to un-genendering…
our names.
As I’ve said before, my parents have 5 girls. Now, my name is quite sterotypically female, as is the name of my next sister. The 10 year old, however, is named Wesley Ray. My mother picked the name for a very dear (male) friend of hers who passed less than a week before the birth, and she thought it would be nice. My youngest sister is named after my father’s police partner, who was wounded while assisting him in a call, and her name is Corey. In between them is Wren (after the bird) and Quinn (which is a very Irish name). Now all these names are not traditionally female, to be sure. If you heard Wesley and Corey spoken, you’d might assume they were male, and Wren and Quinn, well, you may not know what gender those people were.
I just get extremely tired of people who, upon meeting our family, find it prudent to exclaim “I thought you were a boy!” or “Why does a little girl like you have a little boy’s name?” And then the kid gets stuck trying to explain why they have the name they do. Wesley got stuck with a blue name tag in preschool on the first day, because the teacher assumed anyone with that name was male, and it sort of irked her.
I understand that we come from a society that has specific “boy” and girl” names, and it seems like we are not meant to deviate from the set-our parameters, but it gets under my skin! I am starting to become of the opinion that strictly adhering to “boy” and “girl” names isn’t such a great idea and maybe we’d be better off if we could just name our children what we truly felt reflected on us best and what “fit” them the most! Granted, I think even I would be a bit taken aback were I to meet a woman named Mikey or Dan or Stevie or something to that effect, but I would do my best to get over it quickly and just move on.
So, are there any women out there who have a traditionally “masculine name” or have given a non-gender conforming name to one of their own? I’m really interested in hearing thoughts on the topic, since I have not met a great number of people in this situation before. Should we just, as a society, get over gendered names and move on, or do you think the confusion would be too great if we did?

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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