BS: Man's name or woman's name?

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:41 PM

Jody

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: treewind
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:40 PM

Allison is spelt differently from Alison - is that a consistent way to distinguish the sexes?

Likewise Leslie(m) and Lesley (f) but I'm not sure that's reliable either.

Peta and Peter, Frances and Francis...

Anahata
(male but you couldn't possbily tell from the name, and Osho was completely indiscriminate about gender when giving his people names)

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: winterchild
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:31 PM

My mother thought it would be original to give her daughter a boy's name. I was one of the first female Tracys. I never minded - turned out to be a tomboy anyway - but I keep getting _highly_ inappropriate spam for _Mr_ Tracy soandso!

;)

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: gnomad
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:29 PM

I knew an elderly man called Allison, he told me that was the tradtional name for the eldest son in his family over numerous generaions.

Sam seems to be moving over to the distaff side, but other than my old friend I cannot think of any coming the other way, no boy called Sue just yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:15 PM

We had this thread Dear Sir or Madam about the problem of how to write to officials when you don't know their name or their sex.

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: allanwill
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:14 PM

We've got about 9 million "sheilas" in Oz.

Allan

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: SharonA
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:13 PM

Mrrzy: But what kond of swat? :^)

Thanks, all, for the clarification on Shelagh. Keep those other names coming!

Speaking of male names "taken over" by women, how about Beverly and Leslie?

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:07 PM

When that happens to me, I always use Dear Title, like if someone who is the Akond of Swat writes I reply Dear Akond, and that gets around it.

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:01 PM

Don't know if Chris, Sam, Jo etc count...

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:01 PM

McGrath

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:59 PM

GUEST

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:57 PM

Hilary

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:56 PM

Definately female. I've always heard the playwright Shelagh Delaney pronounced as "Shay-lah" though.

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: *daylia*
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:52 PM

I worked for a woman named "Shelagh" one summer. It was pronounced "Sheila", and I vaguely remember being told it was an old Gaelic spelling of the name. Pardon me if I'm wrong ...

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:51 PM

It's just another spelling for Sheila, and pronounced the same way.

It can get confusing wth Irish names - my son's called Ciaran, and he's had people thinking that's a girl's name. And men called Enda have it happen all the time.

One thing is that women keep on taking over men's names - Evelyn, Carol, Robin, Joyce, Shirley... Doesn't seem to happen the other way round.

Subject: RE: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:49 PM

Woman.

We've got a Shelagh in our club (so to speak). Pronounced Sheila.

Enjoy.

Steve

Subject: BS: Man's name or woman's name?
From: SharonA
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 01:46 PM

This morning, I received a business email from the UK from someone with the first name of Shelagh. I didn't want to sound so familiar as to reply with the opening "Dear Shelagh" but I didn't know whether to type "Dear Mr...." or "Dear Ms...."

I ended up using the person's first name and surname (reluctantly) in my reply. He/she sent back another email that opened with "Dear Sharon" and was signed "Best regards, Shelagh", so at least we're on a first-name basis now and the pressure's off! :^)   But I'm still not brave enough to ask him/her if he/she is a he or a she...

Can anyone tell me whether Shelagh is a man's name or a woman's name?    A couple of folks over at the Annexe think it's a woman's name and should be pronounced like the name "Sheila" (or perhaps like "SHAY - lah") but does anyone know for sure?

What are some other names you've heard or read that have made you wonder if they're men's names or women's names?