Male names given to females and vice versa

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:17 am

Hi all, I´ve just finished a travel book on the Long Island and its problems in the early eighties (The Road to Mingulay, by Derek Cooper).
There the explanation given for these male names converted to feminine usage was that the Gaelic naming pattern was so strong regarding the grandson having grandpa´s name.
If all did not fall into place, and, heaven forbid, a granddaughter was born, then this was the quick fix.

The book is now over twenty years old; it would be interesting to have a follow up, to hear of social progress - or not. He, Derek Cooper, with roots there was not optimistic. A good read though, if you´re nostalgic about those parts.

Guid hunting,

Thrall

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:30 pm

I have a Sydney and a Gordon in my Laurie lines who are female, the Gordon appears to be named after a Gordon who was her mothers sister

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:26 pm

The Munro branch of my family tree has been shaking and a couple of living relatives fell out!

This reminded me that I had been very lazy about filling in the blanks on Ancestry so I finally got busy and in the process discovered that my great grandfather Malcolm Munro's sister Margaret named one of her daughters Elizabeth Malcolmina!

Carol

Grendlsmother · Post by **Grendlsmother** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:14 pm

One of my ggxgrandmothers was baptised Joan Hope McDonald. On the '41 census she is listed as John Hop. At first I thought this was just a pronounciation/spelling thing (her sister Mary listed as Marry and sister Isabella listed as Esabla on the same census). However when I looked at the original of her baptism on OPR I saw that the minister was John Hope.

Now, did her parents actually mean her name to be John (Joan was quite unusual in Scotland, but John and Joan would sound similar). She was probably unaware of the origin of her name (her parents died when she was young) and she used the name Hope as her first name when she got older.

Genetrix · Post by **Genetrix** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:56 pm

Hi All: I have a Barton on my tree. Wonder if they called her Barty. Her daughter married a guy called Burpee Walker. I'm not kidding. Sounds like they suffered from wind!

They just loved nicknames too. Spent ages looking for a Janet McIntyre and she turned up as Jessie everywhere. Same with Margaret. Even her marriage certificate shows Maggie Smith. You'd think they'd use their full name on an official document wouldn't you? I wonder what the most popular names were in Scotland. So far, I have 24 Alexanders. Seems nearly every family had one. Haven't counted all the Elizabeths and Elspets yet. Its quite a treat when an unusual name appears. Oh yes, I also have a Hercules Smith. Certainly easier to trace than all my John Smiths.

Regards, Tricia

Post by **joette** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:16 pm

My Great-Aunt was Robertina called after her maternal Grandfather.She had an elder brother Robert but he died aged 3 after that they had only daughters-she was known as Ina.She was 2nd youngest.
Both the eldest & youngest daughter were named Catherine after their maternal Grandmother & both known as Katie although the eldest who died aged 4 was for ever "Wee Katie"& yes their names were spelt Katie although their Sunday names were Catherine.Oh & there was a Christina know as Krissie!

Post by **Anne H** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:57 pm

When the 1841 census came online I found my Allan family from Polmont. The second child mentioned was a 13 year old coalminer named Ro...needlessly to say, I thought that was Robert. I'd never been able to find any trace of most of the children since then, including Robert. Only recently did I realize I still hadn't pulled the OPR for any of them (apart from my gg.granny, and to my surprise when I finally did get the others, lo and behold, there was Robert, not a son but a daughter, written out very clearly, not once but twice.

Still haven't been able to find a female Robert who was a coalminer, nor have I come across a Roberta.

Regards,
Anne H

rye470 · Post by **rye470** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:19 pm

We often have a laugh with my husband's name - Leslie.

First, anyone in the UK knows that this is the male version of the name, not the female which is Lesley. Not so in the US. The spellings are swapped and my husband becomes a female. Or he does to anyone sending out female related junk mail. My favourite's are the ' You have been recommended to 'Miss Teen Cheerleader' magazine and similar modelling agencies. I'm sure they want to sign up my 48 year old balding, greying hubby (not to mention his middle area).

I don't mind the free samples of face creams though.

Christine

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:16 pm

Anne,

One of my 2x great grandmothers had a sister named Robertson. I was very surprised at how many came up when I started searching for her. At first I thought it might be a family name, but then I started wondering if wasn't connected to a famous person. The obvious was Robert The Bruce, but giving Robertson to a girl still doesn't seem to quite fit to me.

Carol

Post by **Anne H** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:11 pm

Hi Carol,

Poor wee souls...Robert and Robertson!!

I don't know why I didn't notice it before!! They've basically gone with the naming pattern in that she was the third child and the third child, if it had been a boy, would have been named after his maternal grandfather whose name just happens to be Robert. Looks like the grandfather's feelings were very important and they decided not to wait for another boy to be born.

I wonder if she actually added an 'a' to the end of her name later on...either way, I still can't find her!

Regards,
Anne H