Comments on: But what about “Moon Unit”?

By: Phi

Phi — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:48:57 +0000

CoryQ: Amen, brother! You get a lot of Chris and Andy and Emily and Steph around here, but every now and then your class list throws you a real zinger. I think “London Englund” and “Lake-Louise”, however, border on the criminal!

Jen: I had a similar reaction. Ashley definitely doesn’t fall in my notion of “masculine” names. The article has some vague comments about using “linguistic properties” or some such to determine the masculinity of the names, but I really don’t know the details of what that means.

As a vaguely related aside, Douglas Hofstadter did some neat stuff using deliberately gender-vague names (like Pat and Chris) in some of his essay writing 20 years or so ago, and I still find myself thinking of his examples when I’m choosing names in some of my own writing.

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:47:31 +0000

I would like to believe this article, but I just can’t get past one thing–Ashley is supposed to be a masculine name? Have they seen the TV show “Recess?”

I would love to know how the linguistics test tells them some names are more masculine. When I think of masculine female names, I think of Drew or Pat, not Ashley and Lauren.

By: CoryQ

CoryQ — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:58:45 +0000

Working in admissions for a university I was always amazed at some of the names parents foisted on their children. Some of my favorites:
- London Englund
- Mistyblue
- Aquanette
- Cabin
- Lake-Louise.