Common throughout history, unfortunately. Women in ancient Rome often werenât given names beyond their family names; if you needed to differentiate between sisters, youâd often just say âCornelia the younger / the elderâ or even just give them numbers. Their husbands would address them, in private, by the feminine form of their own names (eg. if you married Julius then heâd call you Julia).
A lot of people think the effect has disappeared today, because women typically have less common names than men - a higher fraction of men are named the absolute most popular names like John or Jack whereas women are more spread out over different names.
But itâs really noticeable how often parents give their male children meaningful names - theyâll have a historically important namesake, or be named after a great grandfather, or have a traditional name with a meaning their parents liked. Thatâs why the common names tend to be common. The names given to female children are chosen because theyâre âprettyâ names, because their parents just liked the way it sounded, or are even just nouns / adjectives like âLilyâ, âHopeâ or âSummerâ. They emphasise that the role of the female child is to be a pretty ornament, not to achieve meaningful things or inherit anything from a namesake.
Theyâre often very infantilising - sure itâs cute when you have a two year old named âPoppyâ or âPreciousâ but sheâs going to have to grow up and put that name on her CV. They very often use the diminutive -ie / -y suffix (Millie, Tilly, Becky, Georgie, Katy / Katie), which is typically used to indicate something small and cute and which many women have to obfuscate in order to construct anything that sounds like a professional identity. (I know a Katie who is pretending her name is Katherine, even though itâs legally Katie, just so people wonât think sheâs being inappropriately informal in a business context.)
They also highlight just how much ageism is directed at women and how much women have to struggle to keep up with fashion, even in something as basic as their names. A traditional male name like âJosephâ or âEdwardâ or âJamesâ or âLukeâ is fine no matter how many centuries itâs been popular for. An off cycle name might be unusual, but that isnât a bad thing. But dare give a girl a name that was popular too long ago - âDorothyâ or âMaryâ or âDawnâ or âGertrudeâ - and sheâll be ruthlessly bullied in school for it because itâs a âold lady name for grandmothersâ. Donât you know those names are ugly now, undesirable, associated with old wrinkled women who arenât sexy? You need a young, new, sexy name like Ava or Madison or Olivia - keeping in mind of course that those will be âuglyâ too when your daughter gets old.
The tendency of feminine names to emphasise beauty - and occasionally sexuality, which can be somewhat inappropriate considering the kid has to grow up with that name - is taken to an extreme if you look at porn starsâ stage names, which are all things like Scarlet or Rose or Desiree or Ravyn. Femininity, taken to an extreme, always ends up being about sexual availability.
And when women do try and give their daughters unique names, so theyâll be memorable even if their surname changes, the Daily Mail runs spots to make fun of names like Nevaeh or Unique or Evylyn because apparently thatâs chavvy. And maybe it is! Iâm not a fan of replacing all vowels with y either! But wow, there are just no good options for women.
And of course the moment you put a recognisably female name on your CV you become less employable, your qualifications worth less. But if you have a gender ambiguous name, youâre punished for being gnc. Good fucking luck out there.
Itâs kind of a small thing, next to all the rape and mutilation and career discrimination and all the generally horrible things happening to women. But itâs just⊠nothing is okay, nothing is equal, no part of the world has actually been completely fixed yet. Even our names are yet another thing we need feminism help improve.
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