A Rose by Any Other Name . . .

When we named Finley, almost a year ago, we knew that it was rare, but ranked higher for boys than for girls. (If you haven't checked out Name Voyager, you should, it tracks the popularity of names back to the 1800's).

So, we went with the fun name, Finley, because it makes us smile, and so does our little Twinkie.

However, since his birth, we keep hearing about people naming their little GIRLS Finley. First, a girl in the newspaper, then a girl at the gym childcare. Now, Lisa Marie Presley makes it famous by naming her daughter Finley.

For us, we're starting to call him Finn sometimes. It's a cute nickname, not unlike Brad for Bradley or Stan for Stanley. But Finn is a little tricky because it's so short, people don't understand it the first time I say it.

It seems to me that Finley is going the way of Whitney, Courtney, and Leslie: and probably many others. These were boy names that later became girl names so that now only the nickname is masculine. For example, our HS student body president was named Whitney, but he went by "Whit."

Finley's other choice is his middle name, I guess, Cannon. That's a nice name, too.

As a feminist, I'm trying to kick the idea that boys doing "girly" things is somehow bad. It's a misogyny that runs deep in our culture, and it's hard to break. That's why I'm a little conflicted about changing the way we refer to our child based solely on the fact that girls share his name.

What do you think about gendered names?
What do you think this little guy looks like? Finley? Finn? Cannon? Something else?