I tell you, chaps, they're taking us over. First vicars, then Morris dancers, and now they're pinching our names .... where will it end?
This phenomenon - of names once for boys becoming girls' names - has interested me for a long time. It also happened to Shirley (the eponymous hero of Charlotte Bronte's novel of this name was male). That happened thanks to Shirley Temple. But it's also happened with Evelyn and Vivian - think Waugh and Richards. I used to think it betrayed a cultural presumption that there was something ipse facto bad about being female, although now I think it's more male insecurity.
This post was last modified: 26-04-2014 08:37 PM by Tim Lund.