The Godfather: Peter Corris on what’s in a name
Most readers will be familiar with Johnny Cash’s vengeful diatribe about the dirty, mangy dog who named his son Sue …
First names go in and out of fashion. Few parents now would name a daughter Gertrude or a son Ernest but they were both once common – think of Stein and Hemingway.
There are some names that are gender-neutral such as Dale, Aubrey, Robin and Jesse, although the feminine form can take on a different spelling like Jessie or Robyn.
Some parents, either bad spellers or to make the name look as it sounds, modify the spelling – for example, tennis champion Evonne Goolagong and AFL player Shawn McKernan.
More interesting still are those names once applicable to both males and females that are now almost universally assigned to females. Here’s a list and some examples:
Beverley – British author, journalist and broadcaster John Beverley Nichols* adopted Beverley as his professional name.
Vivian – Vivian Fuchs was an English explorer on the first crossing of Antarctica in 1958. Vyvyan, followed by a string of other names, was Oscar Wilde’s second son. He took the name Vyvyan Holland after his father’s conviction and exile to France.
Joyce – Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary* was an Irish novelist, the author of the once well-regarded novel The Horse’s Mouth, among others.
Hilary – Hilary Marquand was a prominent British Labour politician.
Evelyn – Novelist Evelyn Waugh married a woman also named Evelyn. Among the fashionable in London they were known as He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn. The marriage was eventually annulled.
Marion – Actor John Wayne’s birth name was Marion Morrison.
Some web investigation by our linguist daughter showed that there is a general drift from unisex names to the feminine. She suggests that the patriarchy is involved here, with fathers, once made aware that the names have become more usual among females, keen not to impugn their sons with the female taint. This may be so, but the root reason for the drift remains unclear. Feminisation of male names occurs frequently – for example: Roberta, Nigella, Thomasina – but there is no sign of a drift in the other direction, or an ongoing mixing of gendered names, although there may be individual examples. Our grandson Vincent, for instance, has Jean as his middle name** and everyone is relaxed about it.
* It’s interesting to note that Nichols and Cary eschewed their unambiguously masculine names in favour of these others, presumably to stand out in the crowd of Johns and Arthurs.
** Conversely, a rejection of the mixing of gendered names occurred in the case of macho, big-game-fishing Western writer Zane Grey, whose middle name, Pearl, was hidden from sight once he became well known.
