What makes a name sound naturally masculine or feminine? What about unisex names, like Max for example?
In: Culture
Culture.
What even makes a sound a name. Why isn’t Kokiku a name ? Or is it for some people ? To use a term that’s often heard : it’s a social construct : the society defines what are names and what aren’t, and it evolves with people and time…
I don’t think of the name it’s self is what makes it sound masculine or feminine but the way that people are used to seeing the name is what defines if it is masculine or feminine.
Culture! Names aren’t maculine or feminine because of anything inherent about the name; they’re masculine or feminine because the culture has decided they are. Except maybe in instances where a name has a direct, known meaning. Like Belle meaning ‘beautiful woman’.
What’s more, gendered names can change over time. In the US, Lindsay, Ashley, and Dana are almost exclusively girl names, but they used to be boy names. But it mostly just works in that direction. A boy name becomes a unisex name and then becomes a girl name. At least in the West, its very uncommon for a girl’s name to become a boy’s name over time.
Mostly culture like everyone’s said. Buuut different cultures have different ways of representing gender. For example, in Spanish an “-a” at the end of a word denotes femininity. So female spanish names often end in “-a”, eg. Sofia, Maria, Isabella. With males it’s typically “-o” like Roberto, Diego, or Alejandro. Another feminine ending for Romantic languages is “-ette”, representing a dimunuitive. Forexample, Antoinette as a feminine version of Anton or Antoine
Latest Answers