perception of gender in names

[Charles Wells]

The perception of gender in names differs between the UK and USA, too.  At
academic meetings we are often put up in university dorms.  These dorms are
coed for the students but when "adults" have to live in them the powers
that be generally put the men in one block and the women in another so they
won't have to share bathrooms (adults being of a delicate and sensitive
nature).  So at one meeting in the USA my colleague named Robin, from
London, found himself all by himself in one block with three showers and
several toilets all for himself while all the other attendees (who were all
male) were in another one.

--Charles Wells

>>>> adrian.pable at ENS.UNIBE.CH 05/27/02 03:28AM >>>
>I always find it difficult as a German speaker to tell whether
>certain English names are female or male, e.g. Laurie and Lyle
>
>Lyle is male and Laurie looks female to me.  However, I have dealt with
>people from other English-speaking countries named Laurie or Lawrie (UK and
>South Africa, respectively) who are males.  I believe in both cases, it's
>short for Lawrence.  But it still sounds very odd to me.
>On the other hand, my English-speaking high school students have the same
>problem that you have--they cannot tell if a name is male or female in many
>cases. Uwe, Uli, Heike, and Kai are a few that are very problematic.  For
>some reason, Jochen, Joachim, Jo"rg, Ju"rgen, and Jens pose little or even
>no problem, most students recognising them as male names.  Jan is usually a
>female name here, so is a problem.
>
>Fritz Juengling
>look
>female to me. How do speakers of a language establish whether a name
>is only used for girls or boys or both? e.g. Faith and April are only
>female, but in the 16th centuries names such as Faith, Experience,
>Unity, Hope were not gender-bound. Why is it that only a girl may be
>called Unity nowadays (because we can see the link with Latin unitas,
>female?)
>
>Adrian Pablé, University of Berne
>
>>A question has come over the transom from a UK correspondent. Advice,
>>anyone?
>>
>>-- Mark A. Mandel
>>
>>
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 00:56:20 +0100
>>
>>Via the letters page of the Guardian newspaper, and then by email, I have
>>contacted some people doing research into the perception of gender in names,
>>and I was wondering if Dr. Whom (or anyone else) knew of any work already
>>done in that area.



Charles Wells
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