Heh. I have nephew Ryan and a female cousin Ryanne. There's a slight emphasis on the "anne" part of the name, so it is possible to tell just who the family is talking about. It drove me nuts when I was married to a man named Mike and having a brother Mike, because I always had to specify which Mike I was speaking about. In the long run, duplicate names are duplicate names, whether it's directed at a male or a female. I still remember having a Health class with 5 Debbies in it. Oy.

I still remember having a Health class with 5 Debbies in it. Oy.

anyone who wants to change my mind can feel free to bite me.

Hmm... can we go ahead and schedule this? I'm pretty well busy through the end of February, but things start to open up in March.

I should note that my brothers are Ryan and Evan, so my poor mother is watching her ahead-of-her-time boys names switch genders.

Let's do the porn star names thingy again! (first pet + street you grew up on)

Elsa County Road 56.

In the long run, duplicate names are duplicate names, whether it's directed at a male or a female.

Well, to me it's a separate issue, but if I feel the need to go through the Susan Theory of Names, I'll take it LiveJournal. The simplistic version is that I wanted to give my child a non-androgynous name because my dad was named Kelly and my husband is named Dylan, and I wanted to give her an uncommon name because there were four Susans in my high school class of ~120, four Susans in my college Christian fellowship group of about the same size, two Susan-Jennifer roommate pairs on one short hallway in my dorm junior year, and I'm one of two Susans in my five-member critique group. (The other writer-Susan is the only one I know who's younger than me--all the others I've met are my age or older.)

Bane L-- gets no love at all.

Jason Todd L---

Dick L---

Bruce L---

Actually, I think Tep should totally name her kid Bruce L---

"we don't practice infant baptism" would be accurate whether it really meant "our church baptises when the child is old enough to choose it" or "we don't baptise later on, either".

Heh. This is totally what I was going to suggest.

"Did you know your sister's church practices full immersion?"

I'm Catholic, so this seems a little weird to me too. Even though I know that in the Bible, it's all wading into the river and stuff. I'm still like "You get your *whole body* in there? All wet? So dramatic!"

I forget what age Catholic kids are confirmed at.

Depends on the church--usually around 14, these days, but I think my dad was confirmed (back in the 40s) around 7 or 8.

My grandfather was baptized in the Jordan River, during WWI. I always thought that was kind of neat.

That's VERY neat! Especially if it was the first/only baptism.

lest they end up saying silly things like Howard Dean did about the Bible.

What did he say about the Bible??

Just as a data point, I knew both a female John (possibly spelled Jon) and a female Michael in college.

When I was growing up, every Sunday in church we would hear them ask us to bless "Michelle Sabat, patriarch in Jerusalem", and I was so confused, how a girl could be a patriarch. Except it was "Michel". :)

Well, Peach is a girl's name, so why not Apple?

Because I'd laugh at a girl named "Peach" too???

I'm still like "You get your *whole body* in there? All wet? So dramatic!"

Oh, you're totally right. It's the drama that makes it sit uneasily with some folks, I'd bet, like my staid Presbyterian crowd.

What did he say about the Bible??

I think when asked what his favorite NT book was, he named an OT book--Job, IIRC.

Let's do the porn star names thingy again! (first pet + street you grew up on)

Frisky Cushing Court.